Biden Seeks to Put Focus on Trump With Detroit Campaign Swing

While still facing calls from Democrats to drop his re-election bid, President Biden is planning attacks on Donald Trump and Project 2025.

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By Nicholas Nehamas

Reporting from Washington

July 12, 2024, 5:04 a.m. ET

After facing two weeks of questions about his age and calls to drop his re-election bid, President Biden will try to turn the nation’s attention back to his rival, former President Donald J. Trump, when he campaigns on Friday in Detroit.

Mr. Biden plans to focus his attacks on Project 2025, a blueprint of conservative policy proposals for a future Republican administration created by Mr. Trump’s allies, although Mr. Trump has denied involvement in it. He will also lay out the core policy proposals that he hopes to enact in the first 100 days of a second term, the Biden campaign said in a statement.

The president will be joined by Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist of Michigan, several Democratic members of Congress, union leaders and the actress Octavia Spencer, among other elected officials and activists from the party.

Since his fumbling debate performance last month, Mr. Biden has prioritized rallies with important parts of his base, including African Americans. Detroit has one of the largest Black populations of any city in the nation.

Last weekend, Mr. Biden spoke at a Black church in Philadelphia and addressed union members in Harrisburg, Pa. Next week, he will appear at national conventions for the N.A.A.C.P. and UnidosUS, a major Hispanic advocacy group. Both events are in Las Vegas. He will also conduct “several national interviews, counterprogramming the Republican National Convention,” which begins Monday, his campaign said.

Black elected officials and voters have generally stood by the president since the debate, although his support from African Americans is well below where it stood in 2020.

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