President Joe Biden admitted in an interview Monday that proclaiming it was “time to put Donald Trump on the spot” last week was a “mistake,” but he quickly turned attention to the former president’s regular use of such violent rhetoric.
In an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt that will air in full on Monday, the president, reflecting on his “bull’s-eye” quote following Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, said he “didn’t say bull’s-eye” and meant it was time to start “putting the spotlight on” his political adversary.
“Let’s talk about the conversation that this has started, and it’s really about language — what we say out loud and the consequences of that,” Holt insisted to Biden at the top of the preview clip. “A week ago, on a call, you called your opponent an existential threat. You said it was ‘time to put Trump on target.’ There’s some controversy about the context, but I think you appreciate that words matter.”
“I didn’t say put the spotlight on it, I was talking about putting the spotlight on something,” Biden said, downplaying the idea that his comment had anything to do with the attempt to take Trump’s life. “Look, the truth of the matter is, and I guess that’s what I was getting at at the time, there’s very little focus on the Trump agenda.”
“Yes, the term was ‘bullseye,’” Holt continued.
“It was a mistake to use that word. I didn’t say ‘target’; when I said ‘bullseye,’ I meant focus on him,” Biden said. “Focus on what he’s doing. Focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate.”
Biden then made a direct comparison between himself and Trump, arguing that he is not actually the one inciting violence.
“Look, I’m not the guy who said, ‘I want to be a dictator from Day 1.’ I’m not the guy who refused to accept the outcome of the election. I’m not the guy who said I wouldn’t automatically accept the outcome of this election,” Biden said.
Holt then asked the president if he had “taken a step back and done a little soul-searching about things that he might have said that might incite people who are not balanced.” Biden was not convinced that his words incited Saturday’s violence, but also raised the question of whether or not the possibility of someone being incited to violence should cause him not to tell the truth.
“How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he does? Do you stop saying anything because it might incite someone?” he said. “Look, I’m not making that rhetoric. Now, my opponent is making that rhetoric. He’s talking about how there will be a bloodbath if he loses, he’s talking about how he’s going to suspend the sentences of all those who were arrested and sentenced to prison for what happened at the Capitol.”
Watch the full segment below:
Biden’s interview with Holt is the latest high-profile prime-time interview he has given to the media amid the fallout from losing support following his dismal debate performance against Trump last month. While he has completed engagements with ABC and NBC and has a BET special dedicated to the Black vote on Wednesday, his first post-debate appearance with George Stephanopoulos did little to move the needle on support. Days after the July 5 interview aired, the ABC journalist was recorded on the street saying the president is not fit to serve another four years.
