Former Speaker of the United States Congress and influential Democrat Nancy Pelosi said that if President Joe Biden had withdrawn from the election earlier, his party could have done better in last Tuesday’s vote.
“Other candidates might have entered the race if the president ran first,” the New York Times reported, citing Ms. Pelosi.
“The expectation was that if the president stepped down there would be an open primary.”
The party gets the chance to secure the party nomination by campaigning and participating in debates for several months in the open primaries. Parties typically do not hold primaries when an incumbent president is elected, so when Joe Biden announced he would run for a second term, his party did not consider anyone else.
Joe Biden quickly endorsed Ms. Harris as a candidate at that time. Nancy Pelosi also criticized him. Although at the same time, it was not easy to organize primaries then.
Pelosi, however, said she believes Kamala Harris would have done well in the primary and come out with a stronger position. He also thinks it would have yielded other Democratic candidates who would have been better nominees.
Source: bbc