President Biden addresses United States of America. Video / The White House
President Biden sought to turn his broader critique of political violence into a direct denunciation of Donald Trump, suggesting how he plans to move forward in the wake of an assassination attempt against the Republican presidential nominee that has upended an already tumultuous presidential race.
“Just because we must lower the temperature in our politics … doesn’t mean we should stop telling the truth,” Biden told hundreds of Black supporters in an animated speech that regularly bashed Trump on race issues. “Who you are, what you’ve done, what you’ll do – that’s fair game. As Harry Truman said, I’ve never given anyone hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.”
Biden began by saying he was praying for Trump, who was injured during Sunday’s shooting, but quickly shifted into a forceful case against the former president. He criticised Trump for ignoring or downplaying political violence in cases with Black victims and inciting it in other cases, including the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol.
“If you’re going to be outspoken on one, don’t be silent on others,” Biden said, referring to acts of racial violence in Charleston, South Carolina, and Buffalo and suggesting Trump had said little about them.
The Capitol in Washington DC, United States. Photo / Getty Images
The speech came during a two-day swing to Las Vegas designed to shore up Biden’s political base and turn the page from the rockiest moment in his presidential campaign. For more than two weeks, Biden had difficulty moving beyond the fallout from his faltering debate performance on June 27, struggling to shift the nation’s focus from the drama over his candidacy amid near-daily calls from other Democrats for him to drop out.
The assassination attempt Saturday and a judge’s ruling dismissing one of Trump’s federal cases on Tuesday – coming as the Republican National Convention unfolds – appear to have offered at least a temporary opportunity for Biden to change the subject and refocus the race on his opponent.
Biden’s aides have been working to mount an appropriate response to Sunday’s shooting at Trump’s rally, aiming to balance an emphasis on national unity with a call for Democrats to stand firmly with Biden.
It remains to be seen whether Biden’s gambit will be effective over the long term, as Democrats continue to discuss privately whether to replace him on the ticket and a new round of polls suggests he has a narrowing path to victory. Biden referenced his tenuous political standing by referring to Truman, whose own run for the presidency was a battle against long odds as he was widely written off before prevailing in 1948.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he is rushed offstage during a rally. Photo / Getty Images
“The story goes [that] Truman said, ‘If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog,’” Biden said, to laughter. “After the last couple of weeks, I know what he means.”
As Biden experiences the first four-day stretch in which no Democratic member of Congress has publicly asked him to drop out of the race since such calls began early this month, his allies are asserting the window to oust him from the race is closing fast.
“Democrats who support President Biden believe that this will be the moment that calls for President Biden to step aside will subside,” said one Democratic strategist close to the president’s reelection bid, speaking on the condition of anonymity to unveil private conversations. “Because if other Democrats keep doing that, that will absolutely make the president look weak” at a time when he should be seen as bringing the country together.
Members of the Democratic convention rules committee received an email on Wednesday from Donna Brazile, Howard Dean and Terry McAuliffe – former chairs of the Democratic National Committee – endorsing the virtual roll call to formally nominate Biden for reelection in the coming days. The push, which would allow Biden to officially secure the nomination ahead of the August 19-22 Democratic National Convention, has become a source of tension between the president’s supporters and those seeking to replace him on the ballot.
In a countereffort, a group of Democratic House members sent their own letter criticising the notion of a virtual roll call, arguing that it would needlessly and artificially move up the nomination process by several weeks.
Biden’s aides have long believed the election would hinge on their ability to make the race a referendum on Trump and a clear binary choice between the two men, a strategy that was upended when debate sparked a fresh round of doubt and anxiety among Democrats about the president’s age and acuity.
Biden sought to return to making that contrast on Wednesday, before a friendly crowd, touting his record of delivering economic growth and appointing Black people to top positions while ridiculing Trump’s recent claim that immigrants were taking “Black jobs.”
“I know what a Black job is – it’s the vice president of the United States,” Biden said to applause. “I know what a Black job is – it’s the first Black president in American history, Barack Obama.”
The audience broke into a standing ovation when he offered praise for Vice President Harris, who some Democrats have suggested could replace him on the ticket. “She’s not only a great vice president, she could be President of the United States,” Biden said.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event. Photo / Getty Images
Biden’s speech to the NAACP was part of a broader effort to turn to his most loyal constituencies to help bolster his candidacy during its most precarious challenge. Before the speech, Biden recorded an interview with BET’s Ed Gordon, which is scheduled to air on Thursday.
Biden joined Representative Steven Horsford for a discussion of the economy. Horsford, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, offered Biden a crucial endorsement last week amid speculation about whether the president should drop out of the race.
The President is aiming to shore up his political base even as Republicans seek to make gains with some of the groups that have traditionally backed Democrats. Four Black congressmen spoke during the GOP convention in Milwaukee, part of the Trump campaign’s efforts to win over Black men.
The President also used his trip to Las Vegas to unveil a plan to reduce housing costs by capping rent increases, addressing one of the largest economic burdens for voters in Nevada. Winning the state would greatly boost Biden’s reelection effort, but polls currently show Trump with a lead.
Biden will speak in Las Vegas to a gathering of UnidosUS, a leading Hispanic civil rights organisation.
Aides to the President have hoped the start of the Republican National Convention would be an opportunity to reset the race and move beyond the internal party discord caused by the debate.
Biden remained defiant in an interview on Tuesday with NBC News, dismissing such concerns and downplaying the idea that he was behind in the polls. “The polling data shows a lot of different things, but there’s no wide gap between us,” Biden said. “It’s essentially a toss-up race.”
Some allies of the President have grown increasingly concerned that he is listening to a small number of aides who are limiting the data he receives. But Biden’s decision to remain in the race also aligns with his self-described perspective as a “great respecter of fate”.
“Political volcanoes and earthquakes” over the next four months could sharply change the state of the race by November, said Russell Riley, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Centre, noting that the assassination attempt against Trump shows how quickly the landscape can shift.
“I suspect Team Trump would dearly like to have the election held tomorrow,” Riley said. “It won’t be. That’s the best news around right now for Team Biden.”
Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and author, said that “events can always transform a presidential campaign,” often in unpredictable ways.
“Two weeks ago, the Biden campaign was desperate to get out of the headlines and make Trump the story again,” he said. “They got their wish, but not in a way that anyone would have wanted, given the tragedy in Pennsylvania.”
