Joe Biden sat down for yet another damage-control interview, this time with NBC News’s Lester Holt. It was his second since his disastrous debate performance but the first since the failed assassination attempt against Donald Trump over the weekend.

Following that nationally traumatic event, which left one dead, two severely injured, and Trump with a bullet hole through his right ear, Biden had called for toning down the political rhetoric. But in his 20-minute NBC interview, it became clear that the only one Biden thinks needs to tone down the rhetoric is Trump, as Joe once again labeled him a “threat to democracy.”

Early in the interview, Holt asked Biden for his reaction to the attempted assassination of Trump. After saying that “there’s no place at all for violence in politics in America,” Biden then referenced the January 6 Capitol riot and then once again trotted out the Charlottesville lie, which even the leftists at Snopes have debunked.

Those folks coming out of the woods with torches, carrying swastikas, singing the same Nazi bile that was accompanied by this Ku Klux Klan and a young woman was killed. And — and it was a bystander. And — the president — then president was asked, “What do you think?” He said, “The very fine people on both sides.” Not fine people on both sides. No excuse. Zero.

Holt then pressed Biden on his recent rhetoric, observing that he had called Trump “an existential threat” and further noting, “On a call a week ago you said, ‘It’s time to put Trump in the bullseye.’”

Biden pushed back, stating, “I didn’t say crosshairs. I was talking about focus on.” Holt again noted that Biden had used the term “bullseye.”

Clearly getting frustrated, Biden argued, “It was — it was a mistake to use the word. I didn’t mean — I didn’t say ‘crosshairs.’ I meant ‘bullseye.’ I meant focus on him. Focus on what he’s doing. Focus on — on his — on his policies. Focus on the number of lies he told in the debate.”

To Holt’s credit, he pressed Biden again on his rhetoric, and it was here that Biden once again labeled Trump a “threat to democracy.”

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.

Biden blasted Trump for using the term “bloodbath if he loses” — another unhinged lie — and accused Trump of joking about Nancy Pelosi’s husband being attacked with a hammer.

Holt responded, “This doesn’t sound like you’re — you’re — you’re turning down the heat, though.”

Indeed, as the interview went on, it was clear that Biden rejected the notion that he needed to tone down any of his divisive political rhetoric. He also chided Holt and the mainstream media for failing to call out Trump’s lies from the debate. Never mind the fact that Biden told a number of lies himself while also demonstrating that he would continue to invoke the Charlottesville and “bloodbath” lies in his effort to smear Trump as a dangerous racist and a threat to democracy.

The fact of the matter is that it’s not name-calling or mean words that are so dangerous; rather, it is the repeated assertion that Trump represents an existential threat to America. It is false ideas like this that can marinate in the mind of some unstable person, and the result is what the nation saw last Saturday.

Biden claimed he wanted to unite the nation when he took office, but the exact opposite has resulted under his watch. He chose to play identity politics, preaching the divisive message of “us versus them” to further a radical leftist agenda. And now, when the result of that division is rearing its ugly head, Biden simply turns and plays the blame game.