In private conversation, Pelosi tells Biden he wouldn’t beat Trump

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has privately told President Joe Biden that polls show the Democrat cannot beat Donald Trump.

Pelosi also said the president could destroy Democrats’ chances of winning the House in November if he continues to seek a second term, according to four sources briefed on the call.

The president responded by pushing back, telling Pelosi he had seen polls that indicated he could win, a source said.

Another source described Biden as being defensive about the polls. At one point, Pelosi asked Mike Donilon, a longtime Biden adviser, to come on the line to discuss the data.

Conversation context

The phone call would mark the second known conversation between the California lawmaker and Biden since the president’s disastrous June 27 debate.

While the exact date of the conversation was unclear, one source described it as having taken place in the last week. Pelosi and Biden also spoke in early July.

Neither source indicated whether Pelosi told Biden in that conversation that she believes the president should drop out of the 2024 race.

Pelosi spent the weeks following Biden’s disastrous debate performance CNN listening to the concerns of your colleagues.

The former U.S. House Speaker said in an interview last week: “It’s up to the president to decide whether he’s going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running out.”

When asked for comment, White House spokesman Andrew Bates did not respond to the details of the report. CNN on the recent Pelosi-Biden connection.

“President Biden is the party’s nominee. He plans to win and looks forward to working with Democrats in Congress to pass his 100-day agenda to help working families,” Bates said.

A Pelosi spokesperson told CNN that the former Speaker of the House has been in California since Friday (12) and has not spoken to Biden since then.