Nancy Pelosi Calls Out Biden Allies Who Knew About His Decline, Claims They ‘Should Have Acted’

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is criticizing the people closest to Joe Biden who knew about his apparent cognitive decline before his disastrous 2024 debate against President Donald Trump, arguing that those with firsthand knowledge should have acted sooner.

Speaking at Politico’s California Agenda event, Pelosi said she personally did not understand the extent of Biden’s problems until his June 27, 2024, debate performance. She pointed to conflicting accounts over exactly who inside Biden’s inner circle knew about his condition.

“I do think that those who did know should have acted upon that information. Whoever knew,” Pelosi said. She noted that Biden’s staff and family have pointed fingers at each other over who understood the seriousness of the situation.

Pelosi maintained that she rarely saw Biden personally after Democrats lost control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections. She said the debate was the moment when she and many other Democrats realized how serious the problem had become.

Her claim that she was unaware before the debate, however, faces questions because of previously reported private remarks. Author Chris Whipple wrote in his 2025 book “Uncharted” that Pelosi was alarmed by Biden’s appearance when he presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in May 2024.

According to Whipple, Pelosi privately told a friend that she had been “startled by how much the president had aged” and remarked that he was “not the same Joe Biden.” Those comments reportedly came roughly two months before Biden’s debate performance triggered a Democratic panic.

Pelosi was publicly defending Biden during the same period. After a June 2024 Wall Street Journal report raised questions about his age and performance behind closed doors, Pelosi attacked the story as a “hit piece” and praised Biden’s wisdom, experience, strength and strategic thinking.

The former speaker also disputed accounts portraying her as the central force behind Biden’s eventual withdrawal from the presidential race. Pelosi said she questioned the polling being presented to Biden and expressed concerns about how his campaign was being conducted, but denied directly telling him to abandon his reelection bid.

Pelosi acknowledged that she encouraged Biden to undergo a cognitive examination and publicly release the results. She said such an examination could have reassured Americans that he was capable of serving another four-year term as concerns about his condition intensified.

Biden ultimately abandoned his reelection campaign in July 2024, clearing the way for Kamala Harris to become the Democratic nominee before losing to Trump in November. Pelosi is now placing responsibility on the Biden insiders who had firsthand knowledge of his condition, arguing that anyone who understood what was happening should have spoken up before the situation exploded publicly.