Nancy Pelosi said those close to Joe Biden during his reelection campaign should have shared what they knew about his mental acuity, saying Tuesday at Politico’s The California Agenda: Sacramento Summit that “those who did know should have acted upon that information. Whoever knew.”
The remarks came at Politico’s The California Agenda: Sacramento Summit on Tuesday.
Pelosi, the former House speaker, confirmed she had private conversations with Biden about her polling concerns.
She said she only saw the president three times during the year after she ceased being Speaker, explaining “I didn’t know, and I think he had his sort of ups and downs.”
Pelosi appeared to blame Biden’s family and staff equally, stating “There was staff saying the family knew. The family said the staff.”
When asked about her reaction to Biden’s June 2024 debate against Trump, she said “that’s really when we learned” about his mental decline.
However, author Chris Whipple alleged in his 2025 book “Uncharted” that Pelosi told a friend after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a May 2024 White House ceremony that “He was not the same Joe Biden,” having been “startled by how much the president had aged.”
That book claim contradicts her Tuesday statement about not knowing before the June debate.
Weeks after the ceremony, Pelosi posted to X that the Wall Street Journal story on Biden’s cognitive abilities was “a hit piece” that “ignored testimony by Democrats” and “focused on attacks by Republicans.”
Pelosi recounted telling Biden: “I only said to President Biden, ‘I’ve come to question the polling that you have and how your campaign is being conducted.'”
Her remarks reflect some of the most detailed reflections she has shared publicly about her role in convincing Biden not to run for another term.
On July 10, 2024, Pelosi appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” saying “It’s up to the president to decide if he’s going to run. We are all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.”
In a private phone call a week after her MSNBC appearance, Pelosi warned Biden, 81, about the realities of the 2024 race: he could lose so badly to Trump that it could damage Democrats down ballot and possibly cost them control of the House and Senate.
In the viral moment that set off the cascade of doubts about Biden’s fitness for office,
Biden’s declining mental acuity was on full display during his disastrous June 27, 2024, debate against Trump — resulting in a wave of Democrats calling for him not to seek re-election.
Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain told author Whipple he “was startled. He’d never seen him so exhausted and out of it. Biden was unaware of what was happening in his own campaign. Halfway through the session, the president excused himself and went off to sit by the pool” during debate preparations.
Biden announced on July 21, 2024, that “While it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
Pelosi denied she directly told Biden to drop out, saying her role “was written about in a way that really didn’t happen.”
After Trump defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris in the election, former first lady Jill Biden said she was disappointed in Pelosi.
Pelosi revealed in an interview Monday that she and Joe Biden had spoken following a lengthy feud between the two that stemmed from her role in the former president dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.