The outcome may not have surprised White House and campaign officials, but the timing did. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, the godmother of the Democratic Party, said he still had a decision to make — after he insisted he had chosen to stay in the race. “It became a no-win situation, a self-fulfilling prophecy,” former White House official Cedric Richmond, who was a co-chair of Biden’s 2020 campaign, said Sunday. In Minnesota, Democratic Party chair Ken Martin was preparing a Biden open house in Minneapolis when he heard the news reports. In Illinois, a delegate had just received a phone call from the Biden campaign, asking whether Biden would still have their support in a convention vote.
