Donald Trump resumed his re-election campaign on Tuesday for the first time since a second apparent attempt on his life, claiming “only important presidents get shot” while praising Kamala Harris, saying she had phoned him to check on him. Trump spoke at a town hall meeting in front of cheering supporters in Flint, a beleaguered industrial city that was once the jewel of the US automotive industry in swing state Michigan before factories shut down due to foreign competition.
Trump on Sunday drew a connection between the FBI’s thwarted assassination attempt against him at his Florida golf course and his promise to impose heavy tariffs on car imports from Mexico and China.
“And then you wonder why I was shot at, right? You know, only important presidents get shot at,” Trump said.
Harris, Trump’s election rival who is campaigning in another crucial state, Pennsylvania, said on Tuesday that she had contacted the former president after the failed attack.
In an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), Harris said, “I asked him if he was OK. And I told him what I’ve said publicly — there’s no place for political violence in our country.”
The White House described it as a “cordial and brief conversation.” Trump said Harris “could not have been nicer.”
Trump has said the would-be shooter was a follower of the rhetoric of President Joe Biden and Harris, which he insisted was a threat to American democracy.
Trump supporters at the town hall meeting said the failed attack made them even more supportive of Trump.
“I believe they want to kill Trump so that Trump can’t try to serve a second term,” said retired autoworker Donald Owen, 71.
‘Job void’
Trump presented himself at the event as the savior of the American auto industry, as it competes with foreign companies.
“If a tragedy happens, and we don’t win, there will be no jobs left in the car sector, there will be no jobs left in the manufacturing sector, it will all be over from here,” he stressed.
Trump also defended his complex, vague language, and then on the issue of fossil fuel drilling, he said, “We have Bagram in Alaska. They say it could be as big, possibly bigger than all of Saudi Arabia.”
But Bagram is an air base in Afghanistan. Trump may have mistaken it for a place in Alaska called the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR.
Meanwhile, Harris, in her interview in Pennsylvania, gave her first response to the controversy over false stories spread by Trump that Haitian immigrants were eating residents’ cats and dogs in an Ohio town.
Dozens of bomb threats were made against the community of the city of Springfield after Trump and his fellow candidate J.D. Vance publicly promoted the false story, which led to the closure of some schools.
“It’s really a shame what’s happening to those families and the kids in that community,” Harris said.
‘Disgusting’
“This has to stop. We have to say you cannot be entrusted with the job of standing behind the seal of the President of the United States and spewing hateful rhetoric,” he said.
Trump was taken into custody by the US Secret Service on Sunday after gunman Ryan Routh was found in a barn at his Florida golf course.
This was the second such close contest for the Republican candidate in the last few months, after a bullet grazed his ear during a rally in Pennsylvania in June, killing one person.
This dual visit of Trump to Michigan and Harris to Pennsylvania is taking place at a time when both are focusing on half a dozen crucial states which are crucial to winning the election.
A new poll from Suffolk University and USA Today shows Harris has a slim 49-46 percent lead over Trump in Pennsylvania, thanks largely to the overwhelming support of women voters.
This confirms the large gender gap in the race, at least in Pennsylvania, where Harris leads by a 56 percent to 39 percent margin with women, and Trump is leading by a slimmer 53-41 percent margin with men.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)