Former President Barack Obama was reportedly taken aback when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi swiftly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris following President Joe Biden’s unexpected exit from the presidential race. Jonathan Karl, an ABC News journalist, reveals in his latest book, “Retribution,” that Obama was hoping for a more deliberative process to select the Democratic nominee rather than a quick endorsement of Harris. The Daily Mail has obtained an advance copy of the book, shedding light on the behind-the-scenes tensions.
Upon learning of Pelosi’s endorsement, Obama contacted her, expressing his discontent. A confidant of Pelosi informed Karl that the former president’s message was essentially, “What the [expletive] did you just do?” In response, Pelosi reportedly told Obama, “That train has left the station.” This move caught Obama off guard, especially since he and Pelosi had been in regular contact as Biden, then 81, was contemplating his withdrawal from the race. They had seemingly agreed that Harris should face competition for the nomination rather than being anointed without challenge.
According to Karl, Obama and Pelosi—arguably the most powerful figures within the Democratic Party—had privately decided to refrain from making any endorsements. The decision came in the wake of Biden’s troubling debate performance against Donald Trump on June 27, 2024, and a subsequent interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, where Biden struggled to articulate whether he had reviewed his debate performance. Further compounding his woes, Biden made a series of notable gaffes, including mistakenly referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” during the NATO summit and calling Harris “Vice President Trump.”
Those fumbles didn’t help Biden address mental competency concerns, and then he contracted COVID-19 during a trip to Las Vegas, leaving him so physically frail that it appeared Secret Service agents had to help him get into a black SUV that whisked him to his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, vacation home so he could recover. It was from there that he decided to abort his reelection bid – putting out a statement on July 21 – and then endorsing Harris shortly thereafter. Around 1 p.m. the next day, Pelosi endorsed Harris, leaving Obama miffed.
‘The former president wanted to know what had happened. Why had Pelosi issued a statement endorsing Harris so soon? Hadn’t he and Pelosi agreed days earlier that party leaders anointing the vice president as Biden’s replacement would be a mistake?’ Karl wrote. A source close to Obama told Karl that the former president wasn’t actually angry at Pelosi over the endorsement, characterizing the conversation as a ‘good-natured ribbing.’ But the source close to the California congresswoman remembered it differently, believing Obama sounded ‘genuinely irritated’ by Pelosi’s move, using the four-letter word to describe the tone.
A senior Biden adviser, who also worked in the Obama White House, told Karl that the real reason Obama didn’t want Pelosi to endorse Harris so quickly was that the former president didn’t think the vice president could win. ‘There’s only one Black Jesus,’ the senior Biden adviser quipped. Someone even closer to Pelosi was also surprised by the former House Speaker’s decision: Pelosi’s own husband. ‘Kamala?’ Paul Pelosi asked his wife, Karl reported.
‘Don’t start with me,’ Nancy Pelosi replied in a conversation shortly after her endorsement of the vice president became public. Pelosi had never been a big Harris fan and had privately told Biden in 2020 that she had reservations about him picking her fellow Californian as his running mate. But with major Democrats like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and potential challengers like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer quickly backing Harris, ‘she had no choice,’ Karl wrote.
‘No other candidates had stepped forward – Kamala Harris was it. The only thing Pelosi could do was try to help her win the election,’ Karl said. Obama and his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, made the same assessment days later, officially endorsing Harris in a campaign video five days after Biden exited the 2024 race. Karl’s Retribution hits bookstores Tuesday.
