While President Biden is no longer at the top of the Democratic ticket, he told “CBS Sunday Morning” this week that he chose to leave the 2024 race for the same reason he sought the presidency four years ago — to maintain democracy and to defeat former President Donald Trump.
In his first sit-down interview since exiting the 2024 race, Mr. Biden explained to CBS News chief election & campaign correspondent Robert Costa his historic decision to end his reelection bid and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris; his priorities before the end of his term; and why Americans, and democracy itself, are at “an inflection point in world history.”
Here are some highlights from Mr. Biden’s interview.
Biden explains why he exited the 2024 race
On Sunday, July 21, Mr. Biden announced he would not continue his bid for a second term. Days later, he explained his decision in an Oval Office address, saying “saving our democracy” was more important than “personal ambition.”
Mr. Biden told Costa that the race between him and Trump was “neck and neck” and “would’ve been down to the wire.” A CBS News poll released on July 18 — the final night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee — had Trump up by 5 points nationally, and leading by 3 points (basically at the poll’s margin of error) across key battleground states. More and more Democrats, primarily in Congress, were calling on the president to withdraw from the race following his calamitous first debate performance.
“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,” explained Mr. Biden, adding that he thought it would be a “real distraction.”
He made the historic decision with a small circle of people, including his wife, first lady Jill Biden, in Delaware, at his Rehoboth Beach vacation home while recovering from COVID-19.
Biden reflects on a promise to his late son, Beau
The president said a promise to remain committed that he’d made to his late son, Beau Biden, was always at the top of his mind. Beau, the former attorney general of Delaware, died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.
“Look, I can honestly say that I think of him all the time,” Mr. Biden said. “Whenever I have a decision that’s really hard to make, I literally ask myself, ‘What would Beau do?’ He should be sitting here being interviewed, not me. He was really a fine man,” Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden said Beau made sure he stayed committed, asking him to make a promise before he died.
He recalled his son saying, “But Dad, you gotta make me a promise.’ I said, ‘What’s that, Beau?’ He said, ‘I know when it happens, you’re gonna want to quit. You’re not gonna stay engaged …. Look at me. Look at me, Dad. Give me your word as a Biden. When I go, you’ll stay engaged. Give me your word. Give me your word.’ And I did.”
Mr. Biden had not planned on running for president after Trump was elected in 2016, but then came the violent demonstration by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, at which a counterprotester was killed.
When he was first elected in 2020, Mr. Biden said he viewed himself as a transitional figure from the Trump presidency. “When I ran the first time, I thought of myself as being a transition President,” Mr. Biden, now 81, told Costa. “I can’t even say how old I am; it’s hard for me to get it outta my mouth.”
Stepping away from the race, he explained, was to support what he called the critical issue for him: “maintaining this democracy.”
Biden says Trump is “a genuine danger to American security”
Mr. Biden said the stakes are high in November. If Trump were to win, he said, “Watch what happens. It’s a danger. He’s a genuine danger to American security. …
“We must, we must, we must defeat Trump,” he said.
He said that Americans are at “an inflection point in world history” and that the decisions we make now will determine what the next six decades look like. “Democracy is key,” he added.
Last week, the president unveiled proposed changes at the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing for term limits and an enforceable ethics code for the justices. He also called on lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity, following the Court’s opinion that a president is entitled to broad immunity from prosecution for “official acts,” effectively putting the chief executive above the law.
“[The] Supreme Court is so out of whack, so out of whack. And so, I proposed that we limit terms to 18 years,” he said. “There’s little regard by the MAGA Republicans for the political institutions. That’s what holds this country together. That’s what democracy’s about. That’s who we are as a nation.”
Biden says Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are “a hell of a team”
Last week, Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her vice presidential running mate before kicking off a battleground state tour. At a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, Harris told the crowd they consider themselves “joyful warriors” against Trump.
Mr. Biden said, “I talk to [Harris] frequently, and by the way, I’ve known her running mate is a great guy. As we say, if we grew up in the same neighborhood, we’d have been friends. He’s my kind of guy. He’s real, he’s smart. I’ve known him for several decades. I think it’s a hell of a team.”
The president said he plans to join them on the campaign trail, and rejected any doubts about his health or stamina interfering.
“All I can say is, ‘Watch.’ That’s all. Look, I had a really, really bad day in that debate because I was sick. But I have no serious problem,” Mr. Biden added.
Mr. Biden said he’s working on putting together a campaign tour with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to ensure Harris and Walz win that battleground state’s 19 electoral votes.
“We have got to win Pennsylvania, my original home state,” said Mr. Biden, adding that he’ll also campaign in other states and do “whatever Kamala thinks I can do to help most.”
Biden says Gaza cease-fire deal is “still possible”
Mr. Biden said “it’s still possible” that a Gaza cease-fire deal can be reached before the end of his term. Last month, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington, the president urged him to accept a cease-fire deal with Hamas.
In a statement issued after the July 26 meeting with Netanyahu, the White House said Mr. Biden communicated “the need to close the remaining gaps, finalize the deal as soon as possible, bring the hostages home, and reach a durable end to the war in Gaza.”
“The plan I put together, endorsed by the G7, endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, et cetera, is still viable,” Mr. Biden told Costa. “And 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.”
John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council, told reporters on Wednesday that “we are as close as we think we have ever been” to negotiating a cease-fire.
“The gaps are narrow enough that they can be closed. What we’re talking about here is recognizing the fact that we’ve come an awful long way,” Kirby said during the Wednesday briefing. “There is a good proposal before both sides, and they need to both accept that proposal so we can get this in place.”
How Biden wants to be remembered
Reflecting on his time in the White House while sitting in the Treaty Room, where historic peace agreements have been signed, Mr. Biden said he hoped that he proved democracy works.
“It got us out of a pandemic. 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,” Mr. Biden explained.
Comparing his administration to that of his predecessor’s divisiveness, Mr. Biden said, “Look, I’ve always believed, and I still do, the American people are good and decent, honorable people. When I announced my candidacy to run way back for President, I said, ‘We’ve got to do three things: 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 done – including some of my own people – what we got done.
“The biggest mistake we made, we didn’t put up signs saying, ‘Joe did it’!” he laughed.
Watch Robert Costa’s interview with President Biden: