Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) isn’t taking the credit or the blame for being a key factor in pushing President Joe Biden out of the 2024 race.
Pelosi is widely believed to have been one of the deciding figures in Biden’s decision to drop out of the race despite his repeated insistence he had no plans to withdraw. But while she implicitly acknowledged her leading role in the affair, speaking with a small group of reporters as part of a book tour, she refused to admit she ever directly asked Biden to drop out, lest former President Donald Trump win, according to the Washington Post.
“I won’t answer that question,” she said when asked if she ever directly told Biden he needed to drop out or Trump would win.
Pelosi said she was pushed to nudge Biden to drop out after seeing no path to victory.
“Now, I was really asking for a better campaign,” she said. “We did not have a campaign that was on the path to victory. Members knew that in their districts.”
Those members, possibly “hundreds,” calling her to express their concerns about winning in November were reportedly at the center of a tense conversation between the former speaker and the president.
She told reporters that accounts of her getting into a fight with Biden about polling and demanding Mike Donilon, a top adviser, on the phone to talk instead of the president never happened.
More than wanting Biden to remain in the White House, Pelosi appears to have preferred seeing another figurehead if it meant a defeat for Trump.
“My goal in life was that that man would never set foot in the White House again,” she said, referring to Trump. She predicted “an unfolding of events that were just putting rose petals in front of him to go there.”
Overall, the former House speaker declined to give any specifics about her conversations with Biden, with whom she has been friendly for 40 years.
“So, we are friends for a very long time. I love him so much. We pray together. I cry over it, I lose sleep over it and the rest, but that’s what evolved,” Pelosi said.
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She added that the two haven’t spoken since shortly before he stepped down as the Democratic nominee.
However, Pelosi has attempted to remain in Biden’s good graces since his ousting and recently suggested that his face should be added to Mount Rushmore.
