Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has still not spoken with former President Joe Biden following his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, pushing back on claims that she forced him from the contest and insisting her involvement focused on polling discussions rather than direct pressure, as reported by the New York Post.
Pelosi made the remarks in an interview released Saturday with USA Today’s Susan Page on “The Excerpt” podcast, where she was asked about her role in Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid and whether the two longtime Democratic figures had spoken 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,” Pelosi said.
She continued by explaining that she believed additional polling discussions could have led to a different conclusion inside Biden’s inner circle.
“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.
Pelosi acknowledged that she was disappointed the two have not spoken since Biden exited the race, while stating she respects his decision not to engage.
“Well, I’m saddened by it because I love him and respect him, but I respect his decision in that regard,” she said.
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The comments follow months of speculation about Pelosi’s influence behind the scenes after Biden’s widely criticized debate performance in the summer of 2024.
In July of that year, Pelosi appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and suggested the former president was still weighing his options, despite public statements from Biden at the time that he intended to remain in the race.
“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” Pelosi said during that appearance.
Reports during that period indicated Pelosi and other senior Democratic leaders were privately urging Biden to reconsider his candidacy.
Pelosi was reportedly convinced that Biden would lose the general election to President Donald Trump, concerns that intensified following the debate and subsequent polling.
After Trump defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris in the general election, tensions within Democratic leadership became more public.
Former first lady Jill Biden addressed the situation in a January interview with The Washington Post, expressing disappointment with Pelosi’s actions.
“It’s been on my mind a lot lately,” she said. “We were friends for 50 years. It was disappointing.”
“Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded,” Jill Biden added.
Despite the fallout, Pelosi said Biden responded warmly when she recently announced plans to retire from Congress at the end of her current term. Biden issued a public statement last month reacting to Pelosi’s announcement.
“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,” Biden wrote on X.
Pelosi’s remarks underscore the lingering divisions within Democratic leadership following the 2024 election cycle, as key figures continue to offer differing accounts of how Biden’s decision to exit the race unfolded and the impact it had on party unity.
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