House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) called two Democrats who've called for her ouster from party leadership "inconsequential," saying they don't have a following in the caucus.
"Let’s look ahead to the speaker contest that would follow the election," Rolling Stone reporter Tim Dickinson asked Pelosi. "What do you make of the Tim Ryans or Seth Moultons who’ve called for a new generation of leadership–"
"Inconsequential. They don’t have a following in our caucus. None," Pelosi said.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D., Mass.) has attacked Pelosi as out-of-step with modern times, while Ryan challenged Pelosi for the House minority leader position following the 2016 election, losing 134 to 63, and he has not ruled out challenging her again. At least 20 Democrats running for the House have vowed to vote against her for speaker or minority leader if they are elected.
Dickinson asked Pelosi if their overtures against her were "frustrated ambition."
"I don’t know," she said. "I think there are lots of people who have worked very hard, and are more in line for what will happen one of these times. But they’re not to be considered [among] who those people would be. I mean, there are people who work very hard to win the elections, who have been in legislative battles. People who paid their dues. Not to put anybody down. Anybody is consequential."
"But I have great support in my caucus. I’m not worried about that. And I’m certainly not worried about them," she added.
The New York Times reported in May that Rep. Joe Crowley (D., N.Y.) was laying the groundwork to seek the speakership if Pelosi's position were to become "untenable," but Crowley was stunned last month by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's upset win in his district's Democratic primary.
Dickinson conducted the interview with Pelosi in May, and it was published Sunday.
She's confident of the Democrats winning in November, telling the Boston Globe they will take back the House and she will again run for speaker. Democrats have been out of the House majority since losing the chamber in the 2010 midterms.