Trump returns to campaign trail after weekend assassination scare
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Former president Donald Trump will be in Michigan, a pivotal state, for two days.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
Follow topic:
WASHINGTON – Donald Trump hits the campaign trail again on Sept 17, travelling to Michigan two days after an apparent assassination attempt against him was foiled at his golf course in Florida.
His Democratic rival, Vice-President Kamala Harris, will also be campaigning, as she heads to the key battleground state of Pennsylvania for an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ).
That event and another interview with Hispanic media, recorded on Sept 16 and set to air on Sept 17, will be the first time Ms Harris will have an opportunity to react in-person to the apparent bid on Trump’s life.
The Republican nominee and former president was whisked away by the Secret Service after a gunman was discovered on his golf course in Florida on Sept 15, in the second such close call for Trump
As security officials said they believed the suspect acted alone, Trump sought to blame Ms Harris and President Joe Biden for the scare, citing what he called their rhetoric about him endangering democracy.
Trump’s politicisation of the incident – even as he, on the campaign trail, paints Ms Harris as an “evil” radical turning America into a “failing nation” – has further stoked tensions ahead of the presidential election in seven weeks.
Both Mr Biden and Ms Harris have issued statements denouncing the apparent assassination bid, with Ms Harris saying “violence has no place in America”.
But Trump has claimed that rhetoric from Mr Biden and Ms Harris “is causing me to be shot at
‘Turned Black’
The duelling visits of Trump in Michigan and Ms Harris in Pennsylvania come as both candidates focus on the half-dozen swing states most important to win in the country’s Electoral College system.
A new poll from Suffolk University and USA Today shows Ms Harris with a slight edge over Trump in Pennsylvania – 49 per cent to 46 per cent – thanks in large part to major support from women voters.
Still, her advantage in that poll remains within the margin of error – and the election at-large remains close.
The particularly bitter presidential campaign has seen not just the two assassination attempts against Trump but also bomb threats against an Ohio town’s immigrant community and a fringe party urging Ms Harris’ murder.
Trump previously had a close call
When Ms Harris arrives for her interview with the NABJ, however, another Trump moment is also likely to come up.
It was when Trump spoke with the professional association in July that he said Ms Harris, who has an Indian mother and Jamaican father, “happened to turn Black”, in remarks claiming that she opted to highlight one of her dual racial identities for political gain. REUTERS
