US President Joe Biden admits Democrats thought he would ‘hurt them’ as he was removed from election race
US President Joe Biden has admitted the “powers that be” in the Democratic Party conspired to remove him ahead of the election against former president Donald Trump.
The president, who stepped down in the wake of a disastrous debate performance against Trump on June 27, said internal polls showed the race would have been very close but the decision was taken out of his hands.
“But what happened was, a number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races,” Mr Biden said on CBS.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“Look, polls we had showed it was a neck-and-neck race, it would have been down to the wire.
‘’But I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic — you’d be interviewing me about what did Nancy Pelosi say … and I thought it’d be a real distraction, number one.
“Number two, 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, and uh, but things got moving so quickly it didn’t happen.
“And the combination was, that I thought it was the critical issue for me still is, not a joke, maintaining this democracy.
“But I thought it was important because although I, it’s a great honour being President, I think I have an obligation to the country to do what I, the most important thing you can do, and that is we must, we must, we must defeat Trump,” Mr Biden added.
The US President then pivoted and declared he would campaign for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in November’s presidential election.
Ms Harris leads Donald Trump by four points in Pennsylvania and two other key swing states, Wisconsin and Michigan, according to polls by the New York Times and Siena College released on Saturday.
Asked whether he would be campaigning for Ms Harris, Mr Biden replied: “Yes.”
Mr Biden added he and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro “are putting together a campaign tour in Pennsylvania. I’m going to be campaigning in other states as well and I’m going to do whatever Kamala thinks I can do to help most.”
Kamala Harris announced last week that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz would be her vice presidential running mate.
“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,” said Mr Biden.
with AAP.
