US Politics

Pelosi tells NYT: Biden should have exited campaign sooner

Author: Editors Desk Source: The Jerusalem Post

November 8, 2024 at 21:07

US President Joe Biden speaks to US Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as he arrives in San Francisco, California, US February 21, 2024. (photo credit: REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE)

Harris would have "been stronger going further" if the party had had an open primary, Pelosi said.

Representative Nancy Pelosi suggested to The New York Times on Thursday that US President Joe Biden should have ended his reelection bid sooner for the Democratic party's interest.

The former speaker of the house said that if Biden had ended his reelection campaign earlier, the party would have been able to have an open primary to replace him.

"Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race," Pelosi said in clips of the interview published by The New York Times on Friday.

Pelosi also stated that at the time, the party anticipated that "if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary," which was a widely speculated option after Biden performed poorly in a June debate against current President-elect Donald Trump.

"Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don't know that. That didn't happen," Pelosi said. " We live with what happened. And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”

Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during her campaign rally with singer Beyonce, in Houston, Texas, U.S., October 25, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/MARCO BELLO)

Harris 'may have been stronger' with an open primary

After the June debate, a small group of Democrats, including Pelosi, led a quiet but intense campaign to force Biden to end his bid for re-election. Biden did so and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris only an hour afterward. Harris gathered delegates and donations rapidly, thus effectively ending speculation about an open Democratic primary.

"I don’t think that any review of the election should be predicated on weaknesses, but strengths of Kamala Harris," said Pelosi. "She gave people hope. She caused a great deal of excitement in all this," Pelosi said in the New York Times interview, according to quotes provided to Reuters by her office.

Pelosi left her post in the House after Republicans won control of the chamber in the 2022 elections. She remained in the House, however, and was elected to a 20th term on Tuesday.