Pelosi suggests Biden should have exited campaign sooner: New York Times report
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Mrs Nancy Pelosi reportedly was part of a behind-the-scenes effort to pressure Mr Joe Biden to abandon his campaign.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON - Former US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said if President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement.
“Had the President gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Mrs Pelosi said in an interview on Nov 7 published by The New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the President were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.”
Mrs Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, Vice-President Kamala Harris, “would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen”.
She said that since Mr Biden endorsed Ms Harris immediately as the candidate, “that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different”.
Republican Donald Trump soundly defeated Ms Harris in the Nov 5 election to recapture the White House.
“I don’t think that any review of the election should be predicated on weaknesses, but strengths of Kamala Harris. She gave people hope. She caused a great deal of excitement in all this,” Mrs Pelosi said in the interview, according to quotes provided to Reuters by her office.
On an open primary, Mrs Pelosi said: “Kamala, I think, still would’ve won, but she may have been stronger having taken her case to the public sooner”, according to her office.
Mr Biden, 81, ended his re-election bid in July and immediately endorsed Ms Harris after a poor debate performance against Trump, 78, sparked concerns that he could not beat the former president or complete a second four-year term.
Mrs Pelosi reportedly was part of a behind-the-scenes effort to pressure Mr Biden to abandon his campaign.
Mrs Pelosi left her leadership post in the House after Republicans won control of the chamber in the 2022 midterm elections. She remained in the House, however, and was elected to a 20th term on Nov 5. REUTERS
