Biden dropped out due to re-election fears from congressional Democrats

In his first interview since quitting on July 21, weeks after a disastrous debate with Republican nominee Donald Trump, Biden gave a glimpse into the build-up to the decision, which followed pressure from his party amid concerns about his age and acuity mental.

“The polls we have shown it was a double race; it would have been all the way,” Biden said on CBS Sunday morning. “But what happened was some of my fellow Democrats in the House and Senate thought I was going to hurt them in their races. And I was worried if I stayed in the race, that would be the point.”

Biden, who endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination after she dropped out, said he thought “it would be a real distraction” if he continued his bid for a second term.

Biden and Harris plan to campaign in Maryland on Aug. 15, their first appearance together since he left the race and she secured their party’s presidential nomination.

While the president framed his decision as an attempt to unify the country under a younger generation of leaders, he was relentlessly pressured by his own party to make the move.

“We must, we must, we must defeat Trump,” Biden, 81, said in the CBS News interview, which was taped last week.

Biden’s exit from the race made him the first sitting US president not to seek a second term since 1968, when fellow Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson said he would not accept his party’s nomination.

It followed an already tumultuous 2024 race that saw Trump become the first former president to be convicted of a felony. Trump later survived an assassination attempt by a gunman whose bullet grazed his ear.

Biden addressed his exit in a July 24 address from the Oval Office, saying he had “decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.” He insisted he would finish out his term and remain “focused on doing my job as president.”