Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) suggested that it was okay for House Democrats to launch an investigation into the election of Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) that could result in her being unseated and replaced by a Democrat opponent because Miller-Meeks won by “six votes.”
Democrats on the House Administration Committee have turned their attention in recent weeks to Democrat Rita Hart’s claims that Miller-Meeks was not the legitimate winner of November’s election in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, and they have dismissed attempts by Miller-Meeks to dismiss Hart’s election challenge.
On Sunday, ABC News host George Stephanopoulos asked Pelosi about the matter during the following exchange on ABC’s “This Week”:
STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to ask you about the controversy around the Iowa’s second congressional district. The GOP Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks won a razor close election, six votes. The votes were counted, recounted, certified by the state. But the House Administration Committee began a process this week that could lead to unseating the congresswoman.
PELOSI: That’s right.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That has Republicans accusing you of hypocrisy, including Jim Jordan. He put out this tweet: Speaker Pelosi says she’s open to unseating Republican Congresswoman Miller-Meeks. Translation, you’re only allowed to object to an election if you’re a Democrat. Why investigate an election that was certified by the state?
PELOSI: Well, it was six votes. It was six votes, and our candidate Rita Hart, the Democratic candidate asked for this process to begin. What the committee did, the House Administration Committee, was very narrow to take the process to the next step and see where it goes from there. An election of six votes out of 400,000 votes cast. This is not unique. This has happened, maybe even when you were in the Capitol before when races had been close one side or the others saying, let’s take it to the House. Because even Justice Scalia agreed that the House has the authority to seat members, and therefore we can count the votes. Six votes out of 400,000 cast. For them to call anybody hypocritical about elections when two-thirds of them in the House voted against accepting the presidency of Joe Biden is — well, it’s just who they are.
WATCH:
.@GStephanopoulos asks @SpeakerPelosi why she's trying to steal an election where the votes were "counted, recounted, and certified by the state."
Pelosi says it is ok to overturn the results because the Republican candidate only won by 6 votes.
What a hypocrite. #IA02 pic.twitter.com/IDdDXl0S49
— Mike Berg (@MikeKBerg) March 14, 2021
Pelosi was asked about the matter during a press conference last week in which she confirmed that “there could be a scenario” in which Democrats remove Miller-Meeks from office and replace her with Hart.
The investigation comes as Democrats have a small majority in the House of Representatives, which is further complicated by a small group of centrist Democrats and a vocal far-left-wing of the party. If a bill is too moderate, Democrats could lose support among the far-left-wing and if a bill is too extreme they could lose the small number of centrists or other Democrats who are in competitive swing districts.