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More on Pelosi’s appearances on Wednesday:
At an event before the DNC, Pelosi was reluctant to divulge details of her conversation with Biden just over a month ago, during the deeply agonizing period before he decided to abandon his re-election bid and endorse Harris.
Speaking at the University Club of Chicago, in a room paneled with stained glass, Pelosi insisted that the monumental decision was Biden’s alone to make. But pressed by Democratic strategist David Axelrod, she conceded that she believed it “essential” Democrats deny Donald Trump a second term. The cost was denying Biden one, too.
“I wanted very much to protect his legacy,” she said. But her highest priority was to win the election – and not just the White House, but the House and the Senate. “A great sacrifice was made here,” she said.
Pelosi appeared uncomfortable with the suggestion that she played the central role in pushing Biden to end his re-election campaign, a decision that transformed the presidential race. Harris has unified the party behind her and her running mate, Tim Walz, a former Minnesota congressman who Pelosi had also advocated for.
“You have to make the decision to win, and you have to make every decision in favor of winning,” she said.
Biden denied that any one person had pushed him out of the race. Speaking to reporters on Monday, after delivering what amounted to a farewell speech at the Democratic convention, he said: “No one influenced my decision. No one knew it was coming.”
Pelosi and Biden, devout Catholics who have known each other for decades, have not spoken since he ended his campaign. The rupture has weighed on Pelosi, she said. “I’ve cried over this. I’m sad about this,” she said.
During his remarks in Chicago, Biden said: “All this talk about how I’m angry at all those people who said I should step down, it’s not true.”
