Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a podcast interview released Thursday that she has “never been more impressed” with President Biden’s “political operation.”
“I have never been more impressed with his political operation,” Pelosi said of Biden in an interview with The New Yorker’s David Remnick on a Thursday episode of “The New Yorker Radio Hour.”
Pelosi’s comments follow reporting from The Hill that, out of public view, the California Democrat pressured the president to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, which he ultimately did.
The former House Speaker’s fellow Californian, Vice President Harris, is now at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Pelosi denied pressuring Biden to leave the 2024 presidential race, but in the interview with Remnick, she said she did not believe Biden had a good chance of defeating former President Trump.
“So my concern was, ‘That’s not going to happen,’” Pelosi said in the interview, when talking about a moment last month on MSNBC in which she said it was the president’s decision “to decide whether he was going to run.”
“And we have to make a decision to… make that happen, and the president has to make the decision to make that happen,” Pelosi continued. “So people were… I never called a person. I stayed true to my word. Any conversation I had with him would only be with him.
Pelosi said earlier this week that she did not speak with the president following his withdrawal from the presidential race in July. She told CNN anchor Dana Bash that she wanted to speak to Biden.
“We’re all busy,” she said.
After Biden’s exit from the presidential race, Harris garnered great enthusiasm and fundraising. She announced her own pick for vice president, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), on Tuesday. Pelosi called Walz, a former House member, “wonderful.”
The Hill reached out to the White House and Harris’ campaign.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
