SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 13 (San Francisco News Online) — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said people who knew about Joe Biden’s decline should have taken action before the 2024 presidential campaign reached its final months. She also denied directly asking Biden to abandon his reelection bid.
Pelosi made the comments during an interview with POLITICO correspondent Jonathan Martin at the California Agenda: Sacramento Summit in Sacramento. A C-SPAN recording shows portions of the interview.
“I do think that those who did know should have acted upon that information,” Pelosi said. “Whoever knew.”
What Pelosi says she knew
Pelosi said she did not know the extent of any decline in Biden’s mental acuity and had not personally witnessed it before the June 27, 2024, presidential debate against Donald Trump. She said the debate was when she realized there was a serious problem.
“I didn’t know, and I think he had his sort of ups and downs,” Pelosi said, according to the C-SPAN recording.
Pelosi said she had seen Biden in person only a few times during the preceding year. She also pointed to conflicting accounts about whether Biden’s staff or family members knew more about his condition.
“There was staff saying the family knew. The family said the staff,” Pelosi said, according to POLITICO’s account of the interview.
The remarks do not identify which staff members or family members Pelosi was referring to. They also do not provide independent medical records or a clinician’s assessment of Biden’s condition.
What Pelosi says she discussed with Biden
Pelosi said she privately raised concerns with Biden about his campaign’s polling and how the campaign was being conducted. She said she questioned the polling and urged him to consider using outside pollsters.
She also said she encouraged Biden to release medical or diagnostic testing to reassure the public that he could serve another term.
Pelosi said she believed polling showed that 72% of Americans did not think Biden should run. The interview account does not identify the poll, its date, its methodology or the pollster behind that figure.
Did Pelosi tell Biden to drop out?
Pelosi denied that she directly told Biden to leave the race.
“I didn’t ask him not to run or anything like that,” she said, according to Fox News’ account of the interview. In the C-SPAN clip, Pelosi added: “Never. I’ve never told anyone not to run.”
Her account differs from broader descriptions of her role in the pressure campaign that followed Biden’s debate performance. The available material does not independently establish whether Pelosi privately urged Biden to end his campaign beyond the conversations she described.
Before the debate, Pelosi said she focused on the campaign’s polling, its strategy and questions about Biden’s ability to reassure voters. After the debate, she publicly said the decision about whether to continue was Biden’s to make.
Why the comments matter
Pelosi’s remarks place responsibility on people close to Biden who, in her view, may have known about problems that voters had not seen. At the same time, she said her own contact with Biden was limited and that the debate changed her understanding of his condition.
The interview does not resolve what Biden’s staff, family or other advisers knew, when they knew it or what they communicated to him. Pelosi’s comments are an account of her own knowledge and conversations, not an independent finding about Biden’s health or the conduct of his campaign.
