Joe Biden explains why he dropped out of White House race

Politicians and pundits have long questioned whether Mr Biden would have the stamina for four more years in the White House, concerns that were crystallised by his rambling, at times halting performance during a debate on 27 June.

During the pre-recorded interview broadcast Sunday, Mr Biden misspoke several times but generally seemed more coherent than during the live televised debate. He chalked up his poor debate performance to illness – previously he’s also mentioned jet lag and lack of rest as factors.

As pressure continued to ratchet up, he announced his exit from the race on 21 July.

A potential battle to replace him at the top of the Democratic ticket never materialised and party support swiftly coalesced around Vice-President Harris, who has so far outperformed Mr Biden in opinion polls.

In the CBS interview, Mr Biden returned to the moment he decided to run against Mr Trump – when a gathering of far-right activists in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 turned deadly. He accused Trump of emboldening racists and the far-right.

“Every other time the Ku Klux Klan has been involved they wore hoods so they’re not identified,” he said. “Under his presidency, they came out of those woods with no hoods, knowing they had an ally.”

He also repeated his concerns about what might happen after November’s election, saying he was “not confident at all” that there will be a peaceful transfer of power if Ms Harris defeats Trump.

He went on to say that he was concerned that there would be violence if Trump loses the election.

“He means what he says,” Mr Biden said. “We don’t take him seriously. He means it. All the stuff about, ‘If we lose, it’ll be a bloodbath’.”

“He’s a genuine danger to American security,” Mr Biden said.

Trump commented at a rally in March that it would “be a bloodbath for the country” if he loses, however his campaign has repeatedly said he was referring to the economy and the auto industry and that Democrats have taken the quote out of context.

At the same time, the former president has repeatedly insisted, without evidence, that he was cheated out of victory in 2020 and has warned that there will be attempts to “rig” the vote this year. He has pledged to pardon some or all of the people convicted for rioting at the US Capitol in January 2021.

Mr Biden said he would be campaigning on behalf of Ms Harris and that he had spoken to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro about touring the state. Mr Biden was born in the working-class city of Scranton, about 120 miles (190km) north-west of New York City.

“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,” he said.