Two years after he was unseated from the Dallas-area House seat he had held for the previous 22 years, Pete Sessions was returned to Congress from a different district based in Waco, Texas.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax Sunday, the returning Republican lawmaker was reminded how, during his years as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee a decade ago, he branded Democrat lawmakers "[House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi's puppets."
Does he still feel that way about the Democrats he will soon be dealing with again?
"No," Sessions told us. "They're now puppets of socialism."
The Texan explained that the Democratic Party in the House has moved so far to the left and its ranks have grown so much that "Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. [Joe] Biden are not going to hold them accountable."
Of old nemesis Pelosi, Sessions said "she understands she's in a serious challenge mode from her own party. So she had to hide the party's [leftist] agenda and run a do-nothing Congress."
The former House Rules Committee chairman also called on Pelosi to end what he called "the unconstitutional and unwise procedures" of running Congress by proxy and through Skype and Zoom as a response to COVID-19.
"I never believed in proxy voting in Congress," he said. "The body must get its work done in open, and in Washington. If you do everything with Skype and Zoom, it becomes impossible to meet with your staff. Mrs. Pelosi is finding herself in difficult circumstances, so she lets things happen this way to sustain her power."
"Once a vaccine is approved, things in Congress will go back to normal," Sessions predicted.
The returning congressman had friendly relationships with both Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump. Of Biden, he says, "I got to know him when he was senator and vice president. He's a nice man. He's a genuine person — 'Uncle Joe.' But, again, it's his party that has neutralized his [moderate] positions. The Democratic Party in Congress is very dangerous from a constitutional perspective."
When Republican Rep. Bill Flores announced his retirement after ten years, Sessions relocated to the 17th District, where he was born and went to grammar school.
"There were a group of ideas motivated by and around President Trump that we embraced," he recalled. "These include hard work, self-reliance, the Constitution, and support of the military and the police. That's what we campaign on and our vote total in November was about 15% higher than what Congressman Flores won with in the last presidential year."
Sessions won the nomination with 54% of the vote and the general election with 56%.
"I want to help Republicans to sell what we stand for — like the issues on which I won," he told us. "That's how we'll get back in the majority."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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