The refusal of older members of the Democratic Party to let go of power is “genuine madness” Chris Hayes said Tuesday following Rep. Gerry Connolly’s election to head of the Oversight Committee. It’s also part of a lesson the party should have learned in 2021 after Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced by Trump nominee Amy Comey Barrett after the former’s death.
Barrett’s ascension to the Supreme Court further cemented “conservative control of the court for generations to come” and also emboldened the overturning of Roe v. Wade, legislation that Ginsburg herself championed. Ginsburg infamously refused to step down from the Court after President Obama hinted that her retirement in 2014 would be in the best interest of the Democratic Party’s future.
“You would think that would have been enough for Democrats to start taking the age issue seriously, but it was not,” Hayes said. “In April of last year, President Joe Biden announced he was running for re-election, even though he was the oldest man to ever serve as president and was also clearly having a hard time communicating at the level necessary to occupy the bully pulpit.”
“It wasn’t until a year later, when Biden gave a cataclysmic performance in his first debate with Donald Trump that the Democrats changed course after a wrenching, excruciating process just months out from the election, Biden, again, to his credit, finally stepped aside under enormous pressure, but he clearly didn’t do so,” he continued.
In retrospect, Hayes added, what would have been ideal is for Democrats to “want to run a winning campaign.”
The age issue has come up again today after Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez lost her bid to lead the Oversight Committee. Instead, Democrats voted Rep. Gerry Connolly into the position. Connolly had previously run for the role twice and served on the panel for 15 years.
Connolly was aided by Democrat Coalition Chair Brad Schneider and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who both made phone calls to other Congresspeople and lawmakers on his behalf.
The Democratic Party is “not taking this issue seriously” Hayes warned, “but they need to. Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire just said she’s undecided if she will run for another six-year term in 2026 when she will be 79 years old.”
“According to Pew polling from just last year, 79% of Americans support age limits for politicians in Washington,” Hayes also said. “That is a striking, overwhelming number in today’s polarized environment — 79% of Americans don’t agree on anything, but they agree on this, and Democrats should listen.”
You can watch the clip from “All In With Chris Hayes” in the video above.
