Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., threatened to go public with her concerns about Joe Biden’s candidacy, forcing the president to end his reelection bid, according to a new report.
On July 21, Biden stunningly announced he would end his campaign seeking four more years in the White House. Until then, he had insisted he would remain in the race against former President Donald Trump.
Biden’s surprising withdrawal came after Pelosi sent word that she prepared to go public with her concerns that he could not defeat Trump in November, several sources told DailyMail.com.
Pelosi, 84, actually called the 81-year-old Biden to say she would publish harsh polling figures to support her decision, one source told the outlet.
Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate performance against Trump had turned many Democrats against the president.
Pelosi’s demand was so forceful that it sparked a “come to Jesus moment” for the president, who then ordered the drafting of his withdrawal announcement letter, DailyMail.com reported.
The two Democrat leaders have not spoken since.
Pelosi, who has been promoting her new memoir, has said, “I didn’t call one person” after being asked whether she helped apply pressure on Biden.
However, the former speaker told the New Yorker magazine last week that she had been losing sleep over her rift with the president and was “praying” their friendship could survive.
“He knows I love him,” she told CNN.
Politico reported Wednesday that Biden remains bitter over how he was replaced atop the Democratic Party’s national ticket.
His anger is most directed at Pelosi, Politico reported.
First lady Jill Biden, known to hold a grudge, and first son Hunter Biden reportedly are furious with Pelosi over what they see as a betrayal, DailyMail.com reported.
In his first interview after withdrawing from the race, Biden said fellow Democrats pushed him off the ticket.
“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races,” Biden told “CBS News Sunday Morning.”
“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.”
