Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stopped short of endorsing President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign Wednesday during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe—re-opening the debate about whether the 81-year-old should stand.
The president has been clear that he wants to stay in the race against former President Donald Trump and insists that he will steam ahead despite leading Democrats calling for him to pull out of the race after his disastrous showing in the debate.
Pelosi, however, suggested Biden still needs to make up his mind and suggested that lobbying was continuing behind the scenes, which appears to undermine his position.
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“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision. Because time is running short,” she said.
Pelosi smiled as she praised Biden for his work as president and his opening remarks at the NATO summit in Washington, D.C. “I want him to do whatever he decides to do,” Pelosi said when asked if she wants Biden to continue his run for a second presidential term.
Over the last two weeks, since Biden’s debate debacle against Trump, Democrats have called for the current president to step down. Four senior House Democrats, Representatives Jerry Nadler of New York, Mark Takano of California, Adam Smith of Washington, Joe Morelle of New York, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, agreed that Biden should leave the race on Sunday, and more could be coming in the next few days.
While Pelosi refused to say whether she thought Biden should run for election, she added, “Let’s just hold off. Whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody privately, but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who came out on Monday with a statement questioning those who are “publicly calling on President Biden to withdraw,” and adding that “weakening the nominee seems like a loosing strategy,” changed his tune after Pelosi’s statements on Wednesday morning.
“In determining how to proceed as a party, there must be a serious reckoning with the down-ballot effect of whomever we nominate,” he wrote in a new statement. “What matters is not how we feel but what the numbers tell us. An unsentimental analysis of the cold hard numbers—which have no personal feelings or political loyalties—should inform what we decide and whom we nominate.”
