Michael Avenatti, who is mulling a run in 2020 against President Trump, said it’s time for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to step aside and hand over party leadership to up-and-coming candidates.
“I think they’ve been strong enough, but I think, admittedly, it’s time for a change,” he told NBC News during a visit to Iowa. “There is an undercurrent within the party, brought by the younger generation, and everything has a time limit on it, right? Nothing lasts forever.”
Avenatti said last month he could enter the race for the White House if he didn’t believe any other candidate could defeat President Trump. He visited the Iowa State Fair last week, a key stop for presidential candidates, and in September is heading to New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary elections in the nation.
Centrist and far-left Democratic candidates have distanced themselves from Pelosi as Republicans and Trump have tried to tie candidates to Pelosi, who is seen by some in her party as standing in the way of younger leaders.
“We’ve begun to see over the last few months, certainly back in ’16, that the seeds were sown relating to the need for a younger generation to be handed the baton to take the leadership of the party,” Avenatti said.
Pelosi has signaled she intends to run for House speaker again if Democrats retake the majority in the November midterm elections.
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