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President Biden returns to the campaign trail after Trump assassination attempt by 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks
President Joe Biden returns to the campaign trail on Tuesday after pausing political operations in the wake of the assassination attempt on rival Donald Trump.
Biden heads to Las Vegas, where he will spend two days talking to black and latino voters as he struggles to reset his campaign in the new political reality.
As part of the trip, he and his team will be testing the waters on how it can push forward with his candidacy without appearing insensitive to Trump. Several conservatives pointed to Biden's campaign rhetoric as a reason Trump was targeted. Both sides have spoken harshly of the other.
There is one worry the president may be able to put to rest: calls for him to step down as the Democrats' nominee.
Not a single Democrat has called for him to exit the race since Saturday's shooting.
President Joe Biden returns to the campaign trail on Tuesday
Members of the party now seem to think replacing Biden would cause even more chaos in the race, which was upended by the assassination attempt on Trump.
And still more think the failed assassination attempt shifts the dynamics of the race to Trump's advantage.
One Democratic donor told Bloomberg News that they previously believed that Biden should be replaced but it shouldn't happen now as it would contribute to a sense of chaos.
And there is an impending sense that victory is Trump's for the taking - no matter who is on the Democratic ticket.
Pollster Frank Luntz noted the shooting will 'guarantee that every Trump supporter now will be a Trump voter in November. Trump's voters are energized, Biden's voters are demoralized.'
'It's hard to imagine either Biden or any of the potential Democratic candidates delivering full-throated crowd-pleasing attacks on the former President now, taking away most of their ability to play the Trump card by labeling him a 'threat to democracy' when he just survived a real threat to democracy,' he wrote in a thread on X.
'The 2024 presidential election is now Trump's to lose.'
Biden has tried to tamp down on the anxiety that spread across the political sphere after the horrific attempt on Trump's life.
He addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday where he called for an end to political violence, noting both Republicans and Democrats have been a target of it.
'You know the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down,' Biden said. 'Politics must never be a literal battlefield - God forbid a killingfield.'
The president said it was time for unity. And he noted he had a 'short but good' call with Trump.
Donald Trump arrived in Milwaukee for the GOP convention on Sunday - the day after an attempt on his life
And, before Biden leaves for Las Vegas, he'll sit down with NBC's Lester Holt.
His campaign, which upended its strategy after Sunday's shooting, is expected to resume operations after Biden tapes the interview.
The Democratic National Committee and the campaign 'will continue drawing the contrast between our positive vision for the future and Trump and Republicans' backwards-looking agenda over the course of the week,' a campaign official said.
Many Republicans quickly blamed the violence on Biden and his allies, arguing that the political attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy have created a toxic environment.
They pointed in particular to a comment Biden made to donors on July 8, saying 'it's time to put Trump in the bullseye.'
Trump, however, also has used fighting words and images of violence in his campaign rhetoric.
While in Las Vegas, Biden will address the 15th NAACP National Convention on Tuesday and conduct an interview with BET. He'll also participate in an economic summit with Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford.
On Wednesday, Biden is the keynote speaker at the UnidosUS Annual Conference at the MGM Grand and then he'll have a campaign event.
His Vegas trip was supposed to be the second of two campaign stops this week.
But his Monday visit to Austin, Texas, where he was to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, was canceled after the shooting attempt on Trump.
His event was meant to be counter programming to the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.