Nancy Pelosi admits she pressured Biden to drop out presidential race

Nancy Pelosi has admitted that she pressured Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race because she feared he was no longer making his own decisions. Pelosi, in an interview with the New York Times on Friday, stated that she intervened after a July 8 letter purportedly from Biden to Congress in which he re-affirmed his commitment to remaining in the election contest.

'I didn't accept the letter as anything but a letter,' she said. 'It didn't sound like Joe Biden to me. It really didn't.' In the letter, Biden stated that he was 'firmly committed' to remaining in the race against Donald Trump as he sought to head-off calls to step aside following his disastrous debate performance and increasingly dismal polling.

Pelosi's admission comes as Biden finally revealed this weekend that the ex-speaker had been at the forefront of his mind when he made the decision to handover to Kamala Harris. In an interview with CBS on Sunday, Biden said that he was 'concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic - you'd be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something] … and I thought it'd be a real distraction.'

Pelosi and Biden, who have worked together in DC since the late eighties, have not spoken since he dropped out of the race. Pelosi said that the timing of the letter grated on her because the president was preparing to host the NATO summit in DC. Two days after the letter's publication she appeared on Morning Joe and said: 'It’s up to the President to decide if he is going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.'

Her suggestion that Biden had not made his decision, despite the letter two days prior, was seen as a clear indication that she wanted the president to drop out. In her interview with the New York Times, Pelosi suggested that Biden had no hand in the letter, rather it was staff around him that were attempting to shore up support. She said of her TV intervention: 'My main purpose, though, was to say, "Stop saying things." Because the president has NATO here. If you have something to say, save it for later, until they’re gone. Because this is a big deal - the summit of ATO, which he has strengthened, grown, and now is hosting. And they’re doing great things, and he’s the center of it all. Save your comments for later.'

Biden issued the letter just as lawmakers are coming back from a July 4th recess where he has faced growing calls to quit the race. In it, Biden, 81, took shots at the press, donors and party operatives who have said the party's only chance is to throw him over the side. 'Let me say it differently. Some said that some people were unhappy with the letter. I'll put it in somebody else's mouth,' Pelosi added.

Biden spoke Sunday about how Pelosi was among those building pressure on Biden to step aside, along with other top Party Leaders like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Adam Schiff. 'A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races,' Biden said in his first interview since ending his reelection campaign. 'And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic — you'd be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something] … and I thought it'd be a real distraction,' he said in the interview with CBS News Sunday Morning host Robert Costa.

Biden's decision to invoke Pelosi comes after reports of a lingering strain. Senior advisor Anita Dunn, who is leaving the White House to join a pro-Harris super PAC, also spoke to the pressure campaign in recent comments. 'You know, clearly there were leaders of the party who decided to go ahead and go very public. And that gave permission to other people to go public,' she said. Asked about rumors Biden was furious, Pelosi told the New Yorker magazine, 'He knows that I love him very much. I pray so. I cry so.'

A growing list of Democrats were calling for Biden to drop out of the race after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump in June. Biden said that had he remained in, the race would have been razor close – although polls before he dropped out showed him behind in all the battleground states and in a tight but inferior position nationally. 'The polls we had showed that it was a neck and neck race, woulda been down to the wire. But what happened was a number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was gonna hurt them in the races. And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic,' he said.

Biden's struggles were on display during his debate disaster with Trump and Democrats who were for years downplaying concerns about the president's fitness were forced to confront it, with many suddenly demanding he exit the race . In the weeks after the debate, Biden was on clean-up duty – but his efforts just led to more gaffes and fumbles that increased worries that the president could hurt the chances of other Democratic politicians in their elections.

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