First lady Jill Biden said she has been thinking “a lot” about her decades-long relationship with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as she prepares to leave the White House.
In a lengthy profile published Wednesday in The Washington Post, Jill Biden said she was “disappointed” with Pelosi’s role in pushing President Biden out of the presidential race.
“It’s been on my mind a lot lately,” she added. “We were friends for 50 years…It was disappointing.”
In the wake of Biden’s disastrous debate against Trump in July, Pelosi appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and said, “It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run.” Coming just after Biden issued a statement insisting he’d remain the Democratic candidate, her remarks were widely interpreted as a signal he should consider stepping away.
The Post reported that Jill Biden talked to her close friend, Mary Doody, about the pressure the president was getting from Democrats at that moment.
“It was awful. It was mean. It was disrespectful,” Doody told the Post. “She talked a lot about that. I know I’m biased, but Joe Biden did not deserve that.”
Jill Biden, in the Post interview, also noted some recent memorable moments from the presidential transition.
She recalled a brief interaction in December when she found herself seated next to President-elect Trump at the reopening of the Notre Dame. Trump, according to the first lady, told her, “I had a good meeting with your husband in the Oval Office.”
“Yes,” Jill recalled responding to Trump at the time, “because you’re both talkers.”
On why she spoke to Trump, who had been ridiculing her family for months, Jill Biden stressed the importance of respecting institutions.
“Joe and I respect our institutions, our traditions,” she said, “and it’s very important to me that they continue.”
“What would be the point of nastiness?” she added.
Jill Biden told the Post that she extended an invitation to incoming first lady Melania Trump for tea at the White House, which has been a tradition for first ladies during presidential transitions, but the incoming first lady declined the offer.
The first lady said she instead sent Melania Trump a note congratulating her and offering to help in the transition back to the White House.
Jill Biden said she didn’t hear back from the incoming first lady, until she thanked Jill Biden when they saw each other at the state funeral for the late President Jimmy Carter this month.
