Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” the former House speaker said in an interview with The New York Times, suggesting she had anticipated an “open primary.

"Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race," Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. "The

Pelosi was among the top Democratic officials who pushed the 81-year-old president to step aside after his disastrous debate performance this summer.