Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is pointing fingers at President Joe Biden for Vice President Kamala Harris’ crushing defeat to President-elect Donald Trump. The former Speaker of the House, who was instrumental in behind-the-scenes efforts to push Biden out of the race following his poor debate performance against Trump, made her remarks during an interview with The New York Times this week.
“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi asserted. “The anticipation was that if the president were to step aside, there would be an open primary.” She added, “Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in that scenario and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened. And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, it made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”
Pelosi’s comments appear to contradict her earlier statement from September, where she maintained that the primary process was fair and open. “We had an open primary, and [Kamala Harris] won it,” Pelosi said at the time. “Nobody else got in the race.”
“We had an open primary and [Kamala Harris] won it. Nobody else got in the race,” @SpeakerPelosi tells @kadiagoba. pic.twitter.com/y2O0JhKBgc
— Semafor (@semafor) September 18, 2024
In the interview, Pelosi expressed frustration with criticisms from within her own party, particularly from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who suggested that Democrats lost because they focused too much on identity politics rather than addressing core economic concerns. Sanders has been vocal about his belief that the party has lost touch with working-class families.
“Bernie Sanders has not won,” Pelosi retorted. “With all due respect, and I have a great deal of respect for him and for what he stands for, but I don’t respect him saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned working-class families.”
Pelosi then elaborated on what she sees as a growing divide within the party over key social issues. “Guns, God, and gays — that’s the way they say it,” she remarked. “Guns, that’s an issue; gays, that’s an issue; and now they’re making the trans issue such an important priority. And in certain communities, what they call God, we call a woman’s right to choose.”
Pelosi’s candid reflections come as Democrats grapple with the fallout from a stunning loss to Trump. Her remarks underscore the ongoing debate within the party about the strategic missteps and messaging failures that may have contributed to Harris’ defeat. While Pelosi appears to place the blame squarely on Biden’s delayed decision to exit the race, her comments also highlight broader concerns about the party’s focus on identity politics at the expense of economic messaging, a critique echoed by other voices within the Democratic ranks.