President Joe Biden said his decision to withdraw his 2024 candidacy stemmed from his “obligation to the country” to make sure Donald Trump doesn’t return to the White House.
In his first interview since dropping out, broadcast on Sunday, Biden said he believed talk about Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, raising questions about his candidacy would become a “real distraction” if he stayed in the race.
“The polls we had showed that it was a neck-and-neck race, would have been down to the wire,” Biden told CBS Sunday Morning.
“But what happened was, a number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was gonna hurt them in the races. And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic. You’d be interviewing me about ‘Why did Nancy Pelosi say ….’ ‘Why did so-and-so ….’”
The president added that when he originally ran in 2020, he intended to be a one-term president and then pass on the torch to the next generation of Democrats.
“When I ran the first time, I thought of myself as being a transition president,” he said. “I can’t even say how old I am; it’s hard for me to get it outta my mouth. But things got moving so quickly, it didn’t happen.”
Ultimately, Biden said, he wanted to make sure former President Donald Trump, whom he described as a “genuine danger to American security,” loses in November.
“The critical issue for me still — it’s not a joke — maintaining this democracy,” he said. “I thought it was important. Because, although it’s a great honour being president, I think I have an obligation to the country to do what [is] the most important thing you can do, and that is, we must, we must, we must defeat Trump.”
Following his announcement in July that he would exit the race, Biden endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris to take over his White House bid. Democrats quickly coalesced around her, and her campaign has shown real signs of momentum. The latest New York Times-Sienna College polls released on Saturday showed Harris leading Trump in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin among likely voters.
Biden praised Harris and her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, as a “hell of a team” and said he would do everything in his power to help them get elected, including by campaigning in various states such as Pennsylvania.
“I talk to her frequently, and by the way, I’ve known her running mate is a great guy,” Biden said. “As we say, if we grew up in the same neighbourhood, we’d have been friends. He’s my kind of guy. He’s real, he’s smart.”
Biden also addressed his poor CNN debate performance, which contributed to his withdrawal, when asked to comment on the questions raised about his health and mental fitness.
“I had a really, really bad day in that debate because I was sick,” Biden said. “But I have no serious problem.”
Biden said he wants people to remember him as a president who proved American democracy can work and recognise the accomplishments of his administration.
“It got us out of a pandemic,” he said. “It produced the single greatest economic recovery in American history. We’re the most powerful economy in the world. We have more to do. And it demonstrated that we can pull the nation together.”
