President Joe Biden gave his first public comments about JD Vance on Monday, speaking to DailyMail.com about whether he has faith in his Secret Service team.
On his way to Las Vegas for a two-day campaign trip, Biden stopped to speak to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. He said of Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick: “A clone of Trump on the issues. I don’t see any difference.”
And when asked by DailyMail.com if he had faith in his Secret Service team, Biden said: “Yes, I do.”
The president has defended the Secret Service, which is under fire for allowing a shooter onto a rooftop so close to the security perimeter at Trump’s rally, allowing a clear shot at the former president.
Biden had a more visible security presence during his West Coast trip. Four officers flanked Marine One as it landed at Joint Base Andrews, and officers formed a tight perimeter around the president as he landed at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.
President Joe Biden responded to DailyMail.com’s question about whether he has faith in his Secret Service team
Trump, for his part, joined the Republican National Convention on Monday night. He took the stage to cheers and cries of “fight, fight, fight.”
The former president had a white bandage on his right ear. Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks grazed Trump’s ear when he shot him at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night.
Trump sat in a box at the convention with Vance and several members of his family, including children Don Jr., Eric and Tiffany, to listen to the evening’s speakers. Melania Trump was not there. The theme for the first night of the convention was “Make America Rich Again.”
Biden, meanwhile, will spend the next two days in Las Vegas, where he will spend two days speaking to Black and Latino voters as he struggles to restart his campaign in the new political reality.
As part of the trip, he and his team will test how they can move forward with their candidacy without appearing insensitive to Trump.
Several conservatives pointed to Biden’s campaign rhetoric as one of the reasons Trump came under fire. Both sides have spoken harshly about the other.
There is one concern the president may be able to allay: calls for him to step down as the Democratic nominee.
No Democrats have called for him to drop out of the race since Saturday’s shooting.
Party insiders now appear to think that replacing Biden would cause even more chaos in the race, which was upended by the attempted assassination of Trump.
And even more people think the failed assassination attempt changes the dynamics of the race to Trump’s advantage.
One Democratic donor told Bloomberg News that they previously believed Biden should be replaced, but that should not happen now because it would contribute to a sense of chaos.
And there is an imminent sense that victory is within Trump’s grasp, no matter who is on the Democratic ticket.
Pollster Frank Luntz noted that the shooting “will ensure that every Trump supporter now will be a Trump voter in November. Trump voters are motivated, Biden voters are demoralized.”
“It’s hard to imagine Biden or any of the potential Democratic candidates now launching vigorous, crowd-pleasing attacks on the former president, taking away most of their ability to play the Trump card by labeling him a ‘threat to democracy’ when he just survived a real threat to democracy,” he said. wrote in a thread about X.
‘Trump must now lose the 2024 presidential election.’
Donald Trump with his running mate JD Vance at the Republican National Convention
Biden has sought to calm the anxiety that swept through the political sphere after the horrific assassination attempt on Trump.
On Sunday, he addressed the nation from the Oval Office, where he called for an end to political violence, noting that both Republicans and Democrats have been targeted.
“You know the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down,” Biden said. “Politics should never be a literal battlefield; God forbid it be a killing field.”
The president said it was time for unity and noted that he had had a “short but good” call with Trump.
Many Republicans were quick to blame Biden and his allies for the violence, arguing that political attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy have created a toxic environment.
They pointed in particular to a comment Biden made to donors on July 8, saying it was “time to put Trump on the spot.”
Trump, however, has also used combative words and images of violence in his campaign rhetoric.
Members of the U.S. Secret Service sniper team stand guard near Air Force One at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.
While in Las Vegas, Biden… On Tuesday, he will address the 15th NAACP National Convention and do an interview with BET. He will also participate in an economic summit with Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford.
On Wednesday, Biden will be the keynote speaker at the UnidosUS Annual Conference at the MGM Grand and will hold a campaign event afterwards.
His trip to Las Vegas was supposed to be the second of two campaign stops this week.
But his Monday visit to Austin, Texas, where he was due to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, was cancelled after the attempted shooting of Trump.