When Nancy Pelosi rang Joe Biden to warn him of dire opinion polling, suggesting he could not win the next election to Donald Trump, the president insisted he had data saying the opposite.
The 84-year-old ex-speaker did something few others would have dared: she demanded to speak to the advisers telling him so and implied they were not telling the president the truth.
“Put Donilon on the phone,” she said, referring to long-time Biden aide and strategist Mike Donilon. “Show me what polls.”
Openly challenging the president and implying that his aides have been lying to him would be bold coming from anyone. From Mrs Pelosi, it must have been especially wounding.
Mrs Pelosi and Mr Biden go way back.
A fellow devout Catholic (Mr Biden used to call her “my Catholic sister”), she delivered him win after win in the House until her second term as speaker ended in 2022. Although they have clashed in the past, he has let it be known that he considered her the best House speaker ever.
And they share the same instinctive institutional political instincts and fears about what Trump could do to US democracy.
Mrs Pelosi was Trump’s most implacable foe during his 2016-2020 presidency.
But she also has a reputation as the Democrats’ hardest, cleverest, and most strategic thinker. And she seems to have come to the conclusion that to stop Trump this time, she must first stop Mr Biden.
Mrs Pelosi has avoided calling directly for him to step down. But she is now thought to be working the phones behind the scenes to ratchet up pressure on Mr Biden to step aside.
Her strategy appears to have three strands: first, private appeals to the president; second, when they are ignored, leaks about those conversations to the press (the appearance in the New York Times of her remarks about Mr Donilon is a classic example), and the third strand which involves rare but decisive public remarks designed to keep the rebellion alive.
Read more at Thetelegraph.com
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