Biden gets snappy in Lester Holt interview on NBC

On Monday, in the aftermath of Trump’s shooting, President Biden sat down in the White House with NBC’s Lester Holt for an “unedited” interview, which aired in the evening.

The president successfully made it through without any major gaffes, appearing combative when questioned about his mental acuity.

He started off a little shaky after Holt called out his incendiary language, in particular his remarks it was time to put Trump in the “bullseye.” Biden suggested this was a mistake, claiming he meant “focus on him” and what he’s doing, “on his policies, the number of lies he told in the debate.”

He was quick to bring up the “existential threat” Donald Trump presents. When asked if he had done any “soul-searching” regarding some things he said, Biden replied: “How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says?”

When asked if Saturday’s debacle was a massive security failure, Biden said he still “felt safe with the Secret Service” after the events on Saturday, claiming that what mattered is that the Secret Service was willing to “give their lives” for the former president. 

Holt then turned the conversation to SCOTUS’s ruling on presidential immunity. Biden said he felt the Supreme Court made a “terrible decision” and that the justices were not “in touch with what the Founders intended.” He also mentioned he was “not surprised” by Judge Cannon’s decision to dismiss the Mar-a-Lago case.

Then Holt finally brought up what’s on most Americans’ minds: Biden’s decision to stay in the race. The president said that nothing had changed for him, and his decision to remain was based on the fact that his “job [is] not finished.” He even went so far as to compare his presidency to FDR’s — claiming it is the most successful since Roosevelt’s time, “passing more legislation no one thought you could get done,” putting together a consensus, uniting NATO. Not sure how this compares to the man who led America out of the Great Depression and through World War Two.

“Do you feel like you’ve weathered the storm on — on this issue of whether you should be on the ticket or not?” Holt pressed on. “Look, 14 million people voted for me to be the nominee in the Democratic Party, OK? I listen to them,” Biden responded.

But Biden lost his cool when the June 27 debate was brought up. “Quite frankly, you appeared to be confused,” Holt said. “Why don’t you guys ever talk about the eighteen — twenty-eight lies that he told? Where — where are you on this?” Biden exclaimed. “I had a bad, bad night,” he added. “I wasn’t feeling well at all.”

“We have reported on many of the issues,” Holt protested. “No you haven’t!” Biden snapped back.

He also lashed out at Holt when asked about a potential additional debate with Trump before the planned one in September. “I’m gonna debate him when we agreed to debate.” “But if — if the opportunity came up to do one between now and then? Is there — is there a sense of wanting to get back on the horse?” Holt asked again. “I’m on the horse. Where have you been? I’ve done twenty-two major events, met thousands of people, overwhelming crowds,” Biden piped back.

Holt tried to amicably end the interview, thanking the president for his time, to which he replied, “Sometimes come and talk to me about what we should be talking about.”