House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy argued Tuesday that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has more support among congressional Republicans than Democrats as she tries to weather a fight for her leadership post.
In a sit-down with the Washington Post Tuesday morning, McCarthy repeated his claim that the GOP will hold onto the House majority as long as Pelosi remains as the Democratic leader, and said the GOP is hopeful that she will keep her post given the gains they have made since taking back the lower chamber of Congress in 2010.
“I think Nancy has more support among the Republican caucus for her to stay leader than maybe in her own conference, I’m not sure,” McCarthy said.
“Oh, I firmly believe that. Don’t you notice that there’s always some people in the Senate that always stay one term too long? And a term in the Senate is like six years. I kind of feel like Nancy is at that point,” McCarthy said. “But I want to help her. I think that’s a good place for her to be, and I think it’s very helpful for us to stay in the majority.”
McCarthy criticized Pelosi for keeping her leadership team at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and said he would have fired them given their performance in the 2016 race.
“Can you believe that she wants to keep the current DCCC? I would look into firing them after what those people did in that last election,” McCarthy said. “But she wants to keep them, more power to her. She should be re-elected.”
McCarthy said he expected Pelosi would win her leadership race on Wednesday against Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, but said he thinks Pelosi has “lost the base of her conference.”
“So they’re going to be more willing and realize that they’re sitting in districts where a lot of their friends have lost and people voted for wanting to get this country moving again,” he said.
Nearly two weeks ago, the National Republican Congressional Committee offered up their “full support” for Pelosi to continue in House leadership. They even went ahead and hung a “Hire Pelosi” sign outside of the Republican National Committee on Tuesday.
Welcoming @NancyPelosi back to town w support 4 her reelect to Minority Leader! H/T @DougHeye for the banner/idea! pic.twitter.com/vqTSPQzzhg
— Katie Martin (@KtMartin17) November 29, 2016
