President Joe Biden repeatedly fired back at NBC’s Lester Holt in an interview, getting irate as he answered another round of questions about his debate disaster.
Their sometimes acrimonious exchange included Holt’s airing of concerns from congressional Democrats about his performance: “Frankly … you seemed confused.”
“Why don’t you ever talk about the 18 to 28 lies that he told? It’s been confirmed that he lied 28 times in that debate,” Biden told Holt.
“I had a terrible night. I didn’t feel well at all. I screwed up.”
It was one of several occasions when he confronted his interviewer, in a meeting organized by his team before Saturday’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Holt pressed him on his unusual admission at a news conference that he had not watched the debate that sparked a wave of Democratic defections. He said he had seen clips of his performance.
“I didn’t have to see it: I was there,” he said, again challenging Holt.
“Why don’t they ever talk about the 18 to 28 lies that he told?” President Biden said in an interview with Lester Holt on NBC, demanding the media ask Donald Trump tough questions.
-And by the way, seriously, you won’t answer the question, but why doesn’t the press talk about all the lies he told?
He also did not accept Holt’s position when the host asked him about Trump’s proposal to debate again before their next scheduled engagement in September to “get back on track.”
“I’m on the horse. Where have you been? I’ve been to 22 major events” since the debate, he said, interacting with “thousands of people. I’m on the horse.”
He also faced Holt and the media when they asked him about the choice of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as Trump’s running mate. Holt wanted to ask him about what Vance has said about Biden. Biden wanted to talk about things Vance said criticizing Trump in 2016.
“Look what he said about Trump. What’s wrong with you guys? Come on, man!”
Biden also spoke about the investigation he requested into Trump’s shooting.
“I feel safe with the Secret Service,” he said.
‘Sometime come and talk to me about what we should be talking about, ohOkay? The problems.
After being slow to try to focus his attacks on Trump in the debate, Biden made clear that his calls for “unity” and lowering the temperature will not mean backing away from things Trump has said and done.
“I’m not the guy who said I wanted to be a dictator on Day 1. I’m not the guy who refused to accept the outcome of the election. I’m not the guy who said I wouldn’t accept the outcome of this election automatically. You can’t love your country only when you win. And so the focus was on what he’s saying and, I mean, the idea,” Biden said, on a day when Trump’s convention in Milwaukee played an ad of Biden repeatedly stumbling as he boarded Air Force One.