Former House Speaker and Democratic heavyweight Nancy Pelosi has suggested that if US President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 election earlier, then her party would have fared better in Tuesday’s vote, according to the New York Times.
“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said during a podcast interview the New York Times reports, external.
“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.”
An open primary would have involved numerous candidates campaigning and debating over months to become the nominee. Because parties typically do not hold primaries when they are in control of the White House, Democrats did not consider any other candidates once Biden announced he would seek re-election.
When Biden dropped out four months before Election Day, following a disastrous debate against Donald Trump, the party rapidly came to a consensus around making Vice-President Kamala Harris its nominee.
Pelosi in the interview criticised Biden for endorsing Harris quickly after leaving the race, as well, saying that too had foreclosed the possibility of a primary.
While Pelosi said she believed that Harris “would have done well” in a primary contest and come out of it in a stronger position, the comments also implied she thought there were other Democrats who might have made good nominees.
Other Democrats have blamed Biden for Harris’s election loss, but none has the political sway of Pelosi, who played a major role in pushing him out of the race.
- Reported by BBC
