Dems Picked an Election Denier to Be Pelosi’s Successor

House Democrats just
picked a successor
for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has decided to give up the gavel at the end of this term. Their choice is Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), a progressive. On the surface, this choice makes sense. However, in one key way, going with Jeffries makes hypocrites out of the Democratic establishment.

Why? Well, Democrats have rightly lambasted former President Donald Trump’s
false
claims that the 2020 election was stolen. They have decried, albeit often painting with far too broad a brush, Republicans as the party of “election deniers” and made the GOP out to be a threat to democracy itself.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES ELECTED TO REPLACE PELOSI AS TOP HOUSE DEMOCRAT, USHERING IN NEW GENERATION OF LEADERSHIP

Here are just a few examples of this kind of rhetoric:

Pelosi herself has
said
, “Republicans continue their attacks on our democracy. … Meanwhile, House Democrats will always defend democracy.”

Yet the House Democrats’ new leader has his own long record of “election denial.” Jeffries has repeatedly denied the results of the 2016 presidential election and spread conspiracy theories that it was illegitimate and stolen.

“The more we learn about 2016 election the more ILLEGITIMATE it becomes,” Jeffries
tweeted
in 2018, referencing Trump’s election to the Oval Office. “America deserves to know whether we have a FAKE President in the Oval Office… #RussianInterference.”

He reiterated this election denial in 2020,
telling
Trump that “history will never accept you as a legitimate President.” He has elsewhere
claimed
, without evidence, that Trump “cheated” in 2016.

Of course, none of this is true. Neither the 2016 nor the 2020 election was “stolen,” and neither had widespread fraud that could have influenced the result. So every criticism the Democrats have made about the dangers of election denial applies to the very man they just selected to lead them.

This is the height of hypocrisy. And it betrays the sad reality that many establishment Democrats do not actually care about “democracy” any more than the election-denying Republicans they decry. The truth is, they just think hand-wringing about “democracy” is, in this moment, their best path to political victory and more power. How else can you explain their willingness to turn a blind eye to the exact same behavior from their own leaders?

Oh, and don’t forget that the campaign arm of the House Democrats literally
funded the campaigns of “election denier” Republicans
because it thought they’d be easier to beat in a general election. That cynical gambit also revealed its rhetoric about “defending democracy” for the fraud that it truly is.

And that’s a shame.

Honoring the results of fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power are both core elements of our constitutional order that keep our nation free. We should support leaders who protect these principles and punish those who betray them. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that establishment Democratic politicians actually care more about democracy any more than “election-denier” Republicans do.

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Brad Polumbo (
@Brad_Polumbo
) is a co-founder of
Based-Politics.com
, a co-host of the Based Politics
podcast
, and a Washington Examiner contributor.