Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn’t think Biden can win, White House source says

“If the (poll) numbers are accurate and Biden suffers such a large drop in swing districts (with close races in the House) that he can’t win and is behind Hillary’s 2016 numbers, it would take a historic level of division for our candidates to have any chance of winning,” the adviser added, referring to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee who lost to Trump in the 2016 US election.

“Frankly, that seems unlikely,” the aide said.

The White House source noted that Pelosi likes to quote former President Abraham Lincoln at leadership meetings. Lincoln said in his speech, “With public sentiment nothing can fail, and without it nothing can succeed.”

“I don’t think I would have said he was dropping out of the race” before the public pressure from top Democratic leaders, the source said of Biden. “I haven’t seen any sign of it, but now who knows?”

“There is a path” to victory, the source added, “but it will be difficult. It will not be easy for Kamala,” referring to Vice President Kamala Harris, who is likely to replace Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.

“Democrats are doing this to ourselves. It’s disappointing, but we have to get through it, with or without a change” in the ticket, the source said, adding that “there is no other choice.”