US President Joe Biden has promised Black voters he is "all in" to seek re-election on November 5 and assailed Donald Trump's record as president in his first political speech since his rival's attempted assassination.
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Biden was greeted by chants of "four more years" as he spoke to an annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Las Vegas, a major gathering of Black voters.
Biden said he was grateful Trump was not seriously hurt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday but roundly criticised him on a variety of fronts including his handling of the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.
"Let me say it again because Trump is lying like hell about it - Black unemployment hit a record low under the Biden-Harris administration," Biden said.
He scolded Trump for initially contending that former president Barack Obama was not an American citizen and for his reference to "Black jobs" at the Trump-Biden debate on June 27.
"I am all in," said Biden.
The attempt on Trump's life prompted the Biden campaign to pull its television ads, call off verbal attacks on the former president and focus instead on a message of unity.
"Our politics got too heated," said Biden.
The campaign's strategy previously was to focus on tough criticism of Trump as a threat to US democracy and to highlight his failure to admit his 2020 election loss and his felony convictions.
Now, it is trying to calibrate a less pugilistic message that still strikes a stark comparison between the two candidates.
The NAACP, the oldest and largest US civil rights organisation, represents a key constituency for the Democratic Party.
While Black voters turned out heavily for Biden in 2020, polls have shown waning support for him from the constituency in this election.
It comes as US Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who is running for the Senate, reportedly warned donors in a private meeting his party was likely to suffer major losses if Biden continued his re-election campaign.
"I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose," the New York Times reported Schiff as saying, citing a person with access to a transcription of a recording of the event, a Saturday fundraiser in New York.
"And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House."
At least 19 congressional Democrats have publicly called for Biden to end his campaign after his halting performance in the debate against Trump even as Biden has repeatedly vowed to stay in the race.
Republicans currently hold a 220-213 majority in the House while Democrats have a 51-49 Senate majority.
At the end of his remarks in Las Vegas, Biden addressed the criticism that he is too old for the job.
"Hopefully today I've demonstrated a little bit of wisdom. Here's what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job. And I know the good Lord hasn't brought us this far to leave us now. We have more work to do," he said.
On Wednesday, Biden is scheduled to speak to Latino leaders at the UnidosUS Annual Conference also in Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, Trump and Republicans are gathered in Milwaukee for the party's nominating convention that kicked off on Monday with the selection of US Senator JD Vance as Trump's running mate.
Australian Associated Press
