Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hasn't spoken to President Joe Biden since he ended his bid for reelection in July.
Pelosi was reportedly instrumental in getting Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race after his disastrous June debate performance against former President Donald Trump.
Biden's shaky and halting debate performance underscored long-running concerns about his ability to lead and his cognitive fitness and advanced age.
Pelosi told the the Dail Mail that while she considers Biden to be a friend, the election took precedence.
"Elections are decisions," Pelosi told the outlet. "You decide to win. I decided a while ago that Donald Trump will never set foot in the White House again as president of the United States or in any other capacity.
"So, when you make a decision, you have to make every decision in favor of winning ... and the most important decision of all is the candidate."
"I have the greatest respect for him," Pelosi said of Biden. "I think he's one of the great consequential presidents of our country."
Pelosi said that Biden's legacy was on the line and "had to be protected," and she "didn't see that happening in the course that it was on." So, she said she made the call to "get on a better course."
"He will make the decision as to what that is, and he made that decision," she said. "But I think he has some unease because we've been friends for decades."
Pelosi indicated that she was focused on getting Vice President Kamala Harris into the Oval Office, saying that Harris is "running on her strength, her knowledge of policy and strategy and presentation.
"I always thought America was more ready for a woman president than a woman speaker of the House," Pelosi told the Guardian. "The Congress of the United States is not a glass ceiling there. It's a marble ceiling. And it was very hard to rise up there.
"But the public, I think, is better disposed. In Congress, they would say to me, 'Understand this, there's been a pecking order here for a long time of men who've been waiting for openings to happen and take their turn.' And I said, 'That's interesting. We've been waiting over 200 years.'"
In August, it was reported that Biden was still bitter over how he was replaced at the top of the Democrat presidential ticket, with his anger mainly directed at Pelosi.
Biden also reportedly was frustrated that former President Barack Obama did not approach him directly about ending his reelection bid, and also was miffed at Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.