Months after running an internal pressure campaign that nudged President Joe Biden out of the 2024 election, former House Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is plotting another ouster within the Democratic Party.
The representative for California’s 11th congressional district—who stepped down as Leader of the House Democratic Caucus last year after two decades—is targeting the top member of her party on the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the New York Times reported.
Pelosi is among a group of Democrats privately urging 61-year-old Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) to challenge Nadler, 77, for his post. Raskin is thinking about it, though hasn’t made up his mind and must weigh the fact that he and Nadler are friends, congressional colleagues told the Times.
Pelosi’s effort is part of an existential rethink among congressional Democrats, who are concerned their oldest members are not best suited to take on President-elect Donald Trump’s vociferous MAGA allies in Congress.
While Nadler has no apparent health issues, Democrats are still shaken by the decline of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died at age 90 last year, months after taking a leave of the party’s top Judiciary post in the Upper Chamber and long after she had exhibited signs of cognitive impairment.
Trump’s MAGA acolytes in Congress will be expected to help carry out the president-elect’s combative approach to law and order. The top Republican in the House Judiciary Committee is Jim Jordan (R-OH), a founder of the populist and MAGA-friendly Freedom Caucus.
The Times said Raskin, am off-the-cuff debater compared to the talking points-wedded Nadler, is viewed by disgruntled Democrats as better positioned to lead the opposition on the all-important committee.
Nadler isn’t the only ranking Democrat under the microscope. The Times reported Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), 76, the top party member on the Natural Resources Committee, and Rep. David Scott (D-GA), 79, the top party member on the Agriculture Committee, are facing challenges from younger house members.
According to Jonathan Alter’s book American Reckoning, Pelosi “wasn’t happy that the only bloody fingerprints on the knife were hers“ after she played a key role in ousting Biden. She did so first by pressuring him behind the scenes and, when that didn’t work, by making public a cryptic message that time was ”running short” for Biden to make up his mind about staying in the race.
After he dropped out, Pelosi trashed his team. “I’ve never been that impressed with his political operation,” she said, in an interview with The New Yorker. “They won the White House. Bravo. But my concern was: this ain’t happening, and we have to make a decision for this to happen.”
Her office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
