‘Welcome to My World!’ Pelosi Addresses Democratic Infighting Ahead of Planned Votes: ‘We Are Not a Lockstep Party’

Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke Friday afternoon hours ahead of planned votes on some key Democratic legislation.

The plans for Friday votes have jumped around numerous times in the past 24 hours. As of this posting, the plan is to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and then take a procedural vote on the Build Back Better spending bill.

Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal said earlier Friday if there are some Democrats who want the CBO score on the latter before voting, they would “agree to give them that time — after which point we can vote on both bills together.”

Pelosi took questions from reporters, with one asking about Jayapal’s statement and whether that means they don’t have the votes on infrastructure just yet.

“We all speak to each other quite regularly,” Pelosi replied. “It’s a constant conversation among all of us in our caucus. And the fact is, we believe it is necessary to pass the BIF so that these jobs can come online as soon as possible. We have waited a while.”

“We had hoped to pass it sooner, but we can’t wait too much later.”

She’s confident “a large number” of Progressive Caucus members will vote for the infrastructure package.

One reporter asked about the Democrats’ infighting: “We have seen this ‘there’s going to be votes, there’s not going to be a vote, there’s going to be a vote, there’s not going to be a vote.’ At a certain point do you worry that it starts to look like the Democrats can’t get out of their own way?”

“Welcome to my world!” Pelosi said with a laugh.

“The party’s vitality and diversity is something that we all respect and admire. We are not a lockstep party, we are not just speak[ing] as one person,” she continued.

You can watch above, via Fox News.