Biden Name-Checks Pelosi as One of the Reasons He Stepped Down
‘OBLIGATION’
In his first interview since deciding not to seek reelection and passing the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden told CBS News’ chief election & campaign correspondent Robert Costa that he felt an “obligation” to do so. He also mentioned the press campaign that his fellow Democrats launched against him as a contributing factor to his decision, naming former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as one of the people whose concerns led him to make the difficult decision. “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. You’d be interviewing me about ‘Why did Nancy Pelosi say...’ and ‘Why did so-and-so…’ I thought it’d be a real distraction,” Biden said. In a clip from the interview released last week, Biden warned that if Trump loses in November, he’s “not confident at all” that there will be a peaceful transfer of power.