Joe Biden has admitted he “can’t say” how old he is during his first interview since quitting the 2024 presidential race.
The 81-year-old said it’s “hard for me to get out of my mouth” as he despairingly reflected on the reality of his old age.
Speaking to CBS News, Biden said he thought of himself as a “transition president” and stepping aside was in the Democrats’ best interests as it gave them the best chance of defeating his Republican foe, Donald Trump.
“When I ran the first time, I thought of myself of being a transition president”, Biden said.
Joe Biden delivered his first speech on CBS
CBS
“I can’t even say how old I am, it’s hard for me to get out of my mouth. But things got moving so quickly, it didn’t happen.
“Although it was a great honour being president, I think I have an obligation to the country to do the most important thing you could do and that is we must, we must, we must defeat Trump.”
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Age concerns surrounding Joe Biden had started to emanate from his own party and the issue was only compounded by a poor debate showing against Trump in June.
Trump mockingly said Biden “doesn’t know what he’s saying” after he found one particular response from the US president difficult to decipher.
Upon dropping out of the race, Biden quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
He said in the interview that a lot of his Democrat colleagues had voiced concern about what his presence on the ballot paper meant for their prospects of retaining or gaining office.
Donald Trump will now face Kamala Harris
Reuters
“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races”, he candidly admitted.
“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 would be a real distraction.
“The polls we had showed that it was a neck and neck race, it would have been down to the wire.”
Now Harris has been tasked with picking up the pieces of the Democrat campaign.
Biden struggled in his debate against Trump
CNN
One of her major tasks in the months to come is face Donald Trump in what could end up being a series of debates.
So far, just one has been agreed and it will take place on 10 September, with ABC News set to host.
Trump is keen on having three debates in the lead-up to the November election, while Harris has also opened the door to locking horns more than once.