Trump and Harris on the Offensive on the Trail (2024)

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Occupied with his official duties in the capital, Ms. Harris stumped on the president’s behalf in Nevada, a crucial swing state. But the vice president, speaking in a casino ballroom in Las Vegas, kept the focus on Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, casting the race as a decision between a country of “freedom, compassion and rule of law” and one of “chaos, fear and hate.”

Mr. Trump also took the stage for his first public event this week at a campaign rally in Doral, Fla. He reveled in Mr. Biden’s poor performance at the debate and the chaos now taking place within the Democratic Party. With Democrats speculating about Ms. Harris succeeding Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump and his team have increasingly taken aim at the vice president, and he repeatedly mocked her from the stage on Tuesday.

On Capitol Hill, top congressional Democrats indicated that they were unwilling — at least for now — to try to push aside President Biden despite grave concerns about his age, mental acuity and ability to win re-election.

Both in public and behind closed doors, House and Senate Democrats from across the political spectrum have raised fears about Mr. Biden’s viability as a candidate. But no Democratic leader on Capitol Hill was willing to ask the president to withdraw.

Instead, they emerged from private party meetings on Tuesday in which the president’s shortcomings as a candidate were the main topic of discussion swearing allegiance to Mr. Biden — if not exactly in enthusiastic or expansive terms.

“I’m with Joe,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, repeatedly replied, as he sidestepped multiple questions about Mr. Biden’s fitness for office.

“We are ridin’ with Biden,” Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina proclaimed nine times as he sought to shut down reporters’ queries.

Still, House and Senate Democrats left their respective meetings on Tuesday deeply fractured. Asked whether Democrats were leaving the discussion on the same page, Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee replied: “We’re not even in the same book.”

And on Tuesday afternoon, a seventh Democrat, Representative Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, publicly called on Mr. Biden to withdraw from the race.

“When I think of my four children and all of the rights that another Trump presidency endangers, and in light of the recent Supreme Court decision that gave inordinate power to the president of the United States, the stakes are too high — and the threat is too real — to stay silent,” Ms. Sherrill said in a statement. “I realize this is hard, but we have done hard things in pursuit of democracy since the founding of this nation. It is time to do so again.”

Here’s what else to know:

• Some senators in a closed-door luncheon on Tuesday privately expressed doubts about Mr. Biden’s ability to beat former President Donald J. Trump, but said they did not think it would be viable to change nominees now because Mr. Biden has shown no signs of being willing to do so. Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana, who are facing two of the most competitive re-election races in the country, both spoke at the lunch and said they believed it would be tough for them to win with Mr. Biden at the top of the ticket, according to an attendee who described the conversation on the condition of anonymity.

• In the House, one veteran Democrat, Representative Diana DeGette of Colorado, suggested in a statement after the meeting that it was time for the party to move on. “The urgent need right now is for Democrats to stick together and focus on the danger of Trump and his extremist agenda,” she said in a lengthy statement. “If we do that, we will win.”

• Mr. Biden’s strength on Capitol Hill has been sustained in large part by party leaders and key constituencies, including the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. When reporters asked Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, on Tuesday to respond to fears raised by lawmakers about Mr. Biden’s fitness, she responded in part by quoting several Black lawmakers who have come out in strong support of the president.

Carl Hulse, David E. Sanger and Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.

Biden, on a call with mayors, works to shore up Democratic support.

The call with mayors lasted about 40 minutes and Mr. Biden took three questions, according to Mayor Cory Mason of Racine, Wis., a Democrat who participated in the call and provided details about how it went — as did five other mayors who insisted on anonymity to freely discuss the conversation. Mr. Mason described Mr. Biden as “the president that everybody’s used to seeing” and not the one who delivered a halting debate performance nearly two weeks ago.

“It was understandable for a time for people to ask if everything is OK,” Mr. Mason said. “It’s four months out from the election, so you can’t have too many of those days, but every day that passes, he’s proving he can recover from a bad debate performance.”

The mayors described the call as a somewhat scripted pep rally, with Mr. Biden speaking for about 20 minutes and then taking questions from mayors selected by the moderator, Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix.

Like many video calls arranged by the Biden campaign and the White House, participants could not see who else was on the call or add comments into the chat screen. They could indicate their feelings about what was being said by adding emojis, and many contributed smiley-face ones as Mr. Biden spoke, according to Mr. Mason.

Mr. Biden began his remarks by again acknowledging that he had fallen short at the debate, calling it “a lousy night,” Mr. Mason said. The president then ticked through his campaign’s regular talking points on health care, abortion rights and former President Donald J. Trump. He also mentioned housing as a second-term priority.

“We’re going to make sure that we focus on the things that affect people in my city in Wilmington, Del., my hometown, as well as yours,” Mr. Biden said on the call, according to his campaign.

Ms. Gallego, the president of the Democratic Mayors Association, moderated a question-and-answer session on the call, during which Mr. Biden took questions from Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway of Madison, Wis.; Mayor Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio; and Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Mo., who warned Mr. Biden that his question might be interrupted by his son who was born last month.

After the call, the Democratic Mayors Association endorsed Mr. Biden for re-election.

Ms. Rhodes-Conway thanked Mr. Biden for directing money from his coronavirus stimulus package to cities and asked him what his plans were for a potential second term. Mr. Biden spoke of addressing gun violence and crime in cities and said he would seek to reinstitute a federal ban on assault weapons like the one he helped pass in the Senate in 1994 that expired a decade later.

Mr. Lucas asked Mr. Biden how America’s mayors could help the president’s campaign. Mr. Biden replied that “democracy is on the line” in the election and emphasized the number of field offices and campaign staff members he had deployed.

Mr. Nirenberg asked Mr. Biden about the fight for democracy and thanked Mr. Biden for increased funding for law enforcement in the 2021 pandemic aid bill.

Mr. Biden responded by discussing decreases in violent crime nationwide and reminded the mayors about Mr. Trump’s suggestion that he wouldn’t be a dictator “except for Day 1” and about Project 2025, the network of policy plans Mr. Trump’s allies aim to carry out should he return to the White House.

“You could tell he was in fighting mode,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento. “Just because you’re not smooth doesn’t mean you’re not great. There was an element of, ‘Give ’em hell’ that maybe represents a different kind of strength than what we usually think of in a politician.”

Reporting was contributed by Julie Bosman from Chicago, Eduardo Medina from Durham, N.C., and Ernesto Londoño from Honolulu.

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The White House doctor discussed business with the president’s brother.

Republicans have seized on the episode to suggest that Dr. O’Connor might have had incentive to minimize issues related to President Biden’s health. The White House rejected the speculation, with a spokesman calling it “ridiculous and insulting.”

In his current role, Dr. O’Connor produced letters each of the three years following Mr. Biden’s physicals that attested the president was healthy and “fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” The assessments have come under renewed scrutiny in recent weeks as Mr. Biden’s decline has become more apparent, particularly after his feeble performance in last month’s debate against former President Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Representative James R. Comer, a Kentucky Republican who is chairman of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter this week asking Dr. O’Connor to turn over documents related to James Biden and Americore, and to submit to a transcribed interview with committee staff.

The White House dismissed Mr. Comer’s effort to draw a link between Dr. O’Connor’s statements about the president and his consultation with James Biden.

“Suggestions that he has offered his guidance and transparent medical assessments based on anything other than his expertise as a doctor is insulting to someone who has given so much to this country and has a broad, bipartisan reputation for integrity and service,” Ian Sams, a White House spokesman, said in an email.

Mr. Sams praised Dr. O’Connor’s 22-year Army career — including service in Afghanistan and Iraq — and noted that he had served both Democratic and Republican presidents.

The White House declined to comment on Dr. O’Connor’s work when he was outside the government, which is the period covered by his discussions with James Biden.

Though James Biden lacked experience in hospital administration, Americore turned to him to help increase business, according to testimony he gave to the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees in February as part of their impeachment inquiry into the president.

The engagement began in mid-2017, after Joseph R. Biden, Jr. left the vice presidency, according to Politico.

At the time, Dr. O’Connor, who had grown close to the Biden family while serving as the physician to Mr. Biden during his vice presidency, had become his personal doctor once he left office.

James Biden consulted with Dr. O’Connor about an idea for winning contracts related to the Department of Veterans Affairs, James Biden suggested to congressional investigators, according to a transcript.

Mr. Biden described the idea as “one component in terms of filling these hospitals,” and suggested that Dr. O’Connor had connections that could help.

“He introduced me to a team,” Mr. Biden said, describing a lunch meeting arranged by Dr. O’Connor with a woman who “ran a group that would go on the military bases, and they would screen for post-traumatic stress disorder and other related illnesses.”

Mr. Biden said he proposed “some sort of a joint venture” to do the work, describing it as a huge market because veterans’ and rural hospitals were jammed with patients who were not receiving treatment for these conditions.

Paul J. Fishman, a lawyer for James Biden, said in a statement that his client had “a longstanding interest in ensuring veterans receive best-in-class care for PTSD,” and that he sought Dr. O’Connor’s advice on best practices.

Mr. Fishman said that “there was never an effort to secure contracts from the Department of Veterans Affairs.” Dr. O’Connor, he said, “was not in business with Jim” and was not paid for his consultation.

Mr. Biden received $641,000 from Americore, though the company characterized $600,000 as loans, according to subsequent court filings.

The joint venture does not appear to have proceeded, and Americore filed for bankruptcy in 2019 amid lawsuits and a reported federal investigation.

A trustee overseeing the company’s liquidation sued Mr. Biden in 2022, accusing him of failing to repay the loans. He later agreed to pay $350,000 to the trustee to settle the lawsuit, according to a court filing.

The lawsuit asserted that Mr. Biden secured the loans “based upon representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections.”

No evidence has emerged that the president was involved in the venture.

In his congressional testimony, James Biden downplayed having referred to his brother’s name when discussing business with Americore executives.

“I mean, you know, I may have mentioned my brother’s name on occasion, but I never did it in the, you know — what you’re inferring is that I tried to use it as a lever or influence,” Mr. Biden said.

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A sailor who tried to access President Biden’s medical records was disciplined by the Navy.

According to the Navy, the sailor, whom it did not identify, searched the name “Joseph Biden” three times in a military health system electronic database within a span of several hours “out of curiosity.” The disciplinary action was reported earlier by CBS News and ABC News.

Mr. Biden, 81, has faced a renewed bout of questions about his health and mental acuity after his June 27 debate performance, which has prompted a growing number of Democrats to call on him to end his re-election bid.

In the Navy incident, a co-worker of the sailor reported the potential violation of medical privacy laws, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service conducted an investigation that concluded on April 24, Commander Hawkins said.

“The record the sailor accessed was not the electronic record of the president of the United States,” Commander Hawkins said in an email, adding, “At no time was the president’s personal information compromised.”

The Navy declined to detail the disciplinary action it had taken.

The Biden campaign referred questions about the matter to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

In a race featuring the two oldest major-party nominees for president in history, neither Mr. Biden nor former President Donald J. Trump has given the public unfettered access to his medical charts.

In recent days, the Biden administration has faced questions about why an expert on Parkinson’s disease from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center visited the White House eight times in eight months, from last summer through this spring, including at least once for a meeting with Mr. Biden’s physician.

The visits by the expert, Dr. Kevin Cannard, a neurologist, were detailed in White House visitor logs.

Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the White House physician, said in a statement on Monday night that Mr. Biden had seen Dr. Cannard each year as part of his overall annual physical checkup and that the latest examination had found no sign of Parkinson’s.

Emily Baumgaertner and Peter Baker contributed reporting.

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