The exact circumstances that led to President Joe Biden’s dramatic withdrawal from the 2024 race have been the subject of frenzied conversation for weeks.
Since Biden tweeted his digitally signed letter announcing the decision on Sunday, June 21, the line from the White House has been clear: the president was No pushed. This was just his choice.
Sympathetic industry insiders described a weekend of “reflection” for the president, who had recently tested positive for COVID and was holed up in isolation with his wife Jill and a handful of trusted aides at the Biden family home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
On Saturday night, and after weeks of insisting he would run again, something “changed,” people close to Biden said. The president asked his closest advisers to begin drafting his letter. Suddenly, it was over.
That may be true, but these whistleblowers have left out a crucial piece of the puzzle that explains why Biden’s thinking changed so quickly, and which the Mail can now exclusively reveal for the first time.
The president, who had recently tested positive for COVID, was holed up in isolation with his wife Jill and a handful of trusted aides at the Biden family home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. (Pictured: arriving in Delaware on July 17.)
As Biden recovered from his COVID infection that fateful Saturday, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent an urgent message to the president: She was prepared to go public with her concerns that he might not be able to defeat Donald Trump in November.
The ultimatum was clear: abandon him now or Pelosi will destroy her political ally and friend of more than 50 years on the global stage.
Four sources with intimate knowledge of the situation independently claimed that such a message was conveyed, and one particularly well-placed source said a phone call took place in which Pelosi told Biden she would release brutal poll numbers to back up her attack.
In any case, her demand was said to have been so forceful that it triggered a “moment of supplication” in the president, who only then began drafting the letter announcing his withdrawal.
Both Pelosi’s office and the White House have officially denied that the two spoke on the phone.
The explosive revelation comes at a time when the public feud between Pelosi and Biden, who have not spoken since he announced his withdrawal, is becoming increasingly ugly.
With her new memoir out, Pelosi has been giving interviews, struggling to dodge questions about her strained relationship with the president.
On Sunday, August 4, CBS anchor Lesley Stahl put pressure on the former House Speaker.
“It’s been widely reported that you were the leader of a pressure campaign (to convince Biden to step aside),” Stahl asked.
“No, I was not the leader of any pressure campaign,” Pelosi responded. “Let me say things I did not do: I did not call any person.”
Then, in an interview with the New Yorker magazine last week, Pelosi admitted she was losing sleep over her breakup with the president and was “praying” that their friendship could survive.
“He knows I love him,” she told CNN last Thursday.
For his part, Biden remains angry about how things turned out.
“He wasn’t happy with how things went and there were calls for him to leave, but he doesn’t waste time dwelling on it,” a source said.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (pictured) sent an urgent message to the president: she was ready to go public with her concerns that he would not be able to defeat Donald Trump in November.
The ultimatum was clear: drop out of the campaign now or Pelosi will destroy her political ally and friend of more than 50 years on the world stage. (Pictured: Together in May)
In fact, it was not just Pelosi who pressured Biden to withdraw in the days and weeks following his disastrous televised debate with Trump.
Other party bigwigs, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, told Biden they no longer believed his candidacy was viable.
Schumer went to see Biden in Delaware a week before his withdrawal, and insiders described the meeting as “direct.”
Jeffries had also pressed the president about his falling poll numbers in recent days, but it was the way Pelosi delivered the final blow that apparently left Biden feeling bitter.
In the hours after he announced he was dropping out of the race, Biden personally called congressional leaders and other allies to discuss his decision.
Schumer was on the list of those who received a call from the president. Pelosi was not.
Biden, 81, and Pelosi, 84, both veterans of the Washington scene, have known each other since the 1970s; Pelosi is said to be particularly fond of telling an early story of Biden’s kindness.
Shortly after she was first elected to Congress in 1987, she took a family trip to Rehoboth Beach, where Biden invited her to a party to help introduce her to several Democratic donors.
But there was a problem: American golf legend Nancy Lopez had been in the news that summer and some of Biden’s friends mistook his guest for the famous athlete. Pelosi did not correct them.
The couple formed a strong political alliance.
Both are Catholic Democrats and say they were inspired to pursue public service by President John F. Kennedy, who, like them, carried a rosary in his pocket.
When Biden served as vice president, Pelosi became Speaker of the House and they worked together to pass the landmark Obamacare legislation.
And in 2022, when Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was attacked by a hammer-wielding madman in their San Francisco home, it was Biden who called early in the morning to help comfort her.
“He was so devoted, kind and thoughtful,” Pelosi writes in her new memoir.
All of this makes it easy to understand why Biden was so affected by his decision to oust him.
Jill Biden remains deeply concerned about her husband’s dignity and wishes he had been allowed to withdraw from the 2024 race at the time and on his own terms.
Jill is also known to hold a grudge, and she and Biden’s son Hunter are reportedly furious with Pelosi for what they see as a betrayal.
Next week the party will officially leave the president behind.
Kamala Harris will be crowned the nominee at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but Biden won’t be there to pass the torch.
Instead, he will briefly address the crowd on Monday night, when many of the game’s big players will not have arrived yet, before quickly leaving town and allowing Harris to hold court for the rest of the week.
Biden’s focus now is on “consolidating his legacy,” one source said.
On Tuesday, he and the First Lady traveled to New Orleans to promote his new “Biden Cancer Moonshot” initiative, awarding $150 million to eight different research projects across the country.
But there was an underlying current of discontent during the trip.
As he left the White House for his trip to the southern city, Biden paused to answer a few questions from reporters. Behind him, Jill watched, her arms crossed and a frown on her face.
She betrayed a First Lady who remains deeply concerned about her husband’s dignity, who wishes he had been allowed to withdraw from the 2024 race at the right time and on his own terms.
Jill is also known to hold a grudge, and she and Biden’s son Hunter are reportedly furious with Pelosi for what they see as a betrayal.
And now, as Biden shuffles off into the sunset, it’s hard to imagine Pelosi’s continued firm grip on Capitol Hill doing anything to ease those rancors.