The Intercept: Kurt Schrader Blasted Nancy Pelosi As "Truly A Terrible Person" While Killing Biden's Build Back Better
By Ryan Grim
NANCY PELOSI IS “truly a terrible person,” Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., told colleagues at the height of his confrontation with the House speaker last fall, according to a new book by reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, “This Will Not Pass.”
Schrader was a leader of an effort by centrist Democrats to disrupt Pelosi and President Joe Biden’s plan to pair a bipartisan infrastructure package with a reconciliation bill that included Biden’s social policy agenda as well as an ambitious attempt to tackle the climate crisis. In June, Schrader had joined with Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and seven other Democrats demanding that the bipartisan bill be split apart from the broader agenda.
Progressives warned that Gottheimer and Schrader’s maneuver was intended to kill the Build Back Better Act, though in public the centrist bloc claimed nothing of the sort was planned. In private, Schrader was honest about his motivation, telling a group of major donors organized by the dark-money group No Labels that once they had gotten the infrastructure bill through, they could then pivot to undermining Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. “This is a big deal. I just wanna thank you guys so much for your support, having our backs, being a big part of why we are, where we are today,” Schrader said, according to audio of the gathering obtained by The Intercept.