Representative Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) told fellow Democrats Wednesday morning to keep their concerns about President Biden’s viability to themselves, but she refused to say definitively whether he should remain atop the 2024 ticket.
Pelosi argued during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that Democrats should pause the public conversation around Biden’s mental acuity until after the NATO summit taking place in Washington in the coming days.
“I’ve said to everyone, ‘Let’s just hold off,'” Pelosi said. “Whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody privately, but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.”
When pressed on whether the president should remain the Democratic nominee, Pelosi kept her answer ambiguous.
“It’s up to him, to the president to decide if he is going to run,” Pelosi said. “We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short. He is beloved. He is respected. And people want him to make that decision, not me.”
As former speaker, Pelosi retains considerable influence within the Democratic caucus. Her tepid answer is a blow to Biden’s efforts to stop the bleeding after seven House Democrats called on him to withdraw over last week’s disastrous debate.
Key Democrats in both chambers have, however, publicly supported Biden, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), and Congressional Black Caucus chairman Steven Horsford (D., Nev.). But as some Democrats express doubts about the president’s reelection chances, Pelosi said the party is “shall we say, not lockstep.”
Representative Mike Quigley (D., Ill.), one of the House Democrats to break publicly with Biden, told National Review that “a lot” of his colleagues privately agree with him. “The line is: ‘I agree with you. I’m not going public – yet,’” he told NR in a brief interview Monday.
Biden trails former president Donald Trump nationally by more than three points, according to the RealClearPolitics average. The Cook Political Report shifted six swing states toward Trump on Tuesday, putting Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada in the “Lean Republican” category.