After every election, the losing party tends to sit back, lick their wounds, and try to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The left is going through this right now, and there are plenty of smart people who understand that the Democratic Party has become too radical and woke, and that’s why middle-class voters have abandoned them.
And then there are people like Jen Psaki, the former Biden press secretary turned MSNBC host, who wants the Democrats to double down on stupid.
Psaki believes the Democrats missed a “big opportunity” by passing over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) in favor of Rep. Gerry Connolly for the top spot on the House Oversight Committee.
"Instead, they chose Congressman Gerry Connolly, a much older member who was backed by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi,” Psaki said.
The House Oversight Committee serves as a critical battleground for shaping public perception and countering the other side's narratives. With that in mind, Democrats opted for Connolly, a 74-year-old seasoned lawmaker who is most certainly much smarter than Ocasio-Cortez. There’s no denying that Connolly lacks the celebrity appeal and social media prowess of AOC, but do Psaki and others really believe this is the secret sauce to winning elections?
The party clearly didn’t see it that way, and they sided with experience over theatrics, voting 131 to 84 in Connolly’s favor. Psaki was unimpressed.
"Why does that matter?" Psaki continued. "This is one of the few committees in Congress that actually generates national attention or media coverage. Under Jamie Raskin, it became a critical platform for countering Republican misinformation. And while I have deep, deep respect for Speaker Pelosi… and nothing against Congressman Connolly at all, this felt like an obvious chance to apply some of the lessons we should've learned from the November election. Instead, Democrats passed over one of the youngest, most media-savvy members of Congress for a key public leadership role."
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Psaki made these comments even as Democrats are desperate to regain relevance with an increasingly skeptical electorate. Ocasio-Cortez is hardly the person you want to elevate to party leadership—not if you want to win elections again, anyway.
Predictably, Psaki wasn’t the only MSNBC host representing the Democratic Party’s far-left wing panning the snub of AOC. Chris Hayes and Joy Reid wasted no time lambasting the move, with Hayes calling Pelosi’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering “madness” and Reid decrying the party’s “gerontocracy.”
"Pelosi whipped votes to make sure that Connolly got the Oversight job over the young star in the party, even as the 84-year-old Pelosi is recovering from hip surgery after suffering a fall. It feels like a moment of genuine madness," Hayes said.
"[The] gerontocracy seems like it’s intractable," Reid said. "I recall when Barack Obama was elected, he kind of pushed aside the DNC and created his own organization because I think there is a frustration with the sort of creaky way the DNC operates."
These people want leaders who will push the party further left without hesitation. While AOC’s activism may energize the far left, it alienates middle America and strengthens Republican appeal. Psaki’s claim that AOC is the solution to Democratic struggles isn’t just misguided—it’s absurd. The party should shift to the center, not embrace radicals whose policies repel voters.
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