Democratic lawmakers are reportedly meeting in secret to replace House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the midterm elections draw closer.
According to Polito, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the No. 5 House Democrat, met with House Majority Whip James Clyburn in a “secret meeting” on Sept. 1 to potentially replace Pelosi as the leader of the House Democrats.
“The 52-year-old Jeffries was concerned enough that he offered to fly to South Carolina to seek the counsel of the 82-year-old Clyburn. The younger lawmaker wanted to gently make sure his elder in the Congressional Black Caucus knew of Schiff’s quiet campaign — and to even more gently warn Clyburn about the risk of splitting votes between them and opening a path for the ambitious Californian,” Politico reported.
In an interview with Politico, Clyburn said that he would not block Jeffries from becoming the next leader.
“There’s nothing I would ever do to impede the progress of our up-and-coming young Democrats and I see him as an up-and-coming young Democrat,” he said. “He knows that, I didn’t have to tell him that — but I did.”
As the Nov. 8 election approaches, Democrats are fearing that the infighting and overall dissatisfaction with the Biden administration could cost them their majority in Congress during the midterms.
During an interview with MSNBC last month, Pelosi fired back at host Andrea Mitchell after she was presented with polling from the New York Times and Siena College.
“The New York Times poll I think is an outlier poll, you cite one poll, but all the other polls,” Pelosi said before being pushed back by Mitchell.
The NYT/Siena poll found that 49 percent of voters are more likely to vote for a Republican candidate in the midterms, compared to the 45 percent who plan to vote for a Democrat.
More and more Democrats have also been making the switch from blue to red because of President Joe Biden’s failed policies.
In Pennsylvania, for example, more than 39,000 Democrats have switched their party registration in 2022, compared to the measly 12,000 voters who have switched to the Democratic Party from the GOP.
This indicates that an increasing number of Americans are losing trust in Biden, including fellow Democrats who are already blaming him for the party’s impending doom.
