The overwhelming win of President-elect Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris probably marks the beginning of the end of the power of senior politicians like California’s former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Democratic politics.
Pelosi, the woman “who for decades reigned as kingmaker in her party, facing the prospect of having her status as a power player in the party unceremoniously stripped away on the back of” the loss of Harris.
The startling drop comes only months after she played a significant role in attempts to disqualify President Joe Biden.
The 84-year-old Pelosi was seen getting into a furious argument with fellow Democratic insider and former DNC chief Donna Brazile at Harris’ concession address at Howard University on Wednesday.
Pelosi is at the forefront of the charges as the blame game heats up following the vice president’s unexpected loss.
“The influences of a [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer or a Pelosi or a movie star or an Obama deciding to anoint somebody – those guys are gone,” business investor and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary said this week.
“In four years, they won’t have that kind of influence,” he added in a thinly veiled reference to actor George Clooney, who famously and publicly called on Biden to end his reelection following a disastrous debate with Trump.
Some Republicans are directly attributing the significant Democratic losses—from the top of the ticket to the Senate flipping red and the House still in contention—specifically to Pelosi.
“You’ve got to blame Nancy Pelosi,” former GOP House Speaker and fellow Californian Kevin McCarthy said during a Fox News interview this week.
Pelosi has been widely recognized as a key figure in Biden’s July decision to withdraw from the race just months before Election Day.
McCarthy also stated that the effort constituted an attack on the democratic process, as primary voters across the country cast their ballots for Biden, only to see Harris emerge as their nominee.
“Joe Biden never should have ran for office. I knew it when I sat with him. There was something wrong with him,” McCarthy said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fed into the irrational fear-mongering many in her Democratic Party have been using to denounce President-elect Donald Trump’s massive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, making irrational claims about entering a period of “fascism” and “authoritarianism.”
