Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she still hasn’t spoken to President Biden: ‘He knows I love him’

In a candid interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed that she has not spoken with President Joe Biden since he decided to step down following his challenging debate performance.

“No,” Pelosi confirmed when asked if she and Biden had spoken, though she emphasized that this was not unusual. “He knows I love him,” the California Democrat added.

During the interview, Pelosi provided new insights into her thoughts on Biden’s debate performance. Prior to the debate, Pelosi had advised Biden against participating.

“I thought we were going to see the Joe Biden from the State of the Union,” Pelosi remarked. “I never wanted him to debate what’s-his-name because it’s always a joke. It’s not a funny joke, but it’s a joke. And he said, ‘No, I’m looking forward to it,’ so he was confident.”

Pelosi further commented that Biden appeared “over-prepared” during the debate.

“You know why you’re here,” Pelosi explained. “You know what you care about, and you know how you want to get things done. You want to show people what’s in your heart. You don’t have to memorize anything or spend days prepping. When I watched the debate, I thought he seemed over-prepared—not a good idea.”

When asked about Biden’s decision to step aside, Pelosi responded, “He made a decision, and his legacy is a great legacy.”

“It’s a legacy we share,” she continued, “because our members contributed to it, but Joe Biden was the inspiration and strategic leader behind it all, and he deserves credit for that, as well as for many other achievements in his career.”

Pelosi added, “I believe history will honor him as a selfless person, a selfless leader.”

The former speaker has been reluctant to discuss her role in the events leading up to Biden’s decision to step aside. “At some point, I will come to terms with my role in this,” she told the Associated Press.

“I think part of our goal was to preserve his legacy—a fabulous legacy that would have been at risk if Bozo got elected to the White House,” Pelosi remarked, referring to former President Donald Trump.

In an interview with The New Yorker, Pelosi stressed that her focus remains on preventing Trump from returning to office. Any actions she took, she said, were aimed at ensuring “Donald Trump would never set foot in the White House again.”

When pressed about her concerns regarding the race during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” last month, Pelosi acknowledged her apprehension.

“But my concern was: This isn’t happening, and we need to make a decision for it to happen,” Pelosi told The New Yorker. “The president had to make the decision. People were calling me, but I never reached out to anyone. I kept my word. Any conversation I had was only with him. They said I was burning up the lines, talking to (Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer), but I didn’t talk to Chuck at all.”

“I never called anyone, but people were calling me, saying there was a challenge. So there had to be a change in the leadership of the campaign or what would come next,” she added.

In the CNN interview, Pelosi also defended the new Democratic ticket against criticism that Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz are too left-leaning.

Pelosi dismissed these critiques, emphasizing her pride in Walz, a former congressman, now Minnesota governor, who was added to the ticket this week.

“Tim is fabulous, and we’re happy to have a House member there,” Pelosi said.

“They’re calling Tim Walz a progressive. He was right down the center in the House,” Pelosi added. “We’re all progressives. It’s a question of how left-wing we might be.”

She concluded, “They will govern from the center because they must, and they need to be perceived that way. So I wouldn’t pay any attention to what the other side says—we don’t agonize, we organize.”

Credit: CNN