Pelosi endorses Rep. Tlaib in primary fight, moves to help members of the 'Squad'

[RandySF]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is moving to help two members of the so-called “Squad” who suddenly find themselves facing difficult primaries.
Pelosi endorsed freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Wednesday, praising the Michigan Democrat after an outside group supporting her opponent, Brenda Jones, distributed a leaflet of Jones standing next to Pelosi, smiling.

The campaign flier suggested, without explicitly saying it, that Pelosi supported Jones. Pelosi wanted to ensure the district knows she stands behind Tlaib — public support that Tlaib allies believe could help her maintain her seat.

“Representative Rashida Tlaib is a tireless advocate for the residents of Michigan’s 13th Congressional District,” Pelosi said in the statement. “Rep. Tlaib never stops fighting for her district, which she is proud to represent. And I am proud to endorse her for reelection.”
The statement comes two weeks after Pelosi did something similar for Rep. Ilhan Omar, who also finds herself in a suddenly competitive primary. The speaker is currently in the process of filming a video endorsing the Minnesota Democrat, whose challenger, Antone Melton-Meaux, has been raising money from Omar critics around the nation, highlighting what he calls her history of divisive comments.

Omar faced a nationwide backlash from a series of remarks she made in early 2019 about American Jews that were widely considered anti-Semitic. She apologized for suggesting that Israel’s allies in American politics were motivated by money rather than principle.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/pelosi-endorses-rep-tlaib-in-primary-fight-moves-to-help-members-of-the-squad/2020/07/29/028b5692-d1c6-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html

[LakeArenal]

1. Squad was a pejorative from Republicans.

Is it okay to call these women a Squad?

Like Nasty Women I did not want to embrace anything from THEM.

[Hortensis]

2. 4 at first among 235 Dems, now 3. Repubs did 'em a big favor

by giving the press a name to puff them up with. In reality, they're barely enough to snag a table in the house cafeteria.

As for Pelosi's and the leadership's endorsement, of course. Talib is a member of their house caucus. She'd have to have done something wrong and beyond recovery for her own leadership to support a primary opponent.

(Normal ideological differences are not cause for not supporting in our very diverse party; she'd have to call for nuking Israel or some such thing before they did. Just doesn't happen.)

[LakeArenal]

5. Hi, was this a response to me or the thread?

I’m with you.

[Hortensis]

11. :) Mainly babbling on. But with you. Democracy's as

close as I get to religion, and any politicians who support attempted election theft, even incompetent election theft, are permanently off my list. Wrong stuff. And my husband's Jewish, and at 44 she's way too old to make "mistakes" we don't like.

But she's her constituents' choice, and that has to be almost everything. We respect the principles and great competence that guide Pelosi's actions.

[Tanuki]

6. They originated it themselves

https://www.usatoday.com/amp/1804557001

"President Donald Trump has been on a days-long Twitter tirade about four freshman congresswomen of color called the "Squad." And while Trump's a fan of nicknames, he didn't come up with this one. Instead, the congresswomen gave it to themselves.

The nickname refers to Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib. It started with a November Instagram post by then-representative-elect Ocasio-Cortez – a photo of the four congresswomen seated together, captioned "Squad."

“Someone said, ‘Oh you should do a hashtag or something #squadgoals’ and then it morphed into this thing,” Pressley told CBS in an interview last week."...(more at link)

[LakeArenal]

7. Thanks. I like being politically correct.

[empedocles]

9. The republicons publicized 'the squad' as an unfavorable group bad Dems

[Wounded Bear]

3. Madame Speaker knows what she's doing, for sure...

She knows politics. It wouldn't make sense to not support an active Dem.

[tritsofme]

4. Incumbents deserve at least a perfunctory endorsement, but I would be quite pleased

to see both them lose their primary.

[StarfishSaver]

8. For all of the slaps made at Pelosi, I'm sure they are very happy to have her endorsement

[empedocles]

10. They were a pain to the Speaker