Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., lashed out at Democrat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, blaming her for Republicans taking over the House majority following the 2022 midterm elections.
Pelosi was speaking at Politico forum Thursday at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and pointed to Hochul’s narrow victory over Republican Lee Zeldin in 2022, the New York Post reported Friday. Hochul won by 6.4 percentage points, with Zeldin receiving 46.8% of the vote - the most by a New York Republican gubernatorial candidate since George Pataki won reelection with 49.4% of the vote in 2002.
Republicans flipped four seats in heavily blue New York in 2022 that tilted the House in their favor.
"I think it related to the gubernatorial race," Pelosi, 84, told the forum when asked what happened in 2022, the Post reported. The year was the last year she held the speaker’s gavel. She then ceded the House Democrat leadership to Hakeem Jeffries of New York after 20 years at the helm.
Hochul told MSNBC on Friday, "I just don’t agree with that. That’s fine," the Post reported.
"We are going to win this on the ground because I know how to do this," Hochul said. "I now have the chance to focus on this. I’m not a candidate myself this year, so I can laser-focus on these races, the Hudson Valley, Syracuse, Central New York, all the way to the tip of Long Island. We’re going to win these races and win strong."
The Cook Political Report lists three Republican House seats from New York as toss-ups — the fourth congressional district held by Anthony D’Esposito, the 17th by Michael Lawler, and the 19th by Marc Molinaro. One Republican seat, held by Brandon Williams in the 22nd District, is listed as leans Democrat.
This was not the first time Pelosi has blamed Hochul for the Democrats’ failure to keep the House in 2022, the Post reported. In the wake of those midterms, Pelosi blamed Hochul and other New York politicians for not realizing soon enough that crime was a crucial issue in the election.
"That is an issue that had to be dealt with early on, not 10 days before the election," Pelosi told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. "The governor didn’t realize soon enough where the trouble was."
And earlier this year, Pelosi was caught on tape telling Lawler that he had Hochul to thank for his upset 2022 victory against former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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