- author, Crystal Haze
- role, BBC News
-
US President Joe Biden says he was wrong to say “it’s time to put President Trump at the center of the target” just days before Saturday’s assassination attempt on his presidential election rival.
Biden’s comments came in his first interview since the incident, in which he defended his comments against Donald Trump and explained why they were important.
The president told NBC’s Lester Holt that his campaign had a duty to clearly communicate the threat to Trump’s reelection, adding that his rhetoric was not something that needed to be suppressed.
Biden said Democrats are saying they need to focus more on Trump, his policies and the false statements he made during a presidential debate late last month.
In the interview, Biden made it clear that he has no plans to drop out of the presidential race, despite calls from within his party for him to do so following his poor debate performances.
“I’m an old guy,” he lamented, though he noted he is only three years older than Trump. He said his intelligence was fine and cited his accomplishments as president but acknowledged he is working to reassure Americans that he is worthy of the office.
“I understand people saying, ‘Oh my goodness, he’s 81 already. Oh my goodness. What happens when he’s 83, 84?’ It’s a legitimate question,” he said.
He said he trusted voters, who overwhelmingly supported him in the Democratic primary, and “I’m going to listen to them.”
The attack left one person dead and two seriously injured.
More than a dozen Republicans have accused Biden and other Democrats of inciting the assassination attempt on Trump, with many pointing specifically to Biden’s “bullseye” comment.
J.D. Vance, who was announced Monday as Trump’s running mate, said in the wake of the shooting that Democrats’ rhetoric against the Republican candidate “led directly to the assassination attempt on President Trump.”
“I have one job to do, and that’s to defeat Donald Trump, and I believe I’m the best person to do that, so we’re done talking about debates. It’s time to put Trump at the center of the target,” Biden said in a private call with donors, according to Politico.
President Biden condemned the attack in an Oval Office address on Sunday, urging Americans to “step back” and warning that “the political rhetoric in our country has become very heated.”
Asked in an interview with NBC whether he had reflected on his past statements to see if they might have been “inflammatory and incendiary” to some, Biden said he did not make inflammatory remarks.
“I didn’t say that,” Biden said. “Now my opponent is saying that.”
“When a president says things like he does, the threat to democracy is real, so how do you talk about it? Do you say nothing because it might provoke somebody?”
“I’m not a guy who said on day one that I wanted to be a dictator, and I’m not a guy who refused to accept the results of the election.”
The FBI identified the shooter who targeted President Trump as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, a Republican and kitchen worker from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
After Crooks opened fire on the former president, a Secret Service sniper shot him dead.
Correction: An earlier headline on this story said Biden said he regrets calling Donald Trump a threat to democracy. This was incorrect and the headline has been updated.
