'I was going to hurt them': Joe Biden explains why he dropped out of the US presidential race

Biden also pledged to campaign for Kamala Harris and expressed grave concerns about a possible second Donald Trump presidency.

US President Joe Biden said he was supportive of vice-president Kamala Harris' campaign and her vice-presidential pick, Tim Walz. Source: Getty / Chip Somodevilla

In his first interview since announcing he would pull out of the United States presidential race, Joe Biden has explained why he stepped down.

Biden also reiterated his support for Democratic candidate vice-president Kamala Harris and her running mate and expressed grave concerns about the possibility of a second Donald Trump presidency.

Biden dropped out of the race on 21 July, several weeks after a widely criticised debate performance against Republican candidate Trump.

He said decision was motivated by concern that high-profile Democrats questioning his choice to stay in the race would have been too much of a distraction to his campaign, he said in the CBS News interview.

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"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 and I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic you'd be interviewing me about," he said.

Biden also said he saw himself as a transitional president when he first ran in 2020 but "things got moving so quickly" that his plans didn't work out.

"I can't even say how old I am, it's hard for me to get out of my mouth," Biden said, referring to his initial intention to pass on leadership to the next generation.

Biden says he will support the Harris campaign

Biden said he would be campaigning for Harris along with Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, who was among the frontrunners as a potential pick for Harris's running mate.

He said he was "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."

Harris announced Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her vice-presidential running mate last week.

"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," Biden said of Walz.

Speaking about a potential second Donald Trump presidency, Biden said the stakes for his country's future were high.

"He's a genuine danger to American security."

Harris leads 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.

The two will go head-to-head in their first presidential debate on 10 September.