Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the Democrats were walloped in the 2024 elections.
During an interview with Politico, Fetterman went after Pelosi when asked if he thought President Joe Biden should have dropped out of the race after the terrible debate with Donald Trump.
“People like [Nancy] Pelosi, she really tried to — what’s the word I’m looking for? — she embraced this ‘she’s the godmother, she’s the enforcer.’ And now she’s blaming Biden,” Fetterman said, holding nothing back while blaming Pelosi for trying to pull power moves.
“Well, you can’t have it both ways. You got what you wanted,” he added, referring to Biden’s ouster and the installment of Kamala Harris, “and now you’re still blaming Biden.”
Democrats have split into various feuding factions and are blaming one another for their failure to retake the House of Representatives, their loss of the Senate, and their defeat by Trump in the presidential race.
Pelosi has claimed that Biden should not immediately have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and suggested that the decision led to her embarrassing defeat.
“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?” he added.
He then spoke out against Harris and other Democrats who say Trump followers are “fascists” because of their political views.
“I love people that are absolutely going to vote for Trump. They’re not fascists. They’re not those things. I think if you go to the tickle switch, use those kinds of terms, then it’s kind of hard to walk back on those things,” he continued.
“That’s kind of a word that really isn’t part of the vernacular for voters. Scolding harder or clutching the pearls harder, that’s never going to work for Democrats,” Fetterman concluded.
Pelosi faced calls to step aside after Democrats were battered in the 2024 elections.
During an interview on Fox News with host Neil Cavuto, Teamsters International President Sean O’Brien called on Pelosi and New York Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer to step aside after Republicans won back the White House and Senate and kept control of the House.
Last year, Pelosi filed for re-election in 2026.
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After securing a 20th term last week, the 84-year-old submitted a statement of candidacy to the Federal Election Commission on Thursday. The documents are an early sign of Pelosi’s plans for the next election, but a representative for the lawmaker refuses to confirm if she is seeking reelection.
Pelosi’s recent comments regarding Biden’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 campaign and support Kamala Harris prompted the comments.
In an interview with the New York Times podcast on Saturday, Pelosi stated that there was a belief that Biden would resign sooner rather than later, allowing for a more competitive selection process for his successor that could have improved the Democrats’ reaction to Trump.
After a dismal debate performance and growing worries about his age, Biden announced his resignation from the campaign and endorsed Harris in July, joining an increasing number of Democrats who believed he was unfit to challenge Trump.
According to reports, Pelosi advised contributors and other Democrats she dealt with behind the scenes to “speak their conscience” if they had reservations about Biden.
A House Democrat told NBC News then that a recent wave of party members speaking out against Biden’s campaign was “all Nancy’s doing.”
“So they’ve got a lot of — they’ve got a lot of soul searching to do. And look, I said this earlier today in another interview that, you know, the Democrat Party needs to take a look in the mirror and say, ‘You know, maybe Chuck Schumer’s time is over. Maybe Pelosi’s time is over. Let’s figure out who’s going to be the best for the party.’ And look, as an organization, we’re always looking at how do we lead this organization better than we found it. I think that needs to be the focus,” O’Brien added.
