He also announced he would take to the campaign trail to help Vice President Kamala Harris.

President Joe Biden called himself a “transition president” in his first interview after dropping out of the race, saying he exited because of fears within his party that he could cost Democrats seats in Congress.

In a pre-recorded interview that aired on “CBS Sunday Morning” with Robert Costa, Biden said he exited the race because he feared being a “distraction” for down-ballot candidates — and specifically name-dropped Nancy Pelosi.

“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,” Biden said, adding that he expected to face questions about Pelosi’s role. “I thought it’d be a real distraction.”

The president said it was this — combined with his belief that he was a “transition president” — that ultimately helped him make his decision to end his reelection bid. It came after a disastrous debate performance triggered dozens of Democrats to call on Biden to pass the torch, especially as he dipped in the polls against former President Donald Trump.

“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 it outta my mouth,” Biden said. “But things got moving so quickly, it — didn’t happen.”

He also announced a campaign tour in Pennsylvania with Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was on Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate shortlist.

          • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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            1 month ago

            The civilian death toll in Gaza is about on par with how many the US killed in Afghanistan under Obama. However, Biden isn’t personally signing off on every drone strike, so as gross as it feels to try and make an objective comparison between these civilian crisises, I gotta go with Obama for the bigger bastard award.

              • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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                1 month ago

                And you believe history will look back fondly on invading Afghanistan for no real reason and drone striking everything that moved for 20 years?

                • abracaDavid@lemmy.today
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                  1 month ago

                  Lol no. If anyone survives all of this, history isn’t going to be kind to us about pretty much anything we’ve done since WW2.

            • LotrOrc@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              46000 Afghani civilians died in total. Israel has done four times as much as that in 10 months, all funded and signed off by Biden.

              Did you read the Lancet study?

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    This is 100% normal.

    As we get to the point of “elderly” time seems to move fast for a number of reasons. Not only is a period of time a percentage of your age, and every day means tomorrow is a smaller percentage, we go on “autopilot” more because our brain figures by now we’ve seen the same thing so many times, you don’t need to be bothered thinking about what to do

    You’re just going about your day barely checked in, especially if your environment hasn’t changed.

    For 12 of the last 16 years, Bidens been in the White House. Before that he’s had decades of time in the Senate. I’m absolutely sure the last four years just flew by to him and he doesn’t know where the times gone.

    It’s 100% normal and too be expected of someone of his age.

    Which is why we need a fucking age limit on the presidency. Just because you don’t notice years going by doesn’t mean they aren’t.

    • abracaDavid@lemmy.today
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      1 month ago

      I guess y’all don’t remember him loudly declaring “I’m not going anywhere!” directly after he blew it at the debate.

      He was forced out by the DNC. Pretty low bar for a hero.

      The best thing that Biden ever did was just not being Trump.