US President Joe Biden has admitted he was “concerned” about staying in the re-election race due to pressure from his Democrat colleagues.
The 81-year-old said in his first sit-down interview since exiting the 2024 race that Democrat members of the House and Senate felt he was going to “hurt them” at the ballot box.
The oldest ever sitting president upended the race for the White House in July by announcing his decision to end his re-election bid and endorse Kamala Harris.
“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races”, he candidly admitted on CBS News.
Joe Biden has sat down for his first interview since quitting the race
CBS NEWS
“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 [something] … and I thought it would be a real distraction.”
Biden said that if he had remained, the race would have been too close for comfort for Democrats fearing the prospect of a second Donald Trump presidential term.
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“The polls we had showed that it was a neck and neck race, it would have been down to the wire”, he said.
A poor debate showing against Donald Trump in June ramped up concerns about the prospect of another four years for Biden, with many claiming he showed clear signs of severe cognitive decline.
Donald Trump ReutersHe was mocked by his Republican foe who accused Biden of “not knowing what he is saying” after an incoherent response to a question.
In the weeks after the debate, Biden was fighting against an increasingly ferocious tide in a desperate bid to save his re-election bid, but the pressure eventually took its toll.
He insisted in the interview he only wanted to be a one-term “transition president” to welcome in new leadership.
“When I ran the first time, I thought of myself of being a transition president”, Biden said.
Kamala Harris has taken the Democrat reinsYouTube / Kamala Harris“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.”
Donald Trump now finds himself up against Kamala Harris and has welcomed the idea of debating the ex-border tsar, who he has so far mercilessly mocked after she was unveiled as the new Democrat figurehead.
ABC News is set to host the first debate on 10 September.
Trump has opened the door to three debates in the lead-up to the November election, while Harris has also welcomed the idea of holding more than one face-off.