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Nancy Pelosi Reportedly Took the Gloves Off to Push Joe Biden Out of the Race

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  July 18, 2024 6:30 AM

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly took the gloves to get Joe Biden to drop out of the race. It’s frustrating for Democrats: the ship's captain doesn’t see the iceberg, but the entire passenger manifest can. Congressional Democrats have seen enough polling to know that Joe Biden is a cancer to the ticket who will likely wipe out the party in down-ballot races. They dithered for days since no one had a plan or wanted to be the first to call on Biden to exit, especially given his cantankerous reputation.

The president remains defiant in staying, though his latest COVID diagnosis and the incessant and increasingly louder calls for him to drop out have reportedly pushed Biden to ask his advisers if Kamala Harris could win. Pelosi also showed Biden polling last week clearly showing that the president is losing this election, and the hope of mounting a comeback, given his health concerns and the deepening fractures in the party base, was becoming more remote by the day (via Politico): 

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told President Joe Biden last week that she and other Democratic lawmakers worry that he’s dragging down the party, in an extraordinarily candid confrontation that came amid mounting pressure on Biden to end his reelection campaign. 

Pelosi also warned Biden that some Democratic lawmakers would start to grow louder in their griping about his political weaknesses, according to two people close to Pelosi. She urged the president to make a decision about stepping down soon. 

One Pelosi ally said it was possible she would press Biden publicly to give up his spot atop the Democratic ticket. 

“The speaker does not want to call on him to resign, but she will do everything in her power to make sure it happens,” this person said, referring to Biden quitting the race. 

A second Pelosi ally put her calculus in blunt terms. 

“There’s nothing subtle about Nancy,” this person said. “She starts with the question: ‘What’s it take to win?’ Then works backwards.” 

The exchange between Biden and Pelosi underscores a new and increasingly public phase of the push to remove Biden from the Democratic ticket. Senior Democrats had hoped to address this matter privately — Pelosi, herself, certainly advised members to try to do so, at least for a time. 

Pelosi was not alone: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told the same story to Joe. The first move in this game of chess is Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, urging Biden to drop his re-election bid for the good of the party. 

Biden is currently in Delaware after contracting the viral infection, the same day he said he would bow out if a medical episode arose. COVID won’t be the cause of his exit, but it drew attention again to one thing that Biden can’t shake: the rapid decline of his health—mental and now physical.