Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed in an interview released Saturday that she and former President Joe Biden still have not spoken after she played a role in encouraging him to drop out of the 2024 election.
USA Today's Susan Page asked Pelosi about her involvement in Biden’s decision to exit the race during an interview on "The Excerpt" podcast and whether she has spoken to the former president since.
"No, but I want to just recharacterize what you said. My conversations with the president were more about let's make sure we're understanding what the polls say, and there are certain attitudes that the public had, had they been taken into consideration. If they had sat down with more pollsters, it might have come to a place where we said, ‘This is it, the president should go,’ but they just decided that their polls were right and that was that. So I didn't go in there to say to the president, 'You shouldn't run.' I said, ‘We've got to compare polls because we have different numbers,'" Pelosi said.
The former House Speaker said she was upset by the fact that they hadn't spoken, though she added she respected Biden’s decision.
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"Well, I'm saddened by it because I love him and respect him, but I respect his decision in that regard," Pelosi said.
Pelosi joined MSNBC's "Morning Joe" in July 2024 following the former president's disastrous debate performance and said, "It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run," suggesting that Biden was still weighing his options despite insisting at the time he would remain in the race.
Reports at the time said Pelosi and other Democratic leaders were working behind the scenes to persuade Biden to drop out, as Pelosi was reportedly convinced he would lose to then-President Donald Trump.
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After Trump defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris in the election, former first lady Jill Biden said she was disappointed in Pelosi.
"It’s been on my mind a lot lately," she told The Washington Post in a January interview. "We were friends for 50 years. It was disappointing."
"Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded," the former first lady added.
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Pelosi told Page that Joe Biden made a "lovely" statement when she announced her plans to retire from Congress at the end of her current term.
Biden put out a statement reacting to Pelosi's decision last month.
"I often said Nancy Pelosi was the best Speaker of the House in American history — it’s why I awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. When I was President, we worked together to grow our economy, create millions of jobs, and make historic investments in our nation’s future. She has devoted much of her life to this country, and America will always be grateful. Jill and I wish Nancy and Paul all the best," he wrote on X.
