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Fuck Pelosi for a thousand different reasons over the course of decades but she was far and away the person most vocally calling for him to step down.
There was two weeks of interviews that basically boiled down to
“The president is running out of time to decide for himself if he wants to step aside and let somebody else be the nominee.” - Pelosi
“He has repeatedly said that he has no intention of stepping down and intends to see this election to it’s finish.” - interviewer
“He is running out of time to DECIDE FOR HIMSELF if he wants to step aside.”
Like she’s a totally soulless ghoul but she came to grips with Biden being a doomed candidate way earlier than anybody else.
That being said if there was a primary I’m sure she would have worked night and day to make sure Josh Shapiro was the nominee and they still would have ate shit but still…
She was only vocal like that after the debates. She supported president sundown without remark for the 3.5 years before that. She’s a savvy enough political operator to understand things 2 weeks earlier than others. You don’t in fact have to hand it to her
Fair enough it was deffinitly after the disaster of a debate she actually pulled the knives out after ramming him through up to that point.
I rescind my “handing it to her”
I mean they knew he was fried in 2022, they all knew, donors, people talking to him regularly etc. They didn’t give interviews about old joe though until last possible moments, or leaks or whatever the fuck they do
Fuck Pelosi for a thousand different reasons over the course of decades but she was far and away the person most vocally calling for him to step down.
To me, Pelosi’s public statements mean very little. Pelosi is not an outside pressure-group begging for the party to take action. She is one of the apex shot-callers in the party, along with Schumer, the Clintons, and Obama. Although she passed the torch of House Speaker to Hakeem Jefferies, she remains a fixture of the House of Representatives, and surely had inside knowledge of Biden’s condition.
Here’s a vignette chronicled in WSJ (archive.ph) (July 21, 2024)
President Biden had just finished trying to persuade a group of congressional Democrats to pass a $1 trillion infrastructure bill when Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker, took the microphone.
In 30 minutes of remarks on Capitol Hill, Biden had spoken disjointedly and failed to make a concrete ask of lawmakers, according to Democrats in the room. After he left, a visibly frustrated Pelosi told the group she would articulate what Biden had been trying to say, one lawmaker said.
“It was the first time I remember people pretty jarred by what they had seen,” recalled Rep. Dean Phillips (D., Minn.), who would go on to mount an unsuccessful primary challenge against the president.
That was October 2021. That month was the last time Biden met with the House Democratic caucus on the Hill regarding legislation.
They knew the man’s brain was toast in 2021. On at least this one occasion, Pelosi was personally involved in performing Biden’s duties after he had proven incapable. They waited two more years, until the “primary” was over, to get rid of him. I think this was a deliberate choice. She WOULD have used the 25th amendment process if she needed to, but there is a reason this showdown only came to a head within weeks of the convention. They DID NOT want to give their constituents any opportunity to re-popularize the social democratic policies which dominated the 2020 primary campaign, or turn it into a referendum on Israel. They DID NOT want to risk allowing a charismatic progressive to seize their party apparatus by the reigns the way Sanders almost had in 2020.
When the Democratic Party elects an insider, this is supposed to foreclose the possibility of any change for eight years. This is what would have happened if Kamala won. Like in 2024, there would be no primaries in 2028, because “you don’t primary an incumbent.” Then the VP is supposed to take over for another eight years. We are absolutely, positively not supposed to have the kind of influence over rhetoric that we had in 2016-2020. This only happens when the party finds itself absolutely leaderless, like it did in 2016 (Obama termed out, Clinton utterly discredited, Biden off being sad somewhere). Nothing gives them more heartburn than having to pretend that they give a shit about our health and well-being. They much prefer to say and promise nothing while they cut deals with the biggest fish in finance.
GOOD post.
Also how am I just learning that Biden didn’t meet with house Dems for THREE YEARS?! That’s fucking insane
Agreed, I remember liberals angry at her for calling him out (which was really hilarious to hear them all call her a ‘Dem in Name Only’ lmao)
“Obviously the party leadership screwed this up for everybody! They need to be held accountable! Wait who am I again?”
-Totally not Nancy Pelosi
president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately
i like how they just made up this rule that the candidate elect magically got to trade their votes to whoever they wished, and are still pretending it was some insurmountable divine law. no motherfucker all you people had to say was “no” and decide at the fucking convention. and i know its long past but what an absurdity that was in the first place, so counter to the elementary concept of voting. people you vote for don’t get to trade the fucking vote, it isn’t a currency, what the fuck.
people you vote for don’t get to trade the fucking vote
Americans made everything else on earth a security, why not
i guess it is on theme
living in what happened and not considering alterntives is the reason why dnc fucked it up for us.
It will be really fun if this causes the dem establishment to tear each other apart.
Whatever emerged afterwards would probably be even worse, but it’d be hilarious to watch.
If the Democrats were smart, they could have had Biden drop out early enough for Kamabla to actually run a primary but not enough time for anyone to mount a meaningful campaign. Then she could have earned her primary votes with the facade of democracy.
She’s completely right here
She was the lead on forcing Biden to drop out. She should have done it earlier and she shouldn’t have assumed there would be an open convention. Biden was always going to fuck everything up but Nancy is one of the people I blame the least.
But again, she knew. They wanted to squeak by, and just couldn’t deny it anymore or choose to lose new york
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
“And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time.”
IMO, it was the money, not the endorsement. Biden had ~$100M on-hand when he dropped out. There was a legal challenge about the money being used for The Harris campaign and the Dems argument was that since Harris’ name was already part of the ticket, they wouldn’t have to refund it.
Turns out having the wrong candidate is a lot more expensive.
I hate her saying that they couldn’t run someone else if Biden endorsed Kamala immediately. They 100% could have. Biden was unpopular and bringing in someone not picked by him is probably one of the best things they could have done. Even a boilerplate neoliberal ghoul would have had a better shot at winning.
