In a new interview with NBC News host Lester Holt on Monday, President Joe Biden defended his language in the lead-up to Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, arguing that his rival’s rhetoric is the real problem.
Some Trump allies allege that Biden and other Democrats have stoked hostility toward Trump, who they say contributed to the shooting. Biden recently told donors in a private call that it’s “time to put Trump in the crosshairs.”
To see more of the interview, tune into “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT or check your local programming guide.
Biden said it was a “mistake” to use the word, but he dismissed the broader criticism, telling Holt it was just a figure of speech and that Trump is the one who has made violent rhetoric mainstream.
“I didn’t say ‘crosshairs.’ I meant ‘bull’s-eye.’ I meant focus on him. Focus on what he’s doing, focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate. Focus on — I mean, there’s a whole series of things that, look, I’m not the guy who said I wanted to be a dictator on day one, I’m not the guy who refused to accept the results of the election. I’m not the guy who said he wouldn’t automatically accept the results of this election. You can’t just love your country if you win. And so the focus was on what he said, and I mean the idea.”
Asked whether he has done “any self-examination” since the assassination attempt about rhetoric that might inadvertently incite someone to violence, Biden said the threat from his opponent is too great to ignore.
“How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when the president says the things he says? Do you just say nothing because it might incite someone?” Biden asked rhetorically.
“I didn’t engage in that rhetoric,” Biden continued. “My opponent engaged in that rhetoric.”
It is a different tone from the one he struck in his Oval Office speech Sunday night, when he called on all Americans to tone down political rhetoric and work together to stop seeing political opponents as enemies.