President Biden speaks on political violence in interview with Lester Holt

President Joe Biden sat down for an on-camera interview with NBC News host Lester Holt on Monday night, in a counter-program to the Republican convention. 

The interview is the first time Biden is sitting down with a reporter since an assassination attempt was carried out on former President Donald Trump over the weekend.

Biden commented on an increase in political violence in recent years, including the assassination attempt on a former president, calling for the country to remain united. He also admitted that he should not have used the word "bullseye" when talking about taking Trump out in the political race.

“It was a mistake to use the word,” Biden told Holt though he defended himself by pointing out he had not used the word "crosshairs."

“I meant focus on him, focus on what he’s doing," Biden clarified. "Focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told at the debate."

"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 he won’t accept the outcome of this election automatically. You can’t only love your country when you win," he added.

Biden also admitted that he does not know how the Pennsylvania shooting will play into the election moving forward, or whether it has changed the election's trajectory. 

The president additionally pushed back on the press coverage after the debate, for focusing on his performance while he had a "bad night" rather than the "28 lies" that his rival said during the first presidential debate last month. He also admitted that he had not seen the entire debate, but saw bits and pieces. 

The interview was the second major on-camera sit-down since Democrats have urged the president to drop out of the race over his debate performance.

Biden addressed Judge Aileen Cannon's dismissal of the classified documents case, and said he was "not surprised"  by the ruling. 

"It comes from the immunity decision the Supreme Court-- ruled on, and Clarence Thomas, in his dissent, said that independent prosecutors appointed by the attorney general aren’t legit," Biden said. "But-- I had an independent prosecutor look at me. They spent months on my-- going through and I was totally cooperative. In and out of my house, there were-- I don’t know the last time in there were, like, 10, 12 agents in my house for nine hours unaccompanied going through every single thing I had. That’s appropriate. And they looked at me and concluded I didn’t do a damn thing wrong."

The president also said Trump's choice of a running mate in Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio was not "surprising" because Vance holds similar views to the former president, and had a voting record that supported it.

"J.D. Vance has-- has adopted the same policies," Biden said. "No exceptions on abortion, making sure that he supports-- a new $5 trillion tax cut that Trump wants to give in the next administration, signing on to the whole notion of whether or not we’re gonna-- there’s-- he says there’s no climate change that’s happening. I mean, he signed on to the-- to the Trump agenda, which he should if he’s running with Trump."

Biden ended the interview by promising to debate Trump in September as previously agreed upon, but declined to debate him before then.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.