Pelosi’s Malarkey

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Joe Biden’s the Democratic nominee. Ilhan Omar says the same. Ayanna Pressley’s adamant about it. Nancy Pelosi’s not so sure.

Biden must be wondering when he died and why the “Lord Almighty” he consults for political advice banished him to a parallel universe where a 41-year-old Somali-American far-left firebrand supports his bid for reelection but a fellow octogenarian establishment stalwart calls it into question, inadvertently or not.

Earlier this week, Ocasio-Cortez left little doubt about the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket. “He is the nominee,” she said. “I think everybody’s supporting the president,” Omar remarked, describing the handful of Democrats who publicly called on Biden to step aside as “outliers.” “I think we’re losing the plot here,” Pressley chided. “Joe Biden is the nominee.”

Using Pressley’s characterization, Pelosi might’ve lost the plot. Or may be in the process of losing it. “It’s up to the president to decide if he’s going to run,” she told “Morning Joe” on Wednesday, just 48 hours after Biden called into the show to rant about defectors (among other things). “We’re all encouraging him to to make that decision. Because time is running short,” she went on.

That’s a strange way to put it. To let Biden tell it, that decision’s made. He’s quite insistent on the point. For Pelosi to suggest it’s still somehow in doubt counted as remarkable. Equally remarkable was her refusal to say he should press on. “I want him to do whatever he decides to do,” she said. “And that’s the way it is. Whatever he decides, we go with.”

She quickly pivoted to the NATO conference. She appeared on air with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the rightful president of Belarus. Tsikhanouskaya fled the country in 2020 fearing Alexander Lukashenko might kill her after that year’s sham presidential ballot. (Belarus’s elections are among the most farcical on Earth. In 30 years, Lukashenko’s never lost. Or so he claims. He threw Tsikhanouskaya’s husband in jail for challenging him. In August of 2020, Vladimir Putin offered to send troops into the country to quell protests in the wake of the vote, which was decried as uniquely absurd even as shams go.)

Just hours after her MSNBC cameo, Pelosi accused The New York Times of misrepresenting her remarks. “I never said he should reconsider his decision,” she wrote, in a statement. “I don’t know what’s happened to The New York Times that they make up news.”

Once again we see Democrats — top Democrats — channeling their inner-Donald Trump to castigate the free press as fake news. That’s happened on several occasions since the debate.

Pelosi’s statement to the Times was disingenuous. Or it was obfuscation. Both. No, she didn’t say Biden should reconsider his decision. Rather, she suggested the decision hasn’t been made. Then she doubtlessly got a call from the president. (“Don’t give me any malarkey, Nancy! I don’t need this right now. NATO’s in town. Clean it up, goddammit. Clean. It. Up.” Click.)

With all due respect to Pelosi, she said what she said. Everyone heard it, including Biden. You can watch it for yourself. Pelosi intimated, in no uncertain terms, that the decision hadn’t been made — that Biden was still mulling it over.

She was, of course, laudatory of her friend. But, again, she plainly suggested the jury’s still out as to whether he’ll remain on the ticket. “He’s beloved. He’s respected. And people want him to make that decision,” she said.

Much as it pains me to admit, the person who’s being the most honest about this situation is — drumroll — Donald Trump. “It looks to me like he may very well stay in,” Trump told Sean Hannity earlier this week. “He’s got an ego. He doesn’t want to quit.”