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Increased security around Trump is apparent, agents wall him off from RNC crowds

Milwaukee —  On the floor of the Republican National Convention Tuesday evening, vice presidential candidate JD Vance greeted and shook hands with excited delegates as he walked toward his seat.

It was a marked contrast from former President Donald Trump, who entered the hall a few minutes later and was separated from supporters by a column of Secret Service agents. His ear still bandaged after an attempted assassination, Trump closely hugged the wall. Instead of handshakes or hellos for those gathered, he offered fist pumps to the cameras.

The contrast underscores the new reality facing Trump after a gunman opened fire at his rally in Pennsylvania Saturday, raising serious questions about the agency that is tasked with protecting the president, former presidents and major-party candidates. Trump’s campaign must also adjust to a new reality after he came millimeters from death or serious injury — and as law enforcement warns of the potential for more political violence.

Trump campaign officials declined to comment on the stepped-up security and how it might impact his interactions going forward.

“We do not comment on President Trump’s security detail. All questions should be directed to the United States Secret Service,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, said Monday that he could not discuss “specifics of the protection or the enhancements made, as they involve sensitive tactics and procedures. I can say, however, that personnel and other protective resources, technology, and capabilities have been added.”

The Secret Service had already stepped up Trump’s protection in the days before the attack following an unrelated threat from Iran, two U.S. officials said Tuesday. But that extra security didn’t stop the gunman, who fired from an adjacent roof, from killing one audience member and injuring two others along with Trump.

The FBI and Homeland Security officials remain “concerned about the potential for follow-on or retaliatory acts of violence following this attack,” according to a joint intelligence bulletin by Homeland Security and the FBI and obtained by The Associated Press. The bulletin warned that lone actors and small groups will “continue to see rallies and campaign events as attractive targets.”

Underscoring the security risks, a man armed with an AK-47 pistol, wearing a ski mask and carrying a tactical backpack was taken into custody Monday near the Fiserv Forum, where the convention is being held.

The attack has led to stepped-up security not only for Trump. President Joe Biden’s security has also been bolstered, with more agents surrounding him as he boarded Air Force One to Las Vegas on Monday night. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also received Secret Service protection in the shooting’s wake.

Trump’s campaign has also responded in other ways, including placing armed security at all hours outside their offices in Florida and Washington, D.C.

Trump has already scheduled his next rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday. That’s where he will appear with Vance for their first event as a presidential ticket.

But the new posture complicates, at least for now, the interactions Trump regularly has with supporters as he signs autographs, shakes hands and poses for selfies at events and on airplane tarmacs.
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Biden aims to cut through voter disenchantment as he courts Latinos in Las Vegas

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In speech to Black voters, Biden links violence on Trump to racial, gun violence

President Joe Biden addressed Black supporters in the battleground state of Nevada Tuesday, his first campaign appearance since the assassination attempt on his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump. He linked the attack on Trump to racial and gun violence, imploring Americans to “condemn violence in any form.” White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Trump’s former foes pay homage at Republican Party convention

The U.S. Republican Party put some of Donald Trump’s intra-party former foes briefly back in the spotlight on the second night of its nominating convention. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman was on the convention floor Tuesday and has details from Milwaukee.
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Biden stands ground on gun policy, asks Americans to cool down

white house — With the recent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, the conversation around guns and gun policy is heating up — even as President Joe Biden is asking the country to cool down.

This is the first assassination attempt on a former or current U.S. president since 1981, when Ronald Reagan was shot

“First of all, that is preposterous,” said U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas when asked about rumors that the assassination attempt was an inside job involving the current administration.

“It is also dangerous to propagate rumors that are so unequivocally false and provocative,” he said at a Monday news briefing. “As the president so powerfully said to the entire nation, we have to tamp down the rhetoric in this country.”

U.S. gun policy may see particular focus in campaigns and debates in the final approach to the 2024 presidential election.

Biden, even before the recent shooting, has been a strong advocate for stricter gun policy.

Biden served as vice president under President Barack Obama, who tried to tighten gun policy following the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school that killed 26 people, mostly 6- and 7-year-olds, but was unable to pass major gun legislation.

After the Sandy Hook shooting, Obama asked Biden to lead a more concrete initiative on gun reform, and Biden met with a range of citizens to seek their thoughts on gun policy.

Trump has advocated a less stringent gun policy. His campaign calls for deregulation of firearms, and he has said he will undo some executive actions introduced by Biden.

White House reaffirms position

At the news briefing with Mayorkas on Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre affirmed Biden’s position on gun policy.

“The president has been, obviously, a strong advocate on gun control. He has been throughout his career as a senator, as vice president, as now as president,” Jean-Pierre said in answer to a question from VOA.

She noted that Congress in 2022 approved the first major gun safety legislation in 30 years. “The president led on that effort and was able to get that done. … The president has signed more than two dozen executive actions [on gun control],” she said.

‘Lower the temperature’

This week, Biden has also condemned the recent violence, asking the country to minimize its divisiveness.

“We have to lower the temperature … there is no place in America for violence. It is important that we are really clear about that,” said Jean-Pierre when asked if Biden plans to tone down his political rhetoric.

The message from the White House comes after Biden called Trump a “threat to democracy” on several occasions. Trump has repeatedly said “you will not have a country” if Biden is re-elected.

J.D. Vance, Donald Trump’s recently chosen candidate for vice president, blamed Biden’s political rhetoric for the assassination attempt.

“Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination,” he posted on X shortly after the incident.

In a Monday interview with NBC News, Biden said he regretted saying “it was time to put Trump in the bull’s-eye.” But he defended saying that the former president is a “threat.”

“Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says?” Biden said in the interview

Some analysts doubt that Biden’s call for a calmer climate will bring about big changes to the political landscape.

“I think the immediate effect [after the shooting] is going to be that it will escalate violent rhetoric and that people are going to be more vehement and vocal in vilifying their political rivals,” Valentine said.

“Unfortunately, I think that’s where we’re at, and that’s what we’re beginning to see already.”

Anita Powell contributed to this report from the White House.
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Vice presidential nominee Vance calls China ‘biggest threat to our country’

Washington — In his short time in the U.S. Senate, J.D. Vance, the newly tapped Republican vice presidential nominee, has been a hawk on China.

He has introduced legislation to restrict Chinese access to U.S. financial markets and to protect U.S. higher education from Chinese influence.

In an interview with Fox News shortly after being named as former President Donald Trump’s running mate on Monday, Vance called China “the biggest threat” to the United States.

When asked about Russia’s war in Ukraine, Vance said Trump would negotiate with Moscow and Kyiv to “bring this thing to a rapid close so America can focus on the real issue, which is China.”

“That’s the biggest threat to our country and we are completely distracted from it,” said Vance, a staunch supporter of Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda.

The 39-year-old author and venture capitalist rose to fame with his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” He advocates for a hands-off approach to foreign policy and is dubious about military intervention.

Tariffs and more tariffs

Both Trump and Vance have supported strong tariffs on China. In an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” news program in May, Vance said the U.S. needs to apply across-the-board tariffs on imports.

“If you apply tariffs, really what it is you’re saying [is] that we’re going to penalize you for using slave labor in China and importing that stuff in the United States. What you end up doing is, you end up making more stuff in America, in Pennsylvania, in Ohio and in Michigan,” he said.

Trump has repeatedly accused China of stealing manufacturing jobs from the U.S., especially those jobs in the Midwestern part of the country.

“Vance has supported more economic restrictions and tariffs on Chinese imports and investments,” Dean Chen, a professor of political science at the Ramapo College of New Jersey, told VOA. “Hence, I expect his position on China to be in line with Trump nationalists in their potential new administration.”

Trump has promised that, if elected, he would impose 10% across-the-board levies on imported goods and a tariff of 60% or higher on Chinese goods to protect American industries.

Joel Goldstein, professor emeritus of law at Saint Louis University and an expert on the vice presidency, said Vance was selected because he is “a very loyal supporter who has embraced Trump’s policies and style and who seems disposed to defend Trump’s words and conduct.”

“The choice seems designed to appeal to Trump’s MAGA base, not to unify the Republican Party or the nation,” he told VOA.

Taiwan

Experts say Vance might be more of an isolationist than Trump, as Vance was vehemently opposed to funding the war in Ukraine.

“He previously served as a U.S. Marine in Iraq and felt that the lessons from that war should prevent future entanglements,” Chen said.

Chen added that whether that attitude translates to lessened support for a Taiwan military contingency remains to be seen.

“We all know that Trump has been clear that he won’t announce whether he would send troops to help Taiwan should Beijing invade the island democracy, saying that a lucid explanation would undercut his negotiating position,” he said. “I expect Vance to toe the same line as President Trump.”

Attracting Rust Belt voters

Vance was born on August 2, 1984, in Middletown, Ohio. He served in the Marine Corps before attending The Ohio State University and Yale Law School.

His 2016 bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” detailed his family’s struggles with poverty, addiction and instability. The book focuses on the hardship faced by white working-class people in the Rust Belt — the manufacturing region in the U.S. that includes parts of the Northeast and Midwest and has experienced economic decline and population loss.

“Senator Vance’s life story and diverse accomplishments are impressive,” Karen Hult, a political science professor at Virginia Tech, told VOA.

“He not only is from a ‘red’ Republican state, but one that is near the battleground state of Pennsylvania and may be seen as appealing to many more rural and smaller town residents in much of the Middle West,” Hult said.

In the 2020 presidential election, Trump lost Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, three important swing states along the Rust Belt.

Hult said that in most presidential elections, the choice of running mates makes little difference in voting results.

“That, of course, may differ in 2024, given the age of the two major party candidates and in light of Saturday’s assassination attempt,” she added.
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Biden returns to campaign trail after rival Trump’s assassination attempt

Washington — All eyes will be on Joe Biden as he addresses Black supporters Tuesday in the battleground state of Nevada, his first campaign appearance since the assassination attempt on his Republican rival, former president Donald Trump.

The U.S. president is expected to sharpen the choice voters will face this November, while calling for unity amid concerns of escalating political violence in the country.

In Las Vegas, at a convention of an American civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, Biden will highlight his administration’s support for Black voters who have been part of the backbone of the Democratic party’s coalition.

He is set to unveil policies to rein in rising housing costs, a critical issue in Nevada. He’ll broadcast his message in an interview with Black Entertainment Television, BET, later the same day.

On Wednesday, he’ll address UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, attempting to win Latino voters, another key voting bloc for Democrats.

In both events, Biden is expected to repeat his calls to cool down the country’s political rhetoric, a message he has delivered in three remarks in less than 24 hours following the shooting at Trump’s Pennsylvania campaign event that killed a rallygoer and wounded others, including the former president.

“Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy,” the president said in a rare Oval Office address Sunday. “But politics must never be a literal battlefield, and, God forbid, a killing field.”

Biden faces the challenge of navigating his unity message with his vows to stop Trump at all costs, as his campaign adjusts its strategy to move forward amid the president’s declining poll numbers. The Biden team had just begun to more sharply criticize Trump in an effort to stabilize Biden’s candidacy, following his rocky debate performance last month when the shooting occurred.

Via his social media platform, Trump urged the nation to “stand united.” He said in an interview with the Washington Examiner newspaper that he rewrote his speech for this week’s Republican National Convention to focus more on unity following the attempt on his life.

“I fear that this moment of detente won’t last very long,” said Claire Finkelstein, director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania. But it may bring greater awareness from each candidate to refrain from rhetoric that “can have an impact” especially on followers “who can be easily revved up into engaging in acts of violence,” she told VOA.

Biden continues to reject calls from at least 20 congressional Democrats and others within his party to step aside over concerns about his age and mental acuity, insisting that he is the best-positioned Democrat to beat Trump.

The latest polling data averages from various surveys compiled by FiveThirtyEight shows that Trump is leading by 4.7 percent in Nevada.

VOA’s Kim Lewis contributed to this story.
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JD Vance selected as Trump’s vice presidential running mate

After months of speculation, Donald Trump announced his vice presidential running mate. J.D. Vance joins the Republican presidential ticket as one of the youngest vice presidential candidates since Richard Nixon in 1952. The nomination puts his newcomer status and political inexperience to the test. Tina Trinh reports.
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Biden, Trump call for unity in aftermath of Trump assassination attempt

The weekend assassination attempt on Donald Trump has silenced much of the chatter over President Joe Biden’s political future. But as Trump charged forward Monday, appearing at the Republican National Convention and naming his vice presidential pick, the Biden administration prepared for a Tuesday campaign stop in this uncertain stage in the presidential race. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
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First appearance of Donald Trump after assassination attempt

Former President Donald Trump made a triumphant return to the public eye at the Republican National Convention late Monday, two days after he was wounded in an attempted assassination. Carolyn Presutti reports from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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Biden says ‘bull’s-eye’ reference to Trump was a mistake

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday he made a mistake when he told supporters to put rival Donald Trump in a “bull’s-eye” in an effort to focus attention on his rival’s behavior but said Trump regularly employed rhetoric that was inflammatory.

“It was a mistake to use the word,” Biden said in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt. “I meant focus on it, focus on what he’s doing,” Biden said.

On July 8, Biden, 81, spoke to some of his biggest donors and said they needed to shift the election campaign’s focus from him and his poor debate performance to former President Trump, the Republican nominee in the Nov. 5 election.

“I have one job and that’s to beat Donald Trump … We’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump in the bull’s-eye,” he said.

Some Republicans zeroed in on that comment as they blamed Biden for creating a climate that sparked the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Biden has repeatedly decried political violence.

The president has endured more than two weeks of questions about his political future, so far facing down calls to step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate after his poor performance against Trump in the debate on June 27 sparked a crisis within his party.

He reiterated in the interview that he is not leaving the race, while acknowledging that people’s questions about his age were legitimate.

Biden also weighed in on Trump’s selection of Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate.

Asked by NBC’s Lester Holt what Vance’s selection said about Trump’s values, Biden replied: “He’s going to surround himself with people who agree completely with him.” Biden, chuckling, also noted some of Vance’s previously critical comments about Trump.

The president has sought to turn attention to his opponent, highlighting Trump’s falsehoods, his refusal to accept the 2020 election results and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

“I’m not the guy that said I want to be a dictator on day one. I’m not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election,” Biden said.

He said Trump had engaged in inflammatory rhetoric, citing the former president’s comments about a bloodbath ensuing if he loses the 2024 election and making fun when former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was attacked by an intruder with a hammer at their home.

“How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?” Biden said. “I have not engaged in that rhetoric. Now … my opponent’s engaged in that rhetoric.”

Biden, who is seeking to prove that he is fit to stand for reelection and govern for a second four-year term despite concerns about his age, noted that millions of people had voted for him to be the Democratic Party’s nominee. “I listen to them,” he said.
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US Secret Service ‘confident in security’ for RNC

The United States Secret Service says it’s “confident” in its ability to safeguard this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This, after the party’s leader, Donald Trump, survived an assassination attempt over the weekend. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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Trump picks Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, once-fierce critic turned loyal ally, as running mate

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Biden orders Secret Service to protect RFK Jr. after Trump assassination attempt

Washington — President Joe Biden has directed the U.S. Secret Service to protect independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the Homeland Security secretary said Monday.

Kennedy is a longshot to win Electoral College votes, much less the presidency. But his campaign events have drawn large crowds of supporters and people interested in his message.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Biden had directed the protection for Kennedy “both prior to and after the events of this past weekend.”

The Secret Service is legally required to protect major party presidential and vice-presidential candidates and their families 120 days out from a general election, but third-party candidates are on an as-needed basis.

The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged in its 2024 budget overview that recent requests for candidate protection were coming in earlier than in the past.

Threats to political candidates are common, but law enforcement officials have said that there has been an uptick in violent rhetoric since the weekend attack at the Trump rally. Mayorkas said both Biden and Trump are “constantly the subject of threats.”

“We are in a heightened and very dynamic threat environment,” he said. 

With a famous name and a loyal base, Kennedy has the potential to do better than any third-party presidential candidate since Ross Perot in the 1990s. But he didn’t participate in the first presidential debate on June 27. Both the Biden and Trump campaigns, who fear he could be a spoiler, bypassed the nonpartisan debate commission and agreed to a schedule that essentially left out Kennedy.

Kennedy, who last year challenged Biden for the Democratic nomination before launching an independent bid, has argued that his relatively strong showing in a few national polls gives his candidacy heft. Polls during the 2016 presidential campaign regularly put libertarian Gary Johnson’s support in the high single or low double digits, but he ultimately received only about 3% of the vote nationwide.

Trump became the official Republican presidential nominee Monday after receiving the votes of enough delegates at the Republican National Convention. He was not seriously injured in the shooting over the weekend in Pennsylvania. There is an independent review of the attack underway.

Mayorkas said Trump’s protection has been enhanced based on the “evolving nature of the threats to the former president” and his shift from presumptive nominee to nominee. 
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