House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) predicted today that Democrats could cruise to victory thanks to Republicans who don’t care enough about their political roster to block the Dems.
Pelosi told CNN International that she’s “heard from many Republicans who say the party of Lincoln cannot survive as the party of Trump.”
“We hear this from Republicans all over and I guess in the White House somebody — I can’t know, we don’t know who, whether maybe we will soon — just decided that for the good of the country people had to have comfort to know that there was a check on him in the White House,” she added, alluding to the anonymous New York Times op-ed.
After calling Republicans in Congress “enablers” of President Trump, Pelosi referenced “the established Republicans who I think see and hope for a different outcome in all of this because they do believe, as I said earlier, the party of Lincoln cannot survive as the party of Trump.”
Pelosi said she believes Democrats will take back the House in November. “We have nine Tuesdays to go until the election and if the election were held today we would win overwhelmingly and women would lead the way,” she said. “We have so many excellent women candidates across the country. Women marched and then they ran and now they’re running and now they’re going to be members of Congress. We’re very excited about that. And that will lead the way to our victory. But I do think that there are Republicans out there who — I’m not saying they support us but I’m saying they’re not going to fight us.”
She predicted a larger margin of victory than the two dozen House seats Dems need to turn for the majority, but said when people ask her “is this a tsunami or is it a wave” she replies that “it’s many drops of water and it’s all very close.”
“It will be small margins in many races that will produce the victory,” she said.
Pelosi said that while it’s “up to the caucus to decide” if she would be speaker in a Dem-controlled House, “I feel very comfortable about the support I have in the caucus and that I will be the speaker of the House.”
“I think it’s important for women to see as well because you can’t run away from a fight. You’re in the arena. So, when some people come forward and say, ‘Well, we should have somebody new.’ OK. You’re in the arena. When the Republicans have such a poverty of ideas that the only thing they can put in their ads is I’m a San Francisco liberal who supports LGBTQ rights, I can take the heat. I don’t like implying that’s not a good thing, our San Francisco values,” she added.
“But I want women to know that this isn’t easy. Power is never given away and it always has to be fought for. And this is, again, a constitutional office and I feel very confident about the support of my colleagues as well as the fact we will win the election.”
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