United States President Joe Biden has said it was wrong to say Donald Trump should be put “in a bull’s-eye” but defended his portrayal of his Republican rival as a threat to democracy.
In his first television interview since Trump narrowly survived an attempted assassination, Biden said the comments he made in a private call with donors were intended to put the focus on his challenger’s policies and character.
“It was a mistake to use the word. I didn’t say ‘crosshairs’. I meant bulls-eye, focus on him, focus on what he is doing,” Biden said in an interview with NBC News’s Lester Holt on Monday.
“Focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate.”
Asked if he had done any “soul searching” about his rhetoric since the attempt on Trump’s life, Biden said it was appropriate to highlight the dangers posed by Trump and denied using inflammatory language like his rival.
“Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?” Biden said.
“Look, I have not engaged in that rhetoric. Now, my opponent has engaged in that rhetoric. He talks about, there’ll be a bloodbath if he loses.”
Biden’s comments came after several prominent Republicans, including Trump’s vice-presidential running mate DJ Vance, accused the president and his allies of creating the conditions for violence through their rhetoric casting Trump as an existential threat to democracy.
Biden, who has made the preservation of US democracy a key message of his re-election campaign, temporarily suspended television advertisements and an appearance in Texas following the attack, but will pick up his campaign with several events this week in the swing state of Nevada.
Trump came within centimetres of death on Saturday after a gunman opened fire on a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, striking the former president in his right ear.
