Obama was furious that Pelosi endorsed Harris

OPINION:

In case it’s not 100% clear by now, Barack Obama was 100% responsible for Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 presidential race — and he was furious when Uncle Joe and Aunt Nancy endorsed the sure-to-lose Kamala 107 days out from Election Day.

According to ABC White House correspondent Jonathan Karl’s new book, “Retribution,” the 44th president had some choice words for the former House speaker after she threw her support behind Ms. Harris less than 24 hours after Mr. Biden’s campaign went belly-up.

Mr. Obama had been busy orchestrating what he (supposedly) hoped would be a democratic process to pick President Trump’s opponent (remember that he got actor George Clooney to pen an op-ed calling for Mr. Biden to drop out). But Mrs. Pelosi had other plans and followed Mr. Biden’s lead in quickly endorsing Ms. Harris shortly after he bailed out of the race.

“The Obamas were not happy,” a Pelosi confidant told Mr. Karl, painting a picture of a phone call that was more colorful than your average political strategy session. “This person summed up Obama’s message to Pelosi as, essentially, ’What the f—- did you just do?’” Ah, nothing says “Hope and Change” quite like a good ol’ profanity-laced political tantrum.

The drama stems from Mr. Obama’s apparent preference for letting “a process” determine the Democratic nominee. But Mr. Karl writes that Mr. Obama really just thought Mr. Biden’s veep was a loser, as he had “serious concerns about Harris’ competence and her ability to beat Trump.”

Yet Mrs. Pelosi, ever the soulless political operative, had already made her move. In her endorsement, she described Ms. Harris as “brilliantly astute” and expressed “full confidence” in the vice president’s ability to defeat Mr. Trump. When Mr. Obama called to express his displeasure, she delivered what might be the political equivalent of a mic drop: “That train has left the station.”

After the election, Mrs. Pelosi explained herself. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race. The anticipation was that if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.” She went on: “We live with what happened, and because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”

But remember, Mr. Biden was furious that he had been forced out of the race. Even though he had agreed to step aside, he never committed to supporting an open race for his slot, and while he didn’t endorse Ms. Harris (whom he’d secretly hated ever since she implied, during a presidential debate, that he was a racist) in his farewell post, he did a few hours later, sealing the Democrats’ fate.

Journalist Mark Halperin found out as much a few days after the election. “Biden was not supposed to endorse Harris that first day. In fact, many around the VP didn’t want him to endorse out of concern that it was going to hurt her ’she’s earning the nomination’ narrative,” he wrote on X.

But Mr. Biden decided that if he couldn’t run, he would stick the party with the worst candidate he could think of, someone who would surely get roundly beaten on Election Day.

Still, according to Mr. Karl, Mr. Obama and Mrs. Pelosi had supposedly “agreed Harris should not simply be handed the nomination unchallenged” and had been in “regular communication” before Mr. Biden’s July 21, 2024, withdrawal. They even made a pact to “abstain from making any endorsements.”

The former president and former speaker had a power struggle that she won. Mr. Obama was forced to endorse Ms. Harris five days after Mr. Biden dropped out. But those five days of radio silence spoke volumes about the behind-the-scenes politicking that the public rarely gets to see.

There was always an unspoken plan: Mr. Biden was supposed to bail — endorse no one (democracy, don’t you know) — and there would be an impromptu primary or perhaps merely a series of votes at the Democratic National Convention, which was just weeks away. Then the candidate would be … well, someone other than Ms. Harris (think that California governor with the nice hair).

So, why bother with all this now? Because it’s just what you’ve known since it happened! And now, finally, everyone has admitted it.

But then, this is just another example of the Hillary Benghazi Theorem: Deny, deflect, deny, distract, deny — then say, “What, you guys are still on about that old thing?!” So, I’m just letting you know you’re not crazy. You were right all along.

• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on X @josephcurl.