OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Democratic Party often touts itself as being champions of “diversity,” but a photograph posted to social media on Saturday featuring the California Democrat surrounded by media correspondents drew a rash of scrutiny for its sameness.
The photo was posted by The Associated Press’s congressional reporter, Farnoush Amiri, with this caption, “Speaker Nancy Pelosi and (most) the women of the Capitol Press corps.”
By far, the majority of women in the photo are white.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and (most) the women of the Capitol Press corps pic.twitter.com/0MST3kPDp9
— Farnoush Amiri (@FarnoushAmiri) December 7, 2022
One user, in response to a photo of Elon Musk surrounded by Twitter employees, noted, “Where is the diversity in this picture?”
In response to that tweet, another user posted the photo of Pelosi surrounded by the mostly white congressional correspondents and wrote, “Maybe it is here in this room. Oh wait…”
Where is the diversity in this room?
— Shibani Joshi (@shibanijoshi) November 19, 2022
Maybe it is here in this room. Oh waithttps://t.co/EJxBIUvhJo
— Visibility Filtering SlothB77 (@ScottySols) December 8, 2022
“Very white,” one user responded.
“No black people? That’s some seriously serious racism,” another noted.
“Lots of white faces,” said another, along with a pondering emoji.
“Wow. Look at all the diversity. Did I do this right?” another user added.
“This is the whitest group of people I’ve seen in quite sometime,” said another.
— Jeremy M (@jeremym480) December 8, 2022
“What’s the racial breakdown of this pic? Proportional to the population? Asking for those of us who follow the race-baiting standards set by the media,” another respondent said.
“Seems to be a distinct overrepresentation of oppressive white women,” opined another user.
Yet another quipped: “How can you be sure they’re all women? Are you a biologist?”
Despite Pelosi’s photo op with the mostly white female reporters, last month her spokesman, Drew Hammill, was called out for being abusive to Puck News correspondent Tara Palmeri after she reported exclusively that Pelosi was planning to step down from Democratic leadership ahead of Republicans taking over the House in January.
Mediaite reported:
Hours before Pelosi’s speech, Palmeri released a story saying, “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.” This was preceded by Palmeri’s earlier reporting that Hakeem Jeffries is likely to be chosen as the next Democratic House leader.
Palmeri’s story on the leadership shift included a quote from Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, who flatly denied that the House speaker had made a definite choice.
“Nothing in this reporting is correct,” said Hammill. “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.”
Beyond the quote in Palmeri’s story, Hammill got on Twitter in the last few days to attack her reporting and say she “has zero sourcing in Pelosi world but is constantly trying to break news.”
He continued this diatribe by saying, “I don’t know who reads Puck, let alone pays for it, but I wanted to get ahead of Tara Palmeri’s latest typo-ridden Pelosi scoop to let everyone know that it’s complete trash just like the last ones. That’s all.”
Palmeri took on the verbal abuse with her stoic observation that she “touched a nerve.”
touched a nerve…
— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) November 14, 2022
Pelosi did wind up stepping down, as Palmeri reported, and she was replaced by Jeffries, leading several media figures to denounce him for “abuse.”
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
>> @tarapalmeri got it right. https://t.co/tZ4OLrMWyJ
— Gabe Fleisher (@WakeUp2Politics) November 17, 2022
This is what ended up happening https://t.co/kha1DBrhBt
— Matt Holt (@mattholt33) November 17, 2022
“Constantly trying to break news nevertheless.”
New @PuckNews motto.
👏 @tarapalmeri pic.twitter.com/42kp7mKrvY
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) November 17, 2022
As for Republicans, they are eager to retake control of the chamber and have been publicly commenting about it in the weeks following the November midterms.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (D-Colo.) made clear she’s going to be around to “fire” Pelosi (D-Calif.).
“There’s no doubt I was a target for the Democrats, but I am confident once all of the ballots are counted, I will win, and I will be there to help fire Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House,” she said.
The feisty Boebert also mocked Pelosi in late September after the Speaker was booed at an event in New York City.
“Get used to it, Fancy Nancy. November 8th you’ll be booed out of the majority,” she noted on Twitter.
