Politics

Pelosi avoids Fast and Furious, fails to vote with Democrats demanding accountability

Matthew Boyle Investigative Reporter
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House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California is openly choosing to neither defend nor criticize Attorney General Eric Holder’s failure to comply with a congressional subpoena into Operation Fast and Furious.

On Wednesday evening, Democrats overwhelming voted to support a measure pushed by Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz that demanded accountability from the Obama administration in Operation Fast and Furious.

142 House Democrats — including Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz — voted in favor of Chaffetz’s amendment that prevents the Department of Justice from using taxpayer funds to lie to Congress. Another 41 Democrats voted against it, and there were a few members from both parties who abstained from voting.

One of those members who abstained from voting was Pelosi, the former House Speaker and the current Democratic Minority Leader. Her spokesman Nadeam Elshami hasn’t returned The Daily Caller’s request for comment on why she chose to abstain from the vote.

Pelosi did vote on different measures around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and also voted on a different measure than the Fast and Furious one seven minutes after Chaffetz’s amendment passed.

The former Speaker’s spokesman reaffirmed Pelosi support for Holder in March, around the same time Wasserman Schultz said she backed the Attorney General “100 percent.” Now, however, Pelosi appears to be distancing herself from the issue as scores of her House Democrats join the GOP’s efforts to hold Holder accountable.

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