Nancy Pelosi was unhappy as 'only bloody fingerprints on knife' pushing Biden out of 2024 race were hers
WASHINGTON, DC: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) played a huge role in convincing President Joe Biden to step back from his reelection bid, according to a soon-to-be-released book.
The upcoming tell-all book titled 'American Reckoning: Inside Trump’s Trial—and My Own' by Jonathan Alter spills the details on how it all went down after Biden’s rough June debate with former president Donald Trump.
Nancy Pelosi steps in after Joe Biden’s rough debate performance
In a preview published in Vanity Fair on October 14, Jonathan Alter dived into what went on behind the scenes as Nancy Pelosi worked to push Joe Biden off the ticket. The headline teased how she “ripped off the band-aid for Democrats,” using her influence to nudge the President out of the race.
Alter wrote, "The key figure in getting Biden to change his mind was Pelosi, who drew on their forty-year friendship. At first, she thought Biden could survive what he described as his ‘bad night.’ But Pelosi is an institutionalist; she loves the House, and her nightmare of not regaining control of that chamber (when Democrats were so close to winning it back) seemed to be coming true."
He continued, "With Republican control of the presidency, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court, who would check Trump’s authoritarian impulses? After Biden under-performed with Stephanopoulos, Pelosi expected that Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill would stage an intervention."
“But the men were MIA,” an insider told Alter. “She wasn’t happy that the only bloody fingerprints on the knife were hers.”
Not long after Biden’s rough debate showing, Pelosi reportedly made her move. At first, she kept things private, having a series of talks with Biden to convince him to reconsider running. But when Biden wouldn’t budge, she took a more public approach and made comments during interviews like, “It’s up to the president to decide if he’s going to run.”
"A fly on the wall would have seen a master class in subtle politics, as the former speaker—a velvet-gloved boss for our times—maneuvered with great sensitivity to ease the President of the United States out of power. ‘She’ll cut your head off, and you’ll never even know,’ one of her friends told me," Alter wrote.
Pelosi’s quiet efforts paid off eventually and other Democratic leaders got involved, adding to the pressure on Biden. That set the stage for Biden’s decision to step back from seeking reelection.
The fallout between Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi
Ever since, the relationship between President Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi has been icy, to say the least. Last week, word got out that the two haven’t spoken since she led the final push to get him to drop out of the race over the summer.
“Not since then, no,” Pelosi told The Guardian’s 'Politics Weekly America' podcast in a recent episode. “But I’m prayerful about it.”
Even though the two haven’t been in touch, Pelosi had kind words for Biden. “I have the greatest respect for him. I think he’s one of the great consequential presidents of our country," she said, before adding, “I think his legacy had to be protected. I didn’t see that happening in the course that it was on, the election was on.”
According to the New York Post, Pelosi had a tough conversation with Biden and warned him that if he didn’t step aside, she’d go public with her belief that he wasn’t up to beating Trump in the 2024 election.
She even had polling data that backed up her concerns following Biden’s disappointing performance in the June 27 debate.
At first, Pelosi said she didn’t make any calls to stir up trouble during that period. But she later admitted that “people called me” — suggesting that while she might not have been actively campaigning against Biden, she definitely wasn’t sitting on the sidelines either.
When asked about those talks with Biden before he finally dropped out on July 21, Pelosi explained, “My call was just to: ‘Let’s get on a better course. He will make the decision as to what that is.’ And he made that decision. But I think he has some unease because we’ve been friends for decades.”
Biden, for his part, has insisted that no one pushed him into making his decision. “No one influenced my decision, no one knew it was coming,” he declared. However, he did admit that all the behind-the-scenes pressure was a “distraction” during a crucial time.
