LAS VEGAS — President Joe Biden returns to the campaign trail on Tuesday for the first time since the election. attempted homicide from his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, with the aim of expanding the options available to voters in November after the attack.
Biden will speak at the NAACP convention in Las Vegas, aiming to showcase his administration’s support for black voters, a pillar of the Democratic coalition, and his personal political backing. He will also participate in an interview with BET. And a day later, he will address UnidosUS, seeking to bolster his appeal to Hispanic voters, another crucial bloc that leans Democratic.
Biden’s comments to both groups come as Democrats have been embroiled in a weeks-long crisis of confidence in Biden’s candidacy following his devastating debate with Trump last month. The president’s shaky performance has stoked voters’ concerns about his age, fitness for office and ability to defeat Trump again.
Republicans, for their part, are showing that they are more united around Trump than ever as they continue their campaign. national convention in Milwaukee.
Biden has turned down a flood of calls from within his party to step aside, reiterating his belief that he is the best-positioned Democrat to defeat Trump. He has strongly dependent about his support among black and Hispanic elected officials, and would appear with many of them in Nevada.
Trump has tried to appeal to both Black and Hispanic voters, hoping to capitalize on Biden’s declining popularity. While it unclear While the loss of enthusiasm for Biden helped Trump’s approval among those groups, any marginal loss of support for Biden could be decisive in a neck-and-neck race.
“While Trump and MAGA Republicans are Project2025 “If the president wants to address the Republican National Convention agenda, he will unite the backbone of the Biden-Harris coalition,” Biden spokesman Kevin Munoz said.
The president and his campaign suspended their criticism of Trump immediately after the shooting Saturday at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, which left the Republican nominee wounded in the ear, one attendee killed and two others seriously injured.
In a Address of the Oval Office On Sunday night, Biden called on Americans to reject political violence and political leaders to “tone it down a bit.” But he indicated in an interview with NBC News on Monday that he still called Trump a threat to American democracy.
Biden has admitted that he is a “ wrong ” when he told campaign donors he wanted to target Trump, but he argued that his opponent’s rhetoric was more incendiary.
“Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says the things he says?” Biden said. “Do you just say nothing because it might incite someone?”
NAACP President Derrick Johnson sidestepped questions in an interview with the AP about whether Biden should step down as the Democratic presidential nominee and whether the president, who often owes his place in the White House to black voters, could still inspire people to vote for his candidacy.
Johnson instead focused on the need for black voters to hear “solutions” to issues like inflation, education and attacks on civil rights, which are among the biggest concerns of black communities in this election.
“I expect him to share what his policy priorities are going to be if he’s 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 about personality and sound bites.”
At an economic summit hosted by Congressional Black Caucus chairman Rep. Steven Horsford, Biden was also expected to unveil policies to curb rising home prices, a key 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 more than that, they will lose access to tax deductions tied to the depreciation of their buildings. The Bureau of Land Management will also open up public comment on whether to sell 20 acres of public land in Clark County, Nevada, for housing development.
But Biden’s proposal would require congressional approval, which he’s unlikely to get with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. That’s a sign that his proposal is more about political messaging at a crucial time.
Trump has also used Nevada to launch new economic policies. He said he would eliminate taxes on tips earned by workers in the service-sector state, a concept since endorsed by Nevada Democratic Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto.
___
Miller reported from Washington. AP reporters Matt Brown and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.