Biden admits pressure from Democrats influenced his decision to drop out of the race

President Joe Biden admitted Sunday that pressure from Democratic congressional leaders influenced his decision to drop out of the presidential race.

In an interview with CBS News, his first after dropping out of the race, Biden explained why he withdrew and claimed that fellow Democrats told him his campaign would hurt his party's House and Senate races.

Biden said this situation was problematic for his candidacy and would be a distraction.

"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 why did Nancy Pelosi say -why he did it - and I thought it’d be a real distraction," Biden told CBS News' Bob Costa.

The Democratic chairman also acknowledged that the polls they were handling were not the best, with numbers showing a very close election.

"The polls we had showed that it was a neck-and-neck race, it would have been down to the wire," said Biden, who finally dropped out of the election race in late July, officially endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, who chose Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.

According to various national media reports, Biden, who did not want to quit, was forced to drop out of the race after top Democratic hierarchs Rep. Nancy Pelosi, former President Barack Obama and Senator Chuck Schumer privately asked or suggested he step aside. In parallel, several influential media outlets, such as The Washington Post and The New York Times, openly called for the president's declination. Likewise, big Democratic donors stopped writing checks following Biden's performance in the presidential debate against Trump, which was the ultimate tipping point for the president to withdraw.

Last week, Rep. Pelosi revealed that she and Biden still haven't spoken to each other since he dropped out of the race.

However, despite the reports, Pelosi says she never told Biden to drop out of the presidential race.

In another interview, she said the president had no path to victory.

"Now I was really asking for a better campaign. We did not have a campaign that was on the path to victory. Members knew that in their districts," Pelosi said.

At another point in the interview with CBS News, Biden appeared to admit that his memory problems, along with his desire to preserve democracy, also contributed to his decision to drop out of the race.

"When I ran the first time, I thought of myself as being a transition president. 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. And the combination was that I thought it was a critical issue for me still, it’s not a joke, maintaining this democracy."

However, Biden also dismissed the notion that he had serious health problems and would soon begin campaigning for Kamala Harris.

In fact, he said he is working with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to organize a campaign tour.