President Biden sat down on Wednesday CBS News Sunday MorningRobert Costa at the White House for his first interview since announcing his decision to end his re-election campaign and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee.
In an interview 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 emphasized the high stakes of the 2024 election, saying he is “not at all confident” of a peaceful transition if former President Donald Trump loses the election to Harris in November.
“He means what he says,” Biden said of Trump. “All the talk that if we lose there will be a massacre. It must be a stolen election.'”
Biden added that if he wins, Trump would pose “a real danger to the security of the United States.”
As president, Biden generally avoided holding news conferences and participating in sit-down interviews.
However, after his first presidential debate with Trump in June, Biden gave two extended interviews to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and NBC’s Lester Holt, during which he faced tough questions about the strength of his candidacy. He finally announced his decision to withdraw from the race on July 21.
In the latest CBS interview, Biden offered further reflection on his decision to step down and discussed his role in his remaining five months as both the sitting president and a supporter of his handpicked successor, Harris.
About why he was aborted
Biden said his decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race was partly due to pressure from his Democratic colleagues.
– The opinion polls, which we had shown that it was a neck-and-neck race, would have remained deadlocked, he said. “But what happened was that a lot of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought I was going to hurt them in the races. And I was worried if I stayed in the race, that would be an issue. You’d interview me about, ‘Why did Nancy Pelosi say…’ ‘Why so and so…’ And I thought that would be a real distraction, number one.
“Second, when I first came up, I thought I was going to be the interim president,” he continued. “I can’t even tell how old I am. I have a hard time getting it out of my mouth. But things moved so quickly that it didn’t happen.”
On his health: “I don’t have a serious problem”
Speaking about his age and his disastrous debate performance on the 27th. In June, Biden claimed that there had never been any serious concern about his health.
“All I can say is look,” he said of those who have criticized his health. “Look, I had a really, really bad day in that conversation because I was sick. But I don’t have any serious problems.”
President Biden sits down with a CBS News election and campaign correspondent @costareports for the first interview since he announced his withdrawal from the presidential race. He talks about his decision and his family; his support for the Harris-Walz ticket; and what does he see… 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 “often” and called his recently announced running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a “good guy.”
“As we say, if we had grown up in the same neighborhood, we would 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 damn good team.”
Biden said he plans to campaign for Harris, noting that he and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro are planning a campaign tour of Pennsylvania.
“I will campaign in other states as well,” he said. “I’m going to do whatever Kamala thinks I can do to help the most.”
Israel-Hamas ceasefire ‘still possible’
Biden said a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas is “still possible,” referring to a three-step plan he outlined in June that would see it through.
“The plan I put together, the plan supported by the G7, the UN Security Council and so on, is still viable,” he told Costa. “I’m literally working every single day and my whole team to make sure it doesn’t escalate into a regional war – but it easily could.”
Biden’s plan puts pressure on leaders from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to agree on a three-phase cease-fire plan that includes a six-week cease-fire; A complete withdrawal of the Israeli military from Gaza in exchange for the release of all remaining surviving hostages, including male soldiers; and the “great reconstruction” of Gazan cities destroyed by warfare.
Of his legacy
When asked how he would like to be remembered, the president replied: “That he showed that democracy can work.”
Democracy “got us out of the pandemic,” he continued. “It produced the greatest single economic recovery in American history. We are the most powerful economy in the world. We have more to do. And it showed that we can pull the nation together.”
His goal as president, Biden explained, was to “restore America’s soul; build the economy from the middle out and from the bottom up, not the top down; and bring the country together. No one believed we could pull it off — including some of our own people — what we did.”
“I knew that all the things we were doing were going to take a little time to work out,” he said of his administration’s policies. “So, now people realize, oh, that highway [that was built]. The biggest mistake we made was not putting up a sign that said “Joe Made It”.
