Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi dodged questions Wednesday about whether she supports President Joe Biden’s choice to continue his reelection bid, saying the octogenarian commander in chief still needs to make his decision.
"It’s up to the president to decide if he’s going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short," Pelosi said when asked by MSNBC if Biden has her support to be the Democratic nominee.
Biden and his team have reiterated multiple times at public events, via social media, and during press briefings that the 81-year-old president has decided to stay in the race for the White House.
When reminded of the president’s already-made decision, Pelosi continued to insist that Biden still needs to make up his mind. "I want him to do whatever he decides to do … whatever he decides we go with," she continued.
Democrats appear split on their support for Biden as the presidential nominee. Congressional Democrats privately met on Tuesday for over two hours to discuss the state of their party and its weakening leader. After the meeting, when asked if the caucus is "on the same page," Rep. Steve Cohen (D., Tenn.) replied, "We're not even in the same book." Others described the meeting as more like a "funeral" for the president’s career.
Democrats have been in disarray over the current state of the president since his abysmal debate performance last month. Since then, 10 House Democrats, the New York Times, Democratic donors, and other party figures have called on Biden to leave the race.
Pelosi called on her fellow Democrats to "hold off" on publicly denouncing the president "until we see how we go this week," referring to the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., where Biden is hosting more than 30 world leaders. The president is set to share remarks and take questions from reporters following the summit on Thursday.