REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware — United States President Joe Biden is set to join Vice President Kamala Harris on the campaign trail this week for the first time since she replaced him at the top of the Democratic ticket, but the discovery of murdered Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip over the weekend is likely to overshadow events.
This week marks the start of the vital post-Labor Day sprint to the November 5 election, and both Harris and her Republican challenger Donald Trump are expected to ramp up their outreach to voters, especially in battleground states, including 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.
The US government, including Biden himself, has been trying to broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel — which has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 — for months. The issue is weighing on the US election, with pro-Palestinian activists threatening to ramp up protests of Harris on the campaign trail and Republicans blaming her and Biden for the hostage deaths.
Biden and Harris were expected to 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 running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Before they campaign, though, Biden and Harris would 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.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Harris was leading the race against Trump, 45 percent to 41 percent.
Harris and Walz are hoping to keep up the enthusiasm her July 21 entry into the race 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.
The ticket switch resulted in Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, struggling 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.
Hostage bodies complicate talks
Biden, Harris and Trump all released statements over the weekend after the six hostage bodies were found.
The president said he was "devastated and outraged," adding that "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 Doug Emhoff 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."
"It's time for the suffering of innocents to end on all sides of the spectrum and the international community must hold Hamas accountable," she added. "They have said a lot of things, but they haven't done anything to force their hand."