LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Joe Biden returns to the campaign trail on Tuesday for the first time since the attempted assassination of his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, seeking to give voters a more hard choice after the attack in November of this year.
Biden will speak at the NAACP convention in Las Vegas, demonstrating his administration’s support for black voters, a cornerstone of the Democratic coalition and his personal political support. He will also give an interview with BET. And a day later, he will speak to UnidosUS, seeking to bolster his appeal to Latino voters, another key Democratic-leaning bloc.
Biden’s remarks to both groups come as Democrats have been mired in a crisis of confidence over Biden’s candidacy for weeks following a disastrous debate with Trump last month. The president’s shaky performance fueled voters’ concerns about his age, fitness for the office and ability to defeat Trump again.
The Republicans, for their part, are demonstrating at their party convention in Milwaukee that they are more united behind Trump than ever before.
Biden has rejected a number of calls from within his party to resign and reiterated that he is the Democrat with the best chance of beating Trump. He relies heavily on his support among black and Latino officeholders and is expected to run with many of them in Nevada.
Trump has sought to appeal to both black and Latino voters, hoping to capitalize on Biden’s sinking popularity. While it’s not clear whether the loss of enthusiasm for Biden has helped Trump’s approval among those groups, any slight loss of support for Biden could prove decisive in a close race.
“As Trump and MAGA Republicans unveil their ‘Project 2025’ agenda at the Republican National Convention, the president will gather the backbone of the Biden-Harris coalition,” said Biden spokesman Kevin Munoz.
The president and his campaign team paused their criticism of Trump in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania that left the Republican candidate injured in the ear, one rally attendee killed and two others seriously injured.
In an Oval Office address Sunday night, Biden urged Americans to reject political violence and asked political leaders to “calm down.” But in an interview with NBC News on Monday, he indicated he would continue to call Trump a threat to American democracy.
While Biden acknowledged that he made a “mistake” when he told campaign donors that he wanted to target Trump, he argued that his opponent’s rhetoric was even more inflammatory.
“Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy that is real when a president says things like he says?” Biden asked. “Do you just say nothing because it might incite someone?”
NAACP President Derrick Johnson, in an interview with AP, dodged questions about whether Biden should step down as the Democratic nominee and whether the president, who often credits his place in the Oval Office to black voters, could still inspire people to support his candidacy.
Instead, Johnson stressed that black voters need to hear “solutions” to issues such as inflation, education and attacks on civil rights, which are among the black population’s biggest concerns in this election.
“I expect him to announce his policy priorities if he is re-elected. We want to focus on the policy goals of whoever occupies the White House next term,” Johnson said, adding that black voters would reject candidates “who are concerned with personality and slogans.”
At an economic summit hosted by Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Rep. Steven Horsford, Biden also planned to unveil policies to curb rising housing costs, a critical issue in the swing state.
Biden will announce a proposal to cap rent increases at 5% for tenants whose landlords own more than 50 units. If landlords raise rents by more than that amount, they would lose eligibility for tax deductions tied to the depreciation of their buildings. The Bureau of Land Management is also opening the public for comment on the sale of 20 acres of public land in Clark County, Nevada, for housing.
But Biden’s proposal would require congressional approval, which he is unlikely to get given a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. That’s a sign that his proposal is more about sending a political message at a critical moment.
Trump also used Nevada to implement novel economic policies. He announced that he would eliminate taxes on tips earned by workers in this service-oriented state, an idea that has since been supported by Nevada Democratic Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto.
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Miller reported from Washington. AP writers Matt Brown and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
