Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton (Mass.) on Monday accused his party of failing to show "leadership" in response to sexual misconduct allegations levied against Democratic lawmakers.
Moulton has been an outspoken critic of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), and said her leadership in recent weeks has not been what the Democratic Party expects from its leaders, BuzzFeed reported.
"I mean, at the end of the day this just wasn’t leadership that we saw from our Democratic party leaders, and that’s why I’m calling for a new generation of leaders in our party," Moulton said on BuzzFeed's Twitter morning show "AM to DM."
The congressman’s comments came in the wake of calls for both Democratic Reps. John Conyers (Mich.) and Ruben Kihuen (Nev.) to step down as they face sexual harassment allegations from former female staffers.
Pelosi has faced a wave of criticism after she initially responded during an appearance on "Meet the Press" to the allegations against Conyers by calling him an "icon" and calling for due process.
Over a week after reports came out of the allegations against Conyers, Pelosi reversed course and said the longest-serving current member of the House should resign. Pelosi was more quick to call for Kihuen’s resignation, making her stance clear the day after BuzzFeed reported allegations against him.
When Moulton was asked directly if Conyers and Kihuen should resign, he said "they probably should," but would not discuss any specifics or give a more pointed answer.
"I’m not going to get into the details of these individual cases because it distracts from the larger issue, which is that we have a rampant problem, not just in Congress, but across the United States," he said.
Moulton also said Congress’ Office of Compliance, reported to have settled harassment claims with taxpayer funds, has been operating under a "crazy system."
"The United States Congress should be setting the tone, setting the example for the country, instead we’re like a century behind with this crazy system where we just pay off, apparently, you know, victims," Moulton said.