By Nandita Bose, Reuters
Recently the Biden campaign had begun its most aggressive effort to brand Trump a felon. Photo: JIM WATSON / AFP
US President Joe Biden's 2024 presidential campaign will this week resume political advertising that it had suspended following the attempted assassination of Republican Donald Trump, two people familiar with the matter said.
The Democratic president suspended ads and more bombastic political messaging in the aftermath of Saturday's shooting at a Trump political rally in Pennsylvania. Secret Service agents killed the shooter and his motive remains unclear.
Biden, still trying to repair the damage from a halting debate performance last month, faces pressure from Democratic allies to maintain his verbal attacks on Trump to improve lacklustre polling in the most competitive election states.
Several senior Democratic campaign aides have voiced concern that an extended pause could further damage Biden's chances and those of other Democrats seeking elected office in the 5 November election.
Republicans have kept their campaigning at full tilt, with Trump appearing in person at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee just two days after a bullet grazed his ear.
"The campaign and the (Democratic National Committee) will continue to draw the contrast with Trump," said a senior campaign official who declined to be identified.
The timing of the resumption of Biden campaign advertising was not previously reported. The Biden campaign did not comment.
In recent weeks, the Biden campaign had begun its most aggressive effort to brand Trump a felon, with the introduction of a television advertisement that focused on Trump's criminal conviction in May on charges he paid hush money to a porn star to avert a sex scandal before the 2016 election.
Trump has denied the charges.
The advertisement was part of a US$50 million investment in battleground states that decide presidential elections, and marked a change in strategy after an initial reluctance to weigh in on the issue, to avoid engaging with Trump's legal woes.
It was not immediately clear whether the content of the new ads would be the same as those planned before the shooting.
- Reuters
