House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries denied reports that he was growing frustrated with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, telling NBC’s Kristen Welker that he does not think she is undermining him with her public comments on the election results.
“I think Speaker Emerita Pelosi has been incredibly respectful of the entire leadership team. It’s an honor to stand on the shoulders of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an incredibly consequential public servant in the history of America,” the New York Democrat said Sunday on “Meet the Press.”
Jeffries was poised to become the first Black speaker of the House if Democrats had won the House majority. When asked if he thought Pelosi was undermining his leadership with her public pronouncements, he answered with a decisive: “No.”
“House Democrats, we’re proud of the new leadership team. We’re looking forward to confronting the challenges we have to face on the behalf of the American people,” he added.
Certain Democrats think Pelosi, who left the leadership after the 2022 elections, should step down to help Jeffries lead the caucus, Axios reported Friday. This follows an interview that Pelosi gave to the New York Times in which she suggested President Joe Biden should have dropped out of the race sooner.
Jeffries skirted around the same the question, praising Biden’s choice to drop out.
“I think that President Biden will go down in history as one of the most consequential presidents of all time and I was thankful for all the work we were able to do together. He did make the decision — it was a selfless decision — to pass the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris and she ran with it and did the best job she could under incredibly challenging circumstances and a little over 100 days,” he said. “She came close, but we fell short.”
Republicans have won 218 House seats for the next Congress, Democrats have won 212, and 5 remain undecided.
As a result of falling short, Democrats are now dealing with the fallout of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet choices, which many, from both the right and left, are critiquing.
“The incoming president throughout the campaign promised the American people that we would have the best economy, the best border security and the best administration possible,” Jeffries said. “The question that has to be asked is this the best that we can do?”
He continued: “Of course not. America deserves better. Hopefully, we’ll see the Senate Republicans do their job, scrutinize these picks, certainly confirm those that meet the basic level of qualifications and reject others.”
In specific reference to former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who Trump picked as director of national intelligence, Jeffries said he would not characterize her as a Russian asset “at this particular juncture,” as his colleague Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) called her on Friday.
“I’m open to scrutinizing whatever information is presented to all of us, but this is going to fall on Senate Democrats and Republicans,” Jeffries said.