Biden says ‘time to put Trump in the bulls-eye’ remark was a mistake, doubles down on reelection bid

President
Joe
Biden
said
he
should
not
have
used
the
language,
“put
Trump
in
the
bulls-eye,”
a
remark
he
made
to
donors
in
a
private
call
days
before
the
attempted

assassination
of

Donald
Trump
at
a
Pennsylvania
rally.

“It
was
a
mistake
to
use
the
word,”
Biden
said,
according
to
excerpts
of
a
Monday
interview
with

NBC
News’
Lester
Holt.
“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.”

“How
do
you
talk
about
the
threat
to
democracy,
which
is
real,
when
a
president
says
things
like
he
says?”
Biden
asked
rhetorically.
“Do
you
just
not
say
anything,
because
it
may
incite
somebody?”

“Look,
I
have
not
engaged
in
that
rhetoric,”
Biden
said.
“Now,
my
opponent
has
engaged
in
that
rhetoric.
He
talks
about
being
a
bloodbath
if
he
loses.”

On
Saturday,
several
shots
were
fired
at
Trump’s
Pennsylvania
rally,
killing
one
attendee
in
the
crowd
and
critically
injuring
two
others.
The
former
president’s
ear
was
bloodied
before
Secret
Service
covered
him
and
rushed
him
off
stage.
The
alleged
gunman,
20-year
old
Thomas
Matthew
Crooks,
was
killed
several
moments
after
shots
were
fired.

Questions
and
conspiracy
theories
soon
poured
out
across
social
media
as
the
public
processed
the
horrific
events
of
Saturday
evening.

Several
Republican
lawmakers
blamed
Democratic
campaign
rhetoric
for
inciting
the
shooting,
including
Biden’s
ill-timed
“bulls-eye”
comment.

In
the
days
since
the
Saturday
shooting,
some
have
begun
to
ask
the
uncomfortable
but
inevitable
question
of
how
the
tragic
events
could
have
political
ramifications
on
the
presidential
race.

“I
don’t
know,”
Biden
said
in
the
Monday
interview,
noting
that
political
fallout
was
not
his
primary
concern
after
the
shooting.

Biden’s
interview
served
as
his
campaign’s
counter-programming
to
the
much-hyped
Republican
National
Convention
in
Milwaukee,
where
Trump
officially
became
the
party’s
nominee
for
president
on
Monday.

Trump
also
formally
announced
his
vice
president
pick,
Ohio
Sen.
JD
Vance,
on
Truth
Social
Monday.

Vance
was
an
example
of
what
he
sees
as
Trump’s
desire
to
“surround
himself
with
people
who
agree
completely
with
him.”

The
Monday
sit-down
comes
as
Biden
works
to
save
his
own
faltering
presidential
campaign,
following
his
disastrous
debate
performance
in
June.

Since
then,
concerns
about
Biden’s
age
and
fitness
have
become
his
foremost
political
liability.
He
has
faced
pressure
from
Democratic
lawmakers,
donors
and
strategists
to
drop
out
of
the
race
against
Trump
and
allow
a
new
nominee
to
carry
the
party’s
standard
through
November.

As
he
has
over
the
past
several
weeks,
Biden
dug
his
heels
in
during
the
Monday
interview,
defiantly
pledging
to
remain
in
the
race.

“Fourteen
million
people
voted
for
me
to
be
the
nominee
of
the
Democratic
Party,
OK?
I’ll
listen
to
them,”
Biden
said.

He
criticized
the
media
for
what
he
sees
as
a
disproportionate
focus
on
his
public
gaffes
rather
than
Trump’s
political
vulnerabilities:
“Why
doesn’t
the
press
talk
about
all
the
lies
[Trump]
told?”

While
the
president
said
that
questions
about
his
age
were
“legitimate”
to
ask,
he
largely
rejected
the
notion
that
his
age
would
disqualify
him
from
beating
his
Republican
rival.

“I’m
only
three
years
older
than
Trump,
No.
1,”
he
said.
“And
No.
2,
my
mental
acuity
has
been
pretty
damn
good.”