Nancy Pelosi says US should add Joe Biden to Mount Rushmore

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the country should honour President Joe Biden by adding him to Mount Rushmore.

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the country should honour President Joe Biden by adding him to Mount Rushmore.

The 81-year-old commander in chief is “such a consequential president of the United States, a Mount Rushmore kind of president,” Ms Pelosi, 84, claimed in a clip aired on CBS Sunday Morning Show, the New York Post reports.

“You have Teddy Roosevelt up there. And he’s wonderful. I don’t say take him down. But you can add Biden,” she insisted when pressed about whether the incumbent president is really worthy of the honour of getting his massive mug engraved in rock at the iconic South Dakota national monument alongside former Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Roosevelt.

Mr Biden was born in 1942 — about a year after Mount Rushmore was completed.

Former US presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt are engraved into rock at the iconic Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Picture: Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP

Ms Pelosi’s extolling of Mr Biden came as she defended her machinations during the recent Democratic mutiny against the president, who she claimed “was in a good place to make whatever decision – the top of his game” — at the time.

Mr Biden was forced to abandon his re-election bid last month after months of debate over his mental and physical ability to govern — a crisis that was rapidly sped up by his disastrous debate performance against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in June.

Former president Donald Trump has previously said he deserves to on Mount Rushmore. Picture: Saul Loeb / AFP

Former president Mr Trump, 78, has previously suggested he deserves to be on Mount Rushmore, quipping, “Sounds like a good idea to me” when asked about the possibility.

But he denied a report that his administration once reached out to Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to try to make it happen.

Mr Trump has also likened himself to Mr Lincoln and other iconic presidents as well.

Ms Pelosi’s acclaim of Mr Biden comes even as rumours have swirled that she pulled strings from behind the scenes to help orchestrate his downfall and withdrawal from the 2024 race.

Ms Pelosi, who has a reputation for being a slick political operative, initially backed up Mr Biden after his debate performance but then began to publicly declare he needed to make a decision about re-election — even after he initially made one, saying he was still in.

Joe Biden is the 46th US president. His term will end in January after he pulled out of the 2024 presidential race. Picture: Jim Watson / AFP

Two days after Mr Biden even penned a letter to Democratic politicians in early July reaffirming that he was “firmly committed” to the race, Ms Pelosi told MSNBC’s Morning Joe, “It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run.”

Some of her close allies in Congress, such as Democrats Adam Schiff and Zoe Lofgren, also joined the chorus of calls for Mr Biden to pass the baton.

There had been a report from CNN that Ms Pelosi firmly told Mr Biden that polls indicated he couldn’t win the November 5 election — and when he suggested polls indicated he could pull it off, she had him put his longtime adviser Mike Donilon on the phone.

But Ms Pelosi on Sunday denied fomenting the revolt against Biden.

“No, I wasn’t the leader of any pressure [campaign],” she said. “Let me say things that I didn’t do: I didn’t call one person. I did not call one person. I could always say to him, ‘I never called anybody.’”

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Picture: Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for MomsRising.org

When asked about whether she felt Mr Biden needed to step aside, Ms Pelosi insisted she didn’t.

“No. My whole point was whatever he decides, but we have to have a more aggressive campaign,” she said.

“What I’m saying is I had confidence the president would make the proper choice of a country, whatever that would be — and I said that — whatever that is, we’ll go with,” Ms Pelosi claimed.

Mr Biden presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Ms Pelosi at the White House on May 3. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP

Mr Biden is rumoured to be “furious” with Ms Pelosi over her purported role from behind the scenes during the Democratic revolt against him.

Ms Pelosi, asked Sunday about Mr Biden’s mood toward her, said, “He knows that I love him very much.”

She also stressed that she has “never shared any conversations with the president of the United States publicly.”

Other top Democratic leaders — including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York — have declined to divulge their conversations with Mr Biden during the mutiny.

Mr Schumer had gone so far as to urge Mr Biden to step aside, ABC reported — a report he has not denied.

This article originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission