Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just caught a stray political shot from Sen. John Fetterman, D-P.A.
Fetterman blasted Pelosi ruthlessly Thursday, calling out her role in forcing President Joe Biden’s to suspend his re-election campaign and subsequent attempts to blame both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democrats landslide election loss to President-elect Donald Trump.
“People like [Nancy] Pelosi, she really tried to — what’s the word I’m looking for? — she embraced this ‘she’s the godmother, she’s the enforcer.’ And now she’s blaming Biden,” Fetterman complained.
“Well, you can’t have it both ways,” he said during an interview with Politico. “I think it’s really ironic that you have a woman at age 84 and she is still hanging on. Why not give a younger generation an opportunity to occupy that seat?”
The “stay bullet” criticism followed Pelosi’s recent New York Times interview where she said an earlier Biden withdrawal might have allowed an open primary and made Harris a more viable candidate.
“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race. The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said.
“And as I say, Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened.”
“And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time,” Pelosi complained. “If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”
Of course, Pelosi had earlier wavered in her support, telling MSNBC in June, “I want him to do whatever he decides to do, and that’s the way it is.”
After the 2024 election debacle that saw the Republican Party sweep control of the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, and White House, Democrats have started pointing fingers.
Fetterman pointed his squarely at Pelosi.
Fetterman, who consistently defended the ailing 81-year-old Biden, blasted Pelosi.
“As far as I know, [Pelosi has] never run for any office outside of the House, and she’s never run for the president, and she’s certainly never won that,” he said.
The Pennsylvania senator also broke with party orthodoxy on campaign strategy, criticizing Democrats’ approach to Trump supporters. “I love people that are absolutely going to vote for Trump. They’re not fascists,” he said, adding that “scolding harder or clutching the pearls harder, that’s never going to work for Democrats.”
Fetterman highlighted Trump’s enduring appeal in Pennsylvania, noting the “Walmart of Trump swag” where people buy merchandise “like fireworks on July 3rd.”
He also argued the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler “changed everything,” creating an almost mythical narrative among supporters.
“They tried everything… and now they tried to kill him, and he survived,” Fetterman admitted.
The outspoken Democratic senator has maintained consistent support for Biden throughout party turmoil, declaring in June, “I refuse to join the Democratic vultures on Biden’s shoulder after the debate… Chill the f**k out.”