(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Former President Barack Obama cursed at former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris’s short presidential bid in 2024.
“What the f**k did you just do?” Obama reportedly asked Pelosi in October 2024,
according to ABC News journalist Jonathan Karl’s new book Retribution.
“The Obamas were not happy,” a Pelosi confidant told Karl, as reported Tuesday by the
Daily Mail. At the time, then-President Joe Biden had dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris as his preferred successor.
Previously, both Obama and Pelosi had mounted a behind-the-scenes campaign to push Biden off the ticket over what appeared an imminent loss to President Donald Trump.
Harris, however, remained equally unpopular, with some polling suggesting she would
have been an easier target for Trump. Obama reportedly believed Harris could not win the
contest.
Pelosi shocked Obama when she endorsed Harris on July 22, a day after Biden’s
withdrawal.
“The former president wanted to know what had happened,” Karl alleged. “Why had Pelosi
issued a statement endorsing Harris so soon? Hadn’t he and Pelosi agreed days earlier that
party leaders anointing the vice president as Biden’s replacement would be a mistake?”
In response to Obama’s criticism, Pelosi reportedly said the “train has left the station,”
signaling that Harris had effectively become the party’s nominee.
According to Karl, Obama and Pelosi had been in “regular communication” and “had
privately agreed to abstain from making any endorsements,” likely to allow an open
primary.
Obama took five days to endorse Harris, angering some party officials, like Rep. Maxine
Waters, D-Calif., who was vocal about her frustration.
“I wonder what’s taking them so long,” Waters said in an interview with Politico at the time.
“I know they were part of the little group with Nancy Pelosi that was telling him he had to
step aside. … I wondered, do they have a mystery candidate around? Why are they so
interested in an open convention? I wondered what was propelling that.
