John Fetterman Slams Nancy Pelosi As 'Godmother' Of Democratic Party
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) had some harsh words for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif).
The senator Fetterman told Politico Thursday that Pelosi accomplished her goal of getting President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 election, only to publicly blame him after the Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris lost the race to President-elect Donald Trump.
“She really tried to — what’s the word I’m looking for? — she embraced this, ‘she’s the godmother, she’s the enforcer,’” he said. “And now she’s blaming Biden. Well, you can’t have it both ways.”
“You got what you wanted, and now you’re still blaming Biden,” he continued. “I think it’s really ironic that you have a woman at age 84 and she is still hanging on. Why not give a younger generation an opportunity to occupy that seat?”
The finger-pointing among frustrated Democrats began almost immediately after Trump’s election victory last week. In her first interview after the election, the longtime House speaker told the New York Times that Harris would’ve been a “stronger” candidate had Biden exited the race sooner.
“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she told the paper at the time, adding that Harris “would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen.”
Pelosi urged Biden in 2022 to run for reelection, but amid burgeoning concerns about his cognitive abilities earlier this year, said “it’s up to the president” whether he does. Fetterman had been one of Biden’s strongest defenders, arguing even after his disastrous presidential debate performance that he should stay in the race.
Biden ultimately dropped out in July — and endorsed Harris to replace him as the nominee.
Harris had around 100 days to campaign and maker her case to voters who didn’t get to nominate her themselves. When asked in September if Pelosi had “changed” her mind about the need for an open primary, she responded bluntly.
“We had an open primary — and [Harris] won it,” she told Semafor reporter Kadia Goba.
Harris ran a traditional campaign focusing on interviews with legacy media outlets and a message of “joy;” Trump ran one centered on racist fearmongering about “bloodthirsty” immigrants “bringing bad genes” into the country, and jumped on popular podcasts to boost his reach.
He most famously joined the “Joe Rogan Experience” for a three-hour conversation with the host, who recently claimed that Harris refused to appear on his show because, among other reasons, she declined to discuss subjects like marijuana legalization.
“Forty-two million people witnessed the Trump interview [with Rogan],” Fetterman, who recently appeared on the podcast himself, told Politico. “The power that the platform that he created — to ignore that — I can’t imagine why anyone would do that.”
