--- title: Biden Criticizes Trump in Interview After Shooting description: President Joe Biden defended his suggestion that Trump be “put in the bullseye” and tried to turn the focus toward his Republican rival’s rhetoric and policies. canonical: https://time.com/6998975/joe-biden-nbc-interview-bullseye-donald-trump-shooting/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-07-16T02:10:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:44:30.709Z article:section: Politics og:title: Biden Defends 'Put In the Bullseye' Remark on Trump og:description: President Joe Biden defended his suggestion that Trump be “put in the bullseye” and tried to turn the focus toward his Republican rival’s rhetoric and policies. og:url: https://time.com/6998975/joe-biden-nbc-interview-bullseye-donald-trump-shooting/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64c9f55286b457f7/698a58be9d83e83236b9a4d1/joe-biden.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: U.S. President Joe Biden og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Biden Defends 'Put In the Bullseye' Remark on Trump twitter:description: President Joe Biden defended his suggestion that Trump be “put in the bullseye” and tried to turn the focus toward his Republican rival’s rhetoric and policies. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64c9f55286b457f7/698a58be9d83e83236b9a4d1/joe-biden.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Biden Defends His ‘Bullseye’ Remark and Criticizes Trump’s Rhetoric in NBC Interview > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=1ebccdbe-4919-43a6-a92a-5132765dc638&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Biden Defends His ‘Bullseye’ Remark and Criticizes Trump’s Rhetoric in NBC Interview [Watch (HLS stream): Biden Defends His ‘Bullseye’ Remark and Criticizes Trump’s Rhetoric in NBC Interview](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/98AU5yM9.m3u8) (1:59)  _Published 2024-07-16. President Joe Biden told NBC News in an interview airing Monday that it was a “mistake” to say he wanted to put a “bull's-eye” on Republican nominee Donald Trump, but argued that the rhetoric coming from his opponent was more incendiary while warning that Trump remained a threat to democratic institutions._ by [Jordan Fabian / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Jordan Fabian / Bloomberg Contributor Jul 16, 2024 2:10 AM UTC President Joe Biden told NBC News in an interview airing Monday that it was a “mistake” to say he wanted to put a “bull's-eye” on Republican nominee Donald Trump, but argued that the rhetoric coming from his opponent was more incendiary while warning that Trump remained a threat to democratic institutions. by [Jordan Fabian / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Jordan Fabian / Bloomberg Contributor Jul 16, 2024 2:10 AM UTC President Joe Biden defended his suggestion that Donald Trump should be “put in the bullseye” in an NBC News interview Monday following the assassination attempt on his Republican opponent. “Was it—it was a mistake to use the word—I didn’t mea—I didn’t say say crosshairs, I said bullseye, I meant focus on him, focus on what he’s doing,” Biden said. “Focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate.” Biden criticized Trump for his role in raising the temperature in the nation’s political discourse, as he brushed aside Republican accusations his own words have coarsened the political conversation. “Look, I’m not the guy that said I want to be a dictator on day one. I’m not the guy who refused to accept the outcome of the election,” Biden said. The President’s defensive interview underscored his precarious political position in the aftermath of the debate and attempted assassination. Biden on Monday said it wouldn’t be fair to blunt criticism of Trump, considering the stakes of the November election. “How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a President says things like he says?” Biden said. “Do you just not say anything because it might incite somebody?” Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, have criticized Biden for telling donors in a private phone call that it was time to put Trump “in the bullseye” as the President sought to shift attention from his rocky debate performance. [J.D. Vance](https://time.com/6998809/jd-vance-vice-president-trump-nominee/), the U.S. senator from Ohio named Monday as Trump’s running mate, directly blamed Biden for the attack, even as law enforcement officials say they have not yet determined a motive. The prime-time NBC interview interview was Biden’s latest attempt to stabilize his beleaguered reelection bid at a pivotal moment in the campaign. Talk among Democrats of replacing Biden was put off, at least temporarily, after the shooting. But the shocking outburst of violence, and Trump’s defiant response to it, helped supercharge the former President’s reelection campaign by further galvanizing the party around its nominee. By contrast, Democrats remain deeply split over Biden almost three weeks after his poor debate performance triggered panic about his mental acuity. The shooting has temporarily forced Biden to pivot from the one strategy that has united his fractious party: attacking Trump as a threat to democracy. Biden, 81, acknowledged in the interview that age “is a legitimate question to ask” but downplayed those concerns, saying his “mental acuity has been pretty damn good” and pointing out Trump is only three years younger. Asked who he consults about whether to stay in the race, Biden said, “me,” adding “I’ve been doing this a long time.” ## Oval Office The NBC interview had been set to take place in Austin, Texas, around an event marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. That trip was postponed in the wake of the attempted assassination, and Biden’s television encounter was moved to the White House. The President was betting that appealing to national unity in a rare Oval Office address following the shooting would help demonstrate leadership at a fraught moment for the country. But the attack also laid bare the unfulfilled promise of Biden’s 2020 campaign: that he would restore calm and normalcy following Trump’s chaotic term in the White House. Striking the right tone in the days ahead is a complicated task for Biden. The shooting in Pennsylvania has limited the opportunity, at least for now, that Biden has to go full-bore attacking Trump. At the same time, Biden’s fellow Democrats have long wanted him to step up his case against the former President. He had just begun to do that before the shooting. At a rally last Friday in Detroit, Biden assailed the so-called Project 2025 effort by Trump allies to lay out a second term agenda of slashing federal agencies, socially conservative policies, politicizing the civil service and mass deportations. The attempt on Trump’s life happened just around 24 hours later. ## Drawing contrast The President’s campaign has said he would return to drawing contrasts between his agenda and Trump’s. The first signs of that shift emerged Monday when Biden’s political operation bashed Trump’s selection of Vance, invoking the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. “Donald Trump picked J.D. Vance as his running mate because Vance will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law,” said Biden campaign chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon. Biden won’t be off the road for long. He departed for Las Vegas on Monday, where over the next two days he will address gatherings of major Black and Latino advocacy groups and sit for an interview with BET. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended Biden’s ability to go after Trump in the wake of the shooting. “It’s OK to have our differences, and it is OK to speak to someone’s record, to speak to someone’s character,” she told reporters Monday. ## Transcript Call a week ago, you said it's time to put Trump in the bull's eye. There's some dispute about the context, but I think you appreciate I didn't say crosshairs. I was talking about focus on. Look, the truth of the matter was, what I guess I was talking about at the time was there was very little focus on Trump's agenda. Yeah, the term is bull's eye. With a mistake to use the word I didn't say crosshairs. I bulls. I'm going to focus on him, focus on what he's doing. Focus on on his policies. Focus on the number of lies he told in the debate. Focus. I mean, there's a whole range of things that, 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 would accept the outcome of this election automatically. You can't only love your country when you win. I've thought less about the trajectory of the case than two things. One, what is health is, that was secure. Number one. And number two, what happens from here on in terms of the kind of coverage that the president and vice president and former president and new vice president get in terms of L, I've never seen a circumstance where you ride through certain rural areas of the country, people have signs there big Trump signs with a middle sign sing F Biden and a little kid stand there putting up his middle finger. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that is just inflammatory and kind of viciousness. Look, 14 million people voted for me to be the nominee in the Democratic Party. Okay? I listen to the m. It's not unusual. He's going to surround himself with people who agree completely with him. I have a voting record. I support him. Even though if you go back and listen to the things that JD Vance said about Trump. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6998975/joe-biden-nbc-interview-bullseye-donald-trump-shooting/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6998975/joe-biden-nbc-interview-bullseye-donald-trump-shooting/"},"headline":"Biden Defends His ‘Bullseye’ Remark and Criticizes Trump’s Rhetoric in NBC Interview","datePublished":"2024-07-16T02:10:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T07:44:30.709Z","description":"President Joe Biden defended his suggestion that Trump be “put in the bullseye” and tried to turn the focus toward his Republican rival’s rhetoric and policies.","url":"https://time.com/6998975/joe-biden-nbc-interview-bullseye-donald-trump-shooting/","keywords":["Joe Biden","wire","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64c9f55286b457f7/698a58be9d83e83236b9a4d1/joe-biden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jordan Fabian / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64c9f55286b457f7/698a58be9d83e83236b9a4d1/joe-biden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Joe Biden","caption":"U.S. President Joe Biden deliver remarks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Sunday July 14, 2024.","creditText":"Demetrius Freeman—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/joe-biden/","name":"Joe Biden"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6998975/joe-biden-nbc-interview-bullseye-donald-trump-shooting/","name":"Biden Defends His ‘Bullseye’ Remark and Criticizes Trump’s Rhetoric in NBC Interview"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Biden Defends His ‘Bullseye’ Remark and Criticizes Trump’s Rhetoric in NBC Interview","description":"President Joe Biden told NBC News in an interview airing Monday that it was a “mistake” to say he wanted to put a “bull's-eye” on Republican nominee Donald Trump, but argued that the rhetoric coming from his opponent was more incendiary while warning that Trump remained a threat to democratic institutions.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/98AU5yM9/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-07-16T16:34:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/98AU5yM9.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6998975/joe-biden-nbc-interview-bullseye-donald-trump-shooting/","duration":"PT1M59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6998975/joe-biden-nbc-interview-bullseye-donald-trump-shooting/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```