MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Republican National Convention culminates Thursday with former President Donald Trump expected to accept the party’s presidential nomination, achieving a comeback four years in the making and anticipated even more in the past week in light of Saturday’s assassination attempt.
He is expected to accept his third consecutive party nod in prime time before thousands of supporters at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. Trump’s running mate JD Vance addressed the same crowd on Wednesday.
Trump’s election opponent, President Joe Biden, tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling Wednesday in Las Vegas and is experiencing “mild symptoms” including “general malaise” from the infection, the White House said.
Vance: ‘Social conservatives have
a seat at this table and always will’
Ohio Sen. JD Vance made his first public appearance Thursday since accepting the Republican vice presidential nomination Wednesday, speaking at an evangelical Christian breakfast where he described the winding path to his faith.
He told roughly 1,000 influential social conservatives that he once considered himself an atheist, but marrying and some early influences from the devout grandmother who raised him set him on the course to his Christian faith.
Vance also addressed uneasiness stemming from the Trump campaign’s effort to streamline the Republican Party platform, which, until this month, had for 40 years called for a national abortion ban.
“There has been a lot of grumbling in the past few weeks that the Republican Party of now and the Republican Party of the future is not going to be a place that’s welcoming to social conservatives,” Vance told attendees. “And, really, from the bottom of my heart, that is not true. Social conservatives have a seat at this table, and always will so long as I have any influence in this party, and President Trump, I know.”
The breakfast was hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition at the Pfister Hotel, a late Victorian downtown monument.
Democrats make fresh push for Biden to reconsider
running in run-up to their own party convention
Democrats worried about President Joe Biden’s ability to win this November are making a renewed push for him to reconsider his reelection bid, using mountains of data, frank conversations and now, his own time off the campaign trail after testing positive for COVID, to encourage a reassessment.
Biden has insisted he is not backing down, adamant that he is the candidate who beat Republican Donald Trump before and will do it again this year. But publicly and privately, key Democrats are sending signals of concern and some hope he will assess the trajectory of the race and his legacy during this few days’ pause.
Biden dismisses idea that it’s too
late for him to recover politically
President Joe Biden is dismissing the idea that it’s too late for him to recover politically, even as he faces increasing pressure to bow out of the race.
In a radio interview with Univision’s Luis Sandoval that airs Thursday, Biden says it’s still early and that many people don’t focus on the election until September.
“All the talk about who’s leading and where and how, is kind of, you know — everything so far between Trump and me has been basically even,” Biden said in an excerpt of the interview.
Some national polls do show a close race, though others suggest Trump with a lead. And some state polls have contained warning signs too, including a recent New York Times/Siena poll that suggested a competitive race in Virginia.
Convention brings around-the-clock
boat patrol to the Milwaukee River
Instead of the usual kayakers and tour boats, the Milwaukee River this week is full of around-the-clock patrol boats, some with heavily armed officers.
The 24-hour patrols will continue until the Republican National Convention wraps up Thursday night.
Associated Press journalists observed the effort aboard a 29-foot (9-meter) U.S. Coast Guard boat as it traveled near the secure zone of the convention site via Lake Michigan and the river that empties into it. Within an hour, the Coast Guard boat had passed vessels from Milwaukee police, state conservation wardens and a heavily armed specialty Coast Guard tactical force in camouflage gear.
The patrols are part of a massive security plan that Milwaukee police, the U.S. Secret Service and others have been detailing for more than a year.
“There is no higher level of security that can be invested in events such as this,” Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman told the AP on Wednesday.
What would make Biden drop out of presidential
race? Here are the four reasons he’s cited
President Joe Biden has made it clear basically any which way you ask him: he’s definitely, assuredly, “one thousand percent” staying in the presidential race.
But in response to questions from journalists over the last few weeks, the embattled Democratic president has given some clues as to what could make him step aside — especially as the calls from his own party to end his candidacy continue unabated.
Here are the things Biden has cited — some serious, others not — that would make him reconsider his run:
Divine intervention: “I mean, if the Lord Almighty comes out and tells me that, I might do that,” Biden said in an interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Cold, hard data: No politician ever wants to lose — and it seems Biden would be willing to exit if he had numerical proof that that’s what would happen.
A fateful accident: “Unless I get hit by a train” was Biden’s response to an interviewer’s question last week about staying in the race.
A not-yet-diagnosed medical ailment: “If I had some medical condition that emerged,” Biden told BET journalist Ed Gordon. “If doctors came to me and said, ‘You got this problem, that problem.’”
Trump says he’s rewritten his
remarks for his RNC speech tonight
Republicans throughout the week in Milwaukee have suggested the combative former president take a gentler tone in light of the shooting and have suggested the crisis provides a chance to de-escalate the divisive political rhetoric that has marked the 2024 campaign.
Donald Trump told the Washington Examiner that he had rewritten his acceptance speech in the wake of the Saturday shooting, emphasizing a call for national unity.
“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” he said. “Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches,” aimed mostly at the policies of President Joe Biden.
“Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now,” he said.
Any such dialing down by Trump will come before a delegation, many of whom have been moved by Trump’s own defiant words in the grasp of U.S. Secret Service agents Saturday, and have sparked their echo in the form of chants of “fight, fight, fight.”
“I do believe that after going through that his message will be better, and I do think he will appeal to our better emotions,” Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Lawrence Tabas said. “He has an enormous compassion and empathy that doesn’t always come through.”
Conflicting conspiracy theories
emerge from Trump shooting
A former president is shot, the gunman quickly neutralized, and all of it is caught on camera. But for those who don’t believe their eyes, that’s just the start of the story.
For some supporters of former President Donald Trump, the failure of the Secret Service to prevent the attempted assassination points to a conspiracy orchestrated by President Joe Biden. For some of Trump’s critics, however, the details of the shooting don’t add up. They wonder if Trump somehow staged the whole thing.
Two dueling conspiracy theories are taking root online following Trump’s attempted assassination, one for each end of America’s polarized political spectrum. In this split-screen republic, Americans are increasingly choosing their own reality, at the expense of a shared understanding of the facts.
“One screen, two movies,” is how Ron Bassilian describes the online reaction to Saturday’s shooting. Bassilian is a prolific user of social media and has used X to broadcast his conjecture about the shooting. “People have their beliefs, and they’re going to come up with theories that fit their beliefs.”
Families of several service members killed during
Afghanistan withdrawal criticize Biden at GOP convention
Relatives of some of the 13 American service members killed during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention Wednesday in an emotional moment that revived one of the low points of President Joe Biden’s presidency.
Many of the Gold Star families have criticized Biden for never publicly naming their loved ones. On stage Wednesday, one of the family members named each of the 13 service members, and the crowd echoed back each name as it was read aloud.
“Joe Biden has refused to recognize their sacrifice,” Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, told the crowd. “Donald Trump knew all of our children’s names. He knew all of their stories.”
The crowd chanted “Never forget!” and “U.S.A.!” as Trump and the entire convention hall stood.
Vance ends VP nomination speech:
‘I will give you everything I have’
Vance made a pledge to voters: “I pledge to every American, no matter your party, I will give you everything I have.”
He added, “To serve you and to make this country a place where every dream you have for yourself, your family and your country will be possible once again.”
After the speech, Vance’s extended family flooded the stage to an unusual song for a Republican convention – Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.”
The song became a political staple in 1992 when a very different young politician from a humble background ran for national office. That was Bill Clinton, who is, of course, a Democrat.