In his first campaign appearance since the attempted assassination of his Republican rival, President Joe Biden linked the attack on Donald Trump to racial and gun violence in the United States, calling on Americans everywhere to condemn it, UNN reports citing Voice of America.
"We all have an obligation to lower the temperature and condemn violence in any form," he told black voters in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Tuesday.
Speaking at the convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, an American civil rights organization, Biden emphasized violence against African Americans, including George Floyd, who was killed by a white police officer in 2020.
For the first time since the shooting at Trump's campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, which killed a rally attendee and injured others, including the former president, Biden called for stricter gun control and reinstatement of the US ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004.
"An AR-15 assault rifle was used in the shooting of Donald Trump. Just as it was an assault weapon that killed so many others, including children," he said, "It's time to outlaw it. I did it once, and I will do it again.
"Я мав би бути мертвим": Трамп поділився "сюрреалістичним досвідом" пережитого замаху15.07.24, 15:36
With the black vote likely to be crucial to his potential victory, Biden compared his policies to those of the former president on key issues for African Americans, mocking the term "black jobs" that Trump often uses.
"I know what a black workplace is. It's the vice president of the United States," he said, speaking favorably of Vice President Kamala Harris, his running mate in the November election, who is of black and South Asian descent.
Biden repeated his message in an interview with Black Entertainment Television the same day. On Wednesday, he will address UnidosUS, the nation's largest civil rights and Latino advocacy organization, in an effort to attract Latino voters, another key voting bloc for the party.
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The publication notes that the president is currently trailing Trump in polls nationally and in various states, including Nevada. He continues to reject calls from at least 20 Democrats in Congress and other members of his party to drop out of the race, insisting that he is the Democrat with the best chance of defeating Trump.
On his social media account, Trump also called on the nation to "be united." In an interview with the Washington Examiner, he said he rewrote his convention speech to focus more on unity.
"Everyone is talking about unity, even Donald Trump," said Claire Finkelstein, director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania. "Of course, his vision of unity is that the country should unite behind him," she told Voice of America.