WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden told NBC News in an interview that aired Monday that it was a “mistake” to say he wanted to target Republican nominee Donald Trump, but argued that his opponent’s rhetoric was more incendiary and warned that Trump remained a threat to democratic institutions.
Biden made those remarks during a private call with donors last week as the Democrat worked to bolster his imperiled candidacy with key party constituencies. During that call, Biden declared he was “done” talking about his poor debate performance and that it was “time to put Trump in the spotlight,” saying Trump has received too little scrutiny over his stances, rhetoric and lack of campaigning.
Biden insisted that “very little attention was paid to Trump’s agenda,” telling NBC host Lester Holt that while he acknowledged his “mistake,” he is not “the guy who said he wanted to be a dictator on Day 1” and that he wanted the focus to be on what Trump was saying. It is Trump, not Biden, who is using that kind of rhetoric, Biden said, referring to Trump’s past comments about a “bloodbath” if the Republican loses to Biden in November.
“Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says?” Biden asked. “You don’t say anything because you might incite someone?”
The interview came on the same day his re-election team was preparing to resume campaigning in full swing following the attempted assassination of Trump, particularly after the Republican nominee announced Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate, sparking a flurry of criticism from the Biden campaign and other Democrats over the freshman senator’s policy positions.
“He’s a clone of Trump on those issues,” Biden told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base shortly before leaving for Nevada for a series of speeches and campaign events. “I don’t see any difference.”
The NBC interview, scheduled before the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, had been part of a broader strategy by Biden to demonstrate his suitability for office after angst grew among Democrats over his disastrous performance in the June 27 debate.
The Biden campaign recalibrated some of its political plans in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s assassination attempt, pulling advertising off the air and pausing messaging. The White House also canceled Biden’s planned visit Monday to the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech on civil rights.
It has not yet been decided when Biden’s campaign announcements will resume, but he is moving forward with the Nevada portion of his previously scheduled Western swing, which will include remarks to the NAACP and UnidosUS, a civil rights and Latino advocacy group. He will also headline what has been billed as a “campaign rally” on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
Hours before the NBC interview, his campaign issued a strongly worded statement on the choice of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as Trump’s running mate, saying it picked the freshman senator because he would “do everything in his power to support Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda.”
“For the next three and a half months, we will spend every day making the case between the two starkly opposed visions that Americans will choose between at the ballot box this November,” said Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon. “The Biden-Harris ticket, which focuses on uniting the country, creating opportunity for all, and driving down costs; or the Trump-Vance ticket, whose damaging agenda will strip away Americans’ rights, hurt the middle class, and make life more expensive — all while benefiting ultra-wealthy, greedy corporations.”
Biden has acknowledged that his candidacy and agenda will come under attack at this week’s Republican National Convention, and his advisers don’t feel the need to put his campaign on full pause while Biden comes under scrutiny in Milwaukee. But they will proceed with caution in the wake of the shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I’ll be traveling this week to defend our record and our vision for the country,” Biden said during his Oval Office address Sunday night, just the third of his presidency. “I will continue to speak out strongly for our democracy, defend our Constitution and the rule of law, call for action at the ballot box and no violence in our streets. That’s how democracy should work.”
Biden’s resumption of the campaign this week comes at a time when Democrats have been at a stalemate over whether the incumbent president should continue in the race, even as he has been defiant that he would remain in it. Biden has made it clear in no uncertain terms that he is still in the race, and his advisers have been operating accordingly.
It was unclear whether the assassination attempt on Trump would weaken Democratic efforts to urge Biden to step aside, but it appears to have slowed some of the momentum — for now. No Democrats have called for Biden to drop out of the race since Saturday night’s shooting.
In the hours before the shooting, Biden was still facing frustration and skepticism from Democratic lawmakers. Rep. Jared Huffman of California said he asked the president during his meeting with the Congressional Progressive Caucus about objectively assessing the trajectory of the race, and if the Lord almighty does not intervene, whether Biden would consider “the next best thing on earth” — meeting with former Presidents Obama and Clinton, and Democratic leaders including Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “to seek their counsel.”
Huffman said in a social media post that Biden “disagreed with the idea that we are on a losing trajectory.”
And while Biden expressed a “willingness to listen” to other voices, Huffman said she doubted any would be persuasive. “I continue to believe that a major course change is necessary and that the president and his team have not yet fully acknowledged the problem, let alone corrected it,” she said.
But now, several Democrats who requested anonymity were skeptical that there was enough momentum among lawmakers to successfully try to pressure Biden not to show up, especially since they are scattered and away from Washington until next week and because Biden has said he won’t step aside and used the opportunity to respond quickly to the weekend shooting. The people requested anonymity to characterize private conversations.
Many in the Democratic Party had hoped congressional leaders Jeffries and Schumer would voice their concerns directly to the president. Jeffries met with Biden at the White House on Thursday night, while Schumer went to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Saturday for his visit with Biden, which occurred just before the assassination attempt on Trump.
There were still deep concerns that Biden was not up to the job and a sense that pressure to try to find another nominee could ramp up again when lawmakers return to Washington. Congressional Democrats were watching the Republican National Convention and Biden’s appearances this week with an awareness that the dynamic could shift — again.
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AP Congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
