Pelosi wants US to add Biden to Mount Rushmore amid claims she sabotaged president's reelection bid

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has suggested that the country should honour President Joe Biden by installing his face on Mount Rushmore, a national monument in South Dakota, featuring four US ex-presidents viz. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.

Pelosi made the suggestion during an interview where she was quizzed about claims that she led the coup that forced Biden to drop out of the presidential race.

"He was in a good place to make whatever decision – the top of his game. Such a consequential president of the United States, a Mount Rushmore kind of president of the United States,"Pelosi told CBS News.

Asked if she was serious about Biden being installed at the iconic monument, Pelosi replied,"Well, you got Teddy Roosevelt up there, and he's wonderful.I don't say take him down. But you can add Biden."

Pelosi denied leading any charge to oust Biden, adding that the president was at the "top of his game" when he called it quits.

"No, I wasn’t the leader of any pressure [campaign]. 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.'"

Watch |US Elections: President Biden endorses Kamala Harris to be Democrat nominee

Biden quits prez race

In the days leading up to Biden quitting the presidential race, multiple media reports claimed that it was Pelosi and Barack Obama that allegedly engineered the fall.

Pelosi reportedly held a private conversation with Biden where she told him that he could not bear Donald Trump, come the November elections.

Notably, this phone call marked the second conversation between the California lawmaker and Biden since the president’s disastrous debate on June 27.

Meanwhile, Obama was of the view that there was no path to victory for the81-year-old who should "seriously consider the viability of his candidacy".

After Biden contracted COVID-19 and retired to his Delaware home, he made the shocking announcement of dropping his re-election bid. Within minutes of the announcement, he endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democrat nominee - a choice that was not approved by Pelosi and Obama.

Since President Biden had provided the endorsement, both Democrat heavyweights had to come around the fact and eventually provide their support to Harris' candidature as well.

(With inputs from agencies)