Biden gets very combative with NBC’s Lester Holt for saying he ‘looked confused’ during debate
- The president answered more questions about his performance during the debate
- “Why don’t you ever talk about the 18 to 28 lies he told?”
President Joe Biden repeatedly responded to NBC’s Lester Holt in an interview, becoming angry when he was asked yet another series of questions about his debate debacle.
Their sometimes-biting exchange, in which Holt addressed concerns from congressional Democrats about his performance, said, “Frankly … you seemed confused.”
“Why don’t you ever talk about the 18-28 lies he told? Twenty-eight times it’s been confirmed that he lied in that debate,” Biden told Holt.
“I had a bad, bad night. I didn’t feel good at all. I blew it.”
It was one of several times he stood up to his interviewer during a conversation arranged by his team before the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on Saturday.
Holt pressed him on his unusual admission at a news conference that he had not seen the debate that prompted a flood of Democratic defectors, saying he had seen parts of his performance.
“I didn’t have to see it, I was there,” he said, challenging Holt again.
“Why don’t you ever talk about the 18-28 lies that he told?” President Biden said in an NBC interview with Lester Holt, calling on the media to ask Donald Trump tough questions
‘And by the way, seriously, you’re not answering the question, but why isn’t the press writing about all the lies he told?
He also did not accept Holt’s stance when the host asked him about Trump’s suggestion that they debate each other again before their next meeting in September so they could “get back on the horse.”
“I’m on the horse. Where have you been? I’ve done 22 major events” since the debate, he said, as he interacted with “thousands of people.” I’m on the horse.
He also took on Holt and the media when asked about Trump’s choice of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate. Holt wanted to ask what Vance had said about Biden. Biden wanted to talk about the things Vance said in 2016 when he was bashing Trump.
“Look what he said about Trump. What’s wrong with you guys? Come on man!”
Biden also spoke about the investigation he has requested into the Trump shooting.
While his opponent held his convention, Biden faced off against interviewer Lester Holt
“Come over and talk to me about what we need to talk about, okay? The issues,” Biden lectured Holt.
“I feel safe with the Secret Service,” he said.
‘Come over and talk to me about what we need to talk about, okay? The problems.’
After Biden was reluctant to direct his attacks at Trump in the debate, he made clear that his calls for “unity” and lowering the temperature do not mean he is distancing himself from what Trump has said and done.
“I’m not the guy who said on Day One that I wanted to be a dictator. I’m not the guy who refused to accept the results of the election. I’m not the guy who said he wouldn’t automatically accept the results of this election. You can’t just love your country if you win. And so the focus has been on what he says and, I mean, the idea,” Biden said, on a day when Trump’s convention in Milwaukee played an ad in which Biden repeatedly stumbles as he boards Air Force One.
It matters whether you accept the outcome of the election or not. It matters whether you talk about how to deal with the border, for example, instead of talking about people as vermin.