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Biden dropped out because “the most important thing” is “we must defeat Trump”: CBS News

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Biden Dropped Out Because “The Most Important Thing” Is “We Must Defeat Trump”: CBS News

The president talked about his emotional decision to leave the race and his plans to campaign for the Harris-Walz ticket in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

In his first sit-down interview since dropping his 2024 campaign, President Joe Biden told CBS News reporter Robert Costa that he bowed out because he feared being a distraction in the Democrats’ efforts to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump. Their discussion, which aired on CBS Sunday Morning, touched on that infamous presidential debate, Biden’s plans for the rest of his campaign, and what another Trump presidency could look like.

“Although it’s a great honor being president, I think I have an obligation to the country,” Biden said. “The most important thing,” he continued, is “we must, we must, we must defeat Trump.”

53 comments
  • A good choice by him. It can be hard to swallow one's pride, but Biden's first duty is to the USA, not to himself.

    • I'm not from the US. Is it really his choice? I thought it would be more democratic and the party members would vote for who they run, how they run, etc?

      • Well, effectively, what happened is that the Democratic Party had a primary election, where people voted on who they wanted the Democratic nominee to be. The thing is, conventional political wisdom is that the incumbent president has a large advantage simply from being the incumbent - people who are uncertain tend to stick to the status quo, and name recognition is as high as one could wish for. So, in the primary, no one serious ran against him because:

        A. It would have been a waste of time and money

        and

        B. Doing so would've marked one out as very much 'not a team player', so to speak.

        Thus, he won the primary election. However, after the primaries, he had a disastrous debate performance, and several highly influential members of the Democratic Party not only called for him to step down, but alleged mental decline (not necessarily dementia, but a serious decline in Biden's sharpness and energy which raised questions about his ability to run the kind of vigorous campaign needed), even just since January of this year. Biden resisted calls to step down at first, and since he was the winner of the primaries, he was the only one who could realistically make the choice. He eventually bowed to public and private pressure and stepped down.

  • All politicians must learn this lesson. You are a public servant. It's not about your ego or your legacy, it's about what is best for the country and its people.

  • Thanks for your service, Diamond Joe. You did the world a service in beating Trump in 2020. Harris/Walz will finish him off, and we can get back to righting the ship the Republicans keep drilling holes in.

  • Biden dropped out because all the donors withheld funds. They saw the writing on the wall.

    Only Biden and his most loyal lib cultists actually thought he was a better candidate than anyone else.

53 comments