The 26 must-see lines from Joe Biden's NBC interview
Not great, Bob!
Even as Republicans were gathering in Milwaukee to formally nominate Donald Trump as their presidential nominee on Monday, President Joe Biden was trying to keep his grip on the Democratic nomination amid a slow-motion revolt within his own party.
The latest gambit by Biden and his team was a sitdown with NBC’s Lester Holt. It didn’t go great!
Biden was defiant to the point of arrogance and continued to commit the sort of memory flubs that will do nothing to put down the idea that he is too old to do the job for another four years.
I went line by line through the transcript. I picked out the lines you need to see below.
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To the lines!
“My first reaction was, ‘My God. This is’ — look, there’s so much violence now and the way we talk about it. I mean, the whole notion that there is this — there’s — there’s no place at all for violence in politics in America.”
This is Biden’s response to Holt question about his reaction to hearing of the assassination attempt by Trump. It’s a question that Biden had to know was coming. And his answer is, um, not great! Very muddled. And away we go!
“And — we’ve reached a point where it’s — it’s become too commonplace, not assassinations, but to talk about it.”
Again, I know what Biden means here but he is struggling to express himself clearly.
“I didn’t say ‘cross-hairs.’ I was talking about focus on. Look, the truth of the matter was what I guess I was talking about at the time was there was very little focus on Trump’s — agenda.”
Holt asked Biden whether it was a mistake to use the word “bullseye” when it came to Trump. No one said anything about “cross-hairs.”
“It was — it was a mistake to use the word. I didn’t mean — I didn’t say ‘cross-hairs.’ I meant ‘bull’s-eye’ I meant focus on him.”
Literally no one has said the word “cross-hairs” in this interview other than Biden.
“Look, I’m not the guy that said I want to be a dictator on day one. I’m not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election. I’m not the guy who said that wouldn’t accept the outcome of this election automatically. You can’t only love your country when you win.”
That last line — “you can’t only love your country when you win” — is very, very good. Powerful and effective. And true!
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