President Biden, in a new interview, offered his longest explanation yet for why he chose not to seek reelection, citing concerns that it could negatively impact other Democrats running in November.
“The polls we did showed it was a neck-and-neck race, which would have gone down to the wire,” Biden said on “CBS Sunday Morning.”
“But what happened was a number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought I was going to hurt them in the election,” Biden continued. “And I was worried if I stayed in the race, that would be the issue. You’d be interviewing me about why Nancy Pelosi said, why she did that-and-and I thought that would be a real distraction, number one.”
Biden said the other factor was “maintaining this democracy,” arguing that defeating former President Trump was critical.
The president announced on July 21 that he would not seek re-election amid pressure from fellow Democrats to step aside following a disastrous debate performance against former President Trump.
Dozens of elected Democrats urged Biden to pass the torch to another candidate, questioning whether he could defeat Trump in November.
Pelosi, who served Biden for decades, has given several interviews in recent days in which she disputed having personally called the president to express her concerns. However, she criticized his political operation and said he acted as a sounding board for other lawmakers.
Polls showed that Biden was trailing Trump nationally and that battleground states he won in 2020, such as Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, were increasingly out of reach, while must-win states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, would be close.
Biden endorsed Vice President Harris as the Democratic nominee after dropping out, and she quickly consolidated support within the party and electrified voters, drawing thousands of people to rallies in Detroit, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Las Vegas this week.
Polls showed Harris erasing Trump’s lead in the polls, making it a close race both nationally and in swing states.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
