As the Democratic Party is seemingly becoming divided between the far-left members and the more moderate members among the party, Fox News Channel anchor Chris Wallace on Friday said he sees “The Squad,” which consists of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), having “a lot of clout” in the 117th Congress.
With the Democrats holding a “razor-thin” majority in the House, Wallace said the members of “The Squad” and their like-minded colleagues hold “the balance of the majority in their hands” by not passing measures they may not find perfect.
“It’s interesting [Democrats] clearly didn’t win in the House,” Wallace told Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom.” “Everybody expected them –, and I know the Democratic power inside the House expected them — to pick up a half dozen seats at least. It looks like they’ve lost more than a half dozen seats. So, you could say well, ‘The Squad,’ AOC and her colleagues, don’t have as much power. On the other hand, Nancy Pelosi is going to have a razor-thin majority in the House. They’re going to need every vote. It looks like they could only stand to lose four or five, as opposed to 15 or 20 seats, votes in any measure that comes up before the House.”
“So, those members of ‘The Squad’ and their like-minded colleagues are going to have a lot of clout in the House,” he continued. “Now, you know, are they going to be willing to kill the good because they want the perfect? It will be interesting to see. There is a real split inside the Democratic Party. There are a lot of moderates furious. I have heard a lot of them, as you have, say defund the police, you know, things like that were the dumbest marketing that they had ever heard and really hurt moderate Democrats in this election. On the other hand, they hold, in many respects, the balance of the majority in their hands. So, this is going to be very interesting to watch what goes on in the House in this next year or two.”
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