A CNN panel reacted to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent remarks about her relationship with President Biden after he dropped out of the race, with one panelist saying the former House Speaker was very much in charge of the Democratic Party.
“Yikes,” CNN host Kasie Hunt said on Tuesday, reacting to Pelosi telling CNN’s Dana Bash on Monday that she hasn’t spoken to Biden since he decided to drop out of the race.
Several top Democrats, including Pelosi, were reportedly working to get the president out of the race after his disastrous debate performance in June. Pelosi has denied that she was part of an effort to push Biden out of the race.
“I don’t know what the conversations were between her and the president during that time, but it seems that all of the reporting has been true, it seems that there is some bad blood there,” Meghan Hays, a DNC convention consultant and former White House communications aide, said during the discussion. “She’s also selling a book and I think she’s also trying to say that she is very much in power of the Democratic Party. And that statement, I think, proves and goes forth with that, by saying that, it’s very much showing that she is in charge here.”
PELOSI IGNORES BIDEN’S DECISION TO STAY IN THE RACE IN LATEST SIGN OF DEMOCRAT FRACTURE
“Have you spoken to President Biden since he dropped out?” Bash asked Pelosi Monday night.
“No,” Pelosi replied. “No, I have not.”
“Do you hope to?” Bash followed up. When Pelosi answered she indeed does, the host asked further, “Is everything OK with your relationship?”
Pelosi said, “you’d have to ask him.”
CNN’s Elliot Williams suggested Tuesday that Pelosi’s response to Bash’s questions were calculated.
“It’s hard to imagine that someone who’s that disciplined a politician doesn‘t know exactly what she’s winking and nodding at there, and dropping the suggestion that they’re not speaking. Because there were many other ways to answer the question in that look, he’s the president of the United States, he’s a busy man. I haven’t had a chance to speak to him yet, but we will. But she didn‘t say that,” Williams said.
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“I mean, she knocked him out of the race. I mean, 14 million people voted for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris made 1,800 phone calls and she’s the nominee for the Democratic Party. It clearly worked,” Bryan Lanza, a former director of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, added.
CNN’s Stephen Collinson said Pelosi’s comments showed she had “extraordinary power.”
“Nancy Pelosi is the key Democratic figure of the first 25 years of the 21st century. And she has extraordinary power and once again, she’s wielding it there,” he said.
