The investigative reporter who broke the story that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will step down from her party’s leadership has lashed out at her chief of staff for “abuse” following the report.
Puck News’ Tara Palmeri correctly had the story first, but Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill was furious she broke it.
According to Puck News: “Sometime around noon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will walk out onto the House floor to take her final bow after 19 years as head of the Democratic caucus with a speech about passing the torch from one generation to the next, I’m told.
“But instead of riding high into retirement, as has long been assumed, or becoming ambassador to Italy—a diplomatic posting the White House has been holding open for her—Pelosi will announce that she plans to stay in Congress as a backbencher, roaming the halls in a sort of emeritus role and helping to guide Democrats through their turn in the minority,” Palmeri added.
“I was told there were multiple drafts of the speech, signifying Pelosi’s indecision and the fluidity of the midterm election results.”
Hammill went off:
“Speaker Pelosi has been overwhelmed by calls from colleagues, friends and supporters. This evening, the Speaker monitored returns in the three remaining critical states. The Speaker plans to address her future plans tomorrow to her colleagues. Stay tuned,” he began.
“I hate to break it to my favorite reporter but the Speaker took two versions of her speech home last night as has been reported. Anybody who tells you they know what she will do is a liar,” he continued.
“Always something to hear from @tarapalmeri from @PuckNews who has zero sourcing in Pelosi world but is constantly trying to break news nevertheless. Since she rarely includes my responses, I’ll go ahead & tweet before she posts as yet again nothing in her reporting is correct,” he said.
“The Speaker has not made a decision about her future. As the Speaker just stated yesterday on national TV, she will make a decision once all the votes have been counted. She’s not even thinking about her future at this moment,” Hammill noted further.
“The Speaker has no interest in becoming the U.S. Ambassador to Italy. She intends to continue serving in Congress regardless of her decision about House Democratic leadership. She said that yesterday on the Sunday shows.”
But in fact, Palmeri’s report turned out to be 100 percent accurate, which led other reporters to lash out at Hammill.
Julia Ioffe said: “After publicly tarring my colleague @tarapalmeri and calling her a liar for her absolutely correct reporting all week that Speaker Pelosi would step down, I think @Drew_Hammill owes Tara a public apology. Accountability matters.
This is not okay, Drew. Especially when you're wrong. Abuse is not part of the job. pic.twitter.com/5q4ya5BpG1
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) November 17, 2022
“This is not okay, Drew. Especially when you’re wrong. Abuse is not part of the job,” Ioffe noted further.
So what was the point of this exactly? https://t.co/2ZHp8PcOwz
— Andrew Egger (@EggerDC) November 17, 2022