President Joe Biden hit the campaign trail on Tuesday for the first time since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, trying to strike a balance between criticizing his rival and his calls for calm in American politics.
While Trump is riding a wave of support at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Democrat Biden — who is trying to save his reelection bid — is in Las Vegas to reach out to a key constituency of black voters in the NAACP advocacy group.
The 81-year-old president will also record an interview with black broadcaster BET, the latest in a series of one-on-one conversations as he seeks to ease concerns over his age and mental acuity after his disappointing performance in a debate against Trump last month.
Biden canceled his campaign trip to Texas on Monday but continued with his trip to Nevada, amid calls for Americans to “turn down the temperature” of politics in the wake of Trump’s assassination attempt.
Biden won Nevada by a slim margin over Trump in the 2020 election.
The trip comes as Democrats are moving ahead with plans to quickly pass Biden’s nomination ahead of the party convention in August, even as the party is divided over his candidacy and calls for it to be postponed.
While Trump’s assassination attempt may have for some time silenced the voices of Democrats demanding that Biden step down, tensions are still simmering below the surface as the president falls behind in the polls.
Biden’s campaign insisted the virtual roll-call was necessary ahead of the August 19 convention because Republican-led Ohio had extended its filing date to August 7, otherwise Biden risked not appearing on the ballot.
‘Play the game’
“Past presidential elections have had a virtual roll call,” Democratic deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said at a news conference on the sidelines of the Republican convention in Milwaukee.
“Ohio Republicans decided to play games … as a campaign we have an obligation to make sure President Biden is on the ballot.”
However, the move is likely to raise further questions about whether Biden will win a second term, given his poor performance in the debate, where he fumbled his words and appeared to lose his sense of direction.
Biden, who said he “did the wrong thing” because of jet lag and illness, strongly defended his qualifications for the job in a second major US network interview on Monday night.
“I’m old. But I’m only three years older than Trump, number one. And number two, my mental acuity is much better,” Biden told NBC.
Biden also defended his rhetoric about Trump after Republicans accused him of promoting divisiveness ahead of the shooting, which left the former president with an injury to his ear.
FBI investigators are still probing the motive of 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks for attacking Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A passerby was killed and Crooks was shot.
Biden acknowledged it was a “mistake” to say in a call with donors last week that it was “time to put Trump center stage” in the campaign.
But Biden stressed that it is necessary to talk about the threat posed to democracy by former President Trump.
Trump was impeached and criminally charged for the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by his supporters who were trying to overturn his election loss to Biden.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
