Donald Trump's former leading rivals in the race for the Republican presidential nomination - Florida Governor Ron Desantis and former United Nations (UN) Ambassador Nikki Haley supported the former president's candidacy for another term in the White House on Tuesday.
In an address at the Republican Party convention in Milwaukee, Haley said that Trump invited her to speak in the name of unity. She assessed that it was a "kind invitation" and that she "gladly accepted it".
"Donald Trump has my strong support, period," Haley said.
She admitted that not all Americans agree with Trump, all the time.
"My message to them is simple. You don't have to agree with Trump 100 percent to vote for him. Take my example, I didn't always agree with President Trump, but we agree more often than we disagree," Haley said.
Haley was not scheduled to appear at the convention, but that was changed by the assassination of Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania last weekend. Just four months ago, Haley warned that America could not "endure another four months of chaos under Trump", but later announced that she would support him in the elections, according to Agence France-Presse.
The Florida governor praised Trump's border and economic policies.
"Our country was respected when Donald Trump was commander-in-chief," Desantis said.
He also accused current President Joseph Biden of "lacking the capacity" to carry out the presidency.
Trump was also greeted on Tuesday with ovations from the delegates present. The second day of the convention was focused on the issue of security, and the tone was harsher than the first evening, Reuters reports. Speakers vehemently criticized Biden's border policy, claiming it threatened the country's security. Arizona and Ohio Senate candidates Kerry Lake and Bernie Moreno, as well as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, called the influx of migrants an "invasion."
In his speech, Cruz repeated Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric, blaming Democrats for what he said was a wave of violent crime that migrants are responsible for.
That rhetoric was at odds with the message of national unity that Trump promised to send after the assassination. Meanwhile, it was announced that the Republican candidate will hold the first rally after the shooting in Michigan.
In the statement, published during the party convention, it is stated that Trump will speak together with his candidate for vice president, JD Vance, in Grand Rapids, according to the Agence France-Presse.
Trump previously, through his social network, called the country to be united, while in an interview with the Washington Daily, the examiner said that he rewrote the speech for the convention to focus more on unity after the assassination.
Biden continued his campaign in Nevada
The US president addressed African-American supporters in Nevada on Tuesday, his first campaign address since the assassination of his Republican rival.
"I'm totally in the running," Biden said in Las Vegas, at a convention of the nation's oldest civil rights organization -- the NAACP -- as the crowd chanted "four more years."
Biden linked the attack on Trump to racial and armed violence in America and called on Americans to reject it.
"We all have a responsibility to lower the temperature and condemn violence in any form," Biden said.
He emphasized that he is grateful that Trump is fine after the incident on Saturday and that "it is time for an important conversation in our country."
"Our politics have become too heated," the US president said in an address to a key Democratic constituency.
He also requested that the semi-automatic rifle used by the attacker be banned.
"Join me in the effort to get these weapons of war off the streets of America. The AR-15 rifle was used in the attack on Donald Trump...It's time to ban them," Biden said.
However, he also criticized Trump's policies in a number of areas, including economic moves during the coronavirus pandemic.
"I want to reiterate since Trump is lying about this — black unemployment hit a record low during the Biden-Harris administration," Biden said.
He also asserted that Trump's presidency was "hell for African Americans."
He also criticized his rival for claiming that former President Barack Obama is not an American citizen and for talking about "black jobs" during the debate.
“I know what black work is. That's the vice president of the United States," Biden said and praised Kamala Harris, the first African-American woman in that position.
He also highlighted the violence committed against African Americans, including George Floyd, who was killed by a white police officer in 2020.
On Wednesday, Biden will address the largest Hispanic civil rights and activism organization, UnidosUS, to try to win over Latino voters, who are also an important constituency for Democrats.
Biden, as expected, will repeat calls to tone down political rhetoric during that rally as well. That's the message he delivered during three addresses in less than 24 hours after the assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania, during which the former president was injured, while one rally participant was killed. Two more people were injured.
"Disagreement is inevitable in American politics. However, politics should never be a literal battlefield or, God forbid, a killing ground," Biden said during a speech at the White House on Sunday.
Biden is trying to balance calls for unity with a promise to stop Trump in the election at all costs, as his campaign tries to adjust its campaign strategy in light of declining support for the incumbent president.
Biden's campaign team had just begun to sharply criticize Trump to stabilize Biden's candidacy after his poor debate performance and calls for him to withdraw from the race, when the shooting occurred at a Trump rally.
Biden is rejecting calls to withdraw from the race, and according to a cross-section of polls - compiled by the website 538 - he trails Trump by more than four percentage points in Nevada.
Bonus video:
