US President Joe Biden leaves the Oval Office on his way to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, July 15, 2024. Biden heads to Las Vegas. (AFP)
WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden said on Monday that he was wrong to call for Donald Trump to be put in the “target” in the race for the White House.
“It was a mistake to use the word,” Biden told NBC when asked if he had gone too far with his rhetoric against the newly confirmed Republican nominee, who survived an assassination attempt Saturday at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
“I meant to focus on him, on what he’s doing, on his policies, on the number of lies he told in the debate,” Biden said.
The assassination attempt, in which Trump was scratched in the ear, shocked a nation already deeply polarized ahead of the November election.
Several prominent Republicans have since accused Biden of being responsible for the assassination attempt because of his anti-Trump language.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” said JD Vance, who was announced Monday as Trump’s running mate for the 2024 election.
“That rhetoric led directly to the attempted assassination of President Trump,” Vance wrote on social media.
Biden had made the initial comments on a call with Democratic donors earlier last week.
“It’s time to put Trump on the spot,” the president said, in a call aimed at galvanizing his supporters amid growing dissent over Biden’s continued candidacy.
Those divisions arose from Biden’s disastrous performance in last month’s debate, in which the president slurred his words, spoke incoherently at times and stood with his mouth hanging open while Trump spoke.
Biden’s interview with NBC on Monday was the latest post-debate attempt by the White House to calm growing fears about the 81-year-old president’s age and mental state.
Speaking without the aid of a teleprompter, Biden told NBC’s Lester Holt that his mental acuity was “pretty good.”
“I’m old,” Biden told the US broadcaster, according to a transcript.
“But first of all, I am only three years older than Trump. And secondly, my mental acuity has been pretty good.”
He added: “I understand why people say, ‘Gosh, he’s 81. Wow. What will he be like when he’s 83, 84?’ It’s a legitimate question.”
While acknowledging that his language against Trump had been a “mistake,” Biden said it was right to keep the focus on the threat posed by another Trump presidency.
“Look, I’m not the guy who said, ‘I want to be a dictator from Day 1,’” he said, referring to Trump’s comments that alarmed many people.
