Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that Democrats likely would have suffered more losses in the 2024 election if former President Joe Biden had remained in the race.
Democrats netted one seat in the House of Representatives by flipping nine Republican-held seats while Republicans flipped eight seats previously held by Democrats in the 2024 election. Pelosi appeared to dispute Biden’s claims that he would have won the election if he had remained in the race, indicating that Republicans likely would have seen more victories in the congressional races.
“Well all I know is that we won a seat in the House. We did not lose any seats. People were like ‘oh the Democrats lost,’ no, we did not. I think it would’ve been quite different with President Biden at the top of the ticket,” Pelosi said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”
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Democrats largely called on Biden to drop out of the 2024 race following his disastrous performance during the June 27 presidential debate against the then-Republican nominee Donald Trump. In compliance with his own party’s demands, Biden announced he was stepping down from the race in a July 21 statement and endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the popular vote and all seven swing states to Trump.
Biden reportedly held the most anger toward Pelosi and expressed frustration toward former President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had all reportedly worked behind-the-scenes to make him drop out of the race. Former first lady Jill Biden said in January that she found it “disappointing” that Pelosi did not stand by her husband’s side as Democrats collectively called on him to step down.
Pelosi confirmed to Mitchell that she has not spoken to Biden since he exited the race, and said the Democrats should have won for the good of the nation’s children.
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“Jill Biden has spoken out saying she was disappointed in you. Is there any way to patch that up, have you spoken to [Biden]?” Mitchell asked.
“No, I haven’t,” Pelosi said. “But the fact is, we’re all on a mission for the American people, for America’s working families. My whole passion about being in politics is for the children. So what is it that we’re doing for the children? I think it would’ve been important for the children to not have Donald Trump be President of the United States, and I would take every step necessary to make sure that didn’t happen. But it did, and now we have to deal with it.”
Pelosi declined to answer whether she supported Biden’s reelection bid during a July 10 interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” telling co-host Jonathan Lemire that dropping out of the race was the then-president’s choice. The former House speaker denied allegations that she spearheaded the Democrats’ push to force Biden out of the race, though sources told Politico that she warned the then-president that he could either exit the race “the easy way or the hard way.”
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The California Democrat further suggested in a Nov. 9 interview that Harris or another nominee for the party would have been “stronger” or better equipped to make their case to the American people if Biden had dropped out sooner.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.