Column: Pelosi on Biden ouster: ‘I just wanted to win this election. So if they’re upset, I’m sorry for them’
CHICAGO — Nancy Pelosi, whose fingerprints are all over the defenestration of President Biden, has expressed deep sadness at the rupture in their relationship.
The two go back decades, to a time when a then-young Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was on the rise and Pelosi, a mother of five and devoted Democratic Party volunteer, hosted one of San Francisco’s must-stop political salons. (The kids were pressed into duty as waitstaff.)
She now praises Biden as one of the nation’s greatest and most consequential presidents, deserving, even, of a place on Mt. Rushmore.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi navigated a careful line in her public approach to President Biden’s decision about withdrawing from the race.
But when it comes to campaigns and elections, the former House speaker has never had much use for sentimentality, priding herself on a reptilian cold-bloodedness.
So when Biden face-planted on the debate stage in Atlanta in June, spelling disaster for Democrats up and down the ticket, Pelosi quietly went to work. Now just another member of the Democratic House ranks — but still wielding enormous clout — she, and other party pillars, helped maneuver the president into the corner whence he abruptly quit the race in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris.
It’s all just business, of course, though Biden hasn’t seen it that way. Pelosi has acknowledged as much. The two — once close — haven’t spoken since the president grudgingly stepped aside nearly a month ago.
In a recent interview with the New Yorker’s David Remnick, Pelosi was asked whether she thought the breach could be healed.
“I hope so. I pray so. I cry so,” Pelosi told Remnick. “I lose sleep over it.”
But regrets? Nah.
Nancy Pelosi urged Vice President Kamala Harris to emphasize an agenda that appeals to the center as Republicans seek to paint her as a San Francisco liberal.
Asked Monday at the Democratic National Convention whether she had any second thoughts about nudging Biden aside, Pelosi made no effort to hide her disdain at the very notion.
“Would I do anything differently?” she said, repeating a question posed during a brief session with reporters. “Why would you ask me that question? You know I’m a very deliberate person.”
Speaking beforehand, at a California delegation breakfast, Pelosi extolled Biden’s selflessness in standing aside and said Monday night’s opening programming would “celebrate his greatness.”
(After their headlining appearances, Biden and his wife, Jill, planned to leave Chicago and cede the stage and convention spotlight fully to Harris.)
Pelosi continued the rhapsody during the brief media scrum.
“The empathy that is in his heart for the American people [was captured] by his understanding that the baton needed to be passed,” she said, not mentioning the healthy shove needed to move Biden along.
The former House speaker, saying she’s liberated, discusses her love of the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and the healing power of music.
But, hey, politics is about success at the ballot box, to use a favorite Pelosi exhortation.
Asked about those Democrats upset at that manner of Biden’s extraction from atop the November ticket, Pelosi crisply replied, “I just wanted to win this election. So if they’re upset, I’m sorry for them. But the country is very happy.”
She cited a House member from Illinois who told her Sunday night that immediately after Harris’ elevation he had more than 1,000 new volunteers sign up. “And we’re seeing that all over the country,” she said.
As for those still-grumbling dissenters, “That’s their problem,” Pelosi said. “Not mine.”
Had she any plans to visit with Biden, since they’re both in Chicago? “We’ll see. We’ll see,” she said. “We have a lot going.”
With that Pelosi turned and was immediately swallowed by a throng of well-wishers, smiling and elbowing for a selfie with the still-formidable ex-speaker.
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