President Joe Biden sat down on Wednesday with CBS This Morning’s Robert Costa at the White House in his first interview since announcing his decision to end his re-election campaign and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president.
In the interview, which aired Sunday, the president reflected on his accomplishments, the challenges he faced in office and his confidence in Harris to carry the torch of his administration.
At the same time, he underscored the high stakes of the 2024 election, expressing that he’s “not confident at all” in a peaceful transfer of power if former President Donald Trump loses the election to Harris in November.
“He means what he says,” Biden said of Trump. “All the stuff about, ‘If we lose, there’ll be a bloodbath. It’ll have to be a stolen election.’”
Biden added that, if he wins, Trump would pose a “genuine danger to American security.”
As president, Biden generally avoided holding news conferences and participating in sit-down interviews.
After his first presidential debate with Trump in June, however, Biden gave two extended interviews with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and NBC’s Lester Holt, during which he faced tough questions about the strength of his candidacy. He ultimately announced his decision to step out of the race on July 21.
In his latest interview with CBS, Biden offered further reflection on his decision to withdraw while discussing his role in his remaining five months in office as both the sitting president and a supporter of his chosen successor, Harris.
On why he dropped out
Biden said his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race was, in part, due to pressure he faced from Democratic colleagues.
“The polls we had showed that it was a neck-and-neck race, would have been down to the wire,” he said. “But what happened was, a number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was gonna 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 so-and-so…’ And I thought it’d be a real distraction, number one.”
“Number two, when I ran the first time, I thought of myself as being a transition President,” he continued. “I can’t even say how old I am. It’s hard for me to get it out of my mouth. But things got moving so quickly, it didn’t happen.”
On his health: ‘I have no serious problem’
While addressing his age, and his disastrous debate performance on June 27, Biden insisted there has never been a serious concern about his health.
“All I can say is watch,” he said of those who’ve criticized his health. “Look, I had a really really bad day in that debate because I was sick. But I have no serious problem.”
President Biden sits down with CBS News chief election & campaign correspondent @costareports for his first interview since announcing his withdrawal from the presidential race. He talks about his decision and his family; his support of the Harris-Walz ticket; and what he sees as… pic.twitter.com/njNECYJVCV
— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) August 11, 2024
Harris and Walz are ‘one hell of a team’
Biden said he talks to Harris “frequently,” and called her newly-announced running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a “great guy.”
“As we say, if we grew up in the same neighborhood we’d have been friends,” Biden said of Walz. “He’s real. He’s smart. I’ve known him for several decades. I think it’s a hell of a team.”
Biden said he plans on campaigning for Harris, noting that he and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro are putting together a campaign tour in Pennsylvania.
“I’ll be campaigning in other states as well,” he said. “I’m going to be doing whatever Kamala thinks I can do to help most.”
Israel-Hamas ceasefire is ‘still possible.’
Biden said that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is “still possible,” pointing to his three-phase plan proposed in June that would see it through.
“The plan I put together, endorsed by the G7, endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, etcetera, is still viable,” he told Costas. “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.”
Biden’s plan pressures leaders on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to reach an agreement with a three-phase ceasefire plan that includes a six-week ceasefire; a full withdrawal of the Israeli military from Gaza in exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers; and “a major reconstruction” of Gazan cities destroyed by warfare.
On his legacy
When asked how he’d like to be remembered, the president said, “That he proved democracy can work.”
Democracy “got us out of a pandemic,” he continued. “It produced the single greatest economic recovery in American history. We’re the most powerful economy in the world. We have more to do. And it demonstrated that we can pull the nation together.”
His goals as president, Biden explained, were to “restore the soul of America; build the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down; and bring the country together. No one thought we could get it done — including some of my own people — what we got done.”
“I knew all the things we did would take a little time to work their way through,” he said of his administration’s policies. “So, now people are realizing, oh, that highway [that was built]. The biggest mistake we made was we didn’t put up a sign that said, ‘Joe did it.’”
