New Memoir Excerpt: Biden Says Pelosi Worked Furiously Behind the Scenes to Force Him Out, and That They Later Mended Their Rift Over Lunch
The Atlantic on November 13 published a new excerpt from former President Joe Biden's memoir, "Promise Me, America." Biden writes that during the 2024 campaign, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was publicly saying that whether he stayed in the race was his decision to make, while privately she was working furiously behind the scenes to get elected officials and Biden delegates to defect.
According to the excerpt, Pelosi came to the White House and told him bluntly that there were no polls showing he had any chance and that he would lose the presidency if he continued to seek re-election. Biden writes that this was their last real conversation; afterward they only saw each other from a distance at events and did not speak, until they later reconnected over lunch at an Italian restaurant to mend the friendship. They did not discuss the 2024 episode at that lunch. Biden writes that they had been through too much together to allow a rift to go un-mended, and that he is glad they are back on speaking terms. Pelosi has repeatedly declined to discuss the status of their relationship.
Biden also writes that then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer traveled to his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, to urge him to leave the race. He writes that he told Schumer he had a lot of gumption coming to his home to tell him to get out, and that loyalty matters to him. He gives a minute-by-minute account of the day he decided to end his bid, July 21, 2024, listing whom he called and when, and says so many major voices in his party were determined to force him out. In the list of the allies he called that day, two names are absent: he did not call Pelosi, and he does not list former President Barack Obama.
Biden calls his June 2024 debate against Donald Trump a terrible night but is defensive about the reaction that followed, writing that other presidents had bad debates and were given a chance to redeem themselves in a second one, a chance he says was not available to him. The 480-page memoir, published by Little, Brown and Company, is scheduled for release on November 17. Biden, who is being treated for aggressive prostate cancer, has scaled back in-person promotion of the book. GSM's earlier reports on excerpts from the memoir are linked below.
Related: Biden Memoir Discloses Trump's 2021 Handwritten Letter
Related: Biden Memoir Excerpt on January 6
(Source: The Atlantic)
Source: The Atlantic
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：2022年3月1日，时任众议院议长佩洛西与副总统哈里斯在国会欢迎拜登总统前来发表国情咨文（资料图）。美国众议院议长办公室照片，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris welcome President Joe Biden to Congress to deliver the State of the Union address on March 1, 2022 (file photo). Office of the U.S. House Speaker, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
