Elections 2024 live: Biden refuses to debate Trump again before DNC and clarifies meaning of ‘bullseye’ remark

Joe Biden struck a combative tone in his latest campaign reset interview with NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday night following his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump last month, which led panicked Democrats to call on the president to drop out of the 2024 race.

Biden rejected the idea he should debate Trump again before the Democratic National Convention in August but admitted it had been a “mistake” to use the word “bullseye” during a campaign call with supporters urging them to focus on Trump’s agenda just prior to the attempted assassination of the former president on Saturday.

“It was a mistake to use the word,” Biden told Holt.

“I didn’t say ‘crosshairs’. I said ‘bullseye.’ Focus on what he’s doing. Focus on his policies. Focus on the number of lies he told in the debate.”

During a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, over the weekend, the newly-confirmed Republican presidential nominee was clipped in the right ear by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, whose motive remains a mystery.

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi is meanwhile reportedly “convinced Biden will lose” in November and “working the phones” behind the scenes to plot his removal for the Democratic ticket.

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has angrily called for the retirement of an anonymous Democratic lawmaker who said the party is resigned to a Trump victory in November.

“We’ve all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency,” an unnamed senior House Democrat told Axios on Sunday, a day after the president survived as attempted assassination.

“If you’re a ‘senior Democrat’ that feels this way, you should absolutely retire and make space for true leadership that refuses to resign themselves to fascism,” AOC responded on X.

“This kind