US President Joe Biden told NBC News in an interview broadcast 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 the rhetoric coming from his opponent was more incendiary even as he warned that Trump remained a threat to democratic institutions.
Those remarks from Biden came during a private call with donors last week as the Democrat had been scrambling to shore up his imperilled candidacy with key party constituencies.
During that conversation, Biden declared that he was “done” talking about his poor debate performance and that it was “time to put Trump in the bull’s-eye”, saying Trump has received far too little scrutiny on his stances, rhetoric and lack of campaigning.
Insisting “there was very little focus on Trump’s agenda”, Biden told NBC anchor Lester Holt that while he acknowledged his “mistake”, he nonetheless is “not the guy who said I wanted to be a dictator on day one” and that he wanted the focus to be on what Trump was saying. It is Trump, not Biden, who engages in 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 said. “Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?”
Biden said he was not sure whether the shooting changes the trajectory of the November presidential election or not.
“I don’t know and you don’t know either,” he said.
The interview was taking place the same day that his re-election team was preparing to resume full-throttle campaigning after the assassination attempt on Trump, particularly after the Republican nominee announced Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate – which unleashed a flurry of criticism from the Biden campaign and other Democrats about the young senator’s policy positions.
“He’s a clone of Trump on the issues,” Biden told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base before departing for Nevada for a series of speeches and campaign events. “I don’t see any difference.”
The NBC interview, scheduled before the attempt on Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania, had been part of Biden’s broader strategy to prove his fitness for office after angst grew among Democrats because of his disastrous June 27 debate performance.
04:50
Trump rally shooting: Biden orders security review, FBI believes shooter acted alone
Trump rally shooting: Biden orders security review, FBI believes shooter acted alone
The Biden campaign recalibrated some of its political plans in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on Saturday, pulling advertising off the air and hitting pause on messaging. The White House also scrapped Biden’s planned Monday visit to the Lyndon B Johnson library, where he had been expected to deliver remarks on civil rights.
It is still not finalised when Biden’s campaign advertisements will resume.
Hours ahead of the NBC interview, his campaign issued a blistering statement on Trump’s selection of Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate, saying he picked the senator because he would “bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda”.
“Over the next three and a half months, we will spend every single day making the case between the two starkly contrasting visions Americans will choose between at the ballot box this November,” said Biden campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon.
Biden has acknowledged that his candidacy and agenda will be under attack at the Republican National Convention this week, and aides feel no need to put their campaign on complete pause while Biden comes under scrutiny in Milwaukee. But they will tread carefully in the aftermath of the shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Biden’s renewed campaigning this week comes as Democrats have been at an impasse over whether the incumbent president should continue in the race even as he was defiant that he would stay in. Biden has made it clear in no uncertain terms that he remains in the race, and aides have been operating as such.
It was unclear if the attempt on Trump’s life would blunt Democratic efforts to urge Biden to step aside, but it appears to have stalled some of the momentum, for now. No Democrats have called for him to exit the race since the shooting on Saturday.
In the hours before the shooting, Biden was still being confronted by frustration and scepticism from Democratic lawmakers. Congressman 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.
Huffman said on a social media post that Biden “disagreed with the notion that we are on a losing trajectory”.
And while Biden expressed a “willingness to listen” to other voices, Huffman said he doubted any would be persuasive.
Several Democrats who requested anonymity were sceptical that there would be enough drive among lawmakers to successfully try to pressure Biden not to run.
Many in the Democratic Party had been looking to congressional leaders to voice concerns directly to the president.
There were still deep concerns that Biden is not up to the job and a sense that pressure to try to find another candidate could ramp up again when lawmakers return to Washington. Congressional Democrats were watching the Republican National Convention and Biden’s appearances this week with awareness that the dynamics could change – again.
