President Biden gave a halting reply to the hosts of ABC’s “The View” Wednesday when asked about his relationship with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — insisting in a starkly revisionist telling that she hadn’t forced him to end his campaign for a second term.
“Did you feel that your hand was forced and what is your relationship with Speaker Pelosi now?” asked co-host Alyssa Farah, who worked as White House communications director for then-President Donald Trump before becoming a critic of her former boss.
“My relationship is fine — look, I …,” the 81-year-old lame-duck leader began.
“I never fully believed the assertions that somehow there was this overwhelming reluctance to my running again, I didn’t sense that,” Biden finally said.
“And although the polling — they said Biden polling was different. The fact of the matter is, my polling was about where, you know, about always within range of beating this guy.”
The president added: “There were some folks who would like to see me step aside so they have a chance to move on. I get that. That’s just human nature. But that wasn’t the reason that I stepped down.
“I stepped down because I started thinking about it. You know, it’s hard to think of — I know you’re only 30 — but it’s hard to think of, it’s hard for me to even say how old I am. … It’s like, ‘Holy God, that can’t be right.'”
Contrary to Biden’s recollection, he was forced to relinquish the Democratic nomination on July 21 after a brutal pressure campaign by leading Democrats after his confused performance at the June 27 CNN debate against Trump.
For weeks Biden defiantly rebuffed demands that he step aside — before ultimately succumbing to the humiliating and escalating mutiny by his former allies.
Biden insisted Wednesday he could still have won: “I was confident I would beat Trump. He’s a loser.”
The outgoing president further trashed his rival, 78, later in the interview, saying there was “not a lot of social redeeming value” to the Republican presidential nominee and that “he really does not believe in democracy.”
Biden also said that once he retires on Jan. 20, “there’s so many other things I want to do in terms of the Biden Institute at Penn on foreign policy, the Biden Institute in Delaware on domestic policy, to keep the things going as we started. And I think we can get them done.”
Pelosi (D-Calif.) led the charge to oust Biden from the Democratic ticket and reportedly implored him in private to drop out, pointing to polling showing a potential wipeout for Democrats in down-ballot races — with the former House speaker reportedly warning that Biden could retire the easy way or the hard way.
Biden furiously insisted for weeks he would not retire following his disastrous debate.
“I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party,” Biden said at a July 5 campaign rally. “Some folks don’t seem to care who you voted for. Guess what? They are trying to push me out of the race. Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race.”
“I’m getting so frustrated by … the elites in the party who — they know so much more,” Biden exclaimed July 8 in an MSNBC interview. “Any of these guys don’t think I should, run against me: Go ahead. Challenge me at the convention.”
Biden changed his mind as the list of congressional Democrats calling for him to retire grew — with Pelosi’s blessing seen as the guiding factor.
“I did what I had to do,” Pelosi said last month when asked about her maneuvering.
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