Nancy Pelosi acknowledged that there has been no communication between her and former President Joe Biden after the former House speaker was asked about ex-First Lady Jill Biden’s reported disappointment in her during an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Thursday.
Pelosi, who still represents San Francisco in Congress, said that she hadn’t spoken to the Bidens since their falling out last summer, when the longtime Democrat banded together with party power brokers to push the then-president out of the race in the wake of his disastrous debate performance in the summer.
The move left a sour taste in the Bidens’ mouth. Last month, Jill Biden told the Washington Post that Pelosi’s actions were “disappointing” in light of the fact that “we were friends for 50 years.”
In response, Alexandra Pelosi, the former speaker’s daughter, ripped into Jill Biden by likening her to power-hungry Lady MacBeth from Shakespeare.
Mitchell quizzed Nancy Pelosi about Jill Biden’s comments on Thursday. The veteran journalist, whose last day as an MSNBC anchor is Friday, wondered whether there was a chance for Pelosi and the Bidens to “patch that up.”
The former speaker acknowledged the tension but said that she had not spoken to either of the Bidens since their falling out.
“I certainly hope [to patch things up]. No, I haven’t [spoken to her],” Pelosi admitted to Mitchell.
“The fact is that we’re all on a mission for the American people, for America’s working families. My whole passion about being in politics is for the children,” Pelosi said, sidestepping the issue.
During the interview, Mitchell questioned Pelosi about Joe Biden’s assertion that he could have won the election had he not been pressured to step down.
Pelosi, 84, wouldn’t address Biden’s claim head-on. Instead, she sought to put a positive spin on the party’s performance in the November election which saw the Republicans score a trifecta by capturing the White House, the Senate and the House.
“All I know is that we won a seat in the House. We did not lose any seats,” Pelosi said.
“You know, people were like, ‘Whoa, the Democrats lost.’ No, we did not.”
Pelosi added: “I think it would have been quite different with President Biden at the top of the ticket.”
Pelosi framed her political efforts as part of a larger battle against Trump, stating that preventing his return to the White House had been a key motivator in her decisions.
“I think that it would have been important for the children to not have Donald Trump be president of the United States. And that is, I would take every step necessary to make sure that didn’t happen,” she said.
“But it did. And now we have to deal with it.”
Despite Democratic losses in the presidential race, Pelosi expressed confidence that the political landscape would shift in the coming months.
“In about six or seven months, you’re going to see such a change,” she predicted.
“By the time we start our campaigns this fall for next fall, you’re going to see a very different picture about the Democrats vis-à-vis Donald Trump.”
On July 21, Joe Biden announced that he was withdrawing from the presidential race. He swiftly endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris.
In subsequent interviews, Pelosi said the intent was for the Democrats to push Biden out and then stage a truncated primary that would include a field of several candidates.
But Biden’s lightning-quick endorsement of Harris frustrated those plans.
“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi told the New York Times days after Trump trounced Harris in the general election.
“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.”
The Post has sought comment from the Bidens.
