First campaign trip for Biden since Trump assassination attempt

Photo: Kent Nishimura Agence France-Presse Joe Biden on his way to Las Vegas

Danny Kemp – Agence France-Presse in Washington

Posted at 4:21 p.m. Updated at 7:11 p.m.

• United States

Joe Biden returns to the field on Tuesday for the first time since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, an event that forces the US president to balance his own calls to calm the political climate and the need to lead an offensive campaign against its rival.

In the middle of the Republican convention in Milwaukee, where Donald Trump received a standing ovation from an excited crowd, Joe Biden wants to try to rally the support of the African-American electorate to defend his faltering candidacy.

He is scheduled to speak in Las Vegas at an event organized by the country's main civil rights group, the NAACP.

The The 81-year-old Democratic president is also scheduled to record an interview with Black Entertainment Television (BET), which is aimed primarily at an African-American audience.

After the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on Saturday, Joe Biden canceled a trip to Texas on Monday, but maintained this visit to Nevada, where he narrowly won over his Republican rival in 2020.

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• Under pressure to withdraw, Joe Biden receives support from Bernie Sanders

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This trip comes in a tense atmosphere among the Democrats, who are continuing their plan to accelerate the designation of Joe Biden as the party's official candidate, so that it takes place before the Democratic convention scheduled for August.

And this even though some are calling for this convention to be postponed, in the face of concerns about Joe Biden's health and his ability to secure a new mandate. Calls to withdraw his candidacy have multiplied within his own camp since a disastrous performance during a debate at the end of June against Donald Trump.

If these calls briefly died down after the shots against the former Republican president, tensions remain high, fueled by Joe Biden lagging behind in the polls.

“I'm old”

His supporters who came to the rally organized by the NAACP on Tuesday, however, affirm their support. “We are moving forward with Biden,” says Sydney Martin, 65, denouncing calls for the president to withdraw from the race, “a ruse of the enemy” according to him.

More nuanced, Asha Holmes, 28, said she was “hoping Kamala [Harris, the vice president] would try to get into the race this year instead of having [Biden] for a second term.”

Joe Biden admitted to having “crashed” during the debate against his rival, but blamed jet lag and a cold. In an interview with NBC on Monday, he tried hard to appear combative.

“I’m old,” he conceded. “But I’m only three years older than Trump, for one thing. And on the other hand, my mental acuity is pretty darn good. »

He also defended his rhetoric towards the ex-president, after Republicans accused him of fueling a dangerous climate that led to shots at Donald Trump, who was injured in the ear.

Mr. Biden admitted he made a “mistake” in calling for “targeting” Donald Trump at a donor event, just days before the assassination attempt on him. “I meant, focus on him, on what he's doing,” explained the Democrat.

But he didn't deny the substance of his purpose, which is to present the former guest of the White House as a danger to American democracy.

“How do you talk about the threat to our democracy, which is real when a president says things like he says ? You just don't say anything just because it might incite someone ?,” he said he questioned.

Mystery still reigns over the motive of assailant Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who opened fire Saturday during a campaign rally Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, before being shot. One spectator was killed and two others seriously injured.