Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised doubts on Sunday about the authenticity of Joe Biden’s letter announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race.
During a recent interview, Pelosi seemed to inadvertently reveal her skepticism about the letter’s origins.
“I didn’t accept the letter as anything but a letter. I mean, there are some people who were unhappy with the letter, let me say, some said that some people were unhappy with the letter,” Pelosi commented.
She went on to suggest that the letter didn’t sound like it was written by Biden. “I’ll put it in somebody else’s mouth because it was a, I don’t even know. It didn’t sound like Joe Biden to me. It really didn’t,” Pelosi added.
In an interview with CBS News’ Robert Costa, Biden acknowledged that he was pressured to withdraw from the race because some Democrats believed he would harm down-ballot candidates. Reports have also surfaced that Pelosi, along with former President Barack Obama, exerted significant pressure on Biden to step aside.
According to Politico, Pelosi reportedly gave Biden an ultimatum, stating, “Nancy made clear that they could do this the easy way or the hard way. She gave them three weeks of the easy way. It was about to be the hard way.”
Biden announced his exit from the race on July 21, sharing his dropout letter on his X account and endorsement of Kamala Harris as his successor. However, according to NBC News, an official statement announcing Biden’s decision had already been prepared before he even finished a phone call with his senior advisors on that day. Just one minute after hanging up the phone, Biden’s dropout letter was posted to his X account.
This sequence of events has led to speculation that Biden neither wrote nor personally posted the letter.