Pelosi wants Biden on Mount Rushmore despite possible rift

Article content

Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed that she hasn’t spoken to President Joe Biden since he stepped down from his re-election bid.

Article content

Pelosi was one of the key figures in convincing Biden to end his campaign for a second term as concerns about his physical and mental abilities to challenge Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump became too difficult to ignore.

“Is everything OK with your relationship?” CNN’s Dana Bash asked the lawmaker in an interview on Monday.

“You’d have to ask him,” Pelosi replied. “But I hope so.”

Pelosi stressed that it was Biden’s decision to end his campaign.

“I have loved Joe Biden, respected him for over 40 years,” she said. “I think he has made one of the biggest contributions to our country in the shortest period of time of any president.”

Article content

Article content

Article content

Pelosi, who is on a press tour promoting her upcoming book on her career, was also on Good Morning America and explained further what went down behind closed doors, insisting that the only call she made regarding the 2024 Democratic ticket was to Biden himself.

“I wasn’t asking him to step down,” the 84-year-old clarified. “I was asking for a campaign that would win. And I wasn’t seeing that on the horizon.”

Pelosi added in an interview with Politico: “We just wanted him to make the decision in how he best preserves that legacy. And also — win.”

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Play Video

But Pelosi continues to rave about the president and what he has accomplished during his run, affirming in her appearance on CBS Sunday Morning that he has been “such a consequential president of the United States, a Mount Rushmore kind of president.

Article content

“You have Teddy Roosevelt up there,” she said. “And he’s wonderful. I don’t say take him down. But you can add Biden,” where he would join former presidents Roosevelt, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln at the South Dakota national monument.

Article content

And in a Tuesday sit-down with CBS Mornings, when asked why she thinks Biden made the decision to step down, Pelosi said: “I think it’s important that he did so. His legacy is one of the greatest — it’s hard to think of any president in a two-year period, one term, with as many accomplishments as he has.

“Much of that is threatened by a Republican victory because they will want to undermine.”

Article content

As for Vice-President Kamala Harris, who Pelosi endorsed last month, she said that Harris gives Dems the best chance at winning.

“It’s fresh and new and we’re very excited about what she will bring to the table,” she said.

“I know people are excited about a woman, a woman of colour and that, but it’s about what a difference she will make in people’s lives. Jobs, education, protecting the environment against gun violence as well as other threats … and a women’s right to choose. That’s a democratic freedom principle.”

Article content