Nancy Pelosi Says Biden Allies ‘Haven’t Forgiven’ Her for Role in Forcing Biden from the Ticket

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) believes there may still be hard feelings in Biden’s orbit regarding her central role in pressuring the president to drop his reelection bid.

Pelosi, 84, a longtime Democratic power broker, was among the party officials pushing behind the scenes for Biden to step aside over the summer when Democrats panicked about the 81-year-old’s mental decline following his disastrous debate performance.

“Not since then, no,” Pelosi told the Guardian during an interview on its Politics Weekly America podcast about whether she has spoken to Biden since he chose to step aside in July.

“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. 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,” Pelosi added.

She and Biden have known each other for decades, even before Pelosi was first elected to Congress in a 1987 special election. Asked if Biden had not yet forgiven her, Pelosi said that people in his orbit may feel that way.

“There may be some people around him who haven’t forgiven me for my role,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi, a Catholic, is “prayerful” about her friendship with Biden but considers winning the presidential election against former president Donald Trump her top priority.

Pelosi’s successful advocacy for Biden to drop out of the presidential race and Vice President Kamala Harris’s surge in the polls once she replaced him brought renewed praise for Pelosi, already a popular figure with Democrats, especially those who consider her as a feminist icon.

Then, Pelosi scored another victory when Harris chose as her running mate Minnesota governor Tim Walz, a former House Democrat who Pelosi lobbied for privately. Walz was viewed as the more progressive option over Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, a Jewish Democrat with high approval ratings in arguably the nation’s most competitive state. Shapiro has drawn the ire of anti-Israel progressives for taking a strong stance against anti-Israel encampments and antisemitic activity on college campuses.

Those events transpired around the publication of Pelosi’s book, The Art of Power, a personal story about wielding political power and her own political career. During Biden’s presidency, Pelosi overcame Democratic infighting to steer through legislation on climate, guns, pandemic relief, and other issues.

Pelosi’s many critics often point to her liberal political record and enormously profitable stock trades throughout her time in government. However, most observers would not dispute Pelosi’s status as one of the most consequential speakers in American history.

Pelosi retired from her speakership and stepped down from Democratic leadership when Republicans reclaimed the House after the 2022 midterms. Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) took over as House Minority Leader and would presumably become Speaker if Democrats retook the chamber this November.

“Hakeem Jeffries must have the gavel, which means that we have the majority of the votes to accept the results of the electoral college for the peaceful transfer of power,” Pelosi said in reference to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

“Nobody could have ever seen an insurrection incited by the president of the United States. But an outsider, as a loser in this election, once again, he might try that.”