President Joe Biden specifically named former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while appearing in his first interview since ending his re-election campaign last month.
Biden, 81, acknowledged that he felt pressure from House and Senate Democrats who were concerned about his chances in the 2024 presidential election.
“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races. And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic — you’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something] … and I thought it’d be a real distraction,” Biden told CBS News Sunday Morning.
“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 out of my mouth,” he added, claiming his decision was made due to a combination of those factors and a key priority of “maintaining democracy.”
Pelosi initially defended Biden during the Democratic revolt that followed a poor performance in the first presidential debate before reports that she was among the higher officials pressuring the president to end his re-election campaign.
“Nancy made clear that they could do this the easy way or the hard way,” a Democrat with knowledge of the internal discussions at the time told Politico. “She gave them three weeks of the easy way. It was about to be the hard way.”
Biden vowed to “pass the torch to the next generation” in his first public address to the American people since announcing his decision to end his re-election campaign last month.
Biden, the oldest president in history, appeared opposite former President Donald Trump on the debate stage for the first time since the 2020 election and did little to quell concerns about his vigor and energy. The president appeared to struggle with his voice, clearing his throat and coughing multiple times, and was often seen open-mouthed and staring when Trump spoke, occasionally struggling to finish sentences.
Biden’s performance reportedly led to “panic” among Democrats, according to longtime Democratic operative and CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod, which was followed by several Democratic members of Congress calling for him to step down.
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