Author: Gram Slattery and Tim Reed
MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – Donald Trump solidified his grip on the Republican Party at the 2024 national convention this week, surviving an assassination attempt and on his way to the Republican presidential nomination. Resolved numerous legal disputes.
In a four-day event that begins Monday, the former president will announce his running mate picks, naming Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Burgum is listed as the frontrunner, and they will all be at the party.
While the event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will be a celebration of the official nomination of Trump, it comes at a tense moment in American history between President Joe Biden, 81, and Trump, 78 rematch in the general election on November 5.
Will party leaders try to calm Republican tempers? Or will they use the opportunity to accuse Democrats of demonizing Trump as a threat to democracy and making him a target of political violence?
“This is an opportunity to bring the country, and indeed the world, together. This speech will be very different than it was two days ago,” Trump told the Washington Examiner.
Biden also said in a White House televised speech on Sunday: “The United States will not allow this kind of violence, any violence. Period. No exceptions. We cannot allow this kind of violence to be normalized. ”
“Political rhetoric in this country has become very heated. It’s time to calm down,” he said.
According to most polls, including Reuters/Ipsos, Trump and Biden are locked in a close race in the election rematch. Saturday’s shooting sparked heated discussion around the presidential race, which has focused on whether Biden should withdraw after his June 27 debate performance was interrupted.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, the nation’s highest-ranking elected Republican, told NBC’s “Today” show on Sunday that all Americans need to tone down their rhetoric. He accused Biden’s campaign of making exaggerated attacks on Trump.
“Everyone needs to tone down their rhetoric,” he said.
shooting probe
Biden condemned the assassination attempt. He ordered an investigation into Saturday’s shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which Trump was grazed by a bullet in his right ear, one supporter was killed and two others were wounded before Secret Service agents shot and killed the 20-year-old. Year-old suspected shooter.
The Biden campaign has declined to comment on accusations by some Republicans that his previous comments set the stage for the shooting.
Trump has often used violent rhetoric in campaign speeches, using the word “Holocaust,” calling his perceived enemies “vermin” and “fascists” and accusing Biden without evidence of a conspiracy by encouraging illegal immigration. Overthrow the United States.
For Trump, the convention represents a test.
Having consolidated control of his party, Trump can seize prime time to deliver a unifying message or paint a dark portrait of a country besieged by a corrupt leftist elite, as he did at times on the campaign trail.
“Trump’s convention speech will introduce him to the public, to people who don’t follow politics closely. I think he will get more eyeballs (because of the assassination attempt),” Nachama Soloveichik )explain.
“I would say the message should be to deescalate tensions and remind people that America is better than this.”
In an internal memo to campaign staff on Sunday obtained by Reuters, co-campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said that in the wake of the assassination attempt, The campaign will take additional security measures. They also called on staff to refrain from using “dangerous rhetoric”.
“We condemn all forms of violence and will not tolerate dangerous rhetoric on social media,” they wrote.
Trump began the year facing multiple legal concerns, including four separate criminal indictments.
In late May, he was found guilty of trying to cover up hush-money payments to porn stars. But three other prosecutions – two brought as a result of his failed attempts to overturn his conviction – have been halted by a variety of factors, including a Supreme Court ruling that found he was partially immune from prosecution.
Trump claimed without evidence that all four indictments were orchestrated by Biden to prevent him from returning to power.
vice president choice
As with previous conventions, a who’s who of prominent Republicans, including media personalities and members of Congress, will be scheduled to speak.
They range from relatively moderates to apologists for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, to far-right agitators who have expressed support for conspiracy theories and have divided even within the party.
The first three days of the event are organized around broad themes, focusing on economic issues on Monday, public safety on Tuesday and national security on Wednesday.
Republicans are expected to portray the U.S. under Trump from 2017-2021 as more prosperous, with lower crime rates and less vulnerable to overseas threats than under Biden, though that is unlikely given the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The records are clearly mixed and difficult to compare in different ways of evaluating the Biden and Trump presidencies.
Milwaukee will play a key role in the Nov. 5 election because it is Wisconsin’s largest city and one of the most politically competitive states in the country.
By Sunday afternoon, security barricades had shut down much of downtown, where the main event will take place at the Fiserv (NYSE:) Forum basketball court. Thousands of armed law enforcement officers roamed the largely deserted streets as deputies swarmed in from across the country.
