Unfortunately, she has some…
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) continued to work through the stages of grief following Vice President Kamala Harris' election loss. This time, he criticized President Biden for not ending his bid for a second term sooner.
“If the president had withdrawn earlier, there might have been other candidates in the race,” said Pelosi (D-Calif.). new york times In comments published Friday.
“There was an expectation that if the president left office, there would be a primary.”
The 84-year-old continued: “And like I said, Kamala might be, but I think she would have done well there and come out even stronger going forward. But we don't know that. That's not going to happen. Ta.
“We accept what happened, but the president's immediate endorsement of Kamala Harris made it nearly impossible to have a primary at the time. If it had been earlier, things would have been different. It would have been.”
Biden, 81, did not endorse Harris in his July 21 announcement that he was withdrawing from the 2024 race, but instead released a second statement minutes later endorsing Harris. Gave.
This bizarre sequence of events suggests that Biden either needed to convince his No. 2 candidate to support him, or that he quickly walked out of the race in anger at the people who had kicked him out of the race. This has led to speculation that he may have tried to do so.
Pelosi's comments to the Times appeared to confirm the second theory, even though the former speaker said it during her speech. September events hosted by Semafor: “We had an open primary; [Kamala Harris] I won. ”
November 7, 2024, White House, Washington, DC, USA. Anadolu (via Getty Images)
Pelosi spoke about two weeks after the disastrous debate against Trump in Atlanta on June 27, even though by that point only a handful of Democrats had publicly called on the president to resign. , publicly criticized Biden.
On July 10, two days after Biden sent a defiant letter to members of Congress expressing his “absolute determination” to remain in the race, Pelosi said on MSNBC's “Morning Joe” that she was “deciding whether or not to run.” is the president,” he said.
“We are all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running out,” she added. “It's not for me to say. I'm not the caucus chairman anymore, but he's loved and respected and people want him to make that decision.”
Days before Biden resigned, Pelosi reportedly warned the president that she would release polling data that showed Trump had no chance of winning re-election after an unfavorable debate result. This appears to have been the last straw to persuade the president to resign.
Pelosi, who was elected to her 20th House term on Tuesday, was visibly shaken by Harris' loss to Donald Trump and spoke with reporters during the Veep Party's concession speech at Howard University on Wednesday. refused to talk.
On Thursday, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, host of the Times podcast “The Interview,” said Pelosi was “heartbroken” by Harris' loss.
Garcia-Navarro said of her meeting with Pelosi, “She also spoke with the vice president and said it was a very emotional conversation, that they are friends, and that the conversation was difficult for both parties.'' “He said,” he said.
In addition to Trump's victory, Republicans are on track to secure a majority in the Senate and maintain their majority in the House of Representatives after four years out of power.
