During an NPR interview promoting her new book The Art of Power: My Story as America's First Woman Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was asked about the role her comments about President Joe Biden deciding whether to step down played in his eventual decision.

Pelosi said on MSNBC's Morning Joe in July, “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.”

NPR host Mary Louise Kelly pointed out that when Pelosi said that, Biden had said, "I'm in. I'm running. Case closed."

"Your comments reopened the whole kettle of worms. Why did you do it?" she asked.

Not why she was there

Pelosi immediately sidestepped the question, saying she "loved" Biden and calling him one of the "most consequential" presidents in history.

She went on: "It wasn't a question of his deciding. It was a question of deciding what kind of campaign would go forward. One of the reasons I ran for Congress this time was to make sure we won the House back and to make sure that Donald Trump never set foot in the White House again."

When Kelly pressed her again about why she said what she said that day, she again tried to obfuscate.

"That's a question they asked, but it wasn't why I was there. I was there because it was the NATO summit," she said.

"People called me"

When Kelly told her that every Democrat she talked to felt sure Pelosi was the only one who had the clout to get him to change his mind, she further tried to minimize her role in his decision by saying she didn't call anyone about it.

"I did not call one person," she demurred. "I read in the press that I was burning up the phone lines. I didn’t call one person, people called me."

She did say she took a few people's calls about the situation.

"I never said put [Biden's longtime aide] Michael Donilon on the phone. Never," she said to excuse her role.

Pelosi said she had not spoken to Biden since he decided to step down more than 10 days earlier.

"No. No. Well, not since his public decision. That’s a week and a half ago. No, I haven't," she said.