United States President Joe Biden has returned to the campaign trail for the first time since his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, narrowly avoided an assassination attempt over the weekend.
Speaking on Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nevada, Biden addressed the shooting directly, which killed a bystander and injured at least two others, as well as Trump himself.
“Our politics have gotten too heated,” Biden said as he took the podium. “As I’ve made clear throughout my presidency, we all have a responsibility to lower the temperature and condemn violence in any form. We’ve gotta remember, in America, we’re not enemies. We’re friends. We’re neighbours. We’re fellow Americans.”
But while he denounced political violence and polarisation, Biden nevertheless criticised Trump both implicitly and explicitly, calling out the Republican for his track record on the economy, reproductive rights, gun violence and other issues.
“Just because our politics are very divided doesn’t mean we should stop telling the truth. Who you are, what you’ve done, what you will do — that’s fair game,” Biden said.
Highlighting political violence
Biden delivered his remarks on the fourth day of the national convention for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a prominent civil rights organisation in the US.
The appearance came only three days after a 20-year-old gunman positioned himself on a roof in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fired an AR-15-style rifle at Trump as he spoke at a rally.
The shooting heightened tensions ahead of a tightly fought US presidential race, set to culminate with election day on November 5.
Biden, a Democrat, seeks to retain the presidency in a rematch of his 2020 race against Trump. But in the aftermath of the shooting, Biden temporarily suspended television advertisements attacking the Republican leader, as both candidates made calls for unity.
The Democratic incumbent reprised that theme in his speech to the NAACP convention, albeit with some biting remarks for his Republican rival.
“We have to say with one voice that violence is not the answer. That’s what we should rally around as a nation. That’s the unity I’m talking about,” Biden said.
After repeating his offer of prayers to the Trump family, Biden quickly pivoted to the question of violence against the Black community — an issue he implied Trump was weak in.
Biden drew a stark contrast between the outpouring of support after the Trump shooting and the vitriol that faced Black election workers after the 2020 election and Black police officers present at the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He also blasted Trump for his response to the murder of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota who died after a law enforcement official kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes.
“You understand, if you’re going to talk about standing against violence, you must stand against all violence. You must stand against violence perpetrated against presidential candidates in Pennsylvania,” Biden said.
“The violence perpetrated against George Floyd in Minnesota. Against Black veterans and police officers like Eugene Goodman on January 6. And Black election workers, like Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in Atlanta. We have to stand against the violence and intimidation of white supremacy.”
Biden particularly underscored Trump’s response to the Floyd murder. Speaking to the crowd at the NAACP gathering, he said: “When you peacefully protested George Floyd’s murder, Donald Trump called for the National Guard to go after you. What in the hell is the matter with this man?”
A critical voting bloc
Black voters represent a key constituency for the Democratic president. In 2020, Black residents in South Carolina were credited with reviving Biden’s campaign in the Democratic primaries, ultimately giving him the boost he needed to claim the party nomination.
And in the general election that year, Black voters turned out overwhelmingly for Biden, with 92 percent casting their ballot for him.
But in this year’s race, Trump has tried to chip away at that base of support, and critics have called on Democrats to do more to ensure the concerns of Black communities are prioritised in the party platform.
In Tuesday’s speech, Biden played up the $16bn in funding his administration earmarked for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). He also touted a dip in Black unemployment, warning that Trump’s economic policies could reverse those gains.
The Democrat also reprised a much-mocked statement Trump made during the June 27 presidential debate, when the Republican referred to immigrants taking “Black jobs”. Critics, including at the NAACP, denounced that phrase as racist.
“Folks, I know what a Black job is. It’s the vice president of the United States. I know what a Black job is. It’s the first Black president in American history, Barack Obama,” Biden told the NAACP convention, taking the moment to highlight the diversity of his administration.
He also hinted at a greater role in the future for his vice president, Kamala Harris. “She’s not only a great vice president. She could be president of the United States.”
Efforts to recover post-debate
Biden, 81, has faced repeated calls to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, after a wobbly, stuttering performance at the June 27 debate. Harris has been floated as one of several possible replacements for him on the campaign trail.
But Biden has maintained he will remain in the race, and he used the NAACP convention’s slogan this year — “all in” — to emphasise the point: “Are you all in? Because I’m all in.”
Still, he acknowledged the pushback he has received on Capitol Hill, hinting that the criticism from within his own party has left him isolated.
“[President Harry] Truman said, ‘You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.’ Well, guess what? After the last couple of weeks, I know what he means,” Biden said to the audience, which responded with chuckles. “So many of you had my back, and I think I’ve had yours as well, and I will never forget it.”
Speaking from Las Vegas, Al Jazeera correspondent Rob Reynolds observed that Biden received a “very very warm and friendly reception” from the audience members in the convention centre, noting that they broke out in chants of, “Four more years! Four more years!”
“It is clear that this is the constituency that Joe Biden needs,” Reynolds said of the speech.
“This is an appeal to that crucial demographic, that crucial voting bloc, which has been by and large behind Biden for this period of crisis in his campaign. Very few if any Black public or elected officials have called upon Biden to step down, even when others were calling upon him to step down and abandon his candidacy after his somewhat disastrous June 27 debate performance against Donald Trump.”
In the lead-up to the president’s remarks on Tuesday, NAACP president Derrick Johnson likewise underscored the Black community’s importance in the upcoming election.
But he underscored that his group — considered the oldest civil rights organisation in the US — is fundamentally nonpartisan.
“This election is not about candidate A versus candidate B, or political party A or political party B. We are nonpartisan, but we are political as hell, and we know this is a fight we must take on,” Johnson said in his speech.
“Let’s stay focused not on the people but the policy priorities they represent and vote for those who align themselves with what’s in the best interest of our communities. And I can assure you, if you do that, it’s in the best interest of America.”
