President Biden admits pressure from Democrats contributed to decision to drop out
President Biden offered some more insight into why he dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday during an interview with CBS News, and said his Democratic colleagues told him his campaign would hurt members of the party down-ballot.
"A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the 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," Biden told CBS News' Bob Costa.
Biden announced at the end of July that he would be bowing out of the presidential race and quickly endorsed Vice President Harris. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Chuck Schumer and other Democrats reportedly called on Biden to drop out in private in the weeks following his first debate with Donald Trump.
"The polls we had showed that it was a neck-and-neck race, it would have been down to the wire," Biden added.
FILE - US President Joe Biden walks on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Aug. 2, 2024. Photographer: Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images
PELOSI DEMURS ON IF ‘EVERYTHING IS OK’ BETWEEN HER AND BIDEN: ‘YOU’D HAVE TO ASK HIM'
Pelosi recently revealed that she and Biden have not spoken since he dropped out of the race.
The former House speaker also continues to deny she told the president to drop out. She told reporters during a recent interview that the president didn't have a path to victory.
"Now I was really asking for a better campaign. We did not have a campaign that was on the path to victory. Members knew that in their districts," Pelosi told reporters.
"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. And 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," Biden said during the interview with Costa.
After firmly telling his Democratic colleagues he was going to remain in the race, Pelosi joined the hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," one of the president's favorite news programs, and indicated his decision was not final.
"It's up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We are all encouraging him to make that decision, because time is running short," Pelosi told MSNBC when asked if she would be supporting his bid for re-election.
Pelosi has said that it wasn't her intention to put him on the spot during her interview on "Morning Joe," but acknowledged that it re-opened the discussion over whether he should be replaced on the ticket, according to reports.
"He may think that my statement unleashed something — I don’t know, because I haven’t spoken to him since," Pelosi told reporters recently, according to the Washington Post.