‘What the f*** did you just do?’ Obama’s furious call to Nancy Pelosi after election betrayal
Former President Barack Obama was unhappy with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris the day after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race.
Revenge in his new bookABC News’ Jonathan Karl provided new details about what is widely known: Obama does not want Harris’ coronation to happen immediately, but rather a ‘process’ to determine who will be the Democratic nominee.
The Daily Mail has obtained an advanced copy.
Obama called Pelosi shortly after her endorsement of Harris became public.
“The Obamas were not happy,” a Pelosi confidant told Karl. ‘This person summarized Obama’s message to Pelosi as follows: ‘What did you just do?’
Pelosi told former Democratic president: ‘That train has left the station.’
The confirmation came as a surprise to Obama, Karl wrote, because he and Pelosi were “in regular communication,” the 81-year-old Biden was nearing a decision to withdraw from the race, and they “agreed that Harris should not be given the nomination without controversy.”
‘So Obama and Pelosi, arguably the two most influential figures in the Democratic Party, had privately agreed to refrain from making any endorsements,’ the longtime ABC News correspondent said.
Former President Barack Obama (left) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (right) “privately agreed to refrain from making any endorsements” when it became clear that 81-year-old President Joe Biden would abandon his re-election bid in July 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in Texas, four days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race. Obama called Pelosi after Pelosi quickly endorsed Harris, and a source described the tone of the conversation as: ‘What did you just do?’
The president had a shockingly awful debate against Trump on June 27, 2024, followed by an unbalanced conversation with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos; in this debate, he could not say whether he had watched the debate performance after the fact.
He later made several eyebrow-raising gaffes, including calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ‘President Putin’ and referring to Harris as ‘Vice President Trump’ at the NATO summit.
The Revenge of Jonathan Karl hits bookshelves Tuesday. Daily Mail received first copy
These bungles didn’t help Biden ease mental competency concerns, and he then contracted COVID-19 during a trip to Las Vegas, leaving him so physically weak that Secret Service agents apparently had to help him into a black SUV that took him to his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, vacation home so he could recover.
From there, he decided to cancel his re-election bid in a statement on July 21 and endorsed Harris shortly thereafter.
At around 1pm the next day, Pelosi endorsed Harris, angering Obama.
‘The former president wanted to know what happened. Why was Pelosi so quick to make a statement supporting Harris? Didn’t he and Pelosi agree days ago that it would be a mistake for party leaders to appoint the vice president to replace Biden?’ Karl wrote.
A source close to Obama told Karl that the former president was not actually angry at Pelosi for the support, describing the conversation as a “good-natured rebuke.”
But a source close to the California congresswoman remembered it differently, believing Obama seemed “genuinely uncomfortable” with Pelosi’s move and used the four-letter word to describe her tone.
President Joe Biden was captured exiting Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base on July 17, 2024, after contracting COVID-19. He would go home to Rehoboth Beach, where he decided to cancel his presidential bid and then support Vice President Kamala Harris.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on the phone with former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama after the Obamas finally endorsed her, five days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.
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 because the former president didn’t think the vice president could win.
“There’s only one Black Jesus,” Biden’s senior adviser joked.
Someone even closer to Pelosi was also surprised by the former House Speaker’s decision: Pelosi’s own husband.
“Kamala?” Karl reports that Paul Pelosi asked his wife about this.
“Don’t start with me,” Nancy Pelosi responded in a speech shortly after her support for the vice president was publicly announced.
Pelosi has never been a big fan of Harris and privately told Biden in 2020 that she had reservations about choosing the Californian friend as his running mate.
But with prominent Democrats like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and potential rivals like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer quickly backing Harris, Karl wrote, she “had no choice.”
‘No other candidate had come forward; That was Kamala Harris. Karl said the only thing Pelosi could do was help her win the election.
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 dropped out of the 2024 race.
Karl’s Revenge is in bookstores on Tuesday.
