On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” House Speaker Emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) responded to a question on President Joe Biden not having a full Cabinet meeting in almost a year and if Biden’s cognitive condition was hidden by the White House by stating that Biden “is a consequential President.”
While discussing the June debate, Pelosi stated, “I thought we were going to see Joe Biden from the State of the Union. I never wanted to debate what’s his name because he’s always — he’s a joke, it’s not a funny joke, but it’s a joke. And he said, no, I’m looking forward to it. And so, he was confident about that. As one who has, as a party chair in California and also the leader and speaker with my own candidates for Congress and the rest — not my own, but our party’s — I always would just say, if you’re going to a debate, two things: have a clear mind, and remember, as Christine, my daughter, always says, the Tour de France…is won in bed, get rest. Be rested and clear. You know why you’re here. You know what you care about. You know how you want to get things done. You want to show people what’s in your heart. You don’t have to memorize anything. You don’t have to have days of prepping. So, when I saw him, I thought, in my view, over-prepped, not a good idea.”
Host Jake Tapper asked, “Did you think that that was all that was going on? The President has not had a full Cabinet meeting since last October. There are people, Democrats that I’ve talked to who think that, obviously, he’s not able to communicate the way he used to be able to communicate and they think that people in the White House were hiding this from senior Democrats like yourself, keeping him — keeping a close control over who got to see him.”
Pelosi responded, “I think this President is of — he is a consequential President. In his term in office, he has accomplished great things, as we talk about –.”
Tapper then cut in to ask how Biden deciding to leave the 2024 race will be viewed by history. Pelosi responded that Biden will be remembered as unselfish. Pelosi also stated that she hasn’t talked to Biden since he left the race, but them going weeks without talking isn’t out of the ordinary.
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