The former Speaker of the House expressed regret that President Biden hadn’t gotten out of the race sooner, when they could have held a primary to replace him.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pointed the finger at President Biden for not dropping out of the race earlier in an election post-mortem with the New York Times Thursday.
Pelosi told host Lulu Garcia-Navarro on The Times’ “The Interview” podcast, “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race.”
As the former speaker told it, “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.” Pelosi had been a key player in pushing Biden out after his infamous debate performance.
Instead, within an hour of announcing he was stepping aside on July 21, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. Less than 36 hours later, she announced she had locked up the nomination, getting commitments of backing from a majority of DNC delegates.
