Nancy Pelosi makes stunning confession about why she knifed Biden: 'That letter didn't sound like Joe'

Nancy Pelosi says a letter Joe Biden wrote to Congress in early July convinced her that the president no longer seemed like himself and needed to drop his re-election campaign. 

Pelosi said in an interview this weekend that she'd been swayed by the letter signed by Biden on July 8 that said he was 'firmly committed' to staying in the race.

Biden's longtime ally, who has worked in DC with the president since her election to Congress in 1987, said: 'It didn’t sound like Joe Biden to me. It really didn’t.'

The ex-speaker's words come as Biden finally admitted that Pelosi's concerns about other Democratic races contributed to his decision to exit the race. 

The first woman to serve as Speaker of the House said that the tone the letter set made fellow Democrats angry.  

'I didn’t accept the letter as anything but a letter,' she told the New York Times. 'I mean, there are some people who are unhappy with the letter.'  

Biden issued the letter just as lawmakers are coming back from a July 4th recess where he has faced growing calls to quit the race after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump and a string of bad polling data showing he is in danger of losing.

In it, Biden, 81, took shots at the press, donors and party operatives who have said the party's only chance is to throw him over the side.

'Let me say it differently. Some said that some people were unhappy with the letter. I’ll put it in somebody else’s mouth,' Pelosi added.

Biden spoke Sunday about how Pelosi was among those building pressure on Biden to step aside, along with other top Party Leaders like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Adam Schiff.  

'A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races,' Biden said in his first interview since ending his reelection campaign.

'And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic — you'd be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something] … and I thought it'd be a real distraction,' he said in the interview with CBS News Sunday Morning host Robert Costa. 

Biden's decision to invoke Pelosi comes after reports of a lingering strain. Senior advisor Anita Dunn, who is leaving the White House to join a pro-Harris super PAC, also spoke to the pressure campaign in recent comments.

'You know, clearly there were leaders of the party who decided to go ahead and go very public. And that gave permission to other people to go public,' she said.

Asked about rumors Biden was furious, Pelosi told the New Yorker magazine, 'He knows that I love him very much. I pray so. I cry so.' 

A growing list of Democrats were calling for Biden to drop out of the race after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump in June. 

Biden said that had he remained in, the race would have been razor close – although polls before he dropped out showed him behind in all the battleground states and in a tight but inferior position nationally.

'The polls we had showed that it was a neck and neck race, woulda been down to the wire. But what happened was a number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was gonna hurt them in the races. And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic,' he said.

Biden's struggles were on display during his debate disaster with Trump and Democrats who were for years downplaying concerns about the president's fitness were forced to confront it, with many suddenly demanding he exit the race.

In the weeks after the debate, Biden was on clean-up duty – but his efforts just led to more gaffes and fumbles that increased worries that the president could hurt the chances of other Democratic politicians in their elections.