WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said in an interview with NBC News on Monday that it was a “mistake” to say he wanted to put a “bull’s-eye” on 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.
The NBC interview came as Biden and his re-election team prepared to resume campaigning in full swing after a brief pause following the weekend assassination attempt on Trump. The president and his campaign sparked a wave of criticism after the Republican nominee announced freshman Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate.
“He’s a clone of Trump on those issues,” Biden told reporters as he headed to Nevada for a series of speeches and campaign rallies. “I don’t see any difference.”
Once Vance was chosen by Trump as vice president, the Biden campaign sent out a fundraising application signed by the president, and his team issued a blunt statement saying it had chosen the freshman senator because he would “do everything in his power to support Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda.” For her part, Vice President Kamala Harris called Vance to congratulate him and left a voicemail, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Biden made it clear to NBC host Lester Holt that he would continue to focus on Trump. While acknowledging his “mistake,” Biden said he is not “the guy who said he wanted to be a dictator from day one” and that he wanted the focus to be on what Trump was saying. It is Trump, not Biden, who uses 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 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.
Biden also spoke privately with Trump after the assassination attempt, a call the president described in the NBC interview as “very cordial.”
“I told him how worried I was and wanted to make sure I knew how he was really doing,” Biden said. “He seemed OK. He said he was fine and thanked me for calling. I told him he was literally in Jill’s and my prayers, and I hoped his whole family was getting through this.”
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.
Biden has acknowledged that his candidacy and agenda will come under attack at this week’s Republican National Convention, and his advisers have not felt the need to halt his campaign entirely, particularly while Biden is under scrutiny in Milwaukee.
Asked whether Biden would adjust his message this week in light of the assassination attempt, O’Malley Dillon pointed to his Oval Office speech as a “road map for the entire country,” which he said was no different than Biden’s broader message from the start of his candidacy.
“You’ll hear the president continue to make clear his affirmative agenda,” he said. “Not just in abstract terms, but very specifically on how he continues to help the American people in the face of this very negative viewpoint and this extreme agenda that the American people have already said they don’t want.”
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, Democratic leadership including Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. 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.
Asked by Holt if he had gotten over the worst of his own party, Biden said 14 million Democratic voters elected him in the primaries, adding, “I hear them.” His mental acuity is “pretty good,” Biden added, but said it was “legitimate” to ask him about his age.
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 and AP White House correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
