It was probably drowned out by the Republican clown show where the orange martyr picked his personal Rudolf Hess, but yesterday Biden gave an interview to NBC's Lester Holt. If you haven’t watched it yet, you either should catch up on that, or read the transcript on NBC.
Once again, Biden showed that he has a commanding knowledge of detail and is perfectly capable of stringing together coherent sentences that do not sound like empty phrases, as his opponent (the one with the nicest words) likes to excrete.
LESTER HOLT: All right. I want to ask you about some other developing news today if I can. Judge Cannon dismissed the documents case, as you may have heard, in Mar-a-Lago. Can I first get your reaction to that?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I’m not surprised. 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. That’s the basis on which this judge moved to dismiss. And — 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. But my generic point is that it’s — well, the — the basis upon which the case was thrown out I find specious because I don’t agree with what Clarence Thomas’s dissent and/or the Supreme Court decision on immunity.
Can you imagine the whiny answer iDJT would have given to the same question (end of the witch hunt, unfair targeting, totally legal, blah blah)? If you were to ask him what exactly Thomas' dissenting concurring (as some commenters rightfully pointed out, Thomas’ opinion in the immunity case was not dissenting, but concurring [see www.supremecourt.gov/… , Page 52]) means, he would probably answer that Thomas thinks it's perfectly ok to have his opinions sponsored by his billionaire friends.
To Hold’s both-siding the issue of harmful rhetoric Biden was coherently able to point out the difference between attacks on the political ideology of your opponents and attacks of the fabric of democracy itself.
LESTER HOLT: But have — have you s — taken a step back and done a little soul searching on things that you may have said that could incite — people who are not balanced?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Well, I — I don’t think — look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything ’cause it may incite somebody? Look, I — I — I — I have not engaged in that rhetoric.
Now, my — my — my opponent has engaged in that rhetoric. Talks about there’d be a bloodbath if he loses. Talking about how he’s gonna forgive all the — actually, I guess, suspend the sentences of all those who were arrested and sentenced to go to jail because of what happened on — in the Capitol. I’m not out there making fun of — like, re — remember the picture of Donald Trump when Nancy Pelosi’s husband was hit with the hammer, going — talking about — joking about it.
LESTER HOLT: This doesn’t sound like you’re — you’re — you’re turning down the heat, though. You — you’ve talked about the —
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Oh, no, no, no, no. Look, what I’m turning down — we have to stop the whole notion that there are certain things that are contrary to our — our democracy that we’re for. The idea of saying that you — “I didn’t win the election” when every court in the land — every court in the land, 120 appeals said — and including this conservative Supreme Court said we won, the idea about having — a loyalty pledge from all the folks who are in the Republican MAGA — not all Republicans, the MAGA Republicans saying that, “No, we lost the election,” inflaming the people to say — I — you — I mean —
LESTER HOLT: So — so what — what — what can you and what will you do, at — at least things you can control, to lower down the temperature, the rhetoric out there?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Continue to talk about the things that matter to the American public. It matters whether or not you accept the outcome of elections. It matters whether or not you, for example, talk about how you’re gonna deal with the border instead of talking about people as being vermin and all — I mean, those things matter. That’s the kind of language that is inflammatory.
But the best part was Biden pushing back on the media’s obsession with his debate performance instead of focusing on the myriad of lies the other guy told that night and which probably were the reason for Biden to be so confused in the first place. He was prepared to have a debate and not a contest to beat Pinocchio in coming up with a new record in lies per minute.
LESTER HOLT: In your last TV interview you were asked if you had watched the debate and your answer was, “I don’t think so, no.” Have you since seen it?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I’ve seen pieces of it. I’ve not watched the whole debate.
LESTER HOLT: And — and the reason I ask, because I guess the question is are you all on the same page as to where — are you seeing what they saw, which was moments of, frankly, it — it appeared to be you — you appeared to be confused.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Lester, look, why don’t you guys ever talk about the 18 — the 28 lies he told? Where — where are you on this? Why doesn’t the press ever talk about that? Twenty-eight times, it’s confirmed, he lied in that debate. I had a bad, bad night. I wasn’t feeling well at all. And — and I had been — without making — I screwed up. But —
LESTER HOLT: The re — I just ask the question because — the — the idea that you may or may not have seen what some of these other folks have seen. You’re not on the same —
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I didn’t have to see it — I was there. (LAUGH) I didn’t have to see it. I was there. And by the way, seriously, you won’t answer the question, but why doesn’t the press talk about all the lies he told? I haven’t heard —
LESTER HOLT: Well, we —
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: — anything about that.
LESTER HOLT: We — we have reported many of the issues that came of that —
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: No you haven’t —
LESTER HOLT: — that debate.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: No you haven’t.
LESTER HOLT: Well, we’ll provide you with them.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: God love you.
One question especially showed the want for having a proper horse race, as — I kid you not — a horse came up in the conversation:
LESTER HOLT: But if — if the opportunity came up to do one between now and then? Is there — is there a sense of wanting to get back on the horse?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I’m on the horse. Where have you been? I’ve done 22 major events, met thousands of people, overwhelming crowds. A lot’s happening. I’m on the horse. What I’m doing is going out and demonstrating to the American people that I have command of all my faculties, that I don’t need — notes. I don’t need telepro — I can go out and answer any questions at all. And I stood there when — when NATO was in town. I stood there for an hour and answered questions.
Concluding the interview Biden even managed to take a dig on the media’s obsession with everything else than the things that really matter: policy issues.
LESTER HOLT: All right. Mr. President, it’s always good to talk to you. Good to see you. Thank you for making some time for us.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Sometimes come and talk to me about what we should be talking about.
LESTER HOLT: All right.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Okay? The issues.
LESTER HOLT: Always happy to talk.
At the end of the day, it will probably just be reported on how many times Biden cleared his throat or how many times he misspoke, so I think it's important for everyone to make up their own minds and read or watch for themselves.