Nancy Pelosi is reportedly working under the radar to push Joe Biden out of the 2024 presidential race as concerns continue over his ability to win a second term.
The former Speaker of the House last spoke publicly about Biden Wednesday, where she stopped short of explicitly telling President Joe Biden to stay in the presidential race.
However, Pelosi has allegedly been working the halls of Congress, speaking to as many powerful Democrats as possible to try and come up with a plan to make Biden reconsider.
She’s said to have canvassed everyone from swing-district Democrats afraid of Biden will drag down their downballot races to long-time veterans in deep blue parts of the country.
One Democrat lawmaker anonymously described her as ‘very concerned’ about Biden and not necessarily making it clear that ‘we’re sticking with [Biden]’.
Nancy Pelosi is reportedly working under the radar to push Joe Biden out of the 2024 presidential race as concerns continue over his ability to win a second term
The former Speaker of the House last spoke publicly about Biden Wednesday , where she stopped short of explicitly telling President Joe Biden to stay in the presidential race
Another said Pelosi’s message was: ‘The stakes are so high. We can’t afford to do anything but have our best possible opportunity to win’.
She’s reportedly concerned that the Biden campaign’s response to the disastrous debate in Atlanta that began this controversy two weeks ago was not ‘an honest reckoning’ or ‘an objective analysis’.
Another anonymous Democrat said: ‘It’s very clear that she doesn’t think that this matter is settled and that Joe Biden’s statement – ‘I’m running; shut up’ – she said, ‘No, we’re still talking about this.’
Pelosi is rumored to be representing members who feel Biden continuing in the race is being ‘rammed down their throats’.
‘Team Biden made it clear what their strategy was: ignore the problem, run out the clock, and force the rest of us to live with it,’ said Adam Smith of Washington, who called on Biden to drop out.
A spokesperson for Pelosi told The Hill a similar message to the one she delivered on MSNBC Wednesday.
‘Speaker Pelosi fully supports whatever President Biden decides to do. We must turn our attention to why this race is so important: Donald Trump would be a disaster for our country and our democracy,’ Ian Krager said.
Asked if Biden has her support on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the former speaker said: ‘It’s up to the president to decide if he’s going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running out.’
Pelosi is rumored to be representing members who feel Biden continuing in the race is being ‘rammed down their throats’
Asked if Biden has her support on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the former speaker said: ‘It’s up to the president to decide if he’s going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running out’
Reminded that Biden has made up his mind, Pelosi said: ‘I want him to do whatever he decides to do.’
‘Whatever he decides, we go with.’
Biden wrote in a letter to hill Democrats on Tuesday: ‘I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump.’
Pelosi, 84, and Biden, 81, have crossed paths in Washington for decades. She’s one typically of his biggest defenders on Capitol Hill.
She said Democrats should ‘let him deal with the NATO conference’ happening in Washington, D.C. this week and ‘hold off’ on public judgment ‘until we see how we go this week.’
Pelosi was silent upon leaving an all-caucus meeting of House Democrats on Tuesday where they discussed the future of their presumptive presidential nominee.
Asked about Pelosi’s comments, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters he would not comment on them until he had spoken with her.
Democratic Whip Katherine Clark said of the remarks: ‘Our view has not changed. President Biden is the nominee. There is no light between our caucus and the work we have done with this administration and the work that we will do in the future. As always, this decision is up to the president.’
Pelosi, 84, and Biden, 81, have crossed paths in Washington for decades. She’s one typically of his biggest defenders on Capitol Hill
So far at least seven House Democrats have demanded Biden step aside in on-the-record statements. Others have flirted with the idea or expressed a similar sentiment behind closed doors.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said he believes Biden will lose Democrats the election on Tuesday.
‘Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win this election and maybe win it by a landslide and take with him the Senate and the House,’ Bennet said.
‘I think that we could lose the whole thing,’ he told CNN.