July 20, 2024, presidential campaign news

Candidates in the 2024 presidential race hit the campaign trail Saturday after a week of news driven by the Republican National Convention and growing discord among Democrats over their nominee.

Here’s what happened today:

Donald Trump was joined by his newly minted running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, at the former president’s first campaign rally since the attempt to assassinate him last weekend.

Vance, who amped up the crowd ahead of Trump’s remarks, said: “I gotta be honest, it’s still a little bit weird seeing my name on those signs.”

Speaking at an arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Trump said he “took a bullet for democracy.”

Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician, said Saturday that Trump is “recovering as expected” from a gunshot wound to his ear. Investigations into the rally shooter and handling of security at the event continue.

Trump noted in his first joint interview with Vance that people at his rally last week noticed there was someone on the roof before the assassination attempt. “That was quite a bit before I walked onto the stage, so you would have thought somebody would have done something about it,” he said in a clip of the interview with Fox News that aired Saturday night

“How did somebody get on that roof and why wasn’t he reported, because people saw that he was on the roof,” he said, recounting the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris got one of her most roaring responses in years as she spoke at a fundraiser Saturday afternoon in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The vice president didn’t directly address the turmoil facing her running mate – whom she referred to as “our president” and “one of the most consequential presidents in American history” – but she did speak to the anxiety among Democrats by repeating, “We are going to win this election.”

Organizers said the event raised more than $2 million, even as some big-dollar donors have held back from writing checks amid growing concerns about President Joe Biden’s run. All eyes are on the vice president as uncertainty swirls around Biden’s continued candidacy – and as she emerges as the most likely alternative, according to many Democrats.

Harris campaigned while Biden continued his recovery from Covid-19, which has forced him to isolate this week in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Biden said Friday that he looks forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week as more Democrats publicly call on him to step aside in the 2024 race.