CNN
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Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told President Joe Biden in a recent conversation that President Donald Trump could not be defeated and that Biden could destroy Democrats’ chances of winning a second consecutive term. Briefly about the call.
The president responded by pushing back, telling Pelosi he had seen polls indicating he could win, a source said. Another source described Biden as defensive about the polls. At one point, Pelosi asked Mike Donilon, a longtime adviser to Biden, to talk about the data.
The phone call would mark the second known conversation between the California lawmaker and Biden since the president’s disastrous June 27 debate. Although the exact date of the conversation is not clear, a source described it as having taken place last week. Pelosi and Biden spoke in early July.
No evidence indicates whether Pelosi told Biden in this conversation that she believed the president should drop out of the 2024 race.
Pelosi spent weeks following the debate listening to her colleagues’ concerns. Pelosi made waves in an interview last week when she said: “The president has to decide if he’s going to run. We all encourage him to make that decision because time is running out.
When reached for comment, White House spokesman Andrew Bates did not respond to CNN’s report on the details of the recent Pelosi-Biden call. “President Biden is the party’s nominee. “He plans to succeed and looks forward to working with congressional Democrats to accomplish his 100-day agenda to help working families,” Bates said.
A spokeswoman for Pelosi told CNN that the former House speaker had been in California since Friday and had not spoken to Biden since then.
