The president talked about his emotional decision to leave the race and his plans to campaign for the Harris-Walz ticket in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

In his first sit-down interview since dropping his 2024 campaign, President Joe Biden told CBS News reporter Robert Costa that he bowed out because he feared being a distraction in the Democrats’ efforts to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump. Their discussion, which aired on CBS Sunday Morning, touched on that infamous presidential debate, Biden’s plans for the rest of his campaign, and what another Trump presidency could look like.

“Although it’s a great honor being president, I think I have an obligation to the country,” Biden said. “The most important thing,” he continued, is “we must, we must, we must defeat Trump.”

  • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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    3 months ago

    D vs R = setting aside your own personal ambition in order to benefit the common good, vs wiping your ass with the common good in order to benefit your own personal ambition

    • danc4498@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The biggest challenge Democrats have had is that they want their policies to be good for everybody, even the people that hate them. This means democrats aren’t as excited about the policies and Republicans just hate everything they do no matter what.

      The ACA was the perfect example of this. Dems could have done whatever they wanted, but chose a very conservative healthcare model. Dems were indifferent and Republicans just latched onto this as a lightning rod for their hatred.

      Republicans on the other hand will give their base 100% of what they want with no compromise. If you didn’t vote for republicans, they don’t care what you want or how you feel. This gives their base massive enthusiasm.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Well, to benefit his own personal ambitions and to be able to pardon himself from all those pesky federal charges. Trump’s freedom may be on the line with this election, and he knows it.

      • krashmo@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        That’s what they said last time and look where he is now. Sure, he’s a convicted felon and that’s sort of fun to say but that’s more of a historical footnote than a meaningful development. There’s still been no serious consequences to his actions and if I were to place a bet on it I would put money on the chance that there never will be.

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          3 months ago

          There hasn’t been a Federal trial yet. It’s not that the charges “didn’t stick.” They haven’t been heard yet.

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            3 months ago

            Oh I’m fully aware of the situation but I don’t think that changes anything I said. Do you think he’ll do prison time or be forced to dissolve any of his businesses as restitution for any of his crimes? If not then all we’re really debating is the degree to which rich and powerful people are treated differently than the rest of us.

            • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              I don’t know. Another one of his attorneys turned to testify against him in the election fraud case. The documents case could absolutely lead to jail time if Smith can push for another judge. Cannon can’t postpone indefinitely without repercussions.

              As for payments, if he loses his appeal in NY, he’s on the hook for half a billion.

              • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Saudi Arabia’s already given Trump $2 billion via his son-in-law (and that’s likely just the public part of what they’ve given him). He’s not going to give a shit about a few hundred million dollars judgement, even if it doesn’t die in the appeals process.

              • krashmo@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Theoretically, sure, I just don’t see any of that happening. That’s not all that different from the situation four years ago and at minimum that speed difference is a big part of what I’m referring to. Someone who stole $5000 would have started serving their sentence three and a half years ago but we’re still talking about maybe getting everything to line up to possibly take action against Trump if things go our way. That’s bullshit even if he does go to prison and as we’ve already established I don’t think that’s going to happen.

              • GreenSkree@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Another one of his attorneys turned to testify against him in the election fraud case.

                Are you talking about the fairly recent news about Jenna Ellis? Unless I’m mistaken, she’s cooperating with a different set of fake electors cases that’s based out of Arizona.

                Even as someone who follows this stuff fairly regularly, it’s impossible to keep track of all of Trump’s criminal cases… and that’s just the stuff we know about that prosecutors have picked up.

                The documents case could absolutely lead to jail time if Smith can push for another judge. Cannon can’t postpone indefinitely without repercussions.

                If he loses the election and if the Supreme Court stays out of it, I’d agree.

                He also has sentencing scheduled in September for his felony convictions, though I don’t have a clue what that will be or what appeal timeline and whatnot looks like.

                It’s frustrating to see all of this move so slowly. I know these things take time, but it feels like there was no urgency in 2021 when he left office to deal with the election interference and numerous, publicly known, criminal acts.

        • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          The only consequence he would ever face would be having to flee to Russia or Saudi Arabia to avoid prison time in the US, and that only if he weren’t given home incarceration.

    • aleph@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      I wouldn’t go that far. Don’t forget that the main reason Biden had to be pressured to step down in the first place was that he had effectively been foisted on lukewarm voters and that his cognitive decline had been purposefully hidden for quite some time before the infamous debate.

      Yes, it’s good that he finally agreed to bow out of the race, but he only did it after weeks of massive pressure from the media and from within his own party. Without that, he would most likely be the presumptive nominee today and the Democrats would still be getting creamed in the polls.