Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is working furiously behind the scenes to pressure President Biden to reconsider his place at the top of the 2024 ticket, according to several Democratic lawmakers familiar with her efforts.
The president emeritus is talking to a broad swath of House Democrats — from front-liners in tough districts to hardened veterans with institutional influence — to put the brakes on the notion that Biden should definitively be the party’s nominee in November, these said. legislators.
Pelosi has not said Biden should drop out of the race, but lawmakers have said she has deep concerns about Biden’s ability to defeat former President Trump, and is fighting to prevent the party from endorsing Biden’s candidacy before there is a discussion. broader understanding of potentially harmful consequences. of this decision.
“I had a conversation with her, she is very concerned,” said a House Democratic lawmaker who spoke anonymously to discuss a sensitive topic. “It’s not like she said, ‘Let’s stay with this guy.’”
Several other lawmakers had similar discussions.
“I’ve had my own conversations with her,” said a second Democrat.
“It’s just an obvious concern. The stakes are so high. We can’t afford to do anything other than give ourselves the best possible opportunity to win,” the lawmaker said, delivering Pelosi’s message.
Pelosi’s push for a deeper assessment of Biden’s candidacy, sources say, is rooted in concerns that the president’s campaign responded to his disastrous June 27 debate performance with emotional appeals to loyal allies and a show of vigorous challenge – but not an honest reckoning with those underlying. image problems or an objective analysis of political consequences.
“The Biden team made clear what their strategy was: ignore the problem, run out of time, and force the rest of us to live with it,” said Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who publicly called on Biden to step aside . “I felt a certain urgency to disrupt that strategy.”
To counter backlash from the debate, Biden quickly staged a phone call with members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), perhaps his strongest base of support on Capitol Hill, but not with other groups or the entire Democratic Caucus.
Pelosi, some Democrats said, is giving voice to other lawmakers who felt the decision about Biden’s future was being shoved down their throats without a chance to have a say.
“Pelosi talks to the effect that if we’re going to go around in circles, we need a lot more wagons in the circle,” said a third Democratic lawmaker familiar with her efforts. “You have to have a real conversation with people to decide everything together. And you can’t present judgment to people.”
Pelosi is encouraging frontline lawmakers to do whatever it takes to keep their seats, even if it means public calls for Biden to leave, while telling Democrats in safe seats to take their concerns directly to the House White. Pelosi declined to comment when asked about those efforts, but her spokesperson issued a statement saying she is committed to whatever path Biden takes.
“Speaker Pelosi fully supports everything President Biden decides to do. We must turn our attention to why this race is so important: Donald Trump would be a disaster for our country and our democracy,” said spokesman Ian Krager.
Pelosi is a longtime ally of Biden. As Speaker of the House during the first two years of Biden’s presidency, the pair worked together to pass important legislation to combat COVID-19, control health care costs and increase funding for infrastructure projects.
But Pelosi is also pragmatic, with a keen eye for political trends and a killer instinct to win. Like many Democrats, she warned that Trump represents an existential threat to the national well-being and that the party’s main goal is to prevent him from winning a second term — whatever the cost.
After Biden’s shaky debate in Atlanta last month, the president rushed to shore up support, writing a defiant letter to Democrats saying he would stay in the race and organizing the call with CBC members, who quickly declared virtually unanimous support.
The efforts created an early, if temporary, perception that the president had silenced his critics and paved the way for securing the nomination at next month’s convention. But there were many cracks in that wall of support, as lawmakers privately expressed deep anxieties about Biden’s chances of winning, and a slow but steady group of Democratic lawmakers made public their call for the president to withdraw from the race.
On Wednesday, Pelosi amplified those anxieties in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where she refused to explicitly support Biden. Instead, she said the president has to decide whether to continue his candidacy and suggested that withdrawing from the election is still on the table, despite Biden’s adamant — and repeated — statements that he will remain in the race.
“It’s up to the president to decide whether to run,” Pelosi said. “We are all encouraging him to make this decision. Because time is running out.”
The comments were a sharp departure from Pelosi’s sentiments immediately after the debate, when she expressed support for Biden and rejected calls for him to step aside. And her suggestion that Biden’s next steps are an open question raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill, where several Democrats say she opposed the notion that Biden’s candidacy is a done deal.
“It’s very clear that she doesn’t think this matter is resolved,” a House Democrat who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive deliberations told The Hill. “And that statement from Joe Biden – ‘I’m running; shut up’ – she said, ‘No, we’re still talking about it’.”
“She is clearly keeping this situation very open, very fluid,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (Texas), who was the first Democrat to call for Biden to resign.
Top House Democrats echoed Pelosi’s sentiment, telling reporters that the future of Biden’s candidacy is a decision for the president to make. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY) said “that’s a question you should ask President Biden” when asked if Biden’s pledge to stay in the race is final; House Minority Leader Katherine Clark (Mass.) told reporters “as always, this decision is up to the president”; and Rep. James E. Clyburn (SC) responded “you have to ask him” when pressed on whether Biden has made his final decision.
Pelosi’s comments, however, reach a level of their own.
Pelosi led House Democrats for nearly two decades, a tenure during which she became known for her tactical politics, her keen eye for winning, shrewd understanding of her caucus and, through it all, an innate propensity to choose her words wisely. be very careful, especially in matters of great importance.
“She is someone everyone listens to and her words are chosen carefully and received seriously,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.).
She also has a close relationship with the president. Pelosi has been at the top of the House Democratic Caucus throughout Biden’s time as vice president and throughout the first half of his presidency — including four years as speaker of the House — circumstances that have the two veteran Democrats working hand in hand.
That dynamic, the House Democrat said, lends a unique gravity to her voice in the current conversation.
“She has an important role to play in this,” the lawmaker said. “She is someone to watch closely.”
“She has a relationship with the president, she has a relationship with the campaign, she is a reliable messenger because of that,” continued the congressman. “And also because she is Nancy Pelosi. She is incredible, from top to bottom in everything she does and thinks. Then people will listen to it.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
