Federalist Senior Editor Mollie Hemingway and New York’s Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agree on one thing: Democratic congressional leadership has had a bad year.
Ocasio-Cortez told journalist Jeremy Scahill on Wednesday that she thinks Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) need to go.
“I think [we’re seeing] the results of just many years of power being concentrated in leadership with a lack of, you know, real grooming of the next generation of leadership,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “So when you have really talented members of Congress that do come along, the opportunities to lead are so few and far between.”
On Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom” Thursday morning, Hemingway agreed that 2020 was rough for congressional Democratic leadership, noting that Ocasio-Cortez’s comments show a disconnect within the party.
Democrats “technically control the House of Representatives, they’ve won the presidency, have a shot at winning the Senate,” Hemingway said. “And the party is in complete disarray because of this issue that Ocasio-Cortez is talking about.”
“All the enthusiasm for the party comes from that progressive left-wing base, but that’s what is costing them seats,” she added. “With Republicans having an excellent shot at taking back the house in two years, Democrats are trying to tamp down that progressive wing that hurts them with voters and yet that’s where all of their excitement is.”
Hemingway said she is surprised Ocasio-Cortez has yet to try to replace Pelosi with a more progressive representative. “We’ll see how this plays out,” she said. “Nancy Pelosi had a very bad year.”
