Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admits that there may be some hard feelings between her and President Joe Biden after she helped to facilitate a soft coup that resulted in Kamala Harris’ ascension to the top of the Democratic ticket.
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Pelosi (D-CA) spoke with British journalist Jonathan Freedland in a recent episode of “The Guardian’s Politics Weekly America” podcast where she revealed Biden has not spoken to her since he was forced out.
“Not since then, no,” she said. “But I’m prayerful about it.”
Despite initial denials, reports have surfaced since July indicating Pelosi was the likely nail in the coffin with Biden as he fought off pressure from other Democrats who wanted him to drop out of the race. The entire party was beside themselves after a disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump. That debate exposed the party and its subservient media – their attempts to hide Biden’s cognitive decline had imploded on live television.
Insiders had leaked that Pelosi issued an ultimatum to Biden – either drop the reelection bid or she would publish polls showing he could not beat Trump, thus public ally humiliating her friend of over 50 years.
The top Democrat admits to the Guardian that the move to install Harris was not tethered to any concerns over Biden’s health or the health of the nation. It was simply a tactical move meant to win the election.
“Elections are decisions,” she opined. “You decide to win. I decided a while ago that Donald Trump will never set foot in the White House again as president of the United States or in any other capacity.”
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“So when you make a decision, you have to make every decision in favor of winning,” added Pelosi, “and the most important decision of all is the candidate.”
That is a rather stunning admission that the Democrats, with a long history of claiming their opposition was the true threat to democracy, simply decided the man their voters had chosen to go up against Trump had to be replaced with somebody who had a better chance. Somebody who had earned zero votes.
In a chilling reiteration that the Biden-Pelosi friendship is in tatters, the former House Speaker coldly dismissed concerns about forgiveness and said the important thing wasn’t a decades-long friendship. Winning is all that matters.
“Do you think he’s not forgiven you for your role?” Freedland asked.
“There may be some people around him who haven’t forgiven me for my role,” she laughed after a long pause. “In any event, we just have to win the election.”
“That’s really (where) my focus is. I’m prayerful about our friendship and the rest,” she said dismissively. “His legacy had to be protected if this other guy would win.”
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Pelosi’s refusal to mention Trump by name is not insignificant. She explained why, as a good abortion-loving Catholic, she could not say it.
“I hardly ever say his name,” she explained. “I think [Trump is] a grotesque word … You just don’t like the word passing your lips. I just don’t.”
“I’m afraid, you know, when I grew up Catholic, as I am now, if you said a bad word, you could burn in hell if you didn’t have a chance to confess. So I don’t want to take any chances,” Pelosi added. “It’s up there with, like, swearing.”
President Biden does seem to be holding a grudge regarding his ouster from the campaign trail. And it’s not exclusively directed at Pelosi.
On multiple occasions, he has made public comments that put the economy – and by extension, Harris – in a bad light.
After years of suggesting he had ‘created’ well over 10 million jobs, Biden finally admitted most of those were recovered from the pandemic. He then took credit for what the administration believes is a good economy, undercutting Harris who no doubt would like to take credit.
Biden even allowed the media to photograph him sporting a “Trump 2024” cap during a 9/11 anniversary event.
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Earlier this month, Biden gave his first-ever press conference in the White House briefing room as president, upstaging a Harris-Walz rally in Flint, Michigan. He followed that effort by vociferously praising Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) as the two worked together to help clean up from recent hurricanes, completely negating claims from Veep that the latter was politicizing the effort by ignoring her calls.
The move made it appear as if the adults were taking care of business while the children in the Harris campaign were desperately seeking attention during a time of crisis.
The bitterness between Biden and Pelosi is understandable considering she tanked his legacy. The very same one she’s claiming to protect.
Her calculated maneuver assures that he’ll forever be known as the man who couldn’t beat Trump because of his mental deficiencies. Will he ever speak with her again?