President Joe Biden revealed in a CBS News interview on Sunday that multiple factors influenced his decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, with a key consideration being concerns from congressional Democrats that his continued campaign might jeopardize their own electoral prospects.
Biden had faced increasing scrutiny following a challenging debate performance against former President Donald Trump in June. By late July, reports surfaced that some Democrats were urging him to step aside to avoid potential harm to the party’s chances in the upcoming elections. On July 21, Biden announced his decision to exit the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.
In the interview on CBS Sunday Morning with host Robert Costa, Biden discussed the reasons behind his decision, emphasizing his desire to pass the torch to a younger generation within the Democratic Party.
“You’re at your home, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware – late July with your family – and you make this historic decision. Tell me the story,” Costa asked.
Biden responded by explaining that internal polling at the time showed him tied with Trump, which, combined with feedback from fellow Democrats, led him to reconsider his campaign.
“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in their races,” Biden said. “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.”
Biden also reflected on his initial intentions when he first ran for president, describing himself as a “transition president” who aimed to pave the way for future leadership. He acknowledged the rapid pace of political events and his sense of responsibility to prioritize the nation’s well-being.
“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,” Biden said. “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.”
During the interview, Costa also asked Biden if he thought of his late son Beau, who had encouraged him to run for president before passing away from brain cancer in 2015, when making the decision to leave the race.
“Whenever I have a decision that’s really hard to make, I ask myself, ‘What would Beau do?’” Biden shared. “He should be sitting here being interviewed. Not me.”
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
One Response
“with a key consideration being concerns from congressional Democrats that his continued campaign might jeopardize their own electoral prospects.”
Why couldn’t they run on his successes?
Oh wait