In the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump this past weekend, Joe Biden said from the Oval Office last night tha “there is no place in America for this kind of violence.” However, in a very tight race leaning towards his predecessor the incumbent made it very clear to NBC’s Lester Holt today he isn’t interested in playing as game of false equivalency.
“Look, I’m not engaged in that rhetoric,” Biden said to the news anchor in an interview filed this afternoon in the White House when questioned about comments he has made in the past that may be seen as incendiary.
“Now my opponent is against that rhetoric. He talks about bloodbath if he loses, talking about how he’s going to forgive …I guess suspend the sentences of all those who were arrested and sentenced to go to jail because of what happened to the capital,” POTUS added of the January 6 mob that Trump and his MAGA supporters call “political prisoners” – as you can see below.
While certainly engaged in some sharp elbow and out and out dog whistling over the past decade, the Trump campaign has long claimed the comment by their candidate in March in Ohio has been grossly taken out of context by Democrats and others. They say Trump’s “it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country” had nothing to do with the ballot box and was a reference to Biden’s economic polices for the manufacturing industry and the toll imported cars can take on domestic workers.
Watching the footage from that speech, the context and tone do leave a certain amount of ambiquity.
Originally set to be filmed in Austin, Texas after Biden gave a speech at the LBJ Library, the sit-down was moved to the Executive Mansion in the hours after shots were fired at Trump at a rally in Butler, PA. In an obvious attempt by the White House to take a bit of thunder away from the opening day of the GOP convention, the full and unedited interview will be seen tonight in a special on NBC and its corresponding cable news channels.
Scheduled before the assassination attempt on the now official GOP nominee, the interview with the seasoned Holt was yet another move in Biden’s efforts to right the ship of his campaign after his terrible debate performance on CNN with Trump on June 27.
Giving far less network interviews over his first term than those who previously sat in the Oval Office, the 81-year-old Biden has been on top form again in teleprompter supported situations, but seemed to still struggle slightly in a previous live to tape interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on July 5 and an hourlong press conference last week.
Then again, despite a glaring slip of “Vice President Trump” at that event, Biden did pick up steam as the press conference went on, even giving almost universally praised answers on foreign policy issues like Ukraine, Gaza and China.
While the shooting of the 78-year-old Trump may have shifted the focus from Biden’s own situation, it is only a matter of time before questions and critics come out again in the final stretch before the Democratic National Convention next month in Chicago.
