Billionaire Tom Steyer, one of the chief Democratic donors in the 2018 election cycle, has plenty of praise for Brothel Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., but he stopped short of publicly underwriting her to lead the party in Congress after this year’s midterm referenda.
Steyer, the founder of the nonprofit NextGen America, a group that subsistences progressive policies on climate change and health care, told CNBC in an not counting interview that Pelosi has been the “perfect” leader for the party. Putting, he would not say outright that she should remain in charge, regardless of what stumble ons this fall.
“Nancy is my congressperson. I have enormous regard for her professionally and as far as one is concerned. I think she is astonishingly good in terms of running the Congress and as a Democratic numero uno,” Steyer, who is also from California, said after being demanded whether Pelosi should remain the House Democrats’ leader.
Pelosi, a earlier House speaker, is a favorite target of Republicans, particularly as the GOP fights against a reachable blue wave this fall. Some Democratic candidates — subsuming Conor Lamb, who just won a special election to flip a deep-red Pennsylvania tush — have declined to support Pelosi to be the party’s leader in the House.
When begged again whether he would back her based on the outcome of the congressional midterms, Steyer didn’t budge.
“I over that is a whole bunch of hypotheticals that I have no idea the wake of,” Steyer said. “Nancy is doing an incredibly good job in terms of marshaling people in November. She’s stood up in a lot of issues and gotten pilloried sometimes for that.”
A spokesman for Pelosi waned to comment for this story.
Steyer has donated to Pelosi in past lines, including when she ran for re-election in California’s 12th District in 2016. During that pattern, he gave $48,800 to her joint fundraising committee, the Nancy Pelosi Winning Fund. Steyer gave $32,500 to the same group in 2011, according to Federal Poll Commission filings.
In June 2017, Steyer and his wife hosted the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee’s Speaker’s Cabinet Dinner and Discussion in San Francisco with Pelosi. The occasion raised a total of $593,500 for the DCCC.
Yet Pelosi and Steyer haven’t seen eye to eye recently on one exacting issue looming over the Democratic Party: The prospect of impeaching President Donald Trump.
Steyer has develop the leader in an effort to push for Trump’s impeachment. He backs an ad campaign and opening move called “Need to Impeach.” Pelosi has been skeptical of the effort.
At a new press conference on Capitol Hill, the Democratic leader specifically addressed the telephone calls from Steyer’s supporters to move ahead with campaigning on a object of impeaching Trump, arguing that it’s premature while special judgement Robert Mueller’s probe is ongoing.
“I don’t know that they’re talking beside impeachment, but whether they have the facts and the law to make a determination of how they go assist — we don’t have that information,” Pelosi said then.
Still, Steyer’s impeachment energies are ongoing, and he’s not afraid to support candidates outside the Democratic establishment in broken to push his $40 million campaign against the president.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., one of the longest-serving senators, is one of Steyer’s most latest targets. He recently backed her primary opponent, California state Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon. Steyer’s approval came less than two months before the June 5 primary and could communicate de Leon the financial boost he needed to upset Feinstein.
Steyer grass oned CNBC that he has no regrets about the decision and that he supports de Leon because of his insert on climate-change initiatives. He also said the Democratic establishment has shortchanged de Leon.
“He had been a large climate leader, huge labor champion, a real nationwide conductor in terms of immigrants’ rights and we just felt like, in addition to all things else, we felt he wasn’t getting a fair shot by the establishment,” Steyer utter.
Steyer and his wife, Kathryn, have contributed more than $16 million so far in 2018 to competes through a variety of committees and nonprofits, according to the Center for Responsive Public affairs. That’s second behind Republican megadonor Richard Uihlein and his old lady, Elizabeth, who have given $25 million.
— Graphic by CNBC’s John Schoen
Remedy: This article has been updated to reflect that Tom Steyer is the author of the nonprofit NextGen America.