17 Democrats vow opposition to Nancy Pelosi's speaker bid

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17 Democrats vow opposition to Nancy Pelosi's speaker bid

Are Democrats in disarray over their impending takeover of the House? Insight and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Stars.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," November 15, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF.: I have overwhelming support in my caucus to be speaker of the House, and certainly we have many, many people in our caucus who could serve in this capacity. I happen to think at this point I am the best person for that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have a candidate in mind, or would you stand yourself for the post?

REP. MARCIA FUDGE, D-OHIO: I just might.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You just might what, have a candidate or stand yourself?

FUDGE: Either way, maybe? No, I'm just joking. There are a number of people who I think are capable. And so we're exploring, talking to those people.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: Marcia Fudge from Ohio saying she just might stand for a candidate for speaker up against Nancy Pelosi. As you take a look at the 17 Democrats who have signed a letter saying they will not support Pelosi for speaker, 12 are incumbents, including Marcia Fudge, and five are incoming members. Nancy Pelosi hinting at sexism, noting that 14 of them are men today.

But is she in trouble? A Monmouth poll recently out says her job performance at 17 percent of those polled. And the question, should Democrats select Pelosi as House speaker, again, the big one-seven, 17 percent says select Pelosi. Someone else, 45 percent, no opinion there.

What about this power struggle on the Democratic side? Is it a split? Let's bring in our panel: Byron York, chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner; A.B. Stoddard, associate editor at Real Clear Politics, and Katie Pavlich, news editor at Townhall.com.

A.B., there is dissension. She, Pelosi, is usually good at cracking the whip and getting people to come to line. Is that the case this time?

A.B. STODDARD, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: Well, there is more than 17 people. At one point, there were 37 Pelosi refusers --

BAIER: These are just the --

STODDARD: These are the people -- that's very hard to do. And so there's more dissent that's conditional. And that means if there was an opponent, and it doesn't really amount to much that Marcia Fudge has said she is considering doing it, but she doesn't have a juggernaut behind her. And so there are people that would jump if they knew that they wouldn't be punished and there would be an alternative. That makes a potential problem for Speaker Pelosi.

But she is very, very good at cracking that whip. She made sure that the people who were out on the campaign trail saying I'm not going to support her didn't use the word "vote" so they knew that she help them get through their primary, that she got the riffraff out of the way for them, that she helped them win their general. And she's going to be handing out a lot of candy.

The people who think that it's worth it are like Republicans a decade ago who would say of Tom DeLay, nobody has to like him but he gets the job done. I think it's a mistake to go with Pelosi, but I think in the end they will because they do not have enough of a force.

BAIER: Byron, here is Kathleen Rice on how opponents would defeat Pelosi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KATHLEEN RICE, D-N.Y.: The first thing is that we have to show that the leader cannot get to 218, which she won't be able to. And I think you're going to see people emerge. I'm glad to see that Marcia is thinking about it, and I think once we show that the leader can't get to 218, you're going to see other people throw their hat in the ring, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Byron?

BRYON YORK, THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Well, the phrase that we've been hearing around Capitol Hill for a while, which is you can't beat somebody with nobody. And I think that's still the case. Perhaps Marcia Fudge or someone else will throw their hat in. What you just heard from Kathleen Rice is really kind of a Hail Mary, which if they simply can prove that Pelosi doesn't have the votes then maybe somebody will come in --

BAIER: A chink in the armor.

YORK: -- and unite us all. And I just think this is a scenario that is very, very unlikely.

BAIER: Just time out. This is what happened with Republicans when Kevin McCarthy didn't have the votes, the consensus candidate came in, Paul Ryan, reluctantly at first, and he ended up being speaker.

YORK: There was a lot of talk about Paul Ryan being speaker of the House before that happened. Who is being talked about as speaker of the House here? Just nobody.

BAIER: All right, the other thing is as Democrats looking now, as these other races are being called, you look at the balance of power here so far, the new balance of power, Democrats picking up a net game of 35 so far, but there are a number of seats yet to be called. They could end up at 36, 37, may be even 39. That's starting to get in blue wave territory there, Katie.

KATIE PAVLICH, TOWNHALL.COM: It certainly is as we wait for the official end results of this election that seems to continue to drag on. But I want to go back to Nancy Pelosi. Even with the new numbers, the big question is going to be if she does get the speakership, which she probably will based on the never-Pelosi movement probably dying out once they realize she is the only choice, when it comes to her future and working in that coalition, we have to question whether she still has the magic touch. Is she still able to keep her coalition together? Is she going to spend more time wrangling Democrats with this new incoming freshman class of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who was at her office the first day she was in Washington D.C. participating in a protest against her.

You have a number of people on the left who've been elected in that freshman class who have that far leftwing perspective, and they things like Medicare for all, they want those socialist policies to be governed on and to be put into legislation. And whether Nancy Pelosi is going to allow those things to come to the floor is going to be a big problem. Whether she's going to be fighting Democrats more than she'll be fighting the White House will be a serious question if she gets the speakership.

YORK: That is why the final vote count is so important. Remember, on election night we were hearing that Democrats had picked up 27 which put them right over the 218, maybe 220, 222. That is really hard to get to 218 of your own party together on any given vote. If they do get to 238, 239, there is some pad. They can lose some of their members on the fringes and still get stuff passed. The final vote count is really, really big.

BAIER: And last word, A.B. At the same time Nancy Pelosi is going to pick up this historic, at least in decades, win, Chuck Schumer is going to lose seats -- we don't know yet how many, but he's going to. And he's voice vote, even Kyrsten Sinema didn't object.

STODDARD: It's just a different kind of leader. When you are not controversial and you unify the caucus more than you divide them, and you have a good special touch, people don't come up and challenge you. Again, they don't have a challenge, but the fact that they are out in the open saying we really need to give her the heave-ho is very significant.

BAIER: It is very significant.

STODDARD: And that's the difference. Yes, he lost seats, but his membership believed that they can't really move forward without him. A whole bunch of Democrats, including the new socialists, believe they need to move forward without her.

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