It may seem strange that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer would be discouraging their rank-and-file members from taking jobs with the incoming Biden administration, but that’s apparently what they’ve been doing. According to House sources who spoke to The New York Post, Pelosi and other House leaders are terrified that by leaving seats vacant in search of glory in the Executive Branch, Democrats will risk losing open seats to Republicans…perhaps even opening the door to a flip of the majority.
“Nancy is telling House members, ‘Now is not the time to leave,’” a Democratic Party official told the Post.
Another insider at the House of Representatives confirmed this story to the paper, telling them that Hoyer is also telling Dem reps to keep their seats. That source also said that Hoyer had a conversation with the Biden transition team in which he told them not to come after congresspeople in an effort to staff his administration.
“The feeling is: don’t make rash decisions about going to the administration without first considering consequences to the caucus,” one Democrat insider said.
Knowing that this story will only further the rumors of trouble in paradise, a spokesperson for Pelosi vehemently denied that she was doing anything to prevent Democrats from going to work for Biden.
“This is completely false. The Speaker wants the full contribution of House Democrats to the Biden-Harris mandate and to the future represented in the Administration,” said the spokesman.
All the results of the election are not final, but it appears at this point that the House Democratic majority will shrink significantly in the wake of the 2020 vote. The best estimates say that Democrats will lose approximately 12 seats to the Republicans, shrinking their majority margin from the current 233 – 201. That’s still enough to give Pelosi the gavel (if her Caucus wants her back), but it’s a razor-thin majority by any reckoning. Even as it stands now, without any Biden poaching, Pelosi will have very little room to maneuver, and she will be able to afford very few defections.
It’s going to put House Democrats and Biden himself in a tough position when trying to form a new government.
Damn shame, eh?
Comments are closed.