Biden pledges 'I am all in,' criticizes Trump on policy
Send a link to a friend
[July 17, 2024]
By Nandita Bose and Jarrett Renshaw
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -President Joe Biden promised Black voters on
Tuesday that he was "all in" to seek reelection on Nov. 5 and assailed
Donald Trump's record as president, in his first political speech since
his Republican rival's attempted assassination.
Biden was greeted by chants of "four more years" as he spoke to the
NAACP's annual convention in Las Vegas, a major gathering of Black
voters.
Biden said he was grateful that Trump was not seriously hurt at a
campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday but roundly criticized him on
a variety of fronts including his handling of the economy during the
coronavirus pandemic.
"Let me say it again because Trump is lying like hell about it - Black
unemployment hit a record low under the Biden-Harris administration,"
Biden said.
He scolded Trump for initially contending that former President Barack
Obama was not an American citizen and for his reference to "Black jobs"
at the Trump-Biden debate on June 27.
"I am all in," said Biden.
The attempt on Trump's life on Saturday prompted the Biden campaign to
pull its television ads, call off verbal attacks on the former president
and focus instead on a message of unity.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jul/17/images/ads/current/humanesociety_sda022411.png)
"Our politics got too heated," said Biden.
The campaign's strategy previously was to focus on tough criticism of
Trump as a threat to U.S. democracy and to highlight his failure to
admit his 2020 election loss and his felony convictions.
Now, it is trying to calibrate a less pugilistic message that still
strikes a stark comparison between the two candidates.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the
oldest and largest U.S. civil rights organization, represents a key
constituency for the Democratic Party. While Black voters turned out
heavily for Biden in 2020, polls have shown waning support for him from
the constituency in this election.
"People are concerned about the price of gas, price of bread, but
they're also concerned with their growing knowledge around Project
2025," Derrick Johnson, the NAACP president, told Reuters on Monday,
referring to a set of conservative policy proposals that have become a
lighting rod for Trump critics.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/071724PIX/news_u45.jpg)
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the 115th NAACP National
Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., July 16, 2024. REUTERS/Tom
Brenner
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jul/17/images/ads/current/longview_lda_HEROES_2024.png)
On Sunday, Biden used the formal setting of the White House Oval
Office to ask Americans to lower the political temperature, recommit
themselves to resolving their differences peacefully. He said the
Nov. 5 presidential election will be a "time of testing."
In an interview with NBC News, Biden said on Monday it was a mistake
for him to use the term "bullseye" in reference to Trump during a
recent donor campaign call.
The president postponed a trip to Texas on Monday, where he was
expected to speak on the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at
the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library.
White House officials hope the Trump assassination attempt will ease
pressure on Biden to step aside as his Democratic Party's candidate
in response to concerns about his mental acuity and stamina to
govern for another four-year term.
At the end of his remarks in Las Vegas, Biden addressed the
criticism that he is too old for the job.
“Hopefully today I’ve demonstrated a little bit of wisdom. Here’s
what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from
wrong. I know how to do this job. And I know the good Lord hasn’t
brought us this far to leave us now. We have more work to do," he
said.
On Wednesday, Biden is scheduled to speak to Latino leaders at the
UnidosUS Annual Conference also in Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, Trump and Republicans are gathered in Milwaukee for the
party's nominating convention that kicked off Monday with the
selection of U.S. Senator J.D. Vance as Trump's running mate.
(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw and Nandita Bose, editing by Heather
Timmons, Cynthia Osterman and Deepa Babington)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jul/17/images/ads/current/ldn_smallsda_BUSINESSMAG_2023.png) |