Biden returns to campaign trail after rival Trump's assassination attempt
Washington — All eyes will be on Joe Biden as he addresses Black supporters Tuesday in the battleground state of Nevada, his first campaign appearance since the assassination attempt on his Republican rival, former president Donald Trump.
The U.S. president is expected to sharpen the choice voters will face this November, while calling for unity amid concerns of escalating political violence in the country.
In Las Vegas, at a convention of an American civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, Biden will highlight his administration’s support for Black voters who have been part of the backbone of the Democratic party’s coalition.
He is set to unveil policies to rein in rising housing costs, a critical issue in Nevada. He’ll broadcast his message in an interview with Black Entertainment Television, BET, later the same day.
On Wednesday, he’ll address UnidosUS, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, attempting to win Latino voters, another key voting bloc for Democrats.
In both events, Biden is expected to repeat his calls to cool down the country’s political rhetoric, a message he has delivered in three remarks in less than 24 hours following the shooting at Trump’s Pennsylvania campaign event that killed a rallygoer and wounded others, including the former president.
“Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy,” the president said in a rare Oval Office address Sunday. “But politics must never be a literal battlefield, and, God forbid, a killing field.”
Biden faces the challenge of navigating his unity message with his vows to stop Trump at all costs, as his campaign adjusts its strategy to move forward amid the president’s declining poll numbers. The Biden team had just begun to more sharply criticize Trump in an effort to stabilize Biden’s candidacy, following his rocky debate performance last month when the shooting occurred.
Via his social media platform, Trump urged the nation to “stand united.” He said in an interview with the Washington Examiner newspaper that he rewrote his speech for this week’s Republican National Convention to focus more on unity following the attempt on his life.
“I fear that this moment of detente won't last very long,” said Claire Finkelstein, director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania. But it may bring greater awareness from each candidate to refrain from rhetoric that “can have an impact” especially on followers “who can be easily revved up into engaging in acts of violence,” she told VOA.
Biden continues to reject calls from at least 20 congressional Democrats and others within his party to step aside over concerns about his age and mental acuity, insisting that he is the best-positioned Democrat to beat Trump.
The latest polling data averages from various surveys compiled by FiveThirtyEight shows that Trump is leading by 4.7 percent in Nevada.
VOA’s Kim Lewis contributed to this story.