Pelosi insists she is VERY confident Democrats will keep the House in 2022 and dismisses polls suggesting Republicans have the advantage
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday expressed confidence Democrats would keep control of the House in the 2022 election.
'I'm very confident that we will win the House,' she said during her weekly Capitol news conference.
Her comments came after a report that Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the head of the House Democrats' campaign arm, warned if the midterm elections were held now, the Democrats would lose the majority.
He partnered his bleak forecast with new polling that showed Democrats falling behind Republicans by a half-dozen points on a generic ballot in battleground districts, Politico reported.
Pelosi dismissed the warning.
'There are several scenarios here,' she said. 'That was one of them.'
She said Democrats would use the odds to run even harder.
'I always run from behind,' she said.
'We always want to be cautious,' Pelosi said. Maloney's message to lawmakers last week, she noted, was 'always run scared.'
Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed confidence Democrats would keep control of the House in the 2022 election
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has taken to calling Pelosi a 'lame duck's speaker
Pelosi holds a slim majority in the House: 220 Democrats to 212 Republicans and three vacant seats.
Historically, the president's party tends to do badly in the first midterms after they talk office. Both Barack Obama and Donald Trump saw their respective parties lose control of the House of Representatives in their first midterms - 2010 and 2018.
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, who would be the presumptive speaker if Republicans win the House next year, has expressed confidence of his own he'll take the top job.
McCarthy has called Pelosi a 'lame duck speaker' - an insult to her power and his way of declaring he will occupy the office next. Pelosi would be a lame duck only if Republicans win control of the House in the November 2022 election.
He has doubled down on that, causing outraged Democrats to demand McCarthy apologize or resign for a comment he made over the weekend where he threated to hit Pelosi with the speaker's gavel should he replace her in the House's top job.
'Dear @GOPLeader McCarthy: Don't you think America has had enough political violence? You should never be encouraging or threatening or joking about causing violence to anyone, including the Speaker of the House. You need to apologize for your statement, or resign,' wrote Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California.
Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell and Jim McGovern also called on McCarthy to resign.
Several other Democratic lawmakers took to Twitter to defend Pelosi and accused McCarthy of inciting violence against women. Several women noted McCarthy voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. McCarthy was one of 157 Republicans who voted against it in April 2019 although it did garner enough support to pass the House.
'Shocked to hear this language coming from the Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Not shocked to hear it coming from someone who voted NO on the Violence Against Women Act. Violence is never a joke. Kevin McCarthy should be ashamed,' wrote Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire.
McCarthy's office shrugged off the criticism.
'There is no 'fallout' – it was a joke,' a McCarthy spokesman told DailyMail.com.
The GOP Leader was invited to speak to the 1,400 people attending the Statesmen's Dinner in Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday - a big fundraising event for the state party.
At the dinner, McCarthy was presented with an oversized gavel. If Republicans win control of the House in the 2022 midterm election, Pelosi would hand McCarthy a large gavel to symbolize his party taking over the chamber when the new House session begins in January 2023. McCarthy gave Pelosi the gavel in January 2019 after Democrats won control of the House in the 2018 election.
McCarthy said he'd invite everyone at the dinner to attend.
'I want you to watch Nancy Pelosi hand me that gavel,' he added, before adding: 'It'll be hard not to hit her with it, but I will bang it down.'
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was presented with a large gavel at a Statesmen's dinner in Nashville on Saturday where he said: 'I want you to watch Nancy Pelosi hand me that gavel. It'll be hard not to hit her with it, but I will bang it down'
The audience roared and applauded his comment.
Audio of the remarks from McCarthy were captured by Main Street Nashville.
With control of Congress at stake next year, along with Joe Biden's ability to pass his legislative agenda, Democrats have invested heavily in the president, establishing party embeds in some of the major battle ground states as part of the coordination effort with the White House as they double down on this presidency as their midterm message.
That coordination includes a united messaging strategy, specifically promoting Biden's legislation agenda, including the Child Tax Credit and his American Rescue Plan. Last month, the three Democratic campaign committees released a rare joint ad touting the Child Tax Credit and its benefits on the middle class.
The economy will be a key talking point.
A White House official told DailyMail.com the focus is on 'the strength of our agenda, and the impact that it is already having – through things like the Child Tax Credit – and will have through more jobs, tax cuts, and lower costs for working families.'