Biden Says Pressure From Congressional Dems Played a Role in Him Bowing Out: Thought ‘I Was Gonna Hurt Them’
President Joe Biden told CBS News on Sunday that a number of factors played a role in his decision to drop his reelection bid last month but one of them was a sense of anxiety among congressional Democrats that he would harm their campaigns.
Biden was under intense scrutiny for weeks after his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump in June. By late July, a campaign was reportedly launched by Democrats to convince the president to end his campaign for a second term.
He exited the race on July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
On CBS Sunday Morning, Biden told network host Robert Costa why he left the race and pledged to hand the keys to his party over to a younger generation.
Costa said, “You’re at your home, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware – late July with your family – and you make this historic decision. Tell me the story.”
Biden said his internal polling showed at the time he and Trump were tied. He added:
What happened was a number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in their 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 – and I thought it’d be a real distraction, number one.
Number two, when I ran the first time I thought of myself as being a transition president. I can’t even say how old I am, it’s hard for me to get out of my mouth. But things got moving so quickly, it didn’t happen. And the combination was that I thought it was a critical issue for me still, it’s not a joke, maintaining this democracy. but I thought it was important because although I – it’s a great honor being president. I think I have an obligation to the country to do the most important thing, and that is we must, we must, we must defeat Trump.
Costa asked Biden if he thought of his late son Beau – who encouraged him to run before he died of brain cancer in 2015 – when he decided to exit the race.
Biden replied, “Whenever I have a decision that’s really hard to make, I ask myself, ‘What would Beau do?’ He should be sitting here being interviewed. Not me.”
Watch above via CBS News.
