The third day of the Republican National Convention kicked off Wednesday with Republicans — led by the newly nominated Donald Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio — shifting their focus to issues of national security and foreign policy.
Republicans are expected to focus on Democratic President Joe Biden’s handling of the ongoing crises in Europe and the Middle East. Former Trump administration officials are also expected to take the stage to outline what foreign policy would look like if he returns to the White House for a second term.
Vance will also introduce himself to a national audience Wednesday evening when he delivers his first speech as the Republican vice-presidential nominee.
Meanwhile, the Democrats continue to battle over whether President Biden should remain the party’s presidential nominee, with California Rep. Adam Schiff becoming the highest-profile Democrat to call for the president to step aside.
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Here’s the Latest:
Milwaukee police chief defends use of outside law enforcement at RNC
The role of police from outside Milwaukee has been under scrutiny after officers from Columbus, Ohio, shot and killed a man wielding two knives near the convention.
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman told The Associated Press today, a day after the shooting, that the officers took it upon themselves to intervene in an “active imminent threat situation.” He says it should restore people’s faith that law enforcement has the community’s back, no matter where they are from.
The shooting angered area residents because the police were from elsewhere. It’s also reignited activists’ concerns about police use of deadly force.
JD Vance won’t commit to VP debate until Democrats formally choose their nominee
Newly minted Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s team says it’s too soon to discuss the vice presidential debate because Democrats don’t formally have their nominees and President Biden could still drop out of the race.
After Vice Harris accepted a third debate date offered by CBS News and encouraged Vance to accept, Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign said, “We don’t know who the Democrat nominee for Vice President is going to be, so we can’t lock in a date before their convention. To do so would be unfair to Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, or whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate.”
President Biden is the presumptive Democrat nominee but is facing pressure from party leaders to step aside after his disastrous debate with Trump. Biden has insisted he’s not leaving the race.
Former White House official Peter Navarro arrives following prison release
A black SUV dropped off Peter Navarro at a Hyatt Hotel just outside the security perimeter surrounding the Republican National Convention. He is set to speak tonight night.
Navarro, who served as a White House trade adviser under Trump, was freed from a Florida prison earlier today after serving four months for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of the Republican president’s supporters, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Navarro carried his own luggage into the hotel after his release from prison earlier in the day.
“I’m enjoying the freedom,” he told the AP.
Vance lashes out at press, says Trump delivered on toning down ‘the temperature’ of rhetoric
Ohio Sen. JD Vance lashed out at the press at his first fundraiser since becoming Trump’s running mate Thursday, saying they “really miss what the man is made of.”
Speaking to donors in Milwaukee not far from the convention site, Vance said the truth about Trump was put on display Saturday, after he survived a failed assassination attempt and Trump stood up, raised his hand in the air, and said “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Trump, he said, “literally got shot — came within millimeters of losing his life in the service of this country.”
But instead of being mad and angry, Vance said, Trump “called for national unity. He called for calm. He showed leadership, my friends.”
“The media keeps on saying they want somebody to tone down the temperature. Well, Donald Trump got shot and he toned down the temperature. That’s what a real leader does,” he added.
Vance quips that he told Trump that he’s ‘very excited’ for RNC address
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is attending his first fundraiser since becoming the official Republican vice presidential nominee.
Vance said he would use his speech Wednesday night to make the case about the importance of reelecting Trump.
Speaking to a room of several hundred donors at Discovery World, a lakefront museum and aquarium in Milwaukee, he quipped that he’s told Trump he’s “very excited about this evening” and doesn’t plan to screw it up, but that it’s too late for Trump to change his mind.
Vance was introduced by Ohio Congressman Jim Banks, who called him the “future of the Republican Party” and the America First movement.
He applauded Trump for his choice, saying Vance was the best candidate to connect with working class men and women in critical states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Can anyone say 2028?
Fresh off his convention floor speech marching behind Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was back on the GOP circuit.
One of his first stops Wednesday: the Iowa Republican luncheon. Yes, the state that will cast the first votes of the 2028 Republican presidential nominating contest.
DeSantis finished a disappointing distant second in the Iowa caucuses in January and dropped out afterward to endorse Trump. He did not mention 2028 during his time with Iowa delegates, but he certainly sounded like a governor who was still trying to sell his record to a collection of influential Republican activists.
He ticked off several conservative policy achievements and, as he did Tuesday night, bragged about how dominant Republicans now are in what was once a coin-flip state.
The reason, according to DeSantis: “We had good leadership.”
New York congressional candidate says Vance is unfamiliar, but Trump’s pick is ‘my pick’
Menachem M. Raitport, a delegate from New York state and a candidate for the 9th Congressional District seat there, says he doesn’t know much about JD Vance or any of the other people Trump considered as a running mate.
“I trust that our president did a thorough evaluation of his candidates,” Raitport said Wednesday outside the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. “And if Donald Trump decided this is his pick, then he’s my pick because I put full faith in the president that he is going to lead our country back to prosperity, safety, security, secure borders and repairing our economy and repairing our nation as a whole and bringing us all together.”
If Vance and Vice President Kamala Harris face off in a debate, Raitport said he would watch it “with a big bucket of popcorn and laugh.”
“JD Vance, I’m sure, has a lot to say and he’ll be articulate,” Raitport said. “On the other hand, Kamala Harris — it’s gonna be a comedy show.”
Gingrich: JD Vance pick part of Trump’s mission to transform the party and country
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is billing Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance as part of Donald Trump’s ongoing process of remaking the Republican Party and the nation.
Gingrich, a Trump ally who speaks with the former president, told Iowa Republicans on Wednesday that the former president could have made a historically conventional pick to “consolidate” the party — a marriage like the conservative insurgent Ronald Reagan and the establishment figure George H.W. Bush who ran against him for the nomination in 1980.
“He had time to think it through, and his answer is, ‘No, people aren’t for me so I can compromise. People are for me so we can get things done and I need somebody who believes in what we’re doing,’” Gingrich said.
That cuts against some of the talk of party unity that has dominated the RNC’s first two days. Or, perhaps more accurately, it reflects that the definition of Republican unity in 2024 is to accept Trump’s vision and imprint on the party.
That influence runs so deep, Gingrich added, that “every word” of the Republican platform was “personally written or edited” by Trump.