1 of 2 | President Joe Biden walks to board Marine One helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Monday. Biden sat down with NBC News Anchor Lester Holt for an interview on Monday, as well. Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI |
License PhotoJuly 15 (UPI) — Joe Biden remains insistent he’s staying in the race for another four years as the nation’s oldest president, saying his “mental acuity has been pretty damn good,” during an interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt on Monday.
Holt interviewed the president at the White House on Monday afternoon. The network aired excerpts on NBC and MSNBC with the full interview to be broadcast at 9 p.m.
Biden isn’t backing down despite some Democrats, including members of Congress, governors, donors and media commentators, saying he should step down in the race against former President Don Trump.
“I listen to them,” he said about the voters who selected him to be their nominee during the primaries and caucuses.
Pressed on whether he has the stamina and cognition to be president for another four years, he said: “I’m old. But I’m only three years older than Trump, number one. And number two, my mental acuity has been pretty damn good. I’ve gotten more done than any president has in a long time in three-and-a-half years. I’m willing to be judged on that.
“I understand why people say, ‘God, he’s 81 years old. Whoa. What’s he gonna be when he’s 83 years old, 84 years?’ It’s a legitimate question to ask.”
When asked whom he consults when deciding to stay in the race or dropping out, he responded: “Me. I’ve been doing this a long time.”
Biden was interviewed by ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos on July 5 in Madison, Wis., hours after a campaign stop there and one week after his poor debate performance with Trump. Biden also has appeared at a rally in Michigan.
The interview was Biden’s first since his rival, former President Donald Trump, was wounded Saturday night during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.
Biden was asked about telling donors: “We’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”
“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 said: “Yeah, the term was ‘bulls-eye’.”
“It was a mistake to use the word — I didn’t say crosshairs, I meant bulls-eye, I meant focus on him, focus on what he’s doing,” Biden said.
The president then mentioned Trump’s comments and actions.
“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. … You can’t only love your country when you win. And so the focus was on what he’s saying,” he said.
And he said: “I am not engaged in that rhetoric. Now my opponent is engaged in that rhetoric: He talks about it’ll be a bloodbath if he loses, talking about how he’s going to forgive all the actions, I guess suspend the sentences of all those who were arrested and sentenced to go to jail because of what happened in the Capitol. I’m not out there making fun of like when, remember the picture of Donald Trump when Nancy Pelosi‘s husband was hit with a hammer going — talking — joking about it?”
On Sunday from the Oval Office, he called on Americans to “lower the temperature” of the campaign.
Monday’s interview was conducted after Trump named Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate.
“It’s not unusual, he’s going to surround himself with people who agree completely with him,” Biden said.
The interview was scheduled to be conducted in Austin, Texas, but was moved after the assassination attempt of Trump.
