Biden’s First NBC Interview with Donald Trump: “Incident Violence in the First Day of the 2016 Insurrection”
But he repeatedly directed blame back at Trump and his own comments, from his first campaign for president in 2016 to remarks about the Jan. 6 insurrection.
I am not the guy that wants to be a dictator on the first day. I’m not the guy who refused to accept the outcome of the election,” Biden said as examples of the kind of statements Trump has made.
Biden said that Trump’s inflammatory language was the one that prompted him to do soul-searching about whether his words could in fact inciting violence.
Biden said he spoke with Trump after the shooting, describing the call as “very cordial” and said he told his predecessor “he was literally in the prayers of Jill and me.”
“I’m on the horse!” Biden said that there were a lot of things he had done since the debate to show that it was just one bad night. Where have you been? I’ve done 22 major events and thousands of people, overwhelming crowds. A lot’s happening.”
Holt asked if Biden would agree to debate Trump before an agreed upon second debate in September, which he suggested would be a good chance to get back on the horse.
“But I’m only three years older than Trump, No. 1. My mental acuity has been good. I’ve gotten more done than any president has in a long time in 3½ years. I’m willing to be judged on that.”
The Preceding of the Assassination of President Donald B. Biden and the Next-to-Minimal Democratic Reionization
Since the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday, the steady drumbeat of public calls from Democrats in Congress for Biden to step back from the presidential race has receded.
President Biden sat for a new televised interview where he refused to answer a question regarding if he needed to do more to convince Republicans that he has what it takes to run for a second term.
In the initial aftermath of Mr. Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate, I was adamant that this was not simply “one bad night” and that there would be serious damage done to his standing with voters on questions of mental acuity and ability to serve. At the same time, with so many of Mr. Biden’s voters fiercely opposed to Mr. Trump returning to power, I suggested that we might actually not see polls move too much. I wrote that Mr. Biden may be inoculated from a sudden polling decline due to the way the politics of our country have been frozen.
Meanwhile, many Democrats are despondent. Serious concerns about President Biden’s electoral hopes loomed even before the events of the weekend transpired. Mr. Biden’s advanced age and attendant campaign trail challenges remain. And now the iconic images of a bloodied Mr. Trump, fist in the air, seem to have raised Democrats’ concerns that they have no good options, only a slow march toward defeat.
As Republicans head into the second day of their convention in Milwaukee, they are energized. They are thrilled about their chances of winning in November, and furious about the assassination of former President Donald Trump, because they think it is the result of hyperbolic rhetoric about the country’s future.