Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly made President Joe Biden an offer he apparently felt he could not refuse before he quickly reversed course and announced Sunday he would not be seeking a second term.
Politico reported that as of Saturday, the Biden campaign had been making plans to campaign in Texas and Georgia this week (assuming the president could be cleared from his COVID-19 infection), but “on a dime” all that changed by that evening.
Meanwhile, Pelosi had been working behind the scenes to push Biden out of the race, the outlet reported.
The California congresswoman first signaled publicly during a July 10 interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that her backing of the president’s candidacy was less than rock solid following his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump on June 27.
MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire had asked her, “Does [Biden] have your support to be the head of the Democratic ticket?”
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“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short,” Pelosi responded.
“He’s beloved, he is respected and people want him to make that decision,” she added.
Lemire pointed out that Biden had firmly stated that he had no intentions of dropping out of the race.
“I want him to do whatever he decides to do. And that’s the way it is. Whatever he decides, we go with,” Pelosi reiterated.
“The comment ricocheted around the Capitol, a signal to the party she long led that the president’s candidacy and looming nomination were not yet a settled matter,” Politico reported Sunday.
Viewing the comment in retrospect, Pelosi seemed to be suggesting that she wanted Biden to reach a different decision.
“On Friday, 13 congressional Democrats called on Biden to exit the race, the most defections in a single day, handing him what would be the fatal blow to his campaign,” NBC News reported.
“That groundswell on Friday of members calling for him to step down was all Nancy’s doing,” a vulnerable House Democrat told the news outlet.
“The gist was that she felt our ability to take back the majority was at risk,” the person was quoted as saying.
Politico reported that going into last weekend, “Senior Biden aides were bracing for [Pelosi], who’d worked behind the scenes to encourage others in the party toward the kind of collective action that might finally push the president to end his campaign, to go public this week and possibly even disclose Democratic polling clarifying Biden’s dire political straits.”
For 23 days, Biden insisted on pushing forward with his reelection bid, even as more Dems called for him to step aside. Early Saturday, he told top aides the campaign was “full steam ahead.”
Then, almost on a dime, things changed. Why Biden finally quit👇 https://t.co/k2PnpB4TZg
— POLITICO (@politico) July 22, 2024
Polling showed the president losing in all the key swing states that would likely decide the election, and his support was collapsing in places such as Virginia and New Mexico that Biden had easily carried in 2020.
Do you think Pelosi forced Biden to drop out?
“Nancy made clear that they could do this the easy way or the hard way,” said one Democrat source familiar with private conversations, according to Politico. “She gave them three weeks of the easy way. It was about to be the hard way.”
On Sunday, Biden announced that he was leaving the presidential race.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
“It is been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he said in a letter to the American people. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
