- Author, Christal Hayes
- Role, BBC News
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US President Joe Biden said it was a mistake to say “it’s time to put Trump on the spot” days before Saturday’s assassination attempt on his election rival.
Biden’s comments came in his first interview since the incident, in which he defended his rhetoric against Donald Trump and cited why it was important.
The president told NBC’s Lester Holt that his campaign had a duty to clearly communicate the threat of a second Trump term, adding that his words were not ones that needed to be tempered.
Biden said he meant Democrats should focus more on Trump, his policies and the false statements he made during the presidential debate late last month.
Throughout the interview, Biden made clear he would not step aside from the presidential race, despite calls from members of his own party after his poor debate performance.
“I’m old,” he lamented, though he also noted that he is only three years older than Trump. He said his mental acuity was fine and listed his accomplishments as president, but acknowledged that he was working to reassure Americans that he was up to the job.
“I understand why people say, ‘Gosh, he’s 81. Wow. What’s going to happen to him when he’s 83, 84?’ It’s a legitimate question,” he said.
He said he has faith in the voters who overwhelmingly supported him in the Democratic primary. “I hear them.”
One member of the crowd was killed and two others were seriously injured in the attack.
About a dozen Republicans have blamed Biden and other Democrats for inciting the attack on Trump. Many have specifically cited Biden’s “target” comment.
JD Vance, who was announced as Trump’s presidential running mate on Monday, said in the wake of the shooting that Democratic rhetoric about the Republican nominee “led directly to the attempted assassination of President Trump.”
According to Politico, Biden had said in a private call to a donor: “I have one job, and that is to defeat Donald Trump. I am absolutely confident that I am the best person to do it. So we are done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump on the spot.”
President Biden, in an Oval Office address on Sunday, denounced the attack and called on Americans to “step back,” warning that “the political rhetoric in this country has become very heated.”
Asked in the NBC interview whether he had also taken a step back to examine his past comments for anything “that might incite people who are not balanced,” Biden said the incendiary rhetoric had not come from him.
“I have not resorted to that rhetoric,” Biden said. “Now, my opponent has.”
“How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like the ones he says? Can you just say nothing, because it might incite someone?
“I’m not the guy who said he wanted to be a dictator on day one, I’m not the guy who refused to accept the election results.”
The FBI has identified the gunman who attacked Trump as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, a kitchen worker from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who is registered as a Republican.
Crooks was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper after he fired at the former president.
Correction: An earlier headline for this story said Biden had said he regretted calling Donald Trump a threat to democracy. This was incorrect and the headline has been updated.
