“It’s up to the president whether he runs or not, and we’re all urging him to make a decision because time is limited,” the California Democrat said. “The president is loved and respected and the public wants him to make a decision.”
Pelosi’s few sentences on a show Biden is known to watch didn’t directly call for Biden to resign, but they significantly reframed the delicate but urgent conversations being had among lawmakers, Democratic donors, party strategists and voters after Biden’s poor debate performance two weeks ago raised questions about whether he could beat Donald Trump to serve another term as president.
In a letter to House Democrats this week, Mr. Biden stressed that he would seek reelection. But Ms. Pelosi, on morning television, said with subtle precision that the president needed to make a “decision.” She was the most visible Democrat to paint a picture of the president pondering whether he should run, even as Mr. Biden and his team insist he has no other choice.
And she’s leaving Democrats wondering whether, with four months to go until November, they can actually influence Biden’s trajectory.
Those who have known and watched Pelosi over the past few administrations say she doesn’t operate in a vacuum and that her language is deliberate. The timing of her comments was notable, coming days after the president released the letter and the day before Biden’s big news conference, said Democrats who have worked with and around her.
Although Speaker Pelosi will remain a member of the House of Representatives after stepping down as speaker, she is “always careful with what she says,” said a senior House Democratic leader. the aide said.
Hours after her speech, Rep. Pat Ryan (D-New York), a battleground state representative, said he could no longer support Biden. Ryan became the 12th Democratic member of Congress to call for the president to step down by the end of the day. New York lieutenant governor and former congressman Antonio Delgado said it was time for “new leadership.” Elsewhere, actor George Clooney was the most vocal voice calling for Biden to drop out of the race on Wednesday. Senate Democrat Peter Welch (R-Vermont) became the first senator to publicly call for Biden to step down in an op-ed published in The Washington Post on Wednesday night.
“We cannot forget President Biden’s disastrous debate performance, and we cannot ignore or dismiss the legitimate questions that have been raised since that night,” Welch said.
Pelosi’s television interview came just minutes before a group of battleground Democrats was scheduled to meet for a second consecutive day with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York to discuss Biden’s candidacy. The weakest House members have grown increasingly fearful in recent days that Biden could undermine their campaigns, as new polls and internal campaign polls paint a tougher electoral landscape for Democrats and weaken their chances of retaking the House. Democrats only need to win four seats to reclaim their House majority, but all of their weakest House members must win.
Pelosi is loyal to the House and will act in its best interests, two senior House Democratic aides said.
Democrats have been fretting mostly privately about Biden’s performance in the debate two weeks ago, when he stumbled and sometimes couldn’t finish his sentences, but many are hesitant to publicly urge him to halt the campaign, waiting to see more polling data, the end of the NATO summit in Washington this week and how he performs at a news conference Thursday night.
House leaders, including Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York, have said they support Biden but have said little else, despite widespread concern among House members that the president could seriously threaten their chances of retaking the House majority and retaining the Senate in November.
“I agree with Nancy. She’s stating the obvious,” Welch said Wednesday. “President Biden has made it clear he is committed to this effort, but evidence is mounting that an uphill battle is turning into a mountain climb.”
Pelosi hadn’t said much either until Wednesday morning, but when she did speak, Washington focused on the potential impact it could have.
The former speaker is one of a small group of Democratic power brokers who could effectively pressure the president, according to aides to current and former House members. A chief of staff to one House Democrat said the California Democrat Biden, who is 84 and will retire as House speaker in 2023, is “the most influential” of the party elders who could ultimately deliver a tough message to the rebellious former vice president, he said, given his decades-long relationship with him.
“Pelosi is the only one who has the dignity and guts to say something to Biden,” said a former House aide close to congressional leadership.
Pelosi’s comments were not coordinated with Jeffries, three senior Democratic aides said, and leadership is still listening as the House Democratic caucus remains deeply divided over how to address Biden’s fitness for duty, the aides said.
Mr. Jeffries has offered few instructions to lawmakers on how to approach the Biden issue. Five people familiar with Mr. Jeffries’ deliberations, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations, said he has not told lawmakers whether they will harden their stance on the president. Weaker Democrats and other lawmakers who have spoken to Mr. Jeffries recently said they felt he understood their concerns.
Mr. Jeffries has met with lawmakers twice in the past 24 hours and told them he would immediately convey their deep concerns to the president, according to three people familiar with the remarks. It was unclear whether a conference call had been scheduled.
But several aides said Jeffries Many members of the Congressional Black Caucus have endorsed Biden this week. Jeffries is a member of the CBC and has a lot of respect for the group’s leaders. Moreover, leaders are questioning whether the president will take their advice if they share their concerns about the campaign. A House Democratic leadership aide complained that it’s unclear whether House leaders would even be able to reach Biden if they tried.
But there is growing confidence among Democrats that Biden may listen to Pelosi.
“She’s probably the most effective politician on the planet,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), who this week praised Biden as one of the most effective presidents in U.S. history. “So I’m not going to say any more.”
Biden, 81, and Pelosi, 84, share the Catholic faith and have worked together for more than three decades on a wide range of domestic and international policy issues, including the 1994 crime bill that included an assault weapons ban.
Biden’s final major legislative achievement as a senator was the passage of the AIDS in Africa Act in July 2008, a signature issue that Pelosi led in the House during her first term as speaker. As vice president, Biden was often tasked with selling compromises with Republicans to Pelosi’s caucus, which annoyed many Democrats but earned him respect from Pelosi.
Once Democrats took full control of Washington in January 2021, Biden and Pelosi worked closely with Schumer on an ambitious policy agenda that included the largest-ever investment in climate change. Their partnership has grown so strong that in late 2021 and into 2022, longtime foreign affairs observers from Foggy Bottom to Rome noted Biden’s delay in nominating a U.S. ambassador to Italy, stoking speculation that the president might want to send an Italian-American Catholic to Rome as a finishing touch whenever Biden leaves the speakership.
Pelosi denied these rumors and after deciding to step down as Speaker, she made the unusual decision to remain in the House and return to being a rank-and-file member, but retaining the title “Speaker Emeritus.”
Until last week, perhaps no Democrat had defended Biden’s age and competency more effectively than Pelosi, who has routinely turned any question on the issue into an attack on Trump and a forceful defense of Biden.
“Joe Biden has the vision. He has the knowledge. He has the strategic thinking. He’s a very astute president in terms of his public presentation,” she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in February. “If he lets a slip here or there, what does it really mean?”
Just five months ago, Pelosi forcefully defended Biden’s handling of the issue in private, even if his public comments needed some modification. “I think what Biden is saying in public is OK,” she told Cooper. “I think in meetings you can see firsthand that he has his finger on the pulse.”
Liz Goodwin and Theodoric Meyer contributed to this report.
