Donald Trump hits the campaign trail again on Tuesday, travelling to Michigan two days after an apparent assassination attempt against him was foiled at his golf course in Florida.
His Democratic rival 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.
That event and another interview with Hispanic media, recorded Monday and set to air Tuesday, will be the first time Harris will have an opportunity to react in person to the apparent bid on Trumpโs life.
The Republican nominee and ex-president was whisked away by the Secret Service after a gunman was discovered on his golf course in Florida on Sunday, in the second such close call for Trump in as many months.
As security officials said they believed the suspect acted alone, Trump sought to blame Harris and President Joe Biden for the scare, citing what he called their rhetoric about him endangering democracy.
Trumpโs politicization of the incident โ even as he, on the campaign trail, paints Harris as an โevilโ radical turning America into a โfailing nationโ โ has further stoked tensions ahead of the presidential election in seven weeks.
Both Biden and Harris have issued statements denouncing the apparent assassination bid, with Harris saying โviolence has no place in America.โ
But Trump has claimed that rhetoric from Biden and Harris โis causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country.โ
โ โTurned Blackโ โ
The duelling visits of Trump in Michigan and Harris in Pennsylvania come as both candidates focus on the half-dozen swing states that are most important to win in the countryโs Electoral College system.
A new poll from Suffolk University and USA Today shows Harris with a slight edge over Trump in Pennsylvania โ 49 per cent to 46 per cent โ thanks in large part to major support from women voters.
Still, her advantage in that poll remains within the margin of error โ and the election at-large remains close.
This yearโs particularly bitter presidential campaign has seen not just the two assassination attempts against Trump but also bomb threats against an Ohio townโs immigrant community and a fringe party urging Harrisโs murder.
Trump previously had a close call with a would-be assassin when he was slightly wounded in an attack during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July.
When 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 Harris, who has an Indian mother and Jamaican father, โhappened to turn Black,โ in remarks claiming that she opted to highlight one of her dual racial identities for political gain.
AFP
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