Former Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not spoken to President Joe Biden since she aided in his stepping down from office.
Speaking with Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian on his Politics Weekly America podcast, Nancy Pelosi said she has not spoken to the soon-to-be former president since the day she advised him to not run for reelection.
“Not since then, no,” she said. “But I’m prayerful about it.”
Pelosi said she holds the “greatest respect” for Biden.
“I have the greatest respect for him. I think he’s one of the great consequential presidents of our country,” she said. “I think his legacy had to be protected. I didn’t see that happening in the course that it was on, the election was on. My call was just to: ‘Let’s get on a better course.’ He will make the decision as to what that is. And he made that decision. But I think he has some unease because we’ve been friends for decades.
“Elections are decisions,” she added. “You decide to win. I decided a while ago that Donald Trump will never set foot in the White House again as president of the United States or in any other capacity … So when you make a decision, you have to make every decision in favor of winning … and the most important decision of all is the candidate.”
In the same interview, Pelosi also said she never utters Trump’s name, likening it to a bad word.
“I hardly ever say his name,” she said. “I think [Trump is] a grotesque word … You just don’t like the word passing your lips. I just don’t. I’m afraid, you know, when I grew up Catholic, as I am now, if you said a bad word, you could burn in hell if you didn’t have a chance to confess. So I don’t want to take any chances.”
“It’s up there with, like, swearing,” she added.
