Nancy Pelosi Grapples With Her Role In Joe Biden's Decision To Drop Out

WASHINGTON ― Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) insisted at a roundtable with reporters Wednesday that she did not lead a behind-the-scenes effort to pressure President Joe Biden to drop his reelection bid.

But in an extensive interview, the former longtime House speaker made it clear that Biden’s campaign was failing, that the single most important thing to her is defeating Donald Trump in November — and, in a rare glimpse into how she’s feeling about this process, that perhaps one day she will reconcile with her role in influencing her decades-long colleague, ally and beloved friend to bow out.

“History’s in a hurry. We’re right at the center of it all here,” Pelosi said of the eleventh-hour changes to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket. “At some point, I will come to terms with my own peace, with my own role in this.”

Asked if by “peace,” she meant taking credit for reshuffling the Democratic presidential candidate, Pelosi said it wasn’t about credit and pivoted to talking about Biden.

“Joe Biden made the decision for our country,” she repeated. “The credit all goes to him, to evaluate what he was hearing and to make a decision on how to move forward. I think that part of it, all of our goals in this, was to preserve his legacy. A fabulous legacy.”

The interview was originally scheduled for Pelosi to pitch her new book, “The Art of Power.” But in the time between her wrapping up the book in April and her sit-down with reporters came Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate performance against Trump, and the intense fallout that led to Biden dropping his reelection bid. Much of Wednesday’s hour-and-a-half-long exchange was inevitably centered on her role in Biden’s decision.

Throughout the conversation, Pelosi said she