Joy Reid Takes Apparent Shot at Pelosi for Thwarting AOC: ‘This Gerontocracy Seems Like It’s Intractable’ 

Joy Reid took a veiled jab at Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Tuesday night, hours after the former speaker thwarted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

Ocasio-Cortez, 35, was seeking to be the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee in the next Congress. For a time, she appeared to have the support necessary to earn the position of ranking member. But Pelosi, 84, began working the phones and using her still substantial influence on behalf of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) to whip votes for him. Connolly, 74, revealed in November that he has esophageal cancer. During Pelosi’s attempt to boost Connolly, she suffered a fall in Europe and underwent hip replacement surgery.

The Democratic conference voted for Connolly, 131-84.

On Tuesday’s edition of The ReidOut on MSNBC, Alencia Johnson, a former senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, said Democrats would be well-advised to put younger women in prominent positions.

“Why not have an AOC and a Jasmine Crockett who, quite frankly, are never scared of Donald Trump or Republicans,” Johnson said.

“AOC and Jasmine Crockett are probably two of their best communicators,” Reid responded. “You have people that have the skills, but they are not pushing them forward. Ayanna Presley is one of your strongest communicators. Why isn’t she pushed forward.”

Reid later took aim at the Democratic “gerontocracy.”

“This gerontocracy seems like it’s intractable,” she said. “I recall that when President Obama was elected, he pushed aside the DNC and created his own organization because I think there’s a frustration with the sort of creaky way DNC operates Jaime [Harrison], you know, God bless him, couldn’t really change it. But it is run by donors and consultants and people who are locked into the old ways of doing things. ”

Watch above via MSNBC.