As Midterms Loom, Democrats Feud Over Defections
New York Times · LC · trust 22/100
The fight has highlighted party divisions and raised questions about how Democrats will run the House should they win the majority.
Listen · 8:15 min Share full article Representative Jared Golden of Maine was one of two Democrats to side with House Republicans on a procedural measure on Tuesday. Credit... Kenny Holston/The New York Times By Michael Gold
The drama began Tuesday afternoon, when two of the most conservative Democrats in the House broke with their party to pave the way for votes on a slate of Republican bills.
By Wednesday, it had mushroomed into a full-on furor featuring accusations of betrayal, demands for punishment for the defectors and a quiet but intense round of whispers about what the episode said about the leadership of Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, who is in line to be speaker should his party win the majority in November.
Mr. Jeffries said he had been blindsided by the decision by the two lawmakers, Representatives Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, to side with Republicans on a procedural measure, and suggested that it had been the job of the chief vote-counter and No. 2 Democrat to be aware of such things.
“You’ll have to talk to Katherine,” he told reporters after the vote on Tuesday, referring to Representative Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts. (Ms. Clark later said that she had not been apprised.)
Top Democrats demanded that the renegades be disciplined for straying from the party line.
“I think there should be a punishment,” said Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee. “I think there should be consequences.”
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