Sean Spicer said he believes a Democrat-run House with Nancy Pelosi as its speaker would be a win for President Trump because it gives Republicans “something to run against.”
“Politically, this does benefit the president,” the former White House press secretary told CNBC at the Doha Forum in Qatar on Saturday. “Obviously, as a Republican, I was sad to lose the House, but the reality is that this gives us something to run against.”
The California Democrat in November was again nominated as speaker of the House, which she held from 2007 to 2011. To earn the votes needed, however, Pelosi pledged that she would support a caucus rule change that would impose term limits for Democratic leaders to run for the same position.
“I think Nancy Pelosi is going show the American people what it’s all about, which is investigation after investigation and a lot more big government that won’t go anywhere,” said Spicer, who spent six years as the communications director of the Republican National Committee.
Democrats vowed, and ran on the promise, that if they were to take back the House majority, it would open up several investigations into the Trump administration.
The floor vote for House speaker will take place on Jan. 3., and Pelosi still needs to win support from more than a dozen Democrats who said they would not support her.
Spicer said a Pelosi win is good because she is a top adversary of Trump and often attaches other Democrats to her agenda, which he says will show the American people, specifically Republicans and Trump voters, that Democrats are against the progress being made.
“This really juxtaposes that idea of the binary choice that exists within elections. If you want the agenda that delivered 3-plus percent economic growth quarter after quarter, lower unemployment, the take down of the regulatory state, then you need to vote Republican and for the president’s policies to continue,” Spicer said.
The president said in August that Democrats should not distance themselves from Pelosi. “She is a wonderful person whose ideas and policies may be bad, but who should definitely be given a 4th chance. She is trying very hard and has every right to take down the Democrat Party if she has veered too far left!” he tweeted.
Trump, who frequently targeted Pelosi and other Democratic leaders in his rallies, said he supported a Pelosi speakership after the Democrats took back a majority in the 2018 midterms, and even said Republicans would help get her elected.
