Confused Joe Biden stands by claim Donald Trump is a threat to democracy

The gaffe-prone US President set out on a round of interviews where he made clear his dislike of the press and his belief that ­Donald Trump was still a threat to democracy.

Joe Biden stands by claim Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.

Joe Biden said Barack Obama had made him vice-president in 2020, as the gaffe-prone US President set out on a round of interviews where he made clear his dislike of the press and his belief that ­Donald Trump was still a threat to democracy.

In two interviews that aired on Monday (Tuesday AEST), Mr Biden conceded it was a mistake of his to call for “putting Donald Trump in the bullseye” last week ahead of the assassination attempt on Mr Trump at a Republican rally in Pennsylvania last weekend.

“It was – it was a mistake to use the word. I didn’t mean – I didn’t say ‘crosshairs’. I meant ‘bullseye’. I meant focus on him,” he told NBC in a long interview in which the President made clear he still saw Mr Trump as a serious threat to the nation and would not resile from the political fight.

“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 ’cause it may incite somebody? Look, I — I — I — I have not engaged in that rhetoric.”

Top Republicans, including ­the newly announced Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, have blasted Democrats and Mr Biden for demonising Mr Trump to the point where someone tried to kill him.

“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 I wouldn’t accept the outcome of this election automatically.”

Newly announced Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance. Picture: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Mr Biden tried to put blame back on Mr Trump for the nation’s increasingly polarised state, recalling the former president’s statement in 2017 that “very fine people” were on both sides of a protests over a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 at which one woman was killed.

In a separate interview that was filmed last Friday, a day before Mr Trump’s near-death experience, the President said he was “1000 per cent” committed to staying in the race despite weeks of speculation that party elders might convince him to step aside following his stinging loss to Mr Trump in a presidential debate last month.

“I didn’t plan on running. In 2020, when Barack asked me to be vice-president I joined at it was a great honour,” he told online news site Complex Networks in ­remarks that triggered a fresh bout of online mockery of his declining mental powers.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with a bandage on his ear after his near-death experience. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

Mr Biden, whose political standing had already taken a hit both within the Democratic Party and among voters since his rickety debate performance, wouldn’t be drawn on how the assassination attempt would affect a November election that most polls suggest Democrats are on track to lose.

“I don’t know, and you don’t know, either,” Mr Biden said.

“The idea that we are in a situation where if you look at all the polling data, the polling data shows a lot of different things, but there’s no wide gap between us. It’s essentially a toss-up race,” he told NBC.

The President took issue with the media’s focus on his debate performance that has seen his chances of being re-elected in ­November collapse, according to political betting markets.

“Look, why don’t you guys ever talk about the 18 – the 28 lies he told? Where – where are you on this? Why doesn’t the press ever talk about that?” he said.

Mr Biden also expressed his solidarity with Israel as it seeks to destroy Hamas in Gaza, declaring himself to be a Zionist

“You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and a Zionist is about whether or not Israel is a safe haven for Jews because of their history of how they’ve been persecuted,” the President said.

“Now, you’ll be able to make a lot of that because different people don’t know what a Zionist is.”

Mr Biden will have given three interviews by the end of this week, a greater number than in any other week of his presidency, as part of a media blitz to tamp down criticism of his leadership and cauterise any political fallout stemming from the assassination attempt on Mr Trump.