President Joe Biden offered further insight into why he dropped out of the presidential race Sunday during an interview with CBS News. He said his Democratic colleagues informed him his campaign would ultimately hurt party members.
“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,” said Biden to CBS News’ Bob Costa.
At the end of July, the president announced he would be dropping out of the presidential race and rapidly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. Majority Leader of the Senate Chuck Schumer, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and other Democrats reportedly called on Biden to withdraw in private during the weeks after his first debate with former President and Republican candidate for President Donald Trump.
“The polls we had showed that it was a neck-and-neck race; it would have been down to the wire,” added Biden.
Pelosi denies she told Biden to drop out
Pelosi revealed recently that she and Joe Biden haven’t spoken since he dropped out of the race.
The former Speaker also continues to deny telling Biden to drop out. During a recent interview, she told reporters that the president lacked 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,” said Pelosi to 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. 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,” said Biden during the interview with Costa.
After telling his Democratic colleagues firmly he would remain in the race, Pelosi joined MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts — one of Biden’s favorite news programs — and indicated his decision wasn’t 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,” said Pelosi to MSNBC when asked if she would support his re-election bid.
According to news reports, Pelosi has maintained it wasn’t her intention to put him on the spot during her “Morning Joe” interview but acknowledged it re-opened the discussion over whether he should be replaced on the ticket.
“He may think that my statement unleashed something — I don’t know, because I haven’t spoken to him since,” said Pelosi recently to reporters, according to the Washington Post.