Ammon News - First lady Jill Biden expressed her disappointment with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a new interview with The Washington Post, providing rare public comments about the fractured relationship between her husband, Joe Biden, and Pelosi following the president’s departure from the 2024 race.

“We were friends for 50 years,” the first lady said in an interview with The Washington Post published Wednesday. “It was disappointing.”

Pelosi was among the top Democrats to express reservations about Joe Biden’s ability to defeat Donald Trump in November after the president’s halting debate performance in June. As Biden remained adamant he would stay in the race, Pelosi made waves in an interview as she opened the door to the possibility he should end his campaign.

“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short,” Pelosi said on MSNBC in July.

In the extensive interview, the first lady also publicly disclosed her conversation with Trump when the two spoke at the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last month.

“I had a good meeting with your husband in the Oval Office,” the president-elect said, according to the first lady. “Yes,” she replied, “because you’re both talkers.”

Asked why she would engage with Trump following the bitterness of the campaign, she replied, “Joe and I respect our institutions, our traditions.”

“It’s very important to me that they continue and we — ” she continued. “What would be the point of nastiness?”

The interview provides rare insight into how the first family is navigating the end of the Biden presidency, including the summer weeks during which Democrats privately and publicly pushed for her husband to step aside from the race.

“Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded,” Jill Biden said. “I learned a lot about human nature.” CNN