Trump and Harris resume campaign after alleged second assassination attempt

WASHINGTON – The presidential campaign picked up speed again on Tuesday, with Donald Trump traveling to Michigan and Vice President Kamala Harris answering questions at a forum for black journalists in Pennsylvania – all while authorities are investigating the second alleged assassination attempt on Trump that has rocked the campaign.

Trump is holding a town hall meeting in Flint, Michigan, and will appear in New York, Washington and North Carolina later in the week. Harris will attend a meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia. She skipped the group's recent meeting in Chicago, while an openly antagonistic appearance by Trump there sparked an uproar when he questioned the vice president's ethnic identity.

Harris has her own stops planned in Washington, as well as Michigan and Wisconsin in the coming days, with both sides turning their attention to the industrial Midwest, as well as Pennsylvania and North Carolina – all battleground areas that could influence what is expected to be an extremely close election.

Harris said in an interview recorded Monday that she was informed “immediately after” the alleged assassination attempt and that she was grateful that Trump was OK. Speaking to Spanish-language radio host Chiquibaby, Harris reiterated her earlier sentiments about the attack and condemned “violence of any kind.”

“We need to have a civil dialogue and be able to discuss our differences,” Harris said. “And there is no place for violence.”

The Vice President also spoke about her mother, the late Shyamala Gopalan, who was born in India and immigrated to the United States.

She blamed Trump for the failure of a bipartisan border security plan in Congress and outlined her previously announced plans to encourage first-time home buyers through tax breaks and to crack down on “price gouging” in the grocery trade to curb inflation.

Trump claims, without evidence, that months of criticism of him by Harris and President Joe Biden was the reason for the latest attack. This despite the fact that the former president himself has long used inflammatory campaign rhetoric and advocated for the imprisonment or prosecution of his political opponents.

Both Biden and Harris have so far avoided political elements in their responses to the attack. Biden called on Congress to increase funding for the Secret Service.

Authorities said Ryan Wesley Routh camped for nearly 12 hours with food and a rifle outside the golf course in West Palm Beach where Trump was playing on Sunday, but fled without firing a shot when a Secret Service agent spotted him and shot him.

Routh's earlier online posts following his subsequent arrest suggest that he was inconsistent in his political stance regarding his support for either the Democrats or the Republicans.

That attack came nearly two months after Trump was injured at a rally in Pennsylvania. In fundraising emails, he implored his supporters: “Don't be afraid.” In an interview on social media platform X, Trump described his experience on Sunday, saying he was golfing with a friend and heard “probably four or five” gunshots in the air.