After being one of the Democratic Party’s ring leaders in forcing President Joe Biden out of the 2024 presidential election, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is finally coming clean about her relationship with Biden.
Or lack thereof.
During today’s episode The Guardian’s Politics Weekly America podcast, Pelosi admitted that she has not spoken with Biden since she led the final drive to force Biden to abandon his bid for re-election over the summer.
“Not since then, no,” Pelosi said during the podcast.
“But I’m prayerful about it.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hasn't spoken to President Joe Biden since he ended his bid for reelection in July. MORE: https://t.co/a8ViukVkgN pic.twitter.com/gaF3Ys1RQa
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) October 15, 2024
Pelosi did go on to revere Biden’s presidency.
“I have the greatest respect for him. I think he’s one of the great consequential presidents of our country,” Pelosi said. “I think his legacy had to be protected. I didn’t see that happening in the course that it was on, the election was on.”
But if Pelosi and Biden aren’t on speaking terms, can you really blame Biden?
Let’s backtrack to how everything went down.
According to numerous reports, Pelosi sent a message to Biden on June 20, threatening to publicly voice her concerns about his candidacy if he didn’t withdraw from the election.
Coincidently, the next day Biden announced his withdrawal and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
As previously reported, the move apparently put a major rift with the long-standing friendship between the Biden and Pelosi families.
Sources claimed the Biden family was “furious” with Pelosi’s ultimatum, which effectively ended a 50-year relationship.
The controversy extended beyond their personal relationship as many questioned Pelosi’s actions within the party.
It was reported that Pelosi pushed for an open convention rather than an immediate endorsement of Harris after Biden’s withdrawal, angering the Harris’ camp.
Biden’s quick endorsement of Harris was seen by some as an attempt to prevent Pelosi from pushing Harris out of the race.
Call it a last bit of revenge?
Reports say that the tension between Pelosi and Harris is longstanding — Pelosi had previously endorsed a rival candidate when Harris first ran for California Attorney General in 2010.
Today, Biden and Pelosi have still not spoken to each other, and when asked to elaborate on her conversations with Biden before he dropped out of the race July 21, Pelosi said: “My call was just to: ‘Let’s get on a better course. He will make the decision as to what that is.’ And he made that decision. But I think he has some unease because we’ve been friends for decades.”
Biden has publicly claimed that “No one influenced my decision, no one knew it was coming” but acknowledged the internal pressure was a “distraction.”
“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races. And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic — you’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something] … and I thought it’d be a real distraction,” he later reflected to “CBS News Sunday Morning” on Aug. 11.