Pelosi: ‘I was asking for a campaign that would win’ in talks with Biden

Nancy Pelosi didn’t want President Joe Biden to step down, the former speaker told ABC News Monday morning. What she wanted, she explained, was “a campaign that would win.”

The California Democrat was instrumental in the behind-the-scenes pressure campaign within her party pushing Biden to end his campaign last month, though she has denied in recent days calling members as the list of Democratic defectors grew.

“I wasn't asking him to step down. I was asking for a campaign that would win,” the former speaker said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday. “And I wasn't seeing that on the horizon.”

The 84-year-old San Francisco lawmaker remains a powerful influence in her party even after relinquishing her role in Democratic leadership at the start of this Congress. But she insisted Monday that the only call she made regarding the 2024 Democratic ticket was to the president himself.

“People said I was burning up the airwaves. No I wasn't. The only person that I spoke to about this was the president,” Pelosi said. “Other people called me about what their views were about it — but I rarely even returned a call, much less initiated one.”

Pelosi spoke to at least one House Democrat about district-level polling and seemed to believe Biden should exit the race, POLITICO reported last month. She offered to speak to other members who reached out to her, the lawmaker said, though she said she would not start those conversations.

“You make a decision to win, and you make every decision in favor of winning,” Pelosi said Monday, adding that “the most important decision” in that electoral calculus “is the candidate.”

Pelosi said her own decision to leave party leadership had made it “easier” to broach the topic with Biden. Now on a press tour to market her new book, Pelosi has praised the president repeatedly.

“We just wanted him to make the decision in how he best preserves that legacy,” Pelosi said Monday. “And also — win.”