By Gram Slattery and Tim Reid
MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – donald trumpThe Republican Party meets on Monday in hopes of plotting its return to the White House after having survived an assassination attempt that took him and the president Joe Bidenhis Democratic rival, to call for national unity and calm.
The former president will announce his choice for running mate at this week’s convention, having cited US senator from Ohio, JD Vance, Florida, USA as favorites. Senator Marco Rubio and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who will speak at the meeting.
Trump held individual meetings with each of the three men late last week in what was effectively one last job interview, according to two sources who requested anonymity to disclose private conversations.
While the event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a celebratory event for the formal selection of the party’s presidential candidate, it comes at a tense moment in U.S. history, on the road to the Nov. 5 election rematch between Biden, 81, and Trump. , 78.
Will party leaders scheduled to speak over the next four days try to calm tempers among Republicans? Or will they use the occasion 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 whole country together, even the whole world. The speech will be very different, very different than it would have been two days ago,” Trump told the Washington Examiner.
Biden also, in a televised speech from the White House on Sunday, said: “There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We cannot allow this violence to be normalized.” .”
He said: “The political rhetoric in this country has become very heated. It’s time to calm it down.”
Trump and Biden are in a tight electoral fight, according to most opinion polls, including Reuters/Ipsos. The shooting on Saturday sparked discussion around the presidential campaign, which focused on whether Biden should drop out after a faltering performance in the June 27 debate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, the nation’s highest-ranking Republican, said Sunday on NBC’s “Today” show that all Americans need to tone down their rhetoric. He accused the Biden campaign of making hyperbolic attacks on Trump.
“Everyone needs to refuse the rhetoric,” he said.
Biden condemned the assassination attempt. He ordered an investigation into Saturday’s shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which Trump’s right ear was grazed by a bullet, a supporter was killed and two others were injured before Secret Service agents shot him dead. the 20-year-old alleged shooter whose motive has not yet been clarified.
Biden’s campaign declined to comment on claims by some Republicans that his comments helped create the conditions for the shooting.
Trump frequently resorted to violent rhetoric in his campaign speeches, using the word “bloodbath”, labeling his supposed enemies as “worms” and “fascists”, and accusing Biden, without evidence, of a conspiracy to overthrow the United States , encouraging illegal immigration.
For Trump, the convention represents a test.
Having consolidated control of the party, Trump could seize the prime-time opportunity to deliver a unifying message or paint a grim portrait of a nation besieged by a corrupt leftist elite, as he has done at times along the way.
“Trump’s speech at the convention will be his introduction to the general public, to people who don’t follow politics closely. I think he will have even more attention on him (because of the assassination attempt),” said Nachama Soloveichik, a senior strategist Republican who worked on Nikki Haley’s unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign.
“I would say the message should be one of de-escalation and also reminding 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 the campaign would take additional security measures in the wake of the assassination attempt. They also asked employees to refrain from using “dangerous rhetoric.”
“We condemn all forms of violence and will not tolerate dangerous rhetoric on social media,” they wrote.
VICE-PRESIDENTIAL MYSTERY
As with previous conventions, a who’s who of prominent Republicans, including media personalities and members of Congress, will be able to speak.
They range from relatively moderates to apologists for the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters to far-right agitators who have expressed support for conspiracy theories and are divisive even within the party.
The first three days of the event are organized around broad themes, with Monday focused on economic issues, Tuesday focused on public safety and Wednesday focused on national security.
Republicans are expected to portray America as more prosperous, less crime-ridden and less vulnerable to threats abroad during Trump’s 2017-2021 term than under Biden, although the record is decidedly mixed and difficult to compare given that The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the Biden and Trump presidencies in different ways.
Milwaukee will play a key role in the Nov. 5 election as it is the largest city in Wisconsin, one of the most politically competitive states in the country.
On Sunday afternoon, security barricades around the Fiserv Forum, the basketball arena where the convention’s main activities will take place, closed off much of the city center. Thousands of armed police officers roamed streets that were otherwise largely empty as deputies arrived from across the country.
Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the RNC’s liaison to the Secret Service, said security plans were not changed for the convention despite the assassination attempt on Trump.
“We are confident in the security plans for this event and we are ready to go,” she told reporters Sunday afternoon.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Tim Reid; additional reporting by Nathan Layne; editing by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)
