US President Joe Biden has said it was a “mistake” to say he wanted to put a “bull's eye” on Republican nominee Donald Trump.
But he said the language used by his opponent was more incendiary and warned that Mr Trump was still a threat to democratic institutions.
The comments from Mr Biden came during a private call with donors last week as the Democrat had been rushing to shore up his imperilled candidacy with key party constituencies.
During that conversation, he said he was “done” talking about his poor debate performance and that it was “time to put Trump in the bull's eye”, as Mr Trump's stances and speech had received too little scrutiny.
In an interview with NBC broadcast on Monday, Mr Biden acknowledged his “mistake” in last month's debate but said he is “not the guy who said I wanted to be a dictator on day one”, and that he wanted the focus to be on what Mr Trump was saying.
He referred to the former president's past comments about a “bloodbath” should he lose in November.
“Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says?” Mr Biden said.
“Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?”
The interview came as Mr Biden's re-election team was preparing to resume full campaigning after Saturday's assassination attempt against Mr Trump.
