Intercept bureau chief: Pelosi should focus on Georgia special elections amid ‘absurd’ fighting among Democrats

Ryan Grim, The Intercept’s Washington, D.C. bureau chief, said Tuesday that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should focus on the two Georgia Senate special elections in January, which could potentially give Democrats a majority in both chambers of Congress, amid tensions in the House between moderate Democratic party establishment members and their more progressive colleagues. 

“All of this is all the more absurd because nothing matters more to Democrats than whether or not they win the Georgia special elections in the first week of January,” Grim said on Hill.TV’s “Rising.”

“If they don’t, Pelosi’s speakership is fool’s gold, and she’ll spend the next two years just begging Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to help her keep the government from shutting down,” Grim added. 

“The thing that she ought to be worried about is actually winning the Senate, so that Democrats can do something for people over the next two years so that they can actually maybe expand their governing majority in 2022,” he continued. 

While Democrats kept their majority in the House in the 2020 elections, they lost a number of seats, prompting tensions among moderates and progressives. 

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the “defund the police” slogan that progressives promoted amid the unrest following the police killing of George Floyd hurt Democratic candidates in the recent election. 

Other progressive lawmakers, including Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), have argued that the House’s more progressive policy proposals helped in efforts to oust President Trump from the White House. 

Watch Grim’s interview above.