Chris Hayes Rips Older Democrats Unwilling To Step Aside: ‘Genuine Madness’
Chris Hayes told viewers that “it does feel like Democrats still have not learned a pretty important lesson.”
The MSNBC host dedicated a segment to House Democrats voting to make Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee after Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) – the former speaker who nonetheless still wields outsized influence – made calls on Connolly’s behalf in his race against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Connolly, 74, announced last month he has esophageal cancer, which apparently did not give much of the conference pause when choosing him over the 35-year-old congresswoman.
On Tuesday’s All In, Hayes highlighted the infamous case of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who rebuffed calls to retire when Democrats controlled the Senate during the first half of Barack Obama’s second term. Ginsburg was in her early 80s at the time and a cancer survivor. She died in the waning days of the first administration of Donald Trump, who appointed the conservative Amy Coney Barrett to replace her. Hayes also noted President Joe Biden’s decision to run for reelection despite his age and unpopularity. Biden finally caved to calls to step aside in July, giving Vice President Kamala Harris little time to run a presidential campaign.
“You would think that would have been enough for Democrats to start taking the age issue seriously,” the host said. “But it was not. “Gerry Connolly won that vote today. And he did so thanks in part to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi whipping votes for him. Now again, to her credit, enormous credit, Pelosi did choose to step aside and relinquish her job as House minority leader to a new generation of leadership. She also played an enormous role in the successful effort to push Joe Biden to step aside this summer, which was very hard to do and I think the right thing to do.”
Hayes then pivoted to Pelosi whipping votes for Connolly as she was recovering from hip replacement surgery after suffering a fall:
But now Pelosi whipped votes to make sure that Connolly got the Oversight job over the young star in the party, even as the 84-year-old Pelosi is recovering from hip surgery after suffering a fall. It feels like a moment of genuine madness.
And look, no one wants to think about their own mortality. I sure as heck don’t. There are lots of people who live very long, active lives well into their 80s, 90s. Even John Paul Stevens lived years after he retired from the court at the age of 90. But as a general matter, this is a very risky undertaking for everyone. And Democrats are not taking this issue seriously, despite everything that’s happened. But they need to.
Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire just said she’s undecided if she will run for another six-year term in 2026 when she will be 79 years old. And again, this is nothing against Senator Shaheen personally, but according to Pew polling, 79% of Americans support age limits for politicians in Washington. That is a striking, overwhelming number in today’s polarized environment. Seventy-nine percent of Americans don’t agree on anything. But they agree on this. And Democrats should listen.
Hayes wasn’t the only MSNBC host irked by the issue.
“This gerontocracy seems like it’s intractable,” Joy Reid said an hour earlier.
Watch above via MSNBC.
