Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi revealed what exactly her role was in Democrats‘ efforts to get President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race the led to his dramatic exit and Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the nominee.
Pelosi shared her thoughts on the president, his fitness for the job and his decision to step aside in an interview with veteran journalist Lesley Stahl for CBS Sunday Morning ahead of the release of her new book ‘The Art of Power.’
Pelosi was asked what she told Biden to persuade him to step aside ahead of his dramatic exit from the 2024 presidential race on July 21.
‘Well I’ve never shared any conversations with the President of the United States publicly, no,’ Pelosi said with a smile. Pelosi said that Biden knows that she loves him ‘very much.’
Stahl pressed Pelosi over reporting that she was in fact the leader of a pressure campaign for Biden to drop out.
‘No, I wasn’t the leader of any pressure…’ Pelosi said shaking her head.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi insists she ‘didn’t call one person’ when pressed about her role in getting President Biden to exit the presidential race. She smiled but would not get into what she said to the president
‘Let me say things I didn’t do: I did’t call one person, I did not call one person,’ Pelosi insisted while refusing to say what she did do. ‘I could always say to him I never called anybody.’
‘What I’m saying is I had confidence that the president would make the proper choice for our country, whatever that would be, and I said that “whatever that is, we’ll go with.”‘
Amid escalating calls by some Democrats for Biden to step aside following his disastrous June 27 debate performance against Donald Trump in Atlanta, Pelosi insisted publicly the president would make the right decision.
But Pelosi’s public remarks appeared to undermine Biden who had already said he would not exit the race, and some of the calls to step aside were coming from Pelosi allies in the House.
It was reported before his exit that Pelosi was telling some House Democrats she believed he could be persuaded to exit the race and even confronted Biden telling him that he was dragging down the party, according to Politico.
But Pelosi told CBS that she had not seen a decline in the 81-year-old president and think he needed to step aside.
Pelosi with President Biden when he awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 3
‘My whole point was whatever he decides, but we have to have a more aggressive campaign,’ Pelosi said.
She touted his leadership at the July NATO Summit and said he was in a ‘good place’ to make a decision.
‘Such a consequential President of the United States,’ Pelosi praised Biden. ‘A Mount Rushmore kind of President of the United States.’
Stahl chimed in to ask Pelosi if Biden should be added to Mount Rushmore. The monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota features the faces of President’s George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
‘You’ve got Teddy Roosevelt up there and he’s wonderful. I don’t say take him down, but you can add Biden’ Pelosi said.
Pelosi suggested Biden should be added to Mount Rushmore calling him a ‘Mount Rushmore kind of President’
When asked about Trump, Pelosi called him the ‘best organizer and fundraiser for Democrats because people know he should never set foot again in the White House.’
Pelosi had some advice for Harris as she goes up against Trump ahead of the November election.
‘Just be yourself. It’s the same advice I give to women. Be yourself,’ Pelosi said.
She suggested Harris should ‘ignore him’ in response to his attacks and talk about the issues.
