Pelosi weighs in on Biden ouster, insists she had ‘concerns’ about campaign, not candidate
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., weighed in on President Biden ending his re-election campaign this year, saying that her concerns about Biden running again were not about the president himself but about his campaign.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was the "key figure" in the movement to remove President Biden from the presidential ticket, according to an upcoming book.
New York Times contributing opinion writer Jonathan Alter’s new book, "American Reckoning: Inside Trump’s Trial—and My Own," which will release on Tuesday, features details regarding efforts to oust Biden following his disastrous June debate with former President Trump.
In an excerpt from Vanity Fair on Oct. 14, Alter outlined what the headline described was how Pelosi "ripped off the band-aid for Democrats" to convince Biden to step out of the race.
"The key figure in getting Biden to change his mind was Pelosi, who drew on their forty-year friendship. At first, she thought Biden could survive what he described as his ‘bad night.’ But Pelosi is an institutionalist; she loves the House, and her nightmare of not regaining control of that chamber (when Democrats were so close to winning it back) seemed to be coming true," Alter wrote.
Nancy Pelosi reportedly spearheaded calls for President Biden to step down behind the scenes. (Screenshot/HBO)
He continued, "With Republican control of the presidency, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court, who would check Trump’s authoritarian impulses? After Biden under-performed with Stephanopoulos, Pelosi expected that Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill would stage an intervention."
"But the men were MIA," an insider reportedly told Alter. "She wasn’t happy that the only bloody fingerprints on the knife were hers."
The excerpt revealed how, less than a few weeks after Biden’s debate, Pelosi began several conversations and phone chats to gently ease Biden out of the race. After Biden remained determined to stay, Pelosi began a more public effort by remarking how "It’s up to the president to decide if he’s going to run" during interviews.
"A fly on the wall would have seen a master class in subtle politics, as the former speaker—a velvet-gloved boss for our times—maneuvered with great sensitivity to ease the President of the United States out of power. ‘She’ll cut your head off, and you’ll never even know,’ one of her friends told me," Alter wrote.
Several New York Times writers called on Biden to step down shortly after his debate with former President Trump. (Getty Images)
Eventually, other Democratic leaders became involved, which led to Biden conceding a second run.
Fox News Digital reached out to Pelosi’s office for a comment.
Alter was one of several New York Times writers who quickly published a piece calling on Biden to step down from the race shortly after his debate with Trump. He revealed at the time he was told by "a pillar of the Democratic leadership" that the party would try to remove Biden should he have failed in the debate. After watching Biden’s performance, Alter agreed.
Pelosi has avoided discussing how influential she was in convincing Biden to leave the presidential race. (Left: (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images), Right: Photographer: Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"Like the bosses of old — and this is how nominees were chosen until the 1960s — Democrats have a political obligation to pick the candidate most likely to win. This becomes a moral obligation in an election in which democracy is on the line," Alter wrote in June.
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