Today, at a Washington press conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) schooled legacy hire Luke Russert. The exchange is so embarrassingly cringe worthy for Russert that it bears watching several times (video via C-SPAN):
Luke Russert: ….colleagues privately say that your decision to stay on prohibits the party from having a younger leadership and will be hurt, and hurts the party in the long term. [voices] What’s your response.
[voices: “Oh.” “Descrimination.” ]
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D): [laugh]
[voices: “No.” “Descrimination.” Booing, Hissing]
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D): Next. Next. [laugh]
[voice: “Age discrimination.”]
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D): I guess. [voices: “Boo.” “Wow.”] Oh, you’ve always asked that question, except to Mitch McConnell. [laugh][laughter, applause] [voices: “Good answer.” “Next question.”]
Luke Russert: …the same thing about Mr. Hoyer. No, no, excuse me, mister, you, Mister Hoyer, Mr. Clyburn, you’re all over seventy. Is [inaudible] to stay on prohibit younger leadership from moving forward. [voice: “Oh.”]
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D): So you’re suggesting that everybody step aside?
Luke Russert: No, I’m simply saying that [inaudible] delay younger leadership from [crosstalk] moving forward in the House Democratic ring.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D): I think that what you will see, and, and let’s for a moment honor it as a legitimate question. [laughter][laugh] Although it’s quite offensive, but you don’t realize that, I guess. [laughter] Uh, the fact is, [laughter][laugh] the fact is, is that everything [voice: “…be kidding.”] that I have done in my almost dec, I guess, decade know of leadership is to elect younger and newer people to the Congress.
In my own personal experience it was very important for me to elect young women. I came to Congress when my, uh, youngest child, Alexandra, was a senior in high school, practically on her way to college. I knew that my, my male colleagues had come when they were thirty. They had a jump on me because they didn’t have children to stay home. Now, I did what I wanted to do. I was blessed to have that opportunity, uh, to sequentially raise my family and then come to Congress.
But I wanted women to be here in greater numbers at an earlier age so that their seniority, uh, would, uh, start to, to count much sooner.
And it wasn’t confined, uh, to women, though I, we wanted to keep bringing in younger people. And some of the decisions that we made over the years, to invest when we won the House in two thousand and six, and then other, and races before and since, was to encourage people to come. And when they come here, to give them opportunity to serve. [voice: “Madame Leader…”] So i don’t have any, uh, uh, concern about that. that. And I’ve always said to you, you’ve got to take off about fourteen years from me because I was home, uh, raising a family, getting the best experience of all in diplomacy, [applause] interpersonal skill. [laugh] [voice: “Madame Leader…”]
No. The answer is no. [laugh] [laughter]