President Joe Biden has opened up about his historic decision to exit the 2024 race. In his first sit-down interview since withdrawing on July 21, the president said that his primary goal is to ensure that former President Trump loses the election in November, calling his rival a “genuine danger to American security.”
“The critical issue for me still is — not a joke — maintaining this democracy,” Biden said during a pre-recorded interview that aired on CBS Sunday Morning with Robert Costa.
Of course, the decision to drop his bid didn’t come lightly — the 81-year-old said he considered his family, including his late son Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46. At one point in the interview, Biden became emotional as he recalled his promise to his late son Beau about staying involved in politics.
Here are the biggest moments from his in-depth interview, including his concerns about the election and how he wants to be remembered in history.
Biden dropped out because he feared being “a real distraction.”
The president cited concerns from congressional lawmakers that he might hurt other Democrats in November if he stayed on the ticket. Although polls showed a tight race, Biden’s disastrous debate performance gave Trump an edge. One CBS News poll released on July 18 even had the Republican nominee leading by 5 points nationally.
“What happened was a number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was gonna hurt them in the races,” he said in a pre-recorded interview that aired on CBS Sunday Morning with Robert Costa. “And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic,” adding, “I thought it’d be a real distraction.”
He added that he expected to face questions about former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s role in his decision to step down. (For the record, Pelosi has denied directly calling Biden to step aside.) That said, she’s been openly critical of his political operation and joined efforts to push him out. “Now I was really asking for a better campaign,” she told reporters on Aug. 7, according to The Washington Post. “We did not have a campaign that was on the path to victory.”
Biden said these worries from fellow Democrats — and his belief that he was a “transition president” — were among the factors that helped him decide to end his reelection bid. “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 out of my mouth.”
He’s “not confident” about a peaceful power transfer if Trump loses.
Biden expressed his fear for the country if Trump won in November.
“Mark my words, if [Trump] wins, watch what happens,” the president said. “He’s a genuine danger to American security.” The president added that he was “not confident at all” that there would be a peaceful transfer of power if Republicans lost the election.
He went on to say that Americans are at “an inflection point in world history” and that our decisions will impact the nations for many decades to come. “Democracy is key,” the president emphasized.
Biden also touched on his efforts to reform the Supreme Court, deeming the institution “out of whack.” On July 29, the president released a blueprint to ensure “that no one — neither the President nor the Supreme Court — is above the law.” Namely, this includes a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity following the high court’s decision that Trump was protected from prosecution for some of his actions during the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Biden also wants to eliminate lifetime appointments for justices and has called for 18-year term limits.
“There’s little regard by the MAGA Republicans for the political institutions,” Biden said. “That’s what holds this country together. That’s what democracy’s about. That’s who we are as a nation.”
The president calls Harris’s V.P. Pick “my kind of guy.”
Biden praised Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Both Biden and Harris discussed the contenders in the lead-up to her highly anticipated decision.
“As we say, if we grew up in the same neighborhood, we’d have been friends,” the president said. “He’s my kind of guy. He’s real, he’s smart. I’ve known him for several decades. I think it’s a hell of a team.”
Despite concerns about his health, Biden also plans to hit the campaign trail for the new Democratic nominee. “Look, I had a really, really bad day in that debate because I was sick,” he said. “But I have no serious problem.”
He’s now planning a battleground state tour with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
The Gaza cease-fire deal is still within reach.
The president said a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas war “still possible” before the end of his term in January.
“The plan I put together, endorsed by the G7, endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, et cetera, is still viable,” Mr. Biden told Costa. “And I’m working literally every single day — and my whole team — to see to it that it doesn’t escalate into a regional war. But it easily can.”
Others in his administration have expressed similar optimism. White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters last week that they are as close as ever to negotiating peace between the two warring sides.
“The gaps are narrow enough that they can be closed. What we’re talking about here is recognizing the fact that we’ve come an awful long way,” Kirby said during a press briefing. “There is a good proposal before both sides, and they need to both accept that proposal so we can get this in place.”
How Joe Biden wants to be remembered as president.
Biden hopes that his presidency proved that democracy works, particularly in helping the nation pull through tough times.
“[Democracy] got us out of a pandemic. It produced the single greatest economic recovery in American history,” he said. “We’re the most powerful economy in the world,” he said, before adding, “we have more to do.”
And despite the deep partisan divide, he expressed hope in Americans as a whole, regardless of their politics. “Look, I’ve always believed, and I still do, the American people are good and decent, honorable people.
