Pelosi blames Biden for election loss as finger pointing intensifies

[Polybius]

Source: BBC News

Former US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said Democrats might have fared better in Tuesday's election if President Joe Biden had exited the race sooner.

Pelosi - one of the most powerful politicians in Washington - told the New York Times that "had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race".

Her remarks are the latest finger pointing from Democrats after the party lost hold of the White House and potentially both chambers of Congress on Tuesday.

Pelosi is widely reported to have led the Democrats’ push to oust Biden, who ended up leaving the race at the end of July after weeks of pressure following a poor debate performance against Donald Trump.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn7m24zg85eo

---

Love ya Nancy, but this isn't helpful.

[RandySF]

1. I'm just not going to do it.

I can’t blame anyone but the voters who just put a gun to the contrary’s head.

[elleng]

36. Thank you.

I will, however, blame media; I listened to some of the NYT interview today (while in the car.) Interviewer, while civil, seemed to be looking hard for 'a story,' and Nancy was 'stuck' in the middle, wrestling with the myriad forces at play.

[LittleGirl]

55. I completely blame the media...all versions of it. nt

[Baitball Blogger]

44. Agree.

[DemonGoddess]

49. This is the truth of it

It was the voters who believed the bullshit and voted for the orange shitstain. I am NOT blaming President Biden or VP Harris for this.

[Dennis Donovan]

3. I passed by this story, decided not to post it

...because it's a bit heartbreaking at a time my heart is busted to pieces.

There's going to be a LOT of time for post-mortems. Can we hold off of them for a few more days?

I'm not saying you shouldn't post the story. I just didn't have the heart to.

[Trueblue1968]

29. It appears these are republican opinions. I cant believe this came from former speaker pelosi

[William Seger]

38. I think she's wrong, but I try to remember that it doesn't really matter now

[HereForTheParty]

54. He withdrew THREE WEEKS after the debate

It just wasn't that long a time. If it was so essential he withdraw quickly why was Nancy so mealy mouthed when he was being pushed out?

[Blue for the win]

4. Poor choices

Also Bidens poor choice in the attorney general

[FoxNewsSucks]

22. followed by a failure to replace that ....... bad choice.

[crimycarny]

5. Excuse me Nancy? A friggin' cardboard cutout should have been able to beat a corrupt fool like Trump

Look in the mirror lady. Biden is NOT the person at fault. You couldn't shut up about wanting him out when the party should have been banding together. Biden had a bad debate and the Democratic party fell apart. Trump could have walked on stage with no pants on and the GOP party would have banded behind him. No matter what Trump did, the GOP machine stayed behind him.

JHC, how much more does Biden have to do? He bowed out gracefully in 2016 when Obama pushed Hillary to be the candidate, he came back into the race in 2020 when he felt in his soul that it was his duty to help save America. He stayed in the race even when he lost the first initial primaries and went on to WIN. (Thank god!). He accomplished more in his Presidency than any other President.

Then, when he has a bad debate, the Democratic machine does their old and tired circular firing squad routine (remember Al Franken?). Biden puts country first AGAIN, his hand forced by Pelosi, et. al. and now that same circular firing squad wants to point their guns at Joe? Oh hell no. This is the part of the Democratic party that I just can't stand. The lack of spine. Joe Biden is a glowing exception to that.

[LisaM]

11. I think it was Biden's choice not to run in 2016.

His son had just died.

[crimycarny]

12. He was still weighing a run after Beau's death, and Obama didn't want him to run

I had thought the same, that it was Biden’s choice not to run due to Beau’s death. However, I’ve since read (from multiple sources, including Joe Biden’s own book), that Obama felt it was Hillary’s turn to run. Biden was still weighing on whether to run or not after Beau’s death, and it was made obvious to him that Obama felt Hillary would have a better chance. The head winds of lukewarm support combined with grief ultimately made the prospect of Joe Biden running too much to overcome.

I’ll see if I can find the article I read about this, it was fairly recent. Biden was hurt by Obama’s lack of support, which is one reason he was so quick to give his full endorsement to Kamala after he made the decision to step down.

[crimycarny]

14. Here is a really good article that gives a more nuanced look at Biden and Obama's interactions

I found this article very interesting. Obama had a deep respect for a Biden but was often annoyed at what he saw as Biden’s tendency to get off topic and tell stories during meetings. Obama and Hillary’s styles were much more alike. What Obama didn’t realize was Biden’s old fashioned way of politics, such as telling those stories and not sticking strictly to the agenda is what helped Biden become one of the absolute best at bipartisan politics.

Really good article. Doesn’t bash Obama, Hillary, or Biden. Just gives interesting insight. A very interesting section in the article mentions how Republicans often went to Biden versus Obama because they felt Obama “mansplained” whereas Biden came from the standpoint of “tell me what you need in order to be able to sell this to your constituents”. Sort of a contrast between someone extremely intelligent (Obama) and Biden just as intelligent but more from a street smart sense.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/14/obama-biden-relationship-393570

[GoreWon2000]

13. Exactly!

Instead of standing with Biden, a cabal of dem elites (mostly white men) decided to carry out the dem version of the anti-democracy Rehnquist 5's 2000 disenfranchisement of our entire country by disenfranchising 14 million 2024 dem party primary voters. After this blatant disenfranchisement the dem party is supposed to be the party defending democracy? Too many voters watched in horror in 2000 as their votes were taken away and have now given up on democracy. An additional portion of the dem base saw the hypocrisy of the Biden ouster and decided not to vote this year. Here we now are.

[PortTack]

26. The country still didn't ..doesn't want a FE president. So sickening but true

[totodeinhere]

32. Nancy said that if Biden had got out sooner there would have been more candidates in the race.

That is true isn't it? If Kamala had had to fight for the nomination against other prominent Democrats, I think she would have won that contest and that process would have made her a stronger general election candidate. And I think she would have beaten Trump.

[crimycarny]

37. So?

Does Nancy have a crystal ball? Look at who WON. A 34-x convicted felon, convicted rapist, first President to not concede AND to incite an insurrection that we all saw on TV for chrissake. A candidate who repeated conspiracy theories about Haitian residents “eating the cats and the dogs” during a debate, a debate he failed so miserably at that he refused to debate again. A candidate who swayed to Avi—friggin—Maria followed by the YMCA for over 30 minutes in what was supposed to be a town hall. Who held a hate filled event at Madison Square Gardens.

The Democratic candidate wasn’t the problem.

Regardless of what Nancy “thinks”, perhaps she could keep those thoughts to herself right now, as I see zero benefit to the Democratic Party, voters, or anyone for that matter.

[Rebl2]

63. We will

never know now, will we.

[maxsolomon]

60. Nope. Motherfucker would have beat most any Dem this time.

Maybe not Obama.

[Sequoia]

61. Her and George Clooney

[crimycarny]

62. Yep

And Adam Schiff, Stephen Colbert (who I still won't watch), Sherrod Brown--so many cowards only interested in their re-elections. (How'd that work out for you Sherrod?)

Who had President Biden's back? The Black Caucus, those with a hell of a lot more to lose. They showed far more courage.

[BeyondGeography]

6. We ended up with a catastrophic result

So shit is hitting the fan.

Normal.

[voteragain]

7. shoulda coulda woulda

how is helping the vote I made?

don't need Putin propaganda with help like this..........

at my age this could be my last pres vote I made.

where's the FDR's any more?

[GreenWave]

8. Did any other areas get bombarded by non stop attack dog mentality "ads" the last two weeks?

[totodeinhere]

33. I kept getting a large number of Trump texts per day.

I always blocked the number but that did no good because they would use a different number every time. As far as from the Democrats goes, I got a couple of texts from President Obama and a couple from Jackie Rosen but that's it.

[delisen]

9. This is not helpful.

The NYT is blameworthy. It abdicated its role as the Free Press a long time ago.

I recommend The Guardian

[ificandream]

16. We need to stop blaming the Times.

They weren't the ones spreading the endless (and increasingly louder) propaganda. Thank Fox and their friends in the RW media for that. And more distrust in our media is what Trump lives for. Blaming the Times is doing his job. It needs to stop.

[choie]

42. They were the ones that have been doing major bothsiderism

since 2016. Don't tell me the NY Times wasn't part of the problem.

[Alice B.]

10. And all of us who are scared and uncertain right now thank you for this show of leadership

So glad we have adults in the room.

[Mawspam2]

15. Could Kamala have used an extra month or twelve?

Maybe, but when you look at the big picture, Latino men were never going to vote for a black woman. In most areas of the country, that was your difference as well as too many Dems/ Inds staying home or leaving the top line blank.

[PortTack]

25. 1000+

[MrWowWow]

30. Why Do Latino Men Have Issues with Black Women?

Is this just a red herring being wielded while the reality of the 4th Reich moving back into the White House settles into the nation's hive mind? What is the simple explanation? Am not an anthropologist nor a sociologist. Anybody have a simple answer to this question?

[Intractable]

17. Am I mistaken? Back in 2020, didn't Biden himself say that he'd only run for one term?

Even before the debate, he seemed substantially aged compared to 2020.

Whereas I will call him the best president in my lifetime (born in the LBJ era), upon seeing his diminishment, I didn't want him to run again.

[Bleacher Creature]

31. I've really come to realize that primaries matter.

If Harris had the opportunity to build a platform and refine it during a primary she would have been able to hit the ground running in the general. What she was able to pull off was remarkable, but at the end of the day a 100 day campaign wasn't realistic. I love and respect Biden, but that's 100% on him.

[Rebl2]

56. Do not

remember him saying that at all, but then I don’t watch news 24/7.

[yaesu]

18. I noticed everyone from Oswald to santa is being blamed

Last edited Sat Nov 9, 2024, 08:54 PM - Edit history (1)

while the fascists are patting themselves on the back in congratulation for a fraud well played.

[Sneederbunk]

19. Seems like only yesterday that we were considered united.

[PortTack]

24. Stop! The election is over. Pointing fingers doesn't help. President Biden has been thru enough at the hands

Of Schiff and others. Quit it!

[Galraedia]

28. It is not Biden's job to step down it's someone else's to STEP UP

[Blue Owl]

34. Shame on her -- disagree 100%

Sure, things could have been managed differently — but Biden’s 4 years have been a success by any measure.

[crimycarny]

39. Exactly

And Nancy running to the Press to complain about Biden versus a full court press on all of Joe Biden’s accomplishments makes her complicit. It’s that back stabbing crap that fuels voter apathy. If your own party won’t back you then why would anyone else. How does that help the future Democratic Party??

The election is over so Monday morning quarterbacking by a leader of the Democratic Party is not helpful at all. She should be REMINDING voters about all of Biden’s, and the Democratic Party by proxy, accomplishments so that voters don’t forget when things start going to hell under Trump.

Attacking your own team is why the Dems fail at messaging time and time again.

[dlk]

40. Blaming any Democrat for any reason is an enormous waste of time and accomplishes nothing

Last edited Sun Nov 10, 2024, 10:25 AM - Edit history (1)

Republicans cheated. This is where everyone’s attention needs to be focused

[choie]

41. Agree with you Polybius.

It is not at all helpful.

[JHB]

43. Again, if you want to point fingers, Nan, point them at yourself.

By far the largest factor in the election results is how normalized RW spin is. That's because Republicans have spent the last several decades establishing their own independent media apparatus that can take reality, reprocess it, and spew it in any number of ways to reflect negatively on Democrats.

You, Nancy Pelosi, as a person very influential in where Democratic donors put their money, did absolutely nothing about this. Whatever your calculations were, it blinded you to realities that were to the detriment of the Democratic Party.

There is nothing you can blame Joe for that cannot be laid more squarely at your own feet.

[Jack Valentino]

45. Americans might have fared better if Pelosi had impeached SHRUB

but she said it was "off the table"


she lost me at "off the table"

[Initech]

46. Yay here comes the post election infighting!

[BlueMTexpat]

47. FFS, Nancy!

You know better than that!

[Seasider]

48. This whole Biden shouldn't have run thing is revisionist nonsense

If these guys felt so strongly about Biden not running they should’ve confronted him about it back when he first said he was running for reelection. But they didn’t and why would they? Biden was an incumbent President with an economy going in a positive direction and this was also before the Gaza thing.

While I do agree that ideally there should’ve been a full primary for finding a Democratic nominee if Biden wasn’t it, but there’s no guarantee that would’ve flipped the election in our favor especially with no incumbent advantage. Biden had every right to run again. He quit the race when he did because his party forced him out! They can’t pin this on him and wash their hands of the role they played in all of this.

[Afrocat]

50. They dumbasses of this country elected, or help elect by defacto

a dude that is clearly falling apart on top of being horrible. If the AMERICAN PEOPLE are that fucking stupid then what can I tell you. There is no amount of how Biden came off, or when he left the race, that was at play in any of these peoples decisions and that's the problem. They decided they were going to vote for the absolute worst candidate ever, or not vote, long before this election season began. Biden being old and half dead was instantly exchange for I don't know enough about her policies. Meanwhile Trump is old and more than half dead with no policies and he told them as much. This is on the head of the American populace and they are going to 100% pay for this shit.

The funny part is when is the surprise face when the leopards come for dinner and we can all stare and them and just say Fuck You. As for Pelosi, she needs to get the fuck on with this. no statements, no whining, no crying in or around the media. This goes for any of the politicians on our side. Do not go out there trying to position yourself for the media. We don't have time for any of that. Sit the fuck down and get to work on how we resist falling all the way into chaos. Start figuring out how to make these dumb motherfuckers in the American populace understand the pot boiling and the water is still high enough that we could reach the edge with a good jump.


My apologies for language. I curse, but try to keep the language situation appropriate. However, whenever I have process what is happening now. This is how I feel when I think about this mess and the people associated with it. I'm tired, I'm sad, I'm discouraged, I'm enraged.

[GiqueCee]

51. Here we go again...

... eating our own, because certain parties on the Mountain Top (the oligarchs haven't limited their malign influence only to Republicans) don't want anyone pointing fingers at the obvious source of all this discord, and that obliudki – I can't type in Cyrillic – has mentally gone over the high side and into the rhubarb. He's conscripting 80-year-old babushkas to fight in Ukraine now! The red flags here glow in the dark, for crissake! Anyone with the observational capabilities of a potted plant knows that Russia has for decades amassed mountains of kompromat on everyone of political significance, and especially here in The Land of Dumb and Dumber. The onslaught was laser-focused on critical Electoral College states, and that strategy was the dike that stopped the Blue Wave dead. Combine that with the constant cascade of mis- and disinformation flooding every news source (thanks, M$M, you treacherous fucks, for not countering ANY of it with the truth!), and all of social media from Putin's troll farms, and you have a perfect storm of lies. Kamala never had a chance. And for the record, even if there had been a primary at such a late date, Kamala was, hands down and going way, the best candidate, and she damned well proved it.
And to the "undecided" dipshits, the economy is the best it's been in 50 years, and NO president has the wherewithal to directly influence inflation. That is the exclusive domain of the despicable corporatists, and their oligarch overlords, that deliberately jack up prices to enrich themselves at the expense of consumers. So slither back into your mothers' basements, do your homework, and STFU.

I've always admired you, Nancy, but this is beneath you. Or, at least, I thought it was.

[Macrophylla]

52. The problem....

Trying to appeal to the undecided idiots when they should focus on getting the people who actuall say they support them to actually get out and vote for them.

[doc03]

53. She is probably right Biden's approval rating was always under water, it was said long before

the election season even started that no president had ever been re-elected with those numbers. Biden
was always a moderate but as president he let the most liberal faction of the party have too much influence.
One thing was the appointments he made, it was like he had a check list to please every group rather than
pick the most qualified person. The government pushing EVs before we have any infrastructure for them was
highly unpopular. To work your butt off to pay off your student loan then have the government come in and
forgive loans others made wasn't so popular. The complaints I heard most was about the inflation from
Democrats and Republicans and why was illegal immigration ignored until a few months before the election?
I am not agreeing totally with all that but those are the things I heard both Rs and Ds talk about.

[democratsruletheday]

65. she's absolutely right...it's common sense but she looks

petty and small in pointing it out. Poor Form for sure.

[Martin68]

57. I'm disappointed that at this point Pelosi would engage in fruitless finger-pointing. we should be uniting right now,

not playing the blame game. Whether she's right or not, there's no advantage to blaming Biden now.

[camartinwv]

58. Nancy Pelosi should be ashamed of herself.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

59. NOT HELPING, water under dam! Better use of time - figure out how to counteract DISINFORMATION

Last edited Sun Nov 10, 2024, 08:31 PM - Edit history (3)

and the rest of the authoritarian's playbook, which has been used for many decades in many many many different places to take control and maintain it. I think there was a pbs series of the same name. This really is a bigger thing than just what Joe Biden did, or didn't do.

[LiberalFighter]

64. Really? Nancy needs to be quiet.