Pelosi backed lawmaker urging Biden to quit race, White House source says

By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has told President Joe Biden she believes he cannot win the Nov. 5 election and backed California lawmaker Adam Schiff's call for him to step aside, a top White House source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

But a source close to Pelosi - one of the most influential members of Biden's Democratic Party - said that Schiff's comments "came as news" to the former speaker and that he did not consult with Pelosi before making his concerns public.

A spokesman for the former speaker did not address Schiff's comments or what Pelosi told Biden.

"Speaker Pelosi respects the confidentiality of her meetings and conversations with the President," a spokesman said in a statement. "Sadly, the feeding frenzy from the press based on anonymous sources misrepresents any conversations the Speaker may have had with the President."

Schiff said in a statement on Wednesday that he has "serious concerns" about whether Biden can defeat Republican challenger Donald Trump, the first Democrat to come out after the Saturday assassination attempt against the former president.

Biden's campaign had hoped the shooting, in which a bullet grazed Trump's ear, would tamp down calls for him to step aside in the 2024 race before Schiff's statement.

"Nancy is all over this. She doesn't miss. Schiff wouldn't move without her approval," said the White House source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Pelosi is "convinced public sentiment is against POTUS (president of the United States) and he can't change it," the source added.

Pelosi and Schiff, a former chair of the House intelligence committee, both represent California districts in the House.

The White House declined to comment. Biden's deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, said there were no plans to replace him as the Democratic nominee for the Nov. 5 election.

Biden "is not wavering on anything. The president has made his decision," Fulks said in Milwaukee on Thursday.

Some Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate have called on Biden to step aside in the race after a shaky debate performance raised questions about his fitness for the job at age 81.

A Democratic aide said that Pelosi's main "unofficial" political role for some 25 years had been to work to ensure that Democrats have a majority in the House, a chamber now narrowly controlled by Republicans. Biden's standing among voters in swing districts based on opinion polls would make retaking the House "not a tenable situation," the aide said.

Pelosi likes to quote from a speech by former President Abraham Lincoln in leadership meetings, the White House source noted. In the speech, Lincoln said, "With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed."

The source said the push from top Democratic leaders had raised the question of whether Biden will stay in the race: "I hadn't seen a single crack from him but now who knows?"

"There is a path" to victory "but it's going to be hard. It will not be easy for Kamala," the source added, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris, who potentially would replace Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Jeff Mason; editing by Will Dunham, Heather Timmons and Deepa Babington)