Pelosi: Biden Endorsing Kamala Harris for President ‘Made It Almost Impossible’ to Have a Democratic Primary

Garcia-NAVARRO: “But I do think it’s important to discuss a little bit about what you think could have been done differently. And a lot of the discussion has centered around how much President Biden’s delay in deciding to leave the race following the debate in June hurt the VP’s campaign. You know, you were very involved in encouraging him to leave, and there is reporting that you were concerned about him being the candidate well before the debate in June, and polls were showing that the American people were very concerned about President Biden’s age and his ability to lead into another term. Do you wish you’d gotten involved earlier than you did?”
Pelosi: “No, I — well, the president made his own decision to step aside and to endorse Kamala Harris. He made a patriotic, selfless decision to which we are all very grateful. We did all that we needed to do to win the House, as well as the White House.
It’s up to the candidate for president to make his or her own decision about timing, policy.”
Garcia-NAVARRO: “Do you think the timing hobbled Kamala Harris? Because she had 100 days to get a campaign off the ground, to mobilize people, to get her message across, to get her self-known. I mean, this was an incredibly truncated campaign and many people think that maybe she was set up to fail just by the timeline alone.”
Pelosi: “Oh, I don’t think she was set up to fail. But let me just say this: We are only a couple of days since the election. There will be many reviews of timing and the who, what, when and why and where as we go forward, and books will be written about it. The fact is, she did a great job with the time constraint that she had. Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race. Kamala, I think, still would have one, but she may have been stronger having taken her case to the public sooner.”
Garcia-NAVARRO: “You’ve talked about your interest in having had an open primary.”
Pelosi: “Yeah.”
Garcia-NAVARRO: “And, as you know, it would have uncovered her weaknesses, her strength, it would have tested her electability. That’s what the primary system is intended to do. And it would have also perhaps resulted in a nominee that wasn’t so tied to an unpopular president.”
Pelosi: “Well, let me — it’s interesting that you say those things. I don’t think that any review of the election should be predicated on weaknesses, but strengths of Kamala Harris. She gave people hope. She caused a great deal of excitement in all this. It’s about winning, you don’t have to tell me that, but the fact is, we’re set up for what comes next.”
Garcia-NAVARRO: “Should there have been an open primary then?”
Pelosi: “Well, see, we thought that there would be. It was — the anticipation was that if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary. And as I say, Kamala may have — I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened. And because the president endorsed Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time.”