White House Press Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre is still being pressured on Joe Biden’s feelings toward Nancy Pelosi after he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race — and she reportedly pushed him. The press secretary seemed to at least initially dodge issuing a diret response.
Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Jean-Pierre “how mad” the president was at the former House speaker for the part she played in his choice to step out of the running. The bemused press secretary responded, “You guys keep asking me this question. I think I’ve answered this question multiple times.”
Doocy responded, citing Biden’s interview from “CBS Sunday Morning” over the weekend where Pelosi was the one person Biden mentioned by name as being responsible for him leaving the 2024 Democratic ticket.
“The president respects his good friend, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and I think it’s mutual,” Jean-Pierre said. She then pointed to positive remarks that Pelosi has made recently about Biden — while not providing similarly kind remarks made by Biden about Pelosi.
“She also gave interviews, and I know you followed closely over the weekend,” Jean-Pierre said. “She made statements like ‘preeminent president,’ ‘among the top few to have served in this office.’ I think that says a lot coming from the former speaker.”
When asked if there were “no hard feelings,” she repeated once more in a mirror of the same language she used before, “He respects his good friend, Speaker Pelosi.”
Doocy responded to the apparent dodge by underlining his question, stating, “I asked if there were any hard feelings.”
“No hard feelings,” Pierre-Jean responded, before quickly turning back to, “He respects her. And I think it’s mutual, but I will let the president speak for himself, obviously.”
Biden explained to “CBS Sunday Morning” that Pelosi’s concerns were among the reasons he dropped out of the race.
“What happened was a number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races,” he said. “And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic. You’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say… and I thought it’d be a real distraction.”
That came after Pelosi was adamant she didn’t make any calls to other Democrats seeking their help in getting Biden off the ticket.
“I did not, I did not, I did not,” she told CNN’s Dana Bash on Aug. 5. She then admitted that she and the president hadn’t spoken since he announced he was dropping out, noting, “We’re all busy.” Pelosi also declined at the time to say whether their relationship was OK, telling Bash, “You’d have to ask him, but I hope so.”
Mike Roe also contributed to this story.
