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.”
He did drop out at the perfect time though, that could have been strategic
Less than two weeks before he dropped out, he wrote an open letter to congressional democrats in which he wrote:
Unless this was all part of an elaborate hoax, it’s clear he had no intention of dropping out at that time.
Nothing but respect for anyone that old who can change their mind when they’re wrong. It’s easy to fall into a rut of stubbornness.
I don’t think it was a hoax, but campaign 101 is to be absolutely confident in your candidacy until the nanosecond you drop out. If you telegraph weakness to the voting public, and then end up staying in the race, that will be a millstone around your neck. Even if he was wavering in the weeks leading up to his dropout, there would be zero upside to communicating that publicly.
It’s possible, but I personally don’t buy that argument. He didn’t have to sit down and write that letter, but he did. That, plus the interview where he said that “giving it his all” was “what it was all about”, seemed obvious to me he was all for holding on tight despite everyone’s concerns.
To he honest, I think that if he had dropped out earlier it would have been better. He created a lot of panic within the base that didn’t need to be there. I suppose it’s not impossible that it was some kind of strategy to make Harris’ ascension more welcome and inevitable, but I think that’s giving him way too much credit.
Disagree entirely. This has left the Trump campaign totally twisting in the wind. They have no idea how to compete with a mixed-race independent and smart woman with her kindly dad running mate because they were hoping for Biden.
The attacks I’ve seen so far:
Harris laughs too much.
Harris hugs people.
Harris is a woman.
Harris turned black all of the sudden.
Harris is black.
Walz… uh… something about tampons.
I mean, I don’t disagree that the switch has left Trump flailing, I just think that still happens if Biden drops out two weeks earlier than he did. It was clear by then that he had no chance of winning, and it would have saved voters a lot of fear and despair. You could argue that doing it after the RNC made the whole convention pointless, but given how poorly he’s done in a post Biden race, it’s just as likely that the entire thing would become an even more public meltdown.
Either way, I think the idea that this was a strategy is a fantasy. I think his actions and reporting at the time made it clear that he was planning to run, and it was only pressure from top Democrats that made him step down.
I guess it was 4d chess? Do you know who you sound like?
No I don’t. Do tell me who I sound like.