Pelosi Battles Progressives, Thirst to Impeach Trump, and Time
Pelosi Battles Progressives, Thirst to Impeach Trump, and Time
(Bloomberg) -- Two hundred days into her second stint U.S. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi is waging battles on her right and her left as well as against the calendar.
She’s the Democratic Party’s lead combatant with President Donald Trump, and will remain so until the party’s presidential nominating convention picks a nominee.
In the House, Pelosi is trying to keep her party’s ideological fissures from becoming yawning chasms that will hobble Democrats in the 2020 election, including throttling back growing demands among Democratic members to begin impeachment proceedings against the president -- which she regards as a losing issue politically.
Pelosi’s ability to walk that high wire is on display this week.
She got a measure of vindication for her go-slow approach on impeaching Trump despite pressure from a growing number of Democrats agitating to begin proceedings. More than five hours of testimony from Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday didn’t supply the blockbuster sound bites that supporters of impeachment might have hoped. Pelosi, as she’s argued repeatedly in the past, said Democrats must build their own case if they’re going to send articles impeachment to the Republican-controlled Senate.
“If we have a case for impeachment, that’s the place we will have to go,” she said at a news conference. “The stronger our case is, the worse the Senate will look for just letting the president off the hook.”
On Thursday, the House takes up the deal she negotiated with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to set government spending levels for the next two years and suspend the nation’s debt ceiling. Progressive Democrats complain that it gives too much to the Pentagon and not enough to domestic programs, while the party’s more moderate members are wary of adding to yearly budget deficits that are already on track to top $1 trillion.
But no one doubts Pelosi has the votes to get it through the House.
Her strategy is focused on keeping her party in control of the House and electing a Democrat as president in 2020. By passing legislation, even if it languishes in the Republican- controlled Senate, and minimizing conflicts, Pelosi is trying to demonstrate that Democrats can govern and set up a clear contrast with the perpetual drama of Trump’s White House. Also in the background is 2022. By the end of that year, Pelosi has promised to step down as House Democratic leader to make way for younger party leaders.
“As we cross the 200-day threshold, and House Democrats are going into the August recess, they can tout a strong list of accomplishments on issues important to the American people,” said a Pelosi spokesman, Drew Hammill. “And they will be holding Republicans accountable for their opposition and obstruction.”
But that won’t solve the strife within Pelosi’s Democratic caucus, which has overshadowed her legislative agenda at times.
Party Friction
Much of that is driven by the high profiles and sweeping demands of a small group of progressive newcomers in the House led by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, of New York. She and Ayanna Pressley, 45, of Massachusetts, Ilhan Omar, 36, of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib, 43, of Michigan, have agitated for sweeping policies favored by the left, such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. Their challenges to Pelosi mirror the early wrestling among Democratic presidential hopefuls over the direction of the party
Pelosi, 79, a San Francisco liberal and fundraising dynamo who has herself long been a favorite villain for Republicans, has both defended and admonished them.
Still, the self-described squad of progressives are creating angst among senior Democrats as well as some of their colleagues who represent more conservative districts and are responsible for Democrats regaining the House majority in 2018.
“They’re acting in my opinion like they are in the minority,” Representative Alcee Hastings, a senior House Democrat from Florida, said. “That’s how you do when you are in the minority -- you raise a lot of hell.”
Republican Targets
Their stances and provocative pronouncements have made them favorite targets of Republicans and Trump, who are trying to make them the face of the Democratic Party heading into the election.
“A vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American dream,” said Trump at a rally in Orlando last week. He’s kept targeting Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib and Pressley at rallies and on Twitter.
Pelosi said Trump and Republicans won’t define the House Democrats’s agenda. Yet Democrats such as Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois have concerns.
“Look, I’m a racial, ethnic and religious minority. And I’m an immigrant,” said Krishnamoorthi, who represents a safe Democratic district northwest of Chicago. “I have a lot of small business people in my district. So, when you say socialism? They say things like, look I really dislike Donald Trump --but I dislike socialism a lot more -- that’s why I left Eastern Europe. That’s why I left India in the 1960s. That’s why I left this or that country because I wanted to come here and work hard and enjoy the fruits of my labor and share.”
A face-to-face meeting between Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez originally set for Thursday was rescheduled for Friday to talk over differences. That includes tensions exacerbated last month after the four freshmen women voted against a border bill supported by Pelosi they did not believe adequately set standards for the treatment of migrants.
Impeachment Friction
The progressives also have been leading the charge to impeach Trump. With little public sentiment for such a divisive process, Pelosi and her political strategists see impeachment as politically perilous for Democrats seeking re-election in districts flipped from Republican control last November. Pelosi knows getting a second, two-year term as speaker hinges on protecting those members and keeping their seats Democratic in 2020.
She’s publicly deferred to six committee probes to look into allegations of presidential abuse and obstruction, as well as pursuing court cases over the testimony of administration officials and for Trump’s tax returns.
“This isn’t endless,” Pelosi said after the Mueller hearings ended. “It’s based on the facts and the law. That’s what matters.”
Another source of frustration among House Democrats is that many of their initiatives never make into law. Pelosi has managed to pass a array of legislation, including some in bipartisan fashion, such as a minimum-wage increase and reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
But of the 191 total bills passed by the House, just 16 cleared the Republican-led Senate. And only 15 of those have been signed into law. By comparison, 11 Senate bills have been signed into law of the 48 passed there.
Pelosi’s promise to step aside at the end of 2022 -- which was given to consolidate support for her second round as speaker of the House -- has already led to backroom maneuvering to succeed her.
“We have about 25 people who see themselves as speaker,” Hastings joked.
Yet a person familiar with Pelosi’s thinking said the speaker finds that liberating. With her departure set, she can focus less on palace intrigue and more on the agenda she’s set to keep Democrats in power.
“Every day that the House is in session Nancy Pelosi combines the best qualities of a lion tamer and a clinical psychologist,” said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “She is a good and sympathetic listener but won’t be intimidated -- least of all by the least-experienced members who don’t have the responsibility of maintaining a majority.”
--With assistance from Steven T. Dennis.
To contact the reporter on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, John Harney
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