Biden Returns to Campaign Trail Amidst Shooting Fallout

AFP/APP

Las Vegas: US President Joe Biden resumed political attacks against Donald Trump on Tuesday for the first time since the assassination attempt on his rival, as the Democrat sought to prop up his faltering reelection bid.

Biden did call for Americans to lower the temperature of their heated politics, and sought a ban on the type of gun used in the shooting at his Republican opponent’s political rally.

But as he returned to the campaign trail with a speech to crucial Black voters at the NAACP advocacy group in Las Vegas, Biden did not hold back against Trump, who was injured in the ear.

Biden said Trump’s presidency had been “hell for Black Americans.”

Cheers erupted as the 81-year-old lashed out at the Republican for talking about “Black jobs” during their recent debate — the same debate during which Biden gave a stumbling performance that has plunged his candidacy into crisis.

“Folks, I know what a Black job is — it’s the vice president of the United States,” said Biden, referring to his running mate Kamala Harris, the first Black and female VP.

But he opened his speech by saying he was “grateful” that Trump was safe after the shooting, and said he wanted to renew efforts to ban the kind of semi-automatic rifle that shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks used.

“Join me in getting these weapons of war off the streets of America. An AR-15 was used in the shooting of Donald Trump… It’s time to outlaw them,” Biden said.

Biden’s renewed political focus on Trump comes as calls by some Democrats for him to step down after the debate, briefly silenced by the shooting, resumed.

The Democratic National Committee meanwhile is pushing ahead with plans to rush through Biden’s own nomination ahead of its convention in August, despite calls to postpone the process.

Biden’s campaign insisted the virtual roll-call was necessary before the August 19 convention, as Republican-led Ohio had moved its filing date to August 7 and Biden risked not being on the ballot there.

“It is our obligation as a campaign to make sure that President Biden is on the ballot,” Biden deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told a press conference in Milwaukee.

At the NAACP meeting in Las Vegas, there was widespread support for Biden staying on.

“I found President Biden very full of energy,” said Donna Jackson-Houston, an NAACP member from California.

She admitted that “I and many others had doubts” about Biden’s age and gaffes after the debate, but “he did a great job today convincing me.”

Tony Fields from New Jersey said Biden’s speech was “very insightful,” adding that the bad debate was “just a moment that the President had that evening.”

Biden, who says he “screwed up” due to jet lag and illness, forcefully defended his ability to do the job in a major US network interview on Monday night.

“I’m old,” Biden told NBC. “But I’m only three years older than Trump, number one. And number two, my mental acuity has been pretty damn good.”

Biden also defended his rhetoric about Trump after Republicans accused him of stoking divisions. However, he admitted it was a “mistake” to tell donors in a call last week that it was “time to put Trump in the bullseye.”