President Joe Biden called for a de-escalation of political rhetoric but maintained criticism of former President Donald Trump on Monday, in Biden’s first interview since the attempted assassination of Trump on Saturday.
Speaking to NBC News anchor Lester Holt, Biden said he called the injured Trump on Saturday to convey his well wishes.
But he argued to Holt that Trump, whom Republicans officially nominated as their presidential candidate at their convention on Monday, remains a threat to American democracy, having routinely employed violent rhetoric and led an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Biden said it was a mistake to use the word “bullseye” on a call with Democratic donors last week, when he told them to focus on the Republican nominee rather than the fallout from Biden’s poor debate performance.
After the debate, many elected officials and fundraisers wondered whether Biden should withdraw from his reelection campaign.
“I meant let’s focus on him,” Biden said of Trump. “Let’s focus on what he’s doing. Let’s focus on his policies.”
The former president survived a shooting on Saturday that killed one person and wounded two others at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The gunman died at the scene.
Biden said he did not intentionally use violent rhetoric, but he did not apologize or retract his criticism of Trump as a “threat to democracy.”
“How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like the ones he says?” Biden asked.
“I’m not making that kind of rhetoric,” Biden said. “My opponent is making that kind of rhetoric, talking about there being a bloodbath if he loses.”
She also noted that Trump said he would commute the sentences of those convicted of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and mocked the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after a man attacked him with a hammer during a home invasion.
“This doesn’t sound like you’re turning down the heat,” Holt said.
Biden responded that some of the ideas Trump espouses — continuing to challenge the 2020 election results despite losing dozens of court cases, demanding a loyalty pledge to Republicans, calling political opponents “vermin” and saying he would be a dictator on day one of a second term — were antithetical to democracy.
Biden focused particularly on the Jan. 6 attack, when a mob of Trump supporters tried to stop Congress and Vice President Mike Pence from certifying Biden’s 2020 victory over then-President Trump.
“When you say there’s nothing wrong with going to the Capitol, breaking in, threatening people, killing a couple of police officers, putting a noose and a gallows on the former vice president, and then you say you’re going to pardon people for that? You’re going to pardon them?” Biden said.
“Violence is never appropriate,” he said. “Never, never, never, never, never in politics.”
He pledged to “keep talking about the issues” and chided Holt and the rest of the media for what he said was a lack of focus on real policy issues.
“Come and talk to me at some point about what we should be discussing, OK? The issues,” Biden said at the end of the roughly 20-minute interview.
Charges for classified documents
Holt asked Biden about Monday’s news that Judge Aileen Cannon, a federal judge in South Florida, dismissed charges against Trump in a case accusing him of improperly storing classified documents from his presidency.
Biden said he felt the decision by the Trump-appointed federal judge was a mistake.
“I’m not surprised,” Biden said. “But my general argument is that … the grounds on which the case was dismissed strike me as specious.”
Repercussions of the debate
Asked by Holt whether he had “weathered the storm” of Democratic discontent over his June 27 debate performance that shook confidence in his candidacy, Biden said he would stay in the race, citing his primary and caucus victories that did not pose a serious challenge to his reelection.
“Look, 14 million people voted for me as the Democratic Party nominee, OK?” Biden said. “I hear you.”
Biden again admitted that he had “had a bad, bad night” in the debate, but told Holt that press reports should have paid more attention to Trump’s performance.
“I screwed up,” Biden said. “Why didn’t the press cover all the lies he told?”
Asked about comments by senior members of his party in Congress, including Pelosi and former No. 3 House Democrat Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, that appeared to leave open the possibility that he could step aside, Biden said he remained willing to campaign on a strong record.
Biden said the race remains close even after the poor debate. He added that he has had one of the most successful presidencies since Franklin Roosevelt nearly 100 years ago.
“I’ve accomplished more than any president in a long, long time in three and a half years, so I’m willing to be judged on that.”
Biden, 81, said he understood concerns about his age and called questions about how he would perform over the next four years “legitimate.”
But when Holt asked if Biden was motivated to “get back to it” and debate Trump again “in the next few weeks,” Biden responded, pointing to a packed public agenda since the debate.
“I’m on the horse,” he told the interviewer. “Where have you been?”
Vance’s Selection
Trump’s choice of U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate showed he will surround himself “with people who agree with him completely,” Biden said.
Holt noted that Vance has made comments about Biden, but the president urged Holt to examine Vance’s comments about Trump. In 2016, as a private citizen with a somewhat public profile as a businessman and memoirist, Vance made several harsh comments about Trump.
Biden expressed some frustration that Holt didn’t seem interested in that story.
“He said some things about me, but look what he said about Trump,” Biden said. “What’s wrong with you guys? Come on, man.”
The president said Vance has backed Republican positions to severely restrict abortion, cut taxes on high-income earners and deny climate change.
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