While House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) aligned herself on the wrong side of handling sexual harassment on Capitol Hill, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) demonstrated — again — that she has no time for protecting predators, no matter what their status.
Pelosi’s inaction may indicate why nearly three-quarters of millennials strongly want a third political party option that will represent them appropriately, a brand new poll reveals.
According to a tweet from a Washington Post reporter, Rice walked out of a meeting of House Democrats, saying she doesn’t “have time for meetings that aren’t real.”
Her reported comments echo sentiments she made last week on CNN.
Host Wolf Blitzer asked Rice if she thought Democratic Sen. Al Franken’s apology for sexual harassment was enough — a notion Rice rejected.
“I think if you ask any person on the street, do you think the action that CBS took with Charlie Rose was appropriate Or Louis C.K. Or anyone else in Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein. They would say, yes, they took the right action. Why can’t we do the same thing in Washington”
This morning, NBC News also “took the right action” in firing longtime network favorite Matt Lauer.
“While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over twenty years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident,” NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack said in a statement.
Despite Lack’s history, popularity and tenure, he was not excused from what Lack called “a clear violation” of the company’s standards.
“What is so problematic, and the reason I’m being so vocal on this issue, Wolf, is because what we are saying in Washington is there’s a set of rules that apply to people who are not politicians in Washington, and there’s a totally different set of rules that apply to elected officials serving in Congress.”
“People are seeing us circle the wagons and protect our own,” she went on. “Whether it’s Donald Trump not coming out against Roy Moore, and supporting him to the extent that he is, or if it’s Nancy Pelosi protecting John Conyers and saying that she leaves it up to him to make the right decision. I think that’s ridiculous.”
Rice was the first House Democrat to call on Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) to resign after it became public knowledge that female staffers had accused him of sexual harassment.
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Rice, 52, has been representing New York since 2015 and encompasses a more progressive mindset than Pelosi, 77.
When Conyers’ story came out Pelosi defended him on “Meet the Press” and called for “due process,” pointing out that an ethics committee would review Conyers’ case.
Pelosi also said she does not believe the accounts of Conyers’ accusers.
“I do not know who they are. Do you They have not really come forward,” Pelosi said.
Young Americans, meanwhile, are ready for people like Pelosi to see the door. According to an NBC News/GenForward poll published today, 71 percent of millennials believe the United States needs a third political party because Democrats and Republicans do not represent them.
When broken down by political affiliation, Democratic (74 percent) and Independent (71 percent) millennials more strongly believe there is a need for a third party than Republicans (67 percent).
According to the release:
“Six in ten [millennials] disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job, while 59 percent have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party and 42 percent have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party. On the whole, millennials overwhelmingly do not think either party cares about people like them.
“These views may help explain why a large majority of young adults — across racial subgroups, genders and partisan affiliations — say a third major party is needed.”
