Former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday refused to explicitly endorse President Joe Biden as her party's presidential candidate and urged her congressional colleagues to attend before making public statements for or against Biden.
“Let's just wait and see. Whatever you think, tell someone privately, but you don't have to put that on the table until we see how it goes this week.” Pelosi said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
The comments were notable because Biden had repeatedly stressed that he wouldn’t drop out of the race against former President Donald Trump and said his decision was final.
Pelosi's rigorously worded comments suggest that she believes Biden remains to be considering whether or not to stay at the highest of the ballot.
“It's up to the president to decide whether to run,” Pelosi said. “We all encourage him to make that decision because time is running out.”
Pelosi has long been considered one of Biden's closest allies in Congress, and her refusal to endorse Biden as a candidate – as quite a few Democrats have already done – caused a stir within the Capitol on Wednesday.
Pelosi's remarks got here two weeks after Biden's all-out push to prove to Democrats and voters that his halting, weak performance on the June 27 debate was just “an episode,” as Pelosi put it last week, and never evidence of “an illness.” So far, Biden's public appearances have done little to allay Democrats' concerns about his health.
“I'm not going anywhere,” Biden said in an interview this week, also on “Morning Joe.” “I am absolutely convinced that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump in 2024.”
Biden is subsequently under additional pressure on the events on the NATO summit in Washington this week: He must prove to the Democrats that he’s fit enough to defeat Trump in November and serve a second four-year term.
Pressure is mounting on Biden to set a superb example in public this week, as voices calling for him to depart the federal government grow louder.
On Tuesday, the senator said: Michael BennetD-Co., was the primary Democratic senator to publicly announce that he didn’t consider the president could beat Trump, but he stopped wanting officially calling on him to drop out of the race.
On the opposite side of Capitol Hill, the pressure was expressed more openly. Also Tuesday, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) became the most recent in a growing variety of Democrats to formally call on the president to drop out of the race.
In private meetings and phone calls, much more Democratic lawmakers, donors and strategists expressed concerns about Biden's ability to run a grueling campaign after which – should he win in November – spend one other 4 years within the Oval Office.
In response to Pelosi's comments, the Biden team pointed to a letter the president sent to congressional Democrats on Monday, reiterating his commitment to staying within the race and urging lawmakers to rally behind him. The team also provided an inventory of Democratic lawmakers who’ve publicly expressed support for Biden.
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