Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the country should honor President Biden by adding him to a memorial on Mount Rushmore.
The 81-year-old commander in chief “is a very important president for the United States, a Mount Rushmore president,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 84, D-Calif., argued in a video broadcast on “The CBS Sunday Morning Show.”
“You have Teddy Roosevelt, and he’s great. I’m not saying take him out, but you can add Biden,” she argued when asked whether a sitting president really deserves the honor of having his giant face carved into rock at South Dakota’s iconic national monument, alongside former presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Roosevelt.
Biden was born in 1942, about a year after Mount Rushmore was completed.
Pelosi’s praise for Biden came as she defended the tactics she deployed during the recent Democratic insurrection against the president, arguing at the time that Biden was “well positioned to make whatever decision he made.”
Biden was forced to abandon his reelection bid last month after months of debate over his mental and physical fitness to govern, a crisis that accelerated sharply after his disastrous debate defeat in June against Republican rival Donald Trump.
The 78-year-old former president has previously suggested he may be eligible to climb Mount Rushmore, jokingly saying “I think that’s a good idea” when asked about the possibility.
But he denied reports that his administration had previously reached out to Republican Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota to try to get the plan through.
Trump has also likened himself to Lincoln and other famous presidents.
While Pelosi has praised Biden, rumors are circulating that she was behind the scenes orchestrating Biden’s downfall and dropping him out of the 2024 presidential race.
Pelosi, known as a skilled political operative, He initially supported Biden. After his debate performance, he began publicly declaring that he needed to make a decision about reelection, even though he had initially said he would still remain in office.
“It’s up to the president to decide whether or not Biden runs,” Pelosi said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” two days after Biden reiterated his “firm commitment” to the election in a letter to Democratic lawmakers in early July.
Biden’s closest aides in Congress, including Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), have also joined calls for Biden to pass the baton.
There Report from CNN Pelosi assured Biden that the polls showed he could not win the Nov. 5 election, and had longtime adviser Mike Donilon call Biden when he suggested the polls suggested he could.
But Pelosi denied on Sunday that she incited an insurrection against Biden.
“No, I was not the leader of any pressure [campaign]”Let me say what I didn’t do. I didn’t call anybody. I didn’t call anybody. I could always tell him, ‘I didn’t call anybody.’
Asked if she felt Biden needed to step aside, Pelosi stressed she did not.
“No. My point is, whatever he decides, we have to campaign more aggressively,” she said.
“My point is, I was confident the president would make the appropriate national choice, and I said whatever that was, we’d follow it,” Pelosi argued.
Biden is rumored to be “furious” about Pelosi’s behind-the-scenes role in the Democratic insurrection.
Asked Sunday about Biden’s attitude toward her, Pelosi said, “He knows I love him very much.”
She also emphasized that she has “never publicly shared any conversations with the President of the United States.”
Other top Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, declined to disclose conversations they had with Biden during the insurrection.
Schumer urged Biden to step down. ABC reported. He has not denied the reports.
