By Steve Peoples and Jill Colvin | Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — Donald Trump’s campaign leaders designed the convention opening this week to present a softer, more optimistic message, focusing on themes that would help a divisive leader expand his appeal among moderate voters and people of color.
Then a shooting occurred that shook the foundations of American politics.
Suddenly, the Democrats’ post-debate turmoil, the GOP’s potential governing agenda and even Trump’s criminal convictions became secondary to fears of political violence and the stability of the country. The presumptive Republican nominee and his allies will face the nation at their four-day convention in Milwaukee, unmistakably united and ready to “fight,” as a bloodied Trump shouted Saturday as Secret Service agents whisked him away to safety at his Pennsylvania rally.
Anger and anxiety are spreading through the party, even as many Republican leaders call for calm and a reduction in tensions.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, known for his sunny, optimistic view of Republican politics, suggested online that the assassination attempt was “aided and abetted by the radical left and corporate media who continually label Trump a threat to democracy, a fascist or worse.”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, another likely convention speaker, struck a darker tone during an appearance on NBC Sunday.
“We need to turn down the temperature in this country,” Mr Johnson said. “We need leaders from all parties, from both sides, to call this out and make sure that happens so that we can move forward and preserve the free society that we are all so fortunate to have.”
There are no changes to the convention program yet.
In an interview Sunday, Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley said the convention schedule would not be changed after the shooting. The agenda, he said, will include more than 100 speakers, focused primarily on consumer issues and Trump’s plans to help working Americans.
“We have to be able to develop a vision of where we want to take this country,” he said.
Whatley said the central message would have little to do with President Joe Biden’s political struggles, Trump’s grievances about the 2020 election or the former president’s promises to retaliate against his political enemies.
“We’re going to have the convention that we’ve been planning for 18 months,” he said. “We’re both relieved and grateful that the president is here and accepting his nomination.”
Beyond the vote to formally give Trump the nomination, elected delegates from across the country will update the GOP’s policy platform for the first time since 2016. The pared-down platform proposal — just 16 pages with limited details on key issues, including abortion — reflects the Trump campaign’s desire to avoid giving Democrats more fodder on a key campaign issue.
The platform approved by a committee last week does not include an explicit call for a national abortion ban, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended a federally guaranteed right to abortion.
Many anti-abortion activists have vocally opposed the Trump campaign’s rewrite of the program. But after the shooting, at least one prominent religious conservative said he would not push to overturn the committee’s decision.
“Further divisions would not be healthy,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
Perhaps most importantly, Trump will use the convention to unveil his vice presidential pick, which could come as early as Monday. Some Republicans say that choice will take on more significance than it otherwise would have, given the new threats to his life.
His three main contenders are North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, all of whom are expected to speak this week.
Despite a contentious primary season, any lingering tensions appear to have been put aside.
Former rivals Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley are expected to speak at the convention on Trump’s behalf.
Veteran Republican pollster Frank Luntz said the shootings ensured the GOP is united and motivated behind Trump, a dynamic he said will be on display all week in Wisconsin.
“Every Trump supporter is now going to be a Trump voter,” Luntz said. “The average Trump voter is so angry about what just happened. They were angry before this, and now they’re furious.”
People connected to January 6 will be involved
Trump’s record will be recalled in a speech schedule that includes a handful of Republicans charged with crimes related to other political violence — the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Peter Navarro, a former White House trade adviser who is jailed for contempt of Congress, is expected to speak at the convention just hours after his release. He was convicted in September after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Capitol attack.
Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, who has been indicted on criminal charges related to his involvement in the scheme to field fake electors that would overturn Biden’s victory over Trump, plans to present the former president with the party’s nomination at the convention. A judge dismissed the case against McDonald last month over a dispute over the venue.
Trump has repeatedly portrayed those involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including his many supporters who stormed the Capitol, as political prisoners.
For now, Democrats have scaled back plans to offer a competing message at the Republican convention.
Biden’s campaign pulled its ads over the weekend. Vice President Kamala Harris postponed an appearance Tuesday in Florida that was supposed to focus on Trump’s opposition to abortion rights. And the pro-Democratic group American Bridge delayed the planned release Monday of fake trading cards designed to highlight controversial policy positions by Trump and other Republican leaders.
Biden’s campaign said after an interview he gave to NBC that aired Monday, it and the Democratic National Committee will “continue to draw the contrast” with Trump during the GOP convention — though it remains unclear when the ads will resume.
Publicly and privately, Democrats feared they were losing a crucial opportunity to undermine Trump’s political ambitions at one of the most important moments of the 2024 election.
“I am very concerned that the net effect of the Republican convention is to neutralize the fundamental critique of democracy against Trump — a criminal who fomented a violent insurrection, tried to block the peaceful transfer of power, and said the Constitution might need to be repealed,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Sunday. “There is a race to define democracy’s critique of Trump as legitimate, and we all need to make it clear now that protecting democracy is the exact opposite of political violence.”
Protesters expected in Milwaukee
The convention, which comes less than four months before Election Day, will be held in the overwhelmingly Democratic city of Milwaukee, the largest city in a swing state that Trump lost by less than a percentage point four years ago.
Even before the assassination attempt, large demonstrations were expected, although movement will be severely restricted as part of heightened security precautions put in place by the secret services.
However, there is a risk of violent clashes.
Security officials had previously announced that people near the Secret Service perimeter would be allowed to carry weapons openly or concealed, in accordance with state law. Wisconsin law prohibits only machine guns, short-barreled shotguns and silencers.
___
Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.
Originally published:
