House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California, is not getting the job done by the American people, Democratic Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey told Fox & Friends Weekend on Sunday that the Democrats’ thin majority in the House of Representatives threatens her re-election as leader.
Van Drew, who before the change of parties voted against Pelosi’s attempt for the speaker, said it would be interesting to see if Pelosi retained the senior post, as some people who had not previously supported her were still here is. ”
He admitted that he did not know how the situation would turn out.
Van Drew made the comments a few hours before the new 117th Congress was to be officially sworn in at Capitol Hill before the vote for his new leadership.
The House will hold speaker nominations around 2:30 p.m. ET. The chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y., will nominate Pelosi. Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Will nominate Kevin McCarthy, leader of the House of Representatives, R-California.
The successful speaker candidate secures an absolute majority of the entire House, not the majority of votes. So if the house starts at 432 members and everyone is there, Pelosi needs 217 members to vote for her. If the Democrats are at 222 and everyone shows up, the speaker can only lose five votes. Pelosi lost 15 votes in the speaker contest in January 2019.
Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., Voted present in 2019. But Cooper now says he will vote for Pelosi. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Voted ‘present’ in 2019. Slotkin says she can not support Pelosi. Reps Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., And Jared Golden, D-Maine, voted for Representative Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., Two years ago.
Asked why he had voted against Speaker Pelosi in the past in her attempt to speak out, Van Drew explained that it was for ‘reasons that appear to be absolutely accurate’.
“I was worried she would not have the ability to bring people together to show the power of leadership and work with Republicans,” he said. ‘I felt she was going to focus on issues that were not the most important issues of the day, and that’s what happened.
“We got involved in the indictment, we got involved after the trial after the trial. We were involved in bills that we knew were not going to go anywhere, instead of really trying to work with the Senate,” working with the Republicans, putting everyone together, and seeing what we could really achieve, ”he continued.
“Congress is about getting a work product done, just like everything in life is and that the work product is not really done.”
He then points to the Coronavirus Relief Bill as an example.
‘It took so long to finish an account that we were not even completely satisfied, and then it got stuck with another account that many people did not keep in an omnibus, and at the end of the day almost everyone was unhappy, ‘Van Drew said.
PELOSI’S NEW HOUSE RULES ARE GENDER-NEUTRAL, MUNICIPALITY OF GOP’S ABILITY TO FORCE ‘GOTCHA’ VOTES
“It’s not leadership. It’s not what we need. It’s even more than Republicans and Democrats. It’s about working forward to do the work of the American people, and she’s not getting it done. ”
He stressed that he hopes “we’re doing something better and something different, and that will be to a large extent for the Republicans and Democrats, but the Democrats certainly have the majority, although it is much, much thinner.”
Van Drew admitted that he did not know what was going to happen to Pelosi and that it was ‘close’.
“If I had to bet money on it, I somehow think she’s going to squeak it out again, but she’s going to have a speaker,” he said, pointing out that Pelosi will have a hard time getting the balance between the Republican side and “where the Democratic Party is going.”
Van Drew noted that Republicans, “who want to see moderation and more conservative values,” are going to push, and that they now have room to do so because the numbers are very close. He also pointed out that the Democratic Party was moving in a more left-wing, socialist and “definitely more progressive” direction.
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Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.