by WorldTribune Staff, October 28, 2025 Real World News
“What the f*** did you just do?”
That is what former President Barack Obama essentially said to Rep. Nancy Pelosi after Pelosi endorsed Kamala Harris to be the Democrat presidential nominee the day after Joe Biden dropped out of the race, a new book says.
In “Retribution“, ABC News’s Jonathan Karl provides new details on how Obama did not want a quick coronation of Harris, but rather “a process” to determine who would become the Democrat nominee.
Obama called Pelosi shortly after her endorsement of Harris became public.
“The Obamas were not happy,” a Pelosi confidant told Karl, according to the Daily Mail, which obtained an advance copy of the book. “This person summed up Obama’s message to Pelosi as, essentially, ‘What the f*** did you just do?’ ”
According to the book Pelosi responded to Obama by saying: “That train has left the station.”
Obama was taken aback by the quick endorsement because, as the book relates, he and Pelosi had been in “regular communication” as it appeared then 81-year-old Biden was nearing the decision to drop out of the race, and “they agreed Harris should not simply be handed the nomination unchallenged.”
“Therefore, Obama and Pelosi – arguably the two most influential figures in the Democratic Party – had privately agreed to abstain from making any endorsements,” the book states.
Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 and endorsed Harris shortly thereafter.
Around 1 p.m. the next day, Pelosi endorsed Harris, leaving Obama miffed.
“The former president wanted to know what had happened. Why had Pelosi issued a statement endorsing Harris so soon? Hadn’t he and Pelosi agreed days earlier that party leaders anointing the vice president as Biden’s replacement would be a mistake?” Karl wrote.
A senior Biden adviser, who also worked in the Obama White House, told Karl that the real reason Obama didn’t want Pelosi to endorse Harris so quickly was that the former president didn’t think Harris could win.
“There’s only one Black Jesus,” the senior Biden adviser quipped.
Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama officially endorsed Harris in a campaign video five days after Biden exited the 2024 race.
Book: Furious Obama slammed Pelosi for quick endorsement of Harris added by Editor Two on
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