President Biden spoke to NBC News anchor Lester Holt on Monday in the aftermath of the shooting at a rally held by former President Trump that destabilized the 2024 presidential election.
The president was grilled about his own comments during the election campaign while urging people to remain calm, as well as his performance in the debate and subsequent calls by Democratic lawmakers for him to resign.
NBC aired the entire roughly 18-minute interview with Biden, which took place at the White House on Monday afternoon, the action-packed first day of the Republican National Convention.
Here are five notable moments from the interview.
Biden and Trump had a ‘cordial’ conversation
Biden said his conversation with Trump after the shooting was “cordial” and focused mainly on the president’s concern for his political opponent after he was grazed by a bullet in the ear while speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“It was a very cordial response. I told him how worried I was and that I just wanted to make sure he was OK. He said he was OK and thanked me for calling,” Biden said. “I told him that Jill and I were praying for him and that we hope his whole family is doing well through this.”
The call between Biden and Trump took place on Saturday night, just hours after the shooting. Biden had told reporters earlier that night that he had tried to reach out to Trump and wanted to talk. After the two spoke, First Lady Jill Biden and former First Lady Melania Trump also spoke by phone.
The president was attending church in Rehoboth, Delaware, at the time of the shooting. When Holt asked him what his first reaction was upon hearing the news, the president responded, “My first reaction was, ‘Oh my God.’ Look, there’s so much violence going on right now.”
Biden responds to Holt’s question
Biden at times sparred with Holt over the way his questions were asked and was particularly frustrated after the debate, when he pressed the NBC News anchor about the media’s coverage.
At one point, Holt asked Biden if he would consider debating Trump again before the next debate scheduled for Sept. 10.
“…If there was an opportunity to debate between now and then? Would you be interested in debating again?” Holt asked Biden toward the end of the interview, referring to another debate before September.
“I’m on a horse. Where have you been?,” Biden retorted. “I’ve been to 22 major events, met with thousands of people, wowed crowds. There’s a lot going on. I’m on a horse.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, when Holt mentioned comments made by Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) about Biden, Trump suggested that Holt was glossing over comments Vance, a former Trump critic, had made about Biden before he became a 2024 presidential candidate.
“[Vance] “He says all this stuff about me, but look what he said about Trump,” Biden said. “What’s wrong with you guys? Come on.”
It may have been one of Biden’s most notable media rebuttals in a press interview, and comes at a delicate moment in his presidency as he is already facing calls from within his own party for him to resign. Biden stood firm despite some awkward moments during the interview.
“Come on in every now and then and talk about the things we need to talk about,” Biden challenged Holt at the end of the conversation.
Suggests “Bullseye” remark was a “mistake”
Asked by Holt about the renewed attention the remark has received in the wake of the shooting, Biden suggested he may have made a mistake when he used the word “bullseye” while talking about Trump on a conference call with donors last week.
“It was a mistake to use that word. I didn’t mean targeting. I didn’t mean bullseye. I focused on him. I focused on what he’s doing. I focused on his policies. I focused on the number of lies that he told in the debates,” Biden said.
“It’s time to target Trump,” Biden said in a conference call with donors last week, amid pressure from Democrats to drop out of the race.
When Holt asked if the president had ever taken a step back to reflect on comments he’d made that could provoke “unbalanced” people, the president pushed back.
“When a president says things like he does, the threat to democracy is real, so how do you talk about it,” Biden said. “Are you not going to say anything because it might provoke somebody? I didn’t say that.”
Trump’s legal troubles emerge
In the interview, the president said he was “not surprised” by Judge Eileen Cannon’s decision earlier in the day to dismiss Trump’s lawsuit over the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
His response quickly led to a Supreme Court immunity decision in which Justice Clarence Thomas questioned the legality of the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith. Cannon ruled that Smith had been illegally appointed and dismissed Trump’s lawsuit.
“That comes from the Supreme Court’s exemption decision… and [Justice] “Justice Clarence Thomas, in his dissent, said that an independent counsel appointed by the attorney general was not legitimate. That’s the basis on which he moved to dismiss,” Biden said.
“I write separately to highlight another way in which this prosecution may violate our nation’s constitutional structure: in this case, the Attorney General sought to appoint a private citizen as a special prosecutor to prosecute a former president on behalf of the United States,” Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion.
Biden also addressed his own investigation into classified documents discovered in his home and former office after he left office as vice president.
“I had an independent prosecutor look into it. They looked into me for months and I was fully cooperative. I was in and out of the house,” he explained.
“Ten or twelve investigators came to my house, unaccompanied, for nine hours and went through everything I had, right? And they looked at me and concluded I had done nothing wrong.”
Biden speaks about Vance
Biden’s interview with NBC came just hours after Trump announced he would pick Vance as his running mate on the first day of the Republican National Convention.
Vance has been a fierce critic of Trump in the past. Description Biden called Vance a “cynical jerk” and an “American Hitler.” Vance has since become a close ally of Trump. Biden said he wasn’t surprised Trump chose Vance.
“Well, that’s not unusual. He’s going to surround himself with people who completely agree with him, who have voting records that will support him, even though you just have to go back and listen to what J.D. Vance said about Trump,” Biden said with a laugh.
The president said Senator Vance believes in no exceptions for abortion, supports President Trump’s tax cut plan, and does not believe in climate change. In 2021, when asked whether abortion laws should allow exceptions for rape and incest, the senator said “two wrongs do not make one right,” and in 2022 downplayed the threat of climate change, saying the United States does not need to “destroy the economy” to address it.
“So he agreed with Trump’s policies, as you should do if you’re going to campaign with Trump,” Biden added.
