Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has told some House Democrats she believes President Biden can be persuaded fairly soon to exit the presidential race amid serious doubts he can win in November, according to three Democratic officials familiar with her private discussions.
Following Biden’s halting debate performance last month, and the panic it unleashed among Democrats in and outside of Washington, Pelosi is taking a strong, behind-the-scenes role in trying to resolve the political crisis by playing intermediary for upset rank-and-file Democrats and relaying those messages to the White House.
The former speaker, who left her leadership post in 2022 but still wields enormous clout, has told California Democrats and some members of House leadership that she thinks Biden is getting close to deciding to abandon his presidential bid. Some Democrats fear that, by staying in, Biden will end up handing the White House to Donald Trump, three Democratic officials said.
Pelosi’s aides declined to address her talks with her colleagues while dismissing the media “feeding frenzy” about her discussions with Biden.
“Speaker Pelosi respects the confidentiality of her meetings and conversations with the president of the United States,” a spokesperson for the former speaker said.
Biden’s campaign advisers continued Thursday to dismiss talk of replacing him on the ballot.
“President Biden has not spoken to Congressional leadership today,” said TJ Ducklo, a campaign spokesman. “The President is his party’s nominee, having won 14 million votes during the Democratic primary. He’s running for reelection, and that will not change until he wins reelection.”
Concerns among Democrats about Biden’s bid have increased in recent days. Along with Pelosi, party luminaries including former president Barack Obama, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), have conveyed their concerns about Biden’s continuing candidacy for the White House. Jeffries and Schumer told Biden directly in separate meetings recently that his continued candidacy imperils the Democratic Party’s ability to control either chamber of Congress next year. And Obama has told allies in recent days that Biden needs to seriously reconsider the viability of his candidacy.
Pelosi spoke out publicly about a week ago, suggesting Biden needed to make a “decision” about whether to run, even though the president had already insisted he was in the race to stay. At a campaign news conference in Milwaukee on Thursday morning, Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, rebuffed the notion that the president might step aside. “I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t know how many times we can say this: President Biden is staying in this race,” Fulks said.
Democratic leaders, including Pelosi, do not seem persuaded.
While she is not actively seeking them out, Pelosi has sent word to House Democrats, particularly those facing tough reelection bids this fall, that she is open to talking through the White House political crisis and how to handle the matter, according multiple House Democratic lawmakers and aides.
The former speaker took detailed notes during these discussions, particularly on polling data from the lawmakers in their races and about Biden’s standing in those key districts, according to one Democrat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive conversations.
These talks, along with private polling data, informed Pelosi’s thinking as she maneuvers through the sensitive discussions with Biden and his inner circle.
In a recent discussion with Biden, Pelosi rejected the president’s assertion that he was doing fine in the polls and asked for him to bring a senior adviser into the talk so they could compare in detail their divergent internal polling, according to one person familiar with the conversation.
Now 84 and back among the rank-and-file, Pelosi retains a large degree of clout at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Many lawmakers view her as the best Democrat to deliver the tough message to Biden, in part because he views her as a contemporary with her own legacy.
Pelosi also has no individual political aspirations left, having retired from leadership 18 months ago, after 20 years leading House Democrats. She doesn’t have to worry about the ramifications of telling senior leaders what they don’t want to hear, these Democrats say, and the new House leadership appreciates an extra voice in trying to help push Biden into retirement.
But Democrats who want to push Biden aside warn that doing so is far from certain. “It’s a work in progress,” one Democratic lawmaker said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss conversations the former speaker has had with members of the California delegation.
Leigh Ann Caldwell and Ashley Parker contributed to this report.