The President of the United States, Joe Biden, explained that he decided to withdraw from the electoral contest to avoid causing a “distraction” in an election that he described as crucial to the future of the United States.
In his first interview after taking a step back after going through a political crisis, Biden told CBS that he feared that if he stayed in the race, the focus would be on criticism of his candidacy.
“Many of my colleagues in the Senate and the House believed that I was going to harm the campaign and I was afraid that if I stayed, that would be the central issue,” the former president said in the interview published on Sunday.
The 81-year-old Democrat highlighted that when he first decided to run for president in 2020 to face then-President Donald Trump, he saw himself as a “transitional” leader.
“I can’t even tell my age, it’s hard to get these words out of my lips, but everything was moving very quickly,” Biden said.
The president said that, in his opinion, these elections are very important for American democracy and that although he feels “honored” to be president, he has an “obligation to do what’s best for the country.”
“We are at a turning point in history. The decisions we make in the next three or four years will determine what the next six decades will look like,” the president predicted.
On July 21, after the political storm generated by his disastrous performance in the first presidential debate against Trump, Biden announced that he was abandoning the candidacy and gave his support to Vice President Kamala Harris.
This Tuesday, Harris was officially nominated the Democratic presidential candidate and on the same day she chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice-presidential ticket.
With information from EFE.