GOP Rep Mike Rogers (R-AL), the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, has speculated that if Democrats lose the House in November, Nancy Pelosi will retire. He says Steny Hoyer may too. But if he doesn’t the Democrats might dump him along with Rep James Clyburn from leadership.
Rogers said:
“I think it depends on how the election turns out. You know, she made a deal with the devil in the last cycle that if they let her be speaker for two more terms, she would retire. She’s 80 years old right now. She’ll be 82 in one more term, assuming they keep the majority. But, you know, these folks are very unreasonable. They’re very unhappy. And we had the same dilemma when we were in the majority with the Freedom Caucus. They could not be completely satisfied, and they were the reason we couldn’t pass legislation.”
“It was never good enough for them. But it’s the same problem Democrats are having with its left wing, which is far more liberal than Nancy Pelosi if you can believe that. That’s hard to imagine to me, but it’s true. The fact is, when the election is over, assuming Donald Trump is reelected, which I think he will be, she’s going to struggle to get them to honor the second half of that commitment to let her stay speaker. If we take the House back, she’s gone,” he continued. “I think she’ll go ahead and announce her retirement.”
Rogers said that Hoyer and Clyburn could be thrown out of leadership and what is replacing them could be scary to every day Americans. The radicalization of the Democratic party would be complete.
“If that happens, you’ll see a complete sea change I think Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn will all go ahead and announce their retirements because they’ll be overthrown and the new emerging leaders of that conference will be scary to most Americans, who are in the middle of the political spectrum.”