Biden tries to be dictator, but not on the first day of the campaign: A president’s frustration with the insurrection

He blamed Trump for comments he made about the insurrection in January and for his first campaign for president in 2016 in particular.

I want to be a dictator, but not on the first day. Biden said that he was not the guy who refused to accept the outcome of the election.

Do you talk about the threat to democracy when a president says things that are not true? Do you just not say anything because it could cause trouble? Biden said.

Biden said he spoke with Trump after the shooting and told him how grateful he was for the prayers of Biden and his wife.

I am on the horse. The vice president said he has done a bunch of things since the debate to show it was just one bad night. Where have you been? I have done many major events and large groups of people. A lot of things are happening.

Holt asked Biden if he would be willing to debate Trump again before the second debate in September, to get back on the horse.

I am only three years older than Trump. And No. 2, my mental acuity has been pretty damn good. I got more done than any president has in 312 years. I would be willing to be judged on that.

Source: Biden bristles at continued questions about his age and abilities in NBC interview

Implications of the Assassination of Donald J. Biden for the Election Campaign Trail and the Campaign for Election Presidency

The drumbeat of calls from congressional democrats for Biden to step back from his presidential candidacy has been less frequent since the assassination of Donald Trump.

President Biden sat for a new interview while the RNC was in progress where he was asked if he needed to do more to convince his party of his ability to run for a second term.

I was adamant that this was not just a bad night, but a bad night for Mr. Biden and his image with voters on mental acuity and ability to serve. At the same time, with so many of Mr. Biden’s voters fiercely opposed to Mr. Trump returning to power, I suggested that we might actually not see polls move too much. Mr. Biden “may also be inoculated from a sudden polling decline of more than a few points because of the way our current deep polarization has frozen our politics,” I wrote in the week after the debate.

Many Democrats are depressed. Serious concerns about President Biden’s electoral hopes loomed even before the events of the weekend transpired. The Biden campaign trail challenges remain, despite Mr. Biden’s advanced age. Democrats are concerned that they have no good options, only a slow march to defeat, after seeing Mr. Trump’s famous fist in the air.

As Republicans head into the second day of their convention in Milwaukee, they are energized. They feel jubilant about their chances of winning in November and furious about the near-assassination of former President Donald Trump — an event many of them view as the natural consequence of what they see as hyperbolic rhetoric about the threat Mr. Trump poses to the country.