On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., went on ABC News to discuss the House Democrats’ prospects in this year’s midterm elections. Before long, she resorted to bashing other Democrats — like Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.
‘We have decided to win and that’s what we will do,” Pelosi said, dismissing questions about the Democrats’ abysmal polling. “I don’t agonize. I organize, and we are fully intent to win this election.”
ABC News host George Stephanopoulos pressed Pelosi on the issues in this upcoming election: crime, prices, and Ukraine.
In her answers, Pelosi distanced herself from other Democrats, starting with Gabbard.
Stephanopoulos asked the speaker, “Are you convinced that President Biden is doing everything he can to prevent an invasion? Is Congress doing everything you can to prevent an invasion?”
Pelosi responded, “The sanctions are the tactic the president is taking. He can do that by executive order. It would be better if we could do it… We think an assault on Ukraine is an assault on democracy.”
With this remark, Pelosi set herself apart from Gabbard.
Gabbard trended on Twitter last week for speaking out on Ukraine. She disputed the characterization of Ukraine as a democracy.
Gabbard said, “What you do hear is warmongers arguing that we must protect Ukraine because it is a ‘democracy,’ but they’re lying. Ukraine isn’t actually a democracy.” For examples, she pointed to Ukraine’s well-documented infringements on civil liberties.
On T.V., Pelosi’s messaging was hampered internal divisions within the Democratic Party.
Then, Pelosi fielded questions about about inflation… and bashed Manchin.
Stephanopoulos asked, “Let’s talk about the situation here at home. Families are feeling the hit from the highest inflation in 40 years. Right now, it costs the average American family about $275 a month. What can Congress do right now to bring those costs down?”
Pelosi attributed inflation to job growth, the national debt, the supply chain backlog. She touted the America COMPETES Act, a bipartisan plan for supply stability. Then, she described the Build Back Better Act, a trillion-dollar proposal, as a way to curb inflation.
Last year, Manchin withdrew his support from the bill due to concerns about inflation.
Pelosi had something to say about that.
What contributes to inflation? More people having jobs, scarcity of products, which makes the prices go up, and the rest. So when we passed the COMPETES Act last Friday, this was a giant step forward…
Joe Manchin, as you said, is the senator who counts. Every senator counts. We have legislation that is so transformative for our country…
President Biden has nearly 7 million jobs in his year in office. So, yes, we have inflation. It’s very important for us to address it. We must bring it down, but is not — it’s not right — with all the respect in the world for my friend, Joe Manchin — it’s not right to say what we’re doing is contributing to the inflation because it is exactly the opposite…
“The BBB is a deficit reduction bill. It’s a bill that — some people say when you increase the national debt, you increase inflation. 17 Nobel laureates wrote that the way the B.B.B. was written, with long-term investments and increasing the capacity of people to participate in our success, is noninflationary.
In other words, Pelosi offered a long-winded disagreement with Manchin… and it didn’t stop there.
Pelosi also slammed some Democrats for their views on defunding the police..
Stephanopoulos then asked Pelosi about the Democrats’ plans to address crime before the midterms. He observed:
There appear to be some divisions among Democrats about how to handle it.
Your colleague [Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif.,] running for mayor of Los Angeles, trying to increase the police force in L.A. Cori Bush, congresswoman from Missouri, is saying it’s time to defund the police. She’s sticking by that.
You’re the speaker, how do you think?
Pelosi responded by taking sides.
“Well, with all the respect in the world for Cori Bush, that is not the position of the Democratic Party. Community safety, to protect and defend in every way, is our oath of office,” Pelosi said.
“Karen Bass had the Justice in Policing Act, and we would hope to get some of that done — whether it’s no-knock, chokehold, or some of those issues — even if we can’t get it all done. But make no mistake… Public safety is our responsibility, and I support what Karen Bass is doing and Mayor Adams of New York.”
Pelosi concluded the interview with a call to action for the Democrats. “Nothing less is at stake than our democracy,” she said, urging her liberal base to campaign for voters in Trump districts.
Perhaps she would have sounded more convincing if she hadn’t been sowing disunity for the last 10 minutes.
Watch an excerpt here —
.@GStephanopoulos: “How worried are you about the midterms right now?” @SpeakerPelosi: “I don’t agonize, I organize. We fully intend to win this election…Forget history, we’re talking about future.” https://t.co/UiOZSt7ouE pic.twitter.com/HJG2NrkouO
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 13, 2022
The Horn editorial team