US President Joe Biden will join Vice President Kamala Harris on the campaign trail this week for the first time since Harris replaced him at the top of the Democratic ticket, but the discovery of Israeli hostage deaths in Gaza over the weekend is likely to overshadow events.
This week marks the start of the vital post-Labor Day sprint to the Nov. 5 election, and both Harris and her Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump, are expected to ramp up outreach to voters, especially in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Nevada.
Over the weekend, Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza, where it said they were recently killed by Hamas, sparking sharp criticism of the Biden administration's ceasefire strategy and new pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring the remaining hostages home.
On Monday, Biden and Harris will campaign together in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of the most important battleground states in this election cycle. Harris will also travel to Detroit, Michigan, and her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Before they campaign, though, Biden and Harris will meet at the White House with the US hostage deal negotiating team to discuss efforts toward a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages, the White House said.
Meanwhile, Trump will participate in a FOX town hall on Wednesday hosted by Sean Hannity and, later this week, will address the Fraternal Order of Police at their fall meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, and hold a rally in Wisconsin.
Harris and Walz are hoping to keep up the enthusiasm her entry into the race on July 21 sparked among Democrats, who are donating record amounts of money to the campaign and volunteering by the tens of thousands. They have focused on an upbeat, positive message about America's future, cost-cutting plans aimed at the middle class, and attracting Republicans turned off by Trump.
Meanwhile, Trump and his vice presidential pick, JD Vance, have struggled to find a clear line of attack against Harris, painting her both as an unrepentant liberal and as the inheritor of Biden's more centrist policies while also bashing her intelligence and spreading crude internet memes.
Harris' campaign appears to be outraising Trump's - last week, the Harris campaign told the Federal Election Commission that it raised $204 million in July, compared with $48 million reported to the body by Trump's main fundraising group. Both sides are bombarding battleground states with TV ads.
Biden, Harris, and Trump all released statements over the weekend after the six hostage bodies were found. Biden said he was "devastated and outraged," adding, "Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages."
Harris said she and her husband had spoken to the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the hostages whose body was found. "As they mourn this terrible loss, they are not alone. Our nation mourns with them."
Trump said the "Hostage Crisis in Israel is only taking place because Comrade Kamala Harris is weak and ineffective and has no idea what she's doing."
Leat Corinne Unger, a family member of 21-year-old Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, who was not one of the hostages found over the weekend, told Reuters that "everyone has failed."
"Everyone has blood on their hands," she said. "The international community failed, the administration, on both sides, bipartisan, they failed."
Biden and Harris are likely to face more questions about what the administration is doing to secure a hostage deal, said Jeremi Suri, history and public affairs professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
"The best scenario for Biden and Harris would be a ceasefire this week," Suri said. "Israeli public is pushing, and Hamas seems open, but it is very hard to predict."
Reuters