Former President Joe Biden blamed ‘Barack’ and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for his political ousting amid the election cycle in 2024, President Donald Trump shared in an interview reflecting on his conversations with the 46th president.
‘I went to the White House a few months before this all happened. … But I went there and he asked for a meeting, and I went and we talked for a little while, and at first I couldn’t… You couldn’t… He talked so low,’ Trump said in an interview with The Spectator’s Ben Domenech on Thursday afternoon at the White House.
Trump’s comments came after Domenech asked about Biden’s apparent warm attitude toward Trump following the November 2024 election. He explained that Biden invited Trump to the White House following his electoral win over former Vice President Kamala Harris and asked him whom he ‘blamed’ for the loss.
‘I asked him, I said, ‘So who do you blame?’ Because he was very angry, you know, he was a very angry guy, actually,’ Trump said. ‘And he said, ‘I blame Barack.’ And I never think of him as ‘Barack.’ You know, you always hear ‘Obama.’ You say, you have to think about that for a second. And he said, ‘and I also blame Nancy Pelosi.’’
Biden noted in his conversation that he did not blame Harris for the disarray in the Democratic Party during the election year, Trump said.
‘I said, ‘What about the vice president?’ He said, ‘No, I don’t blame her,’ which was interesting,’ Trump said. ‘He didn’t blame her. He blamed… he told me he blamed those two people.’
The year 2024 kicked off with Biden in the driver’s seat of the Democratic Party as he keyed up a re-election effort in what was shaping up to be a second match-up against Trump.
In February 2024, however, Biden’s 81 years of age and mental acuity fell under public scrutiny after years of conservatives questioning the commander in chief’s mental fitness.
Special counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents as vice president, announced he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, calling Biden ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’
The report renewed scrutiny over Biden’s mental acuity, which rose to a fever pitch in June 2024 after the president’s first and only presidential debate against Trump.
Biden faced backlash for a handful of gaffes and miscues in the days leading up to his ill-fated debate against Trump, including Obama taking Biden’s wrist and appearing to lead him off a stage during a swank fundraiser, and also abroad when Italian Prime Minister Giogia Meloni guided Biden back to a group of world leaders when he appeared to wander off to give a thumbs-up to a parachutist during the G-7 summit.
When the big debate day arrived, Biden missed his marks repeatedly, tripping over his responses and appearing to lose his train of thought as he squared up against Trump. The disastrous debate performance led to an outpouring from both conservatives and traditional Democrat allies calling on the president to bow out of the race in favor of a younger generation.
On July 21, 2024, Biden issued a post announcing he would bow out of the race. He endorsed Harris to take the reins of the election in a follow-up post.
Pelosi’s relationship with Biden hit the rocks amid the speculation and the ultimate decision to bow out of the race, with Pelosi revealing on MSNBC earlier in February that she still has not spoken to Biden or former first lady Jill Biden in months but hopes to patch up their yearslong friendship.
Some Democrats and insiders have pointed to Obama for the 2024 loss, after Obama reportedly worked in the background in summer 2024 to encourage Biden’s ouster from the race.
A handful of Obama’s allies and former advisers helped lead the charge in calling on Biden to drop out of the race earlier in the summer of 2024, including former Obama adviser David Axelrodsaying that Biden was ‘not winning this race;’ longtime Obama friend George Clooney calling on the president to drop out of the race in a bombshell op-ed; and Jon Favreau, who served as former director of speech writing for Obama, also calling on Biden to drop out of the race ahead of his eventual departure.
Fox News Digital reached out to the respective offices for Pelosi, Obama and Biden regarding Trump’s comments but did not immediately receive replies.