Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took a serious stance Monday. McConnell set sights on his political rival Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and blasted her.
The leading lawmaker on Capitol Hill announced earlier today from the Senate floor, “Their all-or-nothing strategy backfired.” Then McConnell went on to lay out his case against Pelosi.
He accused her of blocking an agreement before the election in a gamble that she could more easily pass her proposal in the wake of a big Democratic victory. “The speaker of the House spent the entire summer and the entire autumn literally gambling with the health and welfare of the American people,” he argued.
Then claimed, “She gambled that if American families didn’t get any more relief before the election, her party would expand its majority in the House and Democrats could continue demanding the right to remake all of society along far-Left lines, in exchange for not passing any more COVID relief whatsoever.”
A disturbing allegation here no question. As millions of Americans are struggling to get by. But Pelosi punched right back through an official representative.
“For six months, Democrats have been pressing Republicans to agree to the next round of [economic] relief, and for six months, Leader McConnell has insisted on a ‘pause,’ while the White House’s negotiators accused vulnerable families of lying about not being able to pay the bills,” her spokesman Drew Hammill said.
Plus he added, “House Democrats sent the GOP Senate the Heroes Act back in May and compromised by $1.2 trillion to send an updated Heroes Act to the Senate in October.”
As Hammill declared, “But as millions of families fall deeper into despair, McConnell’s emaciated proposal gives no stimulus checks, no rental assistance, no nutrition assistance, but does give liability immunity to employers who get their workers sick.”
After McConnell finished, the upper chamber’s top Democrat, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer told, “We need to come together; both sides must give.” Can they possibly strike a deal?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a series of vague comments recently this being her last term as House speaker. Pelosi has been tapped by Democrats to run for a speaker for a seventh and eighth year.
“At the start of this Congress, there was a discussion about putting in place some kind of term limits for the leadership team. I’m curious if you anticipate this coming Congress would be your last as Speaker,” a reporter asked Pelosi during a press conference.
“When that conversation took place, there was a move to put limits on the leadership and chairs of committees,” Pelosi said. “They said they were going to do it. They didn’t do it. Whether it passes or not, I will abide by those limits that are there.”
“So, is that a kind of Shermanesque statement?” the reporter then asked. “No, it’s not. It’s a statement that I made,” Pelosi said. “Listen, if my husband is listening, don’t let me have to be more specific than that. because we never expected to have another term now.”
“I consider this a gift and I can’t wait to work with Joe Biden,” she continued. “I don’t want to undermine any leverage I have but I made that statement.”
Democrats met virtually to choose their top leaders for the 117th Congress. Pelosi ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination for Speaker. The GOP will have House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
On January 3, The House of Representatives will elect the speaker when it convenes January 3. The candidate that wins the position of speaker requires an outright majority, which would be 218 votes out of 435.
During the last vote for the speakership, fifteen Democrats voted against Pelosi. Some election results are still being tallied, but it appears that 10 incumbent House Democrats have been defeated damaging morale within the party and squashing expectations of adding seats.
Pelosi served her first four in the 2000s then Republicans captured the House majority during the tea party election back in 2010. Many believe that the conservative uprising was a warning sign of the rise of Donald Trump.
