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There’s a lengthy list of musicians who have taken issue with Donald Trump over his presidential campaigns using their songs — and it only continues to grow. Dozens of artists and bands, from ABBA and Elton John to Rihanna and Paul McCartney, have publicly condemned Donald Trump since 2015 for playing their songs at his events and rallies…
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Benjamin Leatherman
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LA CROSSE, Wis. — Donald Trump campaigned Thursday in Michigan and Wisconsin as the former president ramps up battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.
Trump’s intense focus on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020 continues with stops in the middle of Michigan and western Wisconsin.
Trump visited La Crosse on Thursday evening for a town hall moderated by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who endorsed him in Detroit. It is Trump’s first visit to Wisconsin since the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which ended three days before President Biden dropped out of the race and made way for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump supporters started lining up in the early morning hours to get into the event. While all available seats were taken, several thousand were in attendance. It’s a smaller venue than Trump usually addresses. Trump likes late, packed rallies, but has admitted his advisors have been pressuring him to stay on message, and they believe the smaller format enhances his ability to do so.
During one speech on Thursday, Trump said if he wins a second term, he wants to make IVF treatment free for women but did not detail how he would fund his plan or precisely how it would work.
“I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he said at an event in Michigan. “Because we want more babies, to put it nicely.”
Gabbard opened the town hall by talking about her own IVF journey, giving herself injections in airport bathrooms and the heartbreak of failed embryo transfers. While the treatments ultimately didn’t work for her, she applauded Trump’s proposal.
“I can’t tell you how life-changing that would be for so many families,” she said.
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Trump first came out in favor of IVF in February after the Alabama state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, briefly pausing treatment and sparking national backlash.
Trump has since claimed the Republican party is a “leader” on the issue, even as at least 23 bills aiming to establish fetal personhood have been introduced in 13 states so far this legislative session, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. That kind of legislation, which asserts that life begins at conception, could imperil fertility treatments that involve the storage, transportation and destruction of embryos.
IVF can costs tens of thousands of dollars for medical appointments, medication and surgery, and is not covered by many health insurance plans.
Trump has in general been opposed to various kinds of federal mandates, and originally ran against the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — which included popular provisions like protections for people with preexisting health conditions.
In a statement, Harris’ campaign said Trump shouldn’t be believed.
“Trump lies as much if not more than he breathes, but voters aren’t stupid,” said Harris-Walz 2024 spokesperson Sarafina Chitika. “Because Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, IVF is already under attack and women’s freedoms have been ripped away in states across the country. There is only one candidate in this race who trusts women and will protect our freedom to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris.”
During the town hall, Trump also took aim at Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“Minnesota, they picked this guy. He is a weird dude. I’m not weird. He’s weird,” Trump said. “I would love to win Minnesota because these people aren’t digging this guy.”
Trump started his day on Thursday with a rally in Potterville, Michigan, near the state capital of Lansing. Trump won Eaton County, where part of Lansing is located, in both 2016 and 2020, but by a smaller margin the second time. It will be his third visit to the state in the past nine days and second this week after a speech to the National Guard Association in Detroit on Monday.
Trump’s visits come three days after his campaign staffers were accused of pushing a female employee at Arlington National Cemetery.
He was at the cemetery for a visit with Gold Star families who lost loved ones during the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021. An Army spokesperson said the incident was “unfortunate,” and added it was “also unfortunate” that the “employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.”
Along with Pennsylvania, which Trump will visit on Friday, these three Midwestern states make up a northern industrial bloc Democrats carried for two decades before Trump won them in 2016. Biden recaptured them on his way to the White House in 2020.
Trump and his vice-presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have blitzed the battleground states in recent weeks, with Vance in both states this week as well.
The battleground offensive comes as a reinvigorated Democratic Party rallies around Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Harris and Walz are aiming to leverage the surge in enthusiasm among the party’s base since her campaign launch just over a month ago. They hope this excitement — which was on full display at last week’s convention in Chicago — will extend to more moderate areas as they embark on a two-day bus tour in Georgia, including events in the state’s rural southern regions.
Trump’s events in Michigan and Wisconsin are both in swing congressional districts.
Potterville is in Michigan’s 7th District, which features a mix of Republican-dominated counties like Clinton and Shiawassee, and Democratic strongholds such as Ingham, home to the state Capitol and Michigan State University. This district is expected to be one of the nation’s most competitive this fall following incumbent Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s decision to run for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.
La Crosse, meanwhile, is a hub within Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, where Republican Derrick Van Orden won narrowly in 2022. Democrat Rebecca Cooke won the Aug. 13 primary to face him in November.
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CHICAGO — Kamala Harris rallied thousands of voters in one packed arena as former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama energized millions more on Harris’ behalf inside another on a Tuesday night designed to demonstrate the energy and breadth of the Democratic nominee’s evolving coalition.
“I am feeling hope,” Obama told the Democratic National Convention in Chicago just minutes after his wife, the former first lady Michelle Obama, told the same crowd that, “Something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it?”
“America, hope is making a comeback,” she said.
Harris, speaking earlier in battleground Wisconsin — at a rally in the arena where Republicans held their convention last month — declared that she was running “a people-powered campaign.”
“Together we will chart a new way forward,” the vice president said in remarks that were partially broadcast to the DNC. “A future for freedom, opportunity, of optimism and faith.”
The raucous night of events spanning two states underscored the diversity of the coalition that Harris’ campaign is working to stitch together in her bid to defeat Trump this fall. She is drawing on the party’s biggest stars, leaders from the far left to the middle, and even some Republicans to boost her campaign.
And while the theme of the night was “a bold vision for America’s future,” the disparate factions of Harris’ evolving coalition demonstrated, above all, that they are connected by a deep desire to prevent a second Trump presidency.
Obama, the nation’s first Black president, returned to the convention stage 20 years after making his first appearance at a national convention, a 2004 appearance in Boston that propelled him into the national spotlight ahead of his successful presidential run.
“History will remember Joe Biden as a president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger,” Obama said on Tuesday as the crowd chanted, “Thank you, Joe.” “I am proud to call him my president, but even prouder to call him my friend.”
Sens. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, and Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent beloved by progressives, both praised Harris.
And in an appearance perhaps intended to needle Trump, his former press secretary Stephanie Grisham — now a harsh critic of her former boss — also took the convention stage.
Trump “has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth,” Grisham said. “I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people. And she has my vote.”
Still, it was not all serious on the second night of the four-day convention.
A symbolic roll call in which delegates from each state pledged their support for the Democratic nominee turned into a party atmosphere. A DJ played a mix of state-specific songs — and Atlanta native Lil Jon ran out during Georgia’s turn to his hit song with DJ Snake, “Turn Down for What,” to the delight of the thousands inside the cavernous United Center.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who would become the nation’s first gentleman if his wife wins the presidency, shared personal details about his relationship with Harris — their cooking habits, their first date and her laugh, which is often mocked by Republican critics.
“You know that laugh. I love that laugh!” Emhoff said as the crowd cheered. Later, he added, “Her empathy is her strength.”
Trump, meanwhile, was out on the campaign trail as part of his weeklong swing-state tour during the Democratic convention. He went to Howell, Michigan, on Tuesday and stood aside sheriff’s deputies as he labeled Harris the “ringleader” of a “Marxist attack on law enforcement” across the country.
“Kamala Harris will deliver crime, chaos, destruction and death,” Trump said in one of many generalizations about an America under Harris.
Harris, meanwhile, cast the election in dire, almost existential terms. She implored Americans not to get complacent in light of the Supreme Court decision carving out broad presidential immunity, a power she said Trump would abuse.
She has also seized on Trump’s opposition to a nationally guaranteed right to abortion.
“They seemingly don’t trust women,” she said of Trump and his Republican allies. “Well, we trust women.”
The vice president’s speech evoked some of the same themes that underlaid Biden’s case for reelection before he dropped out, casting Trump as a threat to democracy. Harris argued that Trump threatens the values and freedoms that Americans hold dear.
Trump said he would be a dictator only on his first day in office, a quip he later said was a joke, and has vowed as president to assert more control over federal prosecutions, an area of government that has traditionally been left to the Justice Department.
Someone with that record “should never again have the opportunity to stand behind the seal of the president of the United States,” Harris said. “Never again.”
Obama also took aim at Trump, whom he called “a 78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.”
“It’s been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually gotten worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala,” the former president said.
Michelle Obama, too, tore into Trump, a sharp shift from the 2016 convention speech in which she told her party, “When they go low, we go high.”
“His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who also happened to be Black,” the former first lady said of Trump. “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s seeking might be one of those ‘Black jobs’?”
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By STEVE PEOPLES, JONATHAN J. COOPER and ZEKE MILLER – Associated Press
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CHICAGO — Thousands of activists are expected to converge on Chicago this week for the Democratic National Convention, hoping to call attention to abortion rights, economic injustice and the war in Gaza.
While Vice President Kamala Harris has energized crowds of supporters as she prepares to accept the Democratic nomination, progressive activists maintain their mission remains the same.
Activists say they learned lessons from last month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and are predicting bigger crowds and more robust demonstrations in Chicago, a city with deep social activism roots.
Demonstrations are expected every day of the convention and, while their agendas vary, many activists agree an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war is the priority.
Things kicked off Sunday on the convention’s eve with an abortion rights march along iconic Michigan Avenue.
Organizer Linda Loew said even though Democrats have pushed to safeguard reproductive rights at home, the issue is international. They marched in solidarity with people everywhere who struggle for the right to control what happens to their bodies, as well as to protest the money the U.S. spends to back wars that could be used for healthcare, she said.
“We believe that the billions of dollars that continue to flow to the state of Israel and the flow of weapons are having an inordinate and horrific impact, but in particular on women, children and the unborn,” she said. “All of these things are tied together.”
The largest group, the Coalition to March on the DNC, has planned demonstrations on the first and last days of the convention.
Organizers say they expect at least 20,000 activists, including students who protested the war on college campuses.
“The people with power are going to be there,” said Liz Rathburn, a University of Illinois Chicago student organizer. “People inside the United Center are the people who are going to be deciding our foreign policy in one way or another.”
Activists sued the city earlier this year, saying restrictions over where they can demonstrate violate their constitutional rights.
Chicago leaders rejected their requests for permits to protest near United Center on the city’s West Side, where the convention is taking place, offering instead a lakefront park more than 3 miles away.
Later, the city agreed to allow demonstrations at a park and a march route closer to the United Center. A federal judge recently signed off on the group’s roughly 1-mile route.
Coalition to March on the DNC spokesman Hatem Abudayyeh said the group is pleased it won the right to protest closer to the convention, but he believes its preferred 2-mile march would be safer for larger crowds. The group is chartering buses for activists from about half a dozen states.
“We’re going forward, full speed ahead,” he said.
The city has designated a park about a block from United Center for a speakers’ stage. Those who sign up get 45 minutes.
The Philadelphia-based Poor People’s Army, which advocates for economic justice, plans to set up at Humboldt Park on the city’s Northwest Side and will feature events with third-party candidates Jill Stein and Cornel West, plus a 3-mile march Monday to the United Center.
Some group members have spent the last few weeks marching the more than 80 miles from Milwaukee, where they protested during the Republican convention.
“Poor and homeless people are being brutalized, with tents and encampments destroyed and bulldozed away, from San Francisco to Philadelphia to Gaza and the West Bank,” spokesperson Cheri Honkala said in a statement as the group reached Illinois. “These preventable human rights violations are being committed by Democratic and Republican leaders alike.”
Many activists believe nothing much will change because Harris is part of the Biden administration.
“The demands haven’t changed. I haven’t seen any policy changes,” said Erica Bentley, an activist with Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity. “If you’re going to be here, you’re going to have to listen to what’s important to us.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters in Chicago have been highly visible, shutting down roads to the airport and staging sit-ins at congressional offices. Some are planning their own one-day convention Sunday with third-party candidates.
“Regardless of who the nominee is, we’re marching against the Democrats and their vicious policies that have allowed Israel to kill over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza,” said Fayaani Aboma Mijana, an organizer with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.
It’s unclear if the convention will draw far-right extremists who ardently support former President Donald Trump.
Secret Service Deputy Special Agent in Charge Derek Mayer said last week there are no known specific security threats against the convention.
The convention will draw an estimated 50,000 people to the nation’s third-largest city, including delegates, activists and journalists.
The city says it has made necessary preparations with police and the Secret Service. Security will be tight, with street closures around the convention center.
To combat traffic concerns, city leaders are touting a new $80 million train station steps from the United Center. They also have tried to beautify the city with freshly planted flowers and new signs. City leaders also cleared a nearby homeless encampment.
Police have undergone training on constitutional policing, county courts say they are opening more space in anticipation of mass arrests and hospitals near the security zone are beefing up emergency preparedness.
Authorities and leaders in the state have said people who vandalize the city or are violent will be arrested.
“We’re going to make sure that people have their First Amendment rights protected, that they can do that in a safe way,” Mayor Brandon Johnson told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
But some have lingering safety concerns, worried that protests could become unpredictable or devolve into chaos.
Activist Hy Thurman protested and was arrested at the infamous 1968 convention. The 74-year-old now lives in Alabama but plans to come to Chicago to protest the war in Gaza.
“It’s extremely personal for me,” he said. “I see parallels.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has said that he expects peaceful protests.
“We intend to protect the protesters’ First Amendment rights, and also the residents of the city of Chicago and the visitors to Chicago at the same time,” Pritzker told the AP in a recent interview.
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By SOPHIA TAREEN – Associated Press
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After Donald Trump triumphantly entered the hall on the second night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, the program turned to one of his signature issues: illegal immigration. An ominous video of chaos at the U.S.-Mexico border led into to a speech by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who declared, “We are facing an invasion on our southern border.”
Here’s a look at some of the claims made Tuesday:
VIDEO NARRATOR: “Biden made one of the worst mistakes of any president in history when he told illegals to come here and surge our border.”
THE FACTS: After the claim, the video cuts to President Joe Biden saying, “I would, in fact, make sure that there is — we immediately surge to the border,” and the narrator says, “And surge they did.”
But important context is missing. The clip was taken from the Sept. 12, 2019, Democratic presidential debate. A moderator, Jorge Ramos of Univision, discussing immigration issues, notes that Biden served as vice president in the administration of President Barack Obama, which deported 3 million people. He then asks if Biden is “prepared to say tonight that you and President Obama made a mistake?”
Biden answers by noting immigration accomplishments by Obama and discussing the policies of then-President Trump. He then adds, “What I would do as president is several more things, because things have changed. I would, in fact, make sure that there is — we immediately surge to the border. All those people who are seeking asylum, they deserve to be heard. That’s who we are.”
Since then Biden has spoken repeatedly of sending agents and other law enforcement resources to the border to deal with the migrant influx.
VIDEO NARRATOR: “Biden’s incompetence has led to a horrific 300,000 Americans now dead, not from a nuclear bomb but from lethal fentanyl brought in through Biden’s wide-open border.”
THE FACTS: While it is correct that much of America’s fentanyl is smuggled from Mexico, 86.4% of fentanyl trafficking crimes were committed by U.S. citizens in the 12-month period through September 2023, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
The fentanyl scourge began well before Biden took office. Border seizures, which tell only part of the story, have jumped sharply under Biden, which may partly reflect improved detection. About 27,000 pounds (12,247 kilograms) of fentanyl was seized by U.S. authorities in the 2023 government budget year, compared with 2,545 pounds (1,154 kilograms) in 2019, when Trump was president.
CRUZ: “Every day Americans are dying — murdered, assaulted, raped by illegal immigrants that the Democrats have released.”
THE FACTS: A number of heinous and high-profile crimes involving people in the U.S. illegally have been in the news in recent months. But there is nothing to support the claim that it happens every day.
The foreign-born population, immigrants in the country both legally and illegally, was estimated to be 46.2 million, or almost 14% of the U.S. total, in 2022, according to the Census Bureau, including about 11 million in the country illegally. Hardly a month passes without at least one person in the country illegally getting charged with a high-profile, horrific crime, such as the February slaying of a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student or the June strangling death of a 12-year-old Houston girl.
Texas is the only state that tracks crime by immigration status. A study published by the National Academy of Sciences, based on Texas Department of Public Safety data from 2012 to 2016, found people in the U.S. illegally had “substantially lower crime rates than native-born citizens and legal immigrants across a range of felony offenses.”
What to know about the 2024 Election
While FBI statistics do not separate out crimes by the immigration status of the assailant, there is no evidence of a spike in crime perpetrated by migrants, either along the U.S.-Mexico border or in cities seeing the greatest influx of migrants, like New York. Studies have found that people living in the U.S. illegally are less likely than native-born Americans to have been arrested for violent, drug and property crimes.
Find AP Fact Checks at https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.
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DONALD TRUMP, alluding that the 2020 vote was stolen: “Whether you vote early, absentee, by mail or in person, we are going to protect the vote. That’s the most important thing we have to do is protect the vote. Keep your eyes open because these people want to cheat and they do cheat. And frankly, it’s the only thing they do well.”
THE FACTS: In a prerecorded video at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, former President Donald Trump referenced baseless claims he made repeatedly after he lost the 2020 presidential race — that the election was “rigged” and that Democrats cheated to put President Joe Biden in the White House.
Biden earned 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232, the same margin that Trump had when he beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, which he repeatedly described as a “landslide.” (Trump ended up with 304 electoral votes because two electors defected.) Biden achieved victory by prevailing in key states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia.
Trump’s allegations of massive voting fraud have been refuted by a variety of judges, state election officials and an arm of his own administration’s Homeland Security Department.
In 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr told the AP that no proof of widespread voter fraud had been uncovered. “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” he said at the time.
Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.
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As former President Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday he laid out his vision for running the country. He painted a dire picture of the state of the U.S. and outlined a range of actions he planned to take. But his comments were marked with a myriad of false and misleading information that distorted the facts around immigration, the U.S. economy and his previous accomplishments.
Here are the facts.
TRUMP: “The greatest invasion in history is taking place right here in our country — they are coming in from every corner of the earth, not just from South America, but from Africa, Asia and the Middle East — they’re coming from everywhere, and this administration does nothing to stop them. They are coming from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums, and terrorists at levels never seen before.”
THE FACTS: Trump spent much of his address discussing immigration and the mass influx of migrants into the U.S., repeating several false and misleading claims, including that it has caused a crime surge. He cited recent high-profile and heinous crimes allegedly committed by people in the country illegally as proof.
But the suggestion there has been a spike in violent crime nationally as a result of the influx is not supported by facts. FBI statistics do not separate out crimes by the immigration status of the assailant, nor is there any evidence of a spike in crime perpetrated by migrants, either along the U.S.-Mexico border or in cities seeing the greatest influx of migrants, like New York. In fact, national statistics show violent crime is on the way down.
Studies have found that people living in the country illegally are less likely than native-born Americans to have been arrested for violent, drug and property crimes. A 2020 study published by the National Academy of Sciences found “considerably lower felony arrest rates” among people in the United States illegally than legal immigrants or native-born citizens.
There is also no evidence to support that other countries are sending their murderers, drug dealers and other criminals to the U.S.
TRUMP: “We had the greatest economy in the history of the world.”
THE FACTS: That’s far from accurate. The pandemic triggered a massive recession during his presidency. The government borrowed $3.1 trillion in 2020 to stabilize the economy and Trump left the White House with fewer jobs than when he entered.
But even if you take out issues caused by the pandemic, economic growth averaged 2.67% during Trump’s first three years, which is pretty solid. But it’s nowhere near the 4% averaged during Bill Clinton’s two terms from 1993 to 2001, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In fact, growth has been stronger so far under Biden than under Trump.
Trump did have the unemployment rate get as low as 3.5% before the pandemic, but the labor force participation rate for people 25 to 54 — the core of the U.S. working population — was higher under Clinton. The participation rate has also been higher under Biden than Trump.
TRUMP, on the U.S. troops from Afghanistan: “We also left behind $85 billion worth of military equipment.”
What to know about the 2024 Election
THE FACTS: Those numbers are significantly inflated, according to reports from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, which oversees American taxpayer money spent on the conflict.
The $85 billion figure resembles a number from a July 30 quarterly report from SIGAR, which outlined that the U.S. has invested about $83 billion to build, train and equip Afghan security forces since 2001.
Yet that funding included troop pay, training, operations and infrastructure along with equipment and transportation over two decades, according to SIGAR reports and Dan Grazier, a defense policy analyst at the Project on Government Oversight.
“We did spend well over $80 billion in assistance to the Afghan security forces,” Grazier told the AP in August 2021. “But that’s not all equipment costs.”
In fact, only about $18 billion of that sum went toward equipping Afghan forces between 2002 and 2018, a June 2019 SIGAR report showed.
Another estimate from a 2017 Government Accountability Office report found that about 29% of dollars spent on Afghan security forces between 2005 and 2016 funded equipment and transportation. The transportation funding included gear as well as contracted pilots and airplanes for transporting officials to meetings.
If that percentage held for the entire two-decade period, it would mean the U.S. has spent about $24 billion on equipment and transportation for Afghan forces since 2001.
But even if that were true, much of the military equipment would be obsolete after years of use, according to Grazier. Plus, American troops have previously scrapped unwanted gear and, prior to the withdrawal, disabled dozens of Humvees and aircraft so they couldn’t be used again, according to Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command.
Though no one knows the exact value of the U.S.-supplied Afghan equipment the Taliban have secured, defense officials have confirmed it is significant.
MIKE POMPEO, secretary of state under Trump, on Americans held hostage in the Gaza Strip by Hamas: “President Biden won’t even talk about the fact that Americans are still being held there by the Iranian regime.”
THE FACTS: President Joe Biden has spoken multiple times about the Americans who were among the 240 people taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. Eight Americans are reportedly still in captivity, including three who were killed.
For example, three days after the attack that started the Israel-Hamas war, Biden said, “we now know that American citizens are among those being held by Hamas.”
Soon after, on Oct. 20, 2023, he said, “as I told the families of Americans being held captive by Hamas, we’re pursuing every avenue to bring their loved ones home.”
Biden released a statement on Jan. 14, 2024, that described the day as “a devastating and tragic milestone — 100 days of captivity for the more than 100 innocent people, including as many as 6 Americans, who are still held being hostage by Hamas in Gaza.”
More recently, on April 27, he wrote in a post on his official Facebook page: “I will not rest until every hostage, like Abigail, ripped from their families and held by Hamas is back in the arms of their loved ones. They have my word. Their families have my word.”
___ Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.
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NEW YORK — Former first lady Melania Trump has a memoir coming out this fall, “Melania,” billed by her office as “a powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has carved her own path, overcome adversity and defined personal excellence.” It’s the first memoir by Trump, who has been mostly absent as her husband, former President Donald Trump, seeks to return to the White House.
“Melania” will be released by Skyhorse Publishing, which has published such Donald Trump supporters as former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and attorney Alan Dershowitz. Skyhorse also has worked with third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Trump insider Michael Cohen, who later became one of his harshest critics. Some Skyhorse books include forewords by Trump ally Steve Bannon.
Melania Trump’s memoir was announced Thursday by her office, which neither provided a specific release date nor mentioned whether it would come out before Election Day in November. Trump has been the subject of other books, including one by former adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, but she has never told her own story at length before.
The former first lady “invites readers into her world, offering an intimate portrait of a woman who has lived an extraordinary life,” the announcement reads in part. “‘Melania’ includes personal stories and family photos she has never before shared with the public.”
A spokesperson said no information was available beyond what was included in the release, which made no reference to financial terms, promotional plans or if she worked with a co-author.
Melania Trump, Donald Trump’s third wife, has been an enigmatic figure since her husband announced he was running in the 2016 election. She has sought to maintain her privacy even as she served as first lady, focusing on raising their son, Barron, and promoting her “Be Best” initiative to support the “social, emotional, and physical health of children.” While she appeared at her husband’s campaign launch event for 2024 and attended the closing night of last week’s Republican National Convention, she has otherwise stayed off the campaign trail. Her decision not to deliver a speech at this year’s convention marked a departure from tradition for candidates’ wives, and from the 2016 and 2020 Republican gatherings.
According to her office, the memoir will come in two versions: a $150 “Collector’s Edition,” 256 pages, “in full color throughout, with each copy signed by the author,” and a “Memoir Edition,” 304 pages, including 48 pages of never-before-seen photographs. The book is listed at $40, with signed editions going for $75.
Both editions are available for pre-order exclusively through the first lady’s web site, MelaniaTrump.com. A spokesperson did not have any immediate comment on when or whether it could be ordered elsewhere.
Unlike other former presidents and first ladies, Donald and Melania Trump have not released any post-White House books through mainstream New York publishers. Donald Trump published numerous books before his presidency, working with Random House and Simon & Schuster among others, but many shunned him after the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
He has released two books since leaving Washington, a picture book commemorating his time at the White House and a compilation of letters from world leaders and celebrities. Both came out through Winning Team Publishing, co-founded in 2021 by Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump campaign staffer Sergio Gor.
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Donald Trump took the stage Thursday at the Republican National Convention to accept his party’s nomination again and give his first speech since he was cut off mid-sentence by a flurry of gunfire in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.Trump’s address concludes the four-day convention in Milwaukee. He appeared each of the first three days with a white bandage on his ear, covering a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting.Trump concludes speech after more than an hour and a halfTrump concluded his speech after more than an hour and a half, leading the crowd in a change to “Make America Great Again” as he closed it out.Melania Trump joined him on stage after he finished, and the band struck up, “Hold On, I’m Coming,” a song Trump frequently plays at the end of his campaign rallies.The Trump family the joined him on stage, including his daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. While they joined him at the White House, the couple has not been a part of his campaign.Red, white and blue balloons are dropping over the conventionThe crowd has settled into their seatsMany of the delegates were seated, as Trump’s speech passed 75 minutes, with occasional standing ovations, only to take their seats again.About half of Texas’ large delegation was noticeably seated (their cowboy hats give them away).Instead, the speech had settled into a typical Trump conversation with the audience in the room, broken by regular polite applause.But when he said, “We won’t have men playing in women’s sports,” a buzzword for the right, many of the delegation rose to its feet in raucous cheers.The Trump administration worked to dismantle the US refugee agencyTrump made a series of sporadic remarks about the two-decade war in Afghanistan, saying that he had negotiated a great deal with the Taliban before leaving office. But despite the chaotic withdrawal by the Biden administration in August 2021, there is no way to prove that a Trump administration would have done anything differently.The U.S. mounted a massive evacuation program to get Americans and Afghans who had served with U.S. forces in Afghanistan out. That project continues to this day and while there is no way to know if a Trump administration would have been more successful, the Trump administration had spent four years dismantling the U.S. refugee acceptance agency and making it more difficult for Afghans and others to enter the United States.Trump says Orbán wants him back in officeTrump cited Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a champion of “illiberal democracy” in his country. Trump has considered it a character reference.Orbán, who has endorsed Trump, is Russia’s closest ally in the European Union and is also close to China. He’s also fought against immigration and LGBTQ+ rights and his party has rewritten the nation’s constitution to give it control of the media and judiciary.“Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, very tough guy,” Trump said. He said Orbán, a repeat visitor to Trump’s Florida compound Mar-a-Lago — including one last week shortly after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin — was asked why the world seemed to be in chaos.Trump quoted Orbán as saying, “There’s only one way you can solve it. You’ve got to bring President Trump back.”“Russia was afraid of him. China was afraid of him,” Trump quoted the Hungarian prime minister as saying. “The whole world was at peace.”Trump returns to repeating immigration falsehoodsTrump has returned to his signature topic, immigration, and his plans to launch what he says will be the largest deportation operation in American history.“It is an invasion, indeed,” Trump said, using language that has been criticized for dehumanizing migrants.Trump is again alleging that migrants “are coming from prisons, they’re coming from jails, they’re coming from mental institutions and asylums,” even though there is no evidence countries are sending their criminals or mentally ill across the border, as he alleges.“We’ve become a dumping ground for the rest of the world, which is laughing at us. They think we’re stupid,” he said.‘Without that chart, I would not be here today’As he entered the second hour of his speech, Trump launched into his regular riff on Biden’s border policy and then stopped, realizing he was directing the audience’s attention to the same chart he posted Saturday just as gunfire broke out.“Look at the chart that saved my life,” Trump said as a chart of detentions at the border under his and Biden’s administration displayed on the arena’s screens. The chart shows a major spike under Biden.“Without that chart, I would not be here today.”Trump refrains from mentioning Biden by name for 45 minutesIt took Trump 45 minutes of his nomination acceptance speech to mention his opponent by name, twice noting “the previous administration,” but not using his well-worn nickname “Crooked Joe.” It’s a sign of what is a more subdued speech, the tone of which was set by a somber telling of the assassination attempt Saturday.When he finally mentioned Biden’s name, he did so only once — and pledged to keep it that way.The misspelling on Comperatore’s jacket was not Trump’s doingThe name of Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief killed at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, is misspelled on the jacket brought to the convention stage. But that was not Trump’s doing. The Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company confirmed it was his gear and that it was sent to Trump, which the former president shared in his speech.While the volunteer fire department gave no reason for the misspelling, it responded to a reader who pointed out the mistake on its Facebook page, noting that it “was in error years ago, and it was left that way by Corey.” Saying the quiet part out loudTrump tried to make amends with the city hosting the RNC on Thursday. After criticizing Milwaukee as “a horrible city” during a private meeting last month, the former president thanked the city for hosting Republicans this year.He also made a plea for electoral support from the key battleground state of Wisconsin, saying that a second Trump term would heavily invest in jobs here. “I hope you remember this in November and give us your vote,” he said to a roaring crowd. “I am trying to buy your vote.” Trump said that he’s ‘beaten’ his indictments but the truth is more complicatedIt’s true that one case was dismissed this week, but he was also convicted in May in his hush money trial in New York. Though his two other prosecutions, both having to do with plotting to overturn the 2020 election, won’t go to trial before November, both remain pending.Trump also touted the ruling by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that threw out his classified documents case.He praised Cannon, whom he appointed, as highly regarded even though many legal experts have faulted her handling of the case and criticized her stunning ruling finding that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. The decision had nothing to do with the merits of the case.Trump’s speech turns to familiar terrainAfter soberly recounting his harrowing assassination attempt and mourning those lost and wounded, Trump began to enter familiar terrain. He called for the country to unify and then said the best way to do that would be for Democrats to drop criminal cases against him.“We must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement, which is what’s been happening in our country lately at a level that nobody has ever seen before,” Trump said.“And in that spirit, the Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy. Especially since that is not true. In fact, I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country.”Two of the cases center around Trump’s attempt to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.Trump kisses Comperatore’s firefighter helmetIn the middle of his remarks, Trump walked to Corey Comperatore’s fire jacket and helmet, which were hanging on a stand behind him. Trump leaned over and kissed Comperatore’s helmet and the crowd applauded. Trump returned to the lectern to continue his speech and thanked the fire department for sending his gear.Trump said that more than $6 million has been raised in a fund to benefit victims’ families.He then asked for a moment of silence in honor of the former fire chief. Trump recalls the assassination attempt against himTrump told the story of what happened to him Saturday when he survived a near assassination attempt.But he says, “You’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s too painful to tell.”Prior to the shot fired at Trump, the former president was talking about immigration and “in order to see the chart” his campaign had prepared, he said, he turned to his right “and was ready to begin.”But instead, he “felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear.”“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that?’” he said. “It can only be a bullet.”Trump said he raised his hand to his ear and saw that it was “covered with blood.”“I immediately knew that it was very serious, that we were under attack,” he said, and proceeded to drop to the ground as bullets continued to fly. He said brave Secret Service agents rushed to the stage “and pounced on top of me so that I would be protected.”“In a certain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side,” he said. If he hadn’t turned his head, he said, “I would be here tonight.”Images of Trump from the assassination attempt were being displayed on screens behind him, including pictures of him lying down on the stage with Secret Service agents piled on top of him. Trump promises to be ‘a president for all Americans’As he opened his speech, Trump pledged to be “a president for all of America.”It’s a line that Biden has often used against Trump, who’s been long criticized for trying to divide the country into his supporters and their enemies. Now, Trump said, “As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate. We rise together or we fall apart.”He was much more muted than usual as he opened his remarks. He was speaking slower and his voice was softer, a sharp departure from his rallies when he often brought his volume to a roar, cracked jokes and punctuated his remarks with impressions and unrelated anecdotes.References to Trump’s assassination are present on stageAs Trump strode across the stage, two uniformed men wheeled out a firefighter’s jacket that appeared to belong to Corey Comperatore, who was slain during Saturday’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.Video below: Trump honors firefighter killed during rally shootingSecret Service officers are lined along the stairs that lead up to the stands. Hundreds of Trump supporters are watching their candidate prepare to speak for the first time since the shooting Saturday.’I’m not supposed to be here,’ Trump tells RNC crowd while recalling assassination attempt“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump told the RNC attendees. The comment was met by chants of “Yes you are!”“Thank you. But I’m not and I’ll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God,” Trump said. Trump gives much-anticipated speech at RNC, formally accepts party nominationDonald Trump took the stage to give remarks at the RNC. It’s the first public speech the former president has made since the assassination attempt on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump and vice presidential nominee JD Vance signed the paperwork to officially accept their party’s nomination ahead of the former president’s speech. Dana White, who is the president of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), introduced Trump. Prior to the former president taking the stage, Lee Greenwood played “God Bless the U.S.A.”Kid Rock performsMusician Kid Rock made an explosive entrance on the RNC stage and began singing ’fight! fight!” as the crowd repeated it back to him, a reference to the words Trump shouted after his assassination attempt.He’s sang a remixed song with calls for the crowd to say, “Trump, Trump.” The screens behind him show flames and an American flag.There were a lot of loud songs and speeches this week, but Kid Rock had the RNC arena literally vibrating. The bass during Rock’s pro-Trump song was so loud that it shook dividing walls set up right around the stage where the former president will soon give his prime-time headline address. Melania Trump makes first appearance on RNC floor in MilwaukeeIt is one of the most anticipated moments of the convention. Former first lady Melania Trump has been cheered loudly when mentioned by other speakers during the previous nights, but she finally entered the arena on the final night wearing a red jacket and pencil skirt suit and waving to the crowds.Melania has been largely missing from the campaign trail, missing key moments such as his Super Tuesday victory party and his 78th birthday party last month. She also did not accompany the Republican nominee during his more than month-long hush money trial in New York, with reporters repeatedly asking him at the courthouse “Where’s Melania?”She will not be speaking at the convention. Her office was the one that declined an invitation for Barron Trump to appear as a Florida delegate after the state’s Republican party chose him to join the delegation saying the couple’s youngest son had “prior commitments.”Her presence helps the Republican party show unity, a theme that has emerged more prominently after the attempt on Trump’s life. A day after the attack, Melania issued a statement calling on Americans to “ascend above hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence.”Franklin Graham is one of the few speakers to acknowledge abortionEvangelist Franklin Graham followed former wrestling icon Hulk Hogan onto the stage, and he smiled at the contrast.“God spared his life,” Graham said of Trump. “And when we go through those experiences, it changes us.”Graham also made a rare allusion to Trump appointing the Supreme Court justices who provided the key votes to overturn Roe v. Wade, a politically touchy subject the convention has avoided.“When he told me and this country that what he was going to do was appoint conservative justices, he did,” Graham said of Trump.Graham also led a prayer for God’s guidance for the country and aid for Trump and running mate JD Vance. Graham added of Vance: “We’re thankful for his strong stand for defending life.” Hulk Hogan takes RNC stageProfessional wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan was among the stars who were out at the RNC on Thursday, and the former WWE star took to the stage to voice his support of Trump.Sporting a red bandana atop his platinum blonde hair, Hulk Hogan took the stage waving an American flag before gesturing to the crowd with moves that he made famous during his wrestling days.In his speech, Hulk Hogan spoke of the electric energy of the crowd.Hogan, who once endorsed former President Barack Obama, used wrestling references to talk about the strength and character of Trump, and referred to Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, as “the greatest tag team.”As Hulk Hogan talked about the rage he felt when seeing the attempted assassination of Trump, Hogan, who was wearing a shirt that featured a wrestling-style image, tore off his shirt. Underneath, he was wearing a Trump-Vance 2024 T-shirt.”I didn’t come here as Hulk Hogan, but I just had to give you a little taste,” the longtime pro-wrestler said.The wrestler, whose real name is Terry Bollea, said he prefers to stay out of politics but felt compelled to speak at the convention and express his support of the former president.“As an entertainer I try to stay out of politics,” Hogan said as he briefly broke character. “I can no longer stay silent. I’m here tonight because I want the world to know that Donald Trump is a real American hero.”Trump and his family reenter the arenaHulk Hogan’s appearance came moments after Trump, who had left the convention floor for a time, reemerged and made his way to his family box at the RNC. He was joined by members of his family, including his adult children, Don Jr. and Ivanka, and his grandchildren. The band keeps vamping for timeThe convention programming was running around half an hour behind schedule during the prime-time show Thursday. The band was playing song after song as the crowd awaited what was expected to be a series of high-profile speeches including Hulk Hogan to Eric Trump Jr., with the former president closing out the night. Democratic Sen. Jon Tester called President Biden to drop out of the presidential raceThe Montana senator is up for reelection this year, hoping to hold onto Democrats’ only congressional seat in the state.“I have worked with President Biden when it has made Montana stronger, and I’ve never been afraid to stand up to him when he is wrong,” Tester told the Daily Montanan. “And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election to another term.”He is the second Democratic senator to call for Biden to exit the race. Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont called for Biden to step down earlier this month.Tucker Carlson praises Trump’s reaction to assassination attemptFormer Fox News host Tucker Carlson says that he called Trump hours after Saturday’s assassination attempt and the former president didn’t talk about himself.“He said only how amazed he was and how proud he was of the crowd that didn’t run,” Tucker recounted. “Of course, they didn’t run; his courage gave them heart.”Carlson also said that Trump didn’t try to create division after the attack. “He turned down the most obvious opportunity to inflame the nation,” Carlson said. Country singer Jason Aldean greets Trump at the conventionHow much Trump loves music has come up several times in Thursday’s speeches, and he’s got a country star with him in the box.Jason Aldean is seated with Trump for the RNC’s final night. He and his wife, Brittany, shook hands with Trump and have been spotted speaking with him during the program.Aldean, a Trump supporter, dedicated his song “Try That in a Small Town” to Trump during a recent concert in Nashville following the Pennsylvania assassination attempt.Last year, the music video for the song — which became that summer’s political litmus test — received fervent criticism online, with some claiming the visual is a “dog whistle” and others labeling it “pro-lynching.”In the video, Aldean performed in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of a 1946 race riot and a 1927 mob lynching of an 18-year-old Black teenager named Henry Choate.‘Every attack on President Trump only strengthens our movement,’ Trump attorney and adviser saysAlina Habba, Trump’s attorney and adviser, offered a humanizing portrait of Trump, a man she said “loves this country” and “lifts up those around him.”She told the story of being on the phone with him outside a courthouse when a man on the street yelled, “God Bless you and President Trump!” She said Trump overheard the man and asked her to hand over the phone so he could thank him personally for his support.“The left has tried to demolish Trump, but there is no bulldozer big enough or strong enough to remove the legacy that he has built or the future he has created,” she said, adding, “Every attack on President Trump only strengthens our movement.”She also talked about Saturday’s failed assassination attempt.“So let us not forget that President Trump did not just take a bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania. He has and will continue to take them for each and every one of us.”RNC video uses Ronald Reagan quote from 1980 presidential debateA video that played at the RNC before conservative media personality Tucker Carlson took the stage evoked the voice of late former President Ronald Reagan.The video used Reagan’s words made famous during the 1980 presidential debate against former President Jimmy Carter: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”In the video, Reagan asked voters to “ask yourself” if it was “easier” to buy products at the grocery store, if unemployment numbers have risen or fallen, if America is “as respected throughout the world as it was,” and if the nation feels more or less secure than it was four years prior.New York builders attest to Trump’s personal characterNew York builders father and son Steven and Zach Witkoff were among speakers meant to serve as witnesses for Trump as a friend and employer.The former president’s persona has been well-defined after a term in office and a highly public profile since leaving office.The father and son vouched for Trump as a boss and a grandfather.“I have witnessed his leadership in quiet moments,” Steve Witkoff said. “When times are really tough, when he has everything to lose and nothing to gain, Donald Trump is there for you.”Describing pain that was “unbearable,” Steve Wifcoff told of Trump’s outreach after the man’s son died of an opioid overdose.“That’s who he is,” Steven Witcoff said.In a passionate speech, a Detroit pastor speaks in favor of TrumpThe pastor of a Black church in Detroit that Trump visited last month has suggested that the former president came to his congregation to listen and learn.“Could it be that Jesus Christ preserved him for a time such as this?” Lorenzo Sewell, a Detroit pastor, proclaimed, as thousands of delegates cheered and rose to their feet.Sewell made repeated Biblical references, and reminded the crowd that Trump “came to the hood because he cares about average everyday Americans.”Sewell also made several references to the assassination attempt, saying that “if President Donald Trump would have moved just a millimeter,” he would not have been at the convention.Addressing his “Democrat friends,” Sewell asked if they knew of anyone who had been “convicted of 34 counts, raised 53 million dollars in 24 hours and could be the 47th president of America — and he was shot one time. Do you know anybody like that?”Senators night in Trump’s family boxA group of Trump’s most loyal allies in the Senate are seated in the former president’s exclusive box at the RNC on Thursday night. Sens. Mike Lee, Bill Hagerty, and Ted Cruz are filling the seats ahead of the arrival of Trump’s family for his highly anticipated speech. Some Senate hopefuls are also lounging in the area, including Nevada GOP candidate Sam Brown.Donald Trump arrives for the fourth night of the RNCAfter a video montage of the former president dancing at various events to The Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.,” Donald Trump arrived for the fourth night of the convention.With a bandage still covering his ear, Trump entered the floor of the arena to thunderous applause.Trump will speak later as he formally accepts the party’s nomination.Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo takes RNC stageFormer Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is highlighting the foreign policy accomplishments of Trump’s administration, saying, “We put America first every single day.”Pompeo also lashed out at Biden for the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan and blamed him for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Gaza’s attack on Israel.“We can’t trust the Biden administration,” he said.Pompeo, who also served as Trump’s CIA director and represented Kansas in Congress, considered challenging Trump this year for the GOP nomination. But he decided to stay out of the race, saying the time was not right for him and his family. Down the block from the RNC, dozens gather to mourn two deadDown the block from the RNC, about 50 family members and supporters of two Milwaukee men recently killed in separate circumstances rallied and marched to call attention to the two deaths.The event focused on the death of Samuel Sharpe, a homeless man fatally shot Tuesday by out-of-state police officers deployed to Milwaukee for the RNC, as well D’Vontaye Mitchell, who died last month after he was pinned down by security guards at a nearby hotel.The deaths of the two men, both of whom were Black, has inflamed tensions within the city, with Sharpe’s killing in particular focusing scrutiny on the law enforcement approach to the convention.Speaking to dozens of protesters and a phalanx of reporters, Angelique Sharpe attributed her brother’s death to the presence of out-of-state police officers.“I’d rather have the Milwaukee police department who know the people of this community (than) people who have no ties to your community and don’t care nothing about our extended family members down there,” she said.Police officials said Sharpe was shot by five Columbus, Ohio, police officers who spotted him lunging at another man with two knives.At the rally, Angelique Sharpe said her brother suffered from multiple sclerosis and was acting in self-defense against a person who had threatened him in recent days.Professional wrestling and other stars present at RNCThere was some star power as the events of the fourth night of the RNC kicked off. Professional wrestling fans recognized a couple of familiar faces as wrestling icon Hulk Hogan was at the convention. Additionally, Linda McMahon, who is the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), spoke from the stage, appealing to small business owners and others. McMahon, who is married to former WWE CEO Vince McMahon and served in Trump’s cabinet as the U.S. administrator of the Small Business Administration, spoke of her long friendship with the former president, who appeared in several WWE storylines over the years. “He is a good man. He has the heart of a lion and the soul of a warrior,” Linda McMahon said. “I believe if necessary he would stand at the gates of hell to defend our country.”Hogan and Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White were expected to speak at the event, and musician Kid Rock was also set to perform.NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty was also seen at the convention Thursday.‘Everyday American’ is GOP-backing billionaireOne of the “everyday Americans” speaking on behalf of Trump’s campaign is a former Playboy model who’s been listed among the country’s wealthiest self-made women.Wisconsin native Diane Hendricks told delegates how she started off as a single mom who got into real estate, met her husband and “risked everything we had” to start ABC Supply.Their company is the largest wholesale distributor of roofing supplies and one of the largest distributors of siding and windows in North America, with nearly 700 locations across the U.S. and Canada.Hendricks talked about the tens of thousands of jobs she’s helped create in the U.S. and told aspiring entrepreneurs, “if I can make it, you can make it, too.” She also lauded Trump’s business acumen as what the country needs.She’s been a big backer of GOP candidates both in her home state and elsewhere. Forbes lists her estimated net worth above $20 billion.New York builders attest to Trump personal characterNew York builders father and son Steven and Zach Witkoff were among speakers meant to serve as witnesses for Trump as a friend and employer.The former president’s persona has been well-defined after a term in office and a highly public profile since leaving office.The father and son vouched for Trump as a boss and a grandfather.“I have witnessed his leadership in quiet moments,” Steve Witkoff said. “When times are really tough, when he has everything to lose and nothing to gain, Donald Trump is there for you.”Describing pain that was “unbearable,” Steve Wifcoff told of Trump’s outreach after the man’s son died of an opioid overdose.“That’s who he is,” Steven Witcoff said.RNC speeches open with an appeal to voters in swing statesIn the first speech of the night, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana who is also the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, tried to appeal to voters in states where key Senate races are taking place this year. The GOP has been using the convention to appeal to swing state voters in hopes of retaining control of the House of Representatives and taking back control of the U.S. Senate.Daines attempted to appeal to voters in states like Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Ohio and Montana.Trump says he’s rewritten his remarksRepublicans 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.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.”Trump’s family will be at RNC, but not everyone will speakUnlike most national conventions, Trump’s wife Melania and daughter Ivanka who both spoke at the previous two conventions are not expected to address the convention but are expected to attend.Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, ended the program Tuesday with a speech about Trump’s personal warmth and love for his family. The final day of the RNC is underwayTrump’s moment of survival has shaped the week, even as convention organizers insisted they would continue with their program as planned less than 48 hours after the shooting. Speakers and delegates have repeatedly chanted “Fight, fight, fight!” in homage to Trump’s words as he got to his feet and pumped his fist after Secret Service agents killed the gunman. And some of his supporters have started sporting their own makeshift bandages on the convention floor.Speakers throughout the week have attributed Trump’s survival to divine intervention and paid tribute to victim Corey Comperatore, who died after shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire at the rally.“Instead of a day of celebration, this could have been a day of heartache and mourning,” Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said in his speech to the convention on Wednesday. Video below: Vice president nominee JD Vance addresses delegates at RNC The convention has tried to give voice to the fear and frustration of conservatives while also trying to promote the former president as a symbol of hope for all voters.The convention has showcased a Republican Party reshaped by Trump since he shocked the GOP establishment and won the hearts of the party’s grassroots on his way to the party’s 2016 nomination. Rivals Trump has vanquished — including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — put aside their past criticisms and gave him their unqualified support.Even Vance, Trump’s pick to carry his movement into the next generation, was once a fierce critic who suggested in a private message since made public that Trump could be “America’s Hitler.” Notable speakers for RNC Day 4:Eric TrumpSen. Steve Daines, chair of the National Republican Senatorial CommitteeRep. Richard Hudson, chair of the National Republican Congressional CommitteeDiane Hendricks, a billionaire who is the co-founder of ABC SupplyLinda McMahon, the 25th administrator of the Small Business AdministrationFormer Secretary of State Mike PompeoSteve Witkoff, a businessman and developerAlina Habba, Trump’s attorneyTucker CarlsonDana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship
Donald Trump took the stage Thursday at the Republican National Convention to accept his party’s nomination again and give his first speech since he was cut off mid-sentence by a flurry of gunfire in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump’s address concludes the four-day convention in Milwaukee. He appeared each of the first three days with a white bandage on his ear, covering a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting.
Trump concluded his speech after more than an hour and a half, leading the crowd in a change to “Make America Great Again” as he closed it out.
Melania Trump joined him on stage after he finished, and the band struck up, “Hold On, I’m Coming,” a song Trump frequently plays at the end of his campaign rallies.
The Trump family the joined him on stage, including his daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. While they joined him at the White House, the couple has not been a part of his campaign.
Red, white and blue balloons are dropping over the convention
Many of the delegates were seated, as Trump’s speech passed 75 minutes, with occasional standing ovations, only to take their seats again.
About half of Texas’ large delegation was noticeably seated (their cowboy hats give them away).
Instead, the speech had settled into a typical Trump conversation with the audience in the room, broken by regular polite applause.
But when he said, “We won’t have men playing in women’s sports,” a buzzword for the right, many of the delegation rose to its feet in raucous cheers.
Trump made a series of sporadic remarks about the two-decade war in Afghanistan, saying that he had negotiated a great deal with the Taliban before leaving office. But despite the chaotic withdrawal by the Biden administration in August 2021, there is no way to prove that a Trump administration would have done anything differently.
The U.S. mounted a massive evacuation program to get Americans and Afghans who had served with U.S. forces in Afghanistan out. That project continues to this day and while there is no way to know if a Trump administration would have been more successful, the Trump administration had spent four years dismantling the U.S. refugee acceptance agency and making it more difficult for Afghans and others to enter the United States.
Trump cited Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a champion of “illiberal democracy” in his country. Trump has considered it a character reference.
Orbán, who has endorsed Trump, is Russia’s closest ally in the European Union and is also close to China. He’s also fought against immigration and LGBTQ+ rights and his party has rewritten the nation’s constitution to give it control of the media and judiciary.
“Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, very tough guy,” Trump said. He said Orbán, a repeat visitor to Trump’s Florida compound Mar-a-Lago — including one last week shortly after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin — was asked why the world seemed to be in chaos.
Trump quoted Orbán as saying, “There’s only one way you can solve it. You’ve got to bring President Trump back.”
“Russia was afraid of him. China was afraid of him,” Trump quoted the Hungarian prime minister as saying. “The whole world was at peace.”
Trump has returned to his signature topic, immigration, and his plans to launch what he says will be the largest deportation operation in American history.
“It is an invasion, indeed,” Trump said, using language that has been criticized for dehumanizing migrants.
Trump is again alleging that migrants “are coming from prisons, they’re coming from jails, they’re coming from mental institutions and asylums,” even though there is no evidence countries are sending their criminals or mentally ill across the border, as he alleges.
“We’ve become a dumping ground for the rest of the world, which is laughing at us. They think we’re stupid,” he said.
As he entered the second hour of his speech, Trump launched into his regular riff on Biden’s border policy and then stopped, realizing he was directing the audience’s attention to the same chart he posted Saturday just as gunfire broke out.
“Look at the chart that saved my life,” Trump said as a chart of detentions at the border under his and Biden’s administration displayed on the arena’s screens. The chart shows a major spike under Biden.
“Without that chart, I would not be here today.”
It took Trump 45 minutes of his nomination acceptance speech to mention his opponent by name, twice noting “the previous administration,” but not using his well-worn nickname “Crooked Joe.” It’s a sign of what is a more subdued speech, the tone of which was set by a somber telling of the assassination attempt Saturday.
When he finally mentioned Biden’s name, he did so only once — and pledged to keep it that way.
The name of Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief killed at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, is misspelled on the jacket brought to the convention stage. But that was not Trump’s doing. The Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company confirmed it was his gear and that it was sent to Trump, which the former president shared in his speech.
While the volunteer fire department gave no reason for the misspelling, it responded to a reader who pointed out the mistake on its Facebook page, noting that it “was in error years ago, and it was left that way by Corey.”
Trump tried to make amends with the city hosting the RNC on Thursday. After criticizing Milwaukee as “a horrible city” during a private meeting last month, the former president thanked the city for hosting Republicans this year.
He also made a plea for electoral support from the key battleground state of Wisconsin, saying that a second Trump term would heavily invest in jobs here. “I hope you remember this in November and give us your vote,” he said to a roaring crowd. “I am trying to buy your vote.”
It’s true that one case was dismissed this week, but he was also convicted in May in his hush money trial in New York. Though his two other prosecutions, both having to do with plotting to overturn the 2020 election, won’t go to trial before November, both remain pending.
Trump also touted the ruling by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that threw out his classified documents case.
He praised Cannon, whom he appointed, as highly regarded even though many legal experts have faulted her handling of the case and criticized her stunning ruling finding that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. The decision had nothing to do with the merits of the case.
After soberly recounting his harrowing assassination attempt and mourning those lost and wounded, Trump began to enter familiar terrain. He called for the country to unify and then said the best way to do that would be for Democrats to drop criminal cases against him.
“We must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement, which is what’s been happening in our country lately at a level that nobody has ever seen before,” Trump said.
“And in that spirit, the Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy. Especially since that is not true. In fact, I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country.”
Two of the cases center around Trump’s attempt to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.
In the middle of his remarks, Trump walked to Corey Comperatore’s fire jacket and helmet, which were hanging on a stand behind him. Trump leaned over and kissed Comperatore’s helmet and the crowd applauded. Trump returned to the lectern to continue his speech and thanked the fire department for sending his gear.
Trump said that more than $6 million has been raised in a fund to benefit victims’ families.
He then asked for a moment of silence in honor of the former fire chief.
Trump told the story of what happened to him Saturday when he survived a near assassination attempt.
But he says, “You’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s too painful to tell.”
Prior to the shot fired at Trump, the former president was talking about immigration and “in order to see the chart” his campaign had prepared, he said, he turned to his right “and was ready to begin.”
But instead, he “felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear.”
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that?’” he said. “It can only be a bullet.”
Trump said he raised his hand to his ear and saw that it was “covered with blood.”
“I immediately knew that it was very serious, that we were under attack,” he said, and proceeded to drop to the ground as bullets continued to fly. He said brave Secret Service agents rushed to the stage “and pounced on top of me so that I would be protected.”
“In a certain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side,” he said. If he hadn’t turned his head, he said, “I would be here tonight.”
Images of Trump from the assassination attempt were being displayed on screens behind him, including pictures of him lying down on the stage with Secret Service agents piled on top of him.
As he opened his speech, Trump pledged to be “a president for all of America.”
It’s a line that Biden has often used against Trump, who’s been long criticized for trying to divide the country into his supporters and their enemies. Now, Trump said, “As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate. We rise together or we fall apart.”
He was much more muted than usual as he opened his remarks. He was speaking slower and his voice was softer, a sharp departure from his rallies when he often brought his volume to a roar, cracked jokes and punctuated his remarks with impressions and unrelated anecdotes.
As Trump strode across the stage, two uniformed men wheeled out a firefighter’s jacket that appeared to belong to Corey Comperatore, who was slain during Saturday’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Video below: Trump honors firefighter killed during rally shooting
Secret Service officers are lined along the stairs that lead up to the stands. Hundreds of Trump supporters are watching their candidate prepare to speak for the first time since the shooting Saturday.
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump told the RNC attendees.
The comment was met by chants of “Yes you are!”
“Thank you. But I’m not and I’ll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God,” Trump said.
Trump gives much-anticipated speech at RNC, formally accepts party nomination
Donald Trump took the stage to give remarks at the RNC. It’s the first public speech the former president has made since the assassination attempt on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump and vice presidential nominee JD Vance signed the paperwork to officially accept their party’s nomination ahead of the former president’s speech.
Dana White, who is the president of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), introduced Trump. Prior to the former president taking the stage, Lee Greenwood played “God Bless the U.S.A.”
Musician Kid Rock made an explosive entrance on the RNC stage and began singing ’fight! fight!” as the crowd repeated it back to him, a reference to the words Trump shouted after his assassination attempt.
He’s sang a remixed song with calls for the crowd to say, “Trump, Trump.” The screens behind him show flames and an American flag.
There were a lot of loud songs and speeches this week, but Kid Rock had the RNC arena literally vibrating. The bass during Rock’s pro-Trump song was so loud that it shook dividing walls set up right around the stage where the former president will soon give his prime-time headline address.
It is one of the most anticipated moments of the convention. Former first lady Melania Trump has been cheered loudly when mentioned by other speakers during the previous nights, but she finally entered the arena on the final night wearing a red jacket and pencil skirt suit and waving to the crowds.
Melania has been largely missing from the campaign trail, missing key moments such as his Super Tuesday victory party and his 78th birthday party last month. She also did not accompany the Republican nominee during his more than month-long hush money trial in New York, with reporters repeatedly asking him at the courthouse “Where’s Melania?”
She will not be speaking at the convention. Her office was the one that declined an invitation for Barron Trump to appear as a Florida delegate after the state’s Republican party chose him to join the delegation saying the couple’s youngest son had “prior commitments.”
Her presence helps the Republican party show unity, a theme that has emerged more prominently after the attempt on Trump’s life. A day after the attack, Melania issued a statement calling on Americans to “ascend above hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence.”
Evangelist Franklin Graham followed former wrestling icon Hulk Hogan onto the stage, and he smiled at the contrast.
“God spared his life,” Graham said of Trump. “And when we go through those experiences, it changes us.”
Graham also made a rare allusion to Trump appointing the Supreme Court justices who provided the key votes to overturn Roe v. Wade, a politically touchy subject the convention has avoided.
“When he told me and this country that what he was going to do was appoint conservative justices, he did,” Graham said of Trump.
Graham also led a prayer for God’s guidance for the country and aid for Trump and running mate JD Vance. Graham added of Vance: “We’re thankful for his strong stand for defending life.”
Professional wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan was among the stars who were out at the RNC on Thursday, and the former WWE star took to the stage to voice his support of Trump.
Sporting a red bandana atop his platinum blonde hair, Hulk Hogan took the stage waving an American flag before gesturing to the crowd with moves that he made famous during his wrestling days.
In his speech, Hulk Hogan spoke of the electric energy of the crowd.
Hogan, who once endorsed former President Barack Obama, used wrestling references to talk about the strength and character of Trump, and referred to Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, as “the greatest tag team.”
As Hulk Hogan talked about the rage he felt when seeing the attempted assassination of Trump, Hogan, who was wearing a shirt that featured a wrestling-style image, tore off his shirt. Underneath, he was wearing a Trump-Vance 2024 T-shirt.
“I didn’t come here as Hulk Hogan, but I just had to give you a little taste,” the longtime pro-wrestler said.
The wrestler, whose real name is Terry Bollea, said he prefers to stay out of politics but felt compelled to speak at the convention and express his support of the former president.
“As an entertainer I try to stay out of politics,” Hogan said as he briefly broke character. “I can no longer stay silent. I’m here tonight because I want the world to know that Donald Trump is a real American hero.”
Hulk Hogan’s appearance came moments after Trump, who had left the convention floor for a time, reemerged and made his way to his family box at the RNC. He was joined by members of his family, including his adult children, Don Jr. and Ivanka, and his grandchildren.
The convention programming was running around half an hour behind schedule during the prime-time show Thursday. The band was playing song after song as the crowd awaited what was expected to be a series of high-profile speeches including Hulk Hogan to Eric Trump Jr., with the former president closing out the night.
The Montana senator is up for reelection this year, hoping to hold onto Democrats’ only congressional seat in the state.
“I have worked with President Biden when it has made Montana stronger, and I’ve never been afraid to stand up to him when he is wrong,” Tester told the Daily Montanan. “And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election to another term.”
He is the second Democratic senator to call for Biden to exit the race. Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont called for Biden to step down earlier this month.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson says that he called Trump hours after Saturday’s assassination attempt and the former president didn’t talk about himself.
“He said only how amazed he was and how proud he was of the crowd that didn’t run,” Tucker recounted. “Of course, they didn’t run; his courage gave them heart.”
Carlson also said that Trump didn’t try to create division after the attack. “He turned down the most obvious opportunity to inflame the nation,” Carlson said.
How much Trump loves music has come up several times in Thursday’s speeches, and he’s got a country star with him in the box.
Jason Aldean is seated with Trump for the RNC’s final night. He and his wife, Brittany, shook hands with Trump and have been spotted speaking with him during the program.
Aldean, a Trump supporter, dedicated his song “Try That in a Small Town” to Trump during a recent concert in Nashville following the Pennsylvania assassination attempt.
Last year, the music video for the song — which became that summer’s political litmus test — received fervent criticism online, with some claiming the visual is a “dog whistle” and others labeling it “pro-lynching.”
In the video, Aldean performed in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of a 1946 race riot and a 1927 mob lynching of an 18-year-old Black teenager named Henry Choate.
Alina Habba, Trump’s attorney and adviser, offered a humanizing portrait of Trump, a man she said “loves this country” and “lifts up those around him.”
She told the story of being on the phone with him outside a courthouse when a man on the street yelled, “God Bless you and President Trump!” She said Trump overheard the man and asked her to hand over the phone so he could thank him personally for his support.
“The left has tried to demolish Trump, but there is no bulldozer big enough or strong enough to remove the legacy that he has built or the future he has created,” she said, adding, “Every attack on President Trump only strengthens our movement.”
She also talked about Saturday’s failed assassination attempt.
“So let us not forget that President Trump did not just take a bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania. He has and will continue to take them for each and every one of us.”
A video that played at the RNC before conservative media personality Tucker Carlson took the stage evoked the voice of late former President Ronald Reagan.
The video used Reagan’s words made famous during the 1980 presidential debate against former President Jimmy Carter: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”
In the video, Reagan asked voters to “ask yourself” if it was “easier” to buy products at the grocery store, if unemployment numbers have risen or fallen, if America is “as respected throughout the world as it was,” and if the nation feels more or less secure than it was four years prior.
New York builders father and son Steven and Zach Witkoff were among speakers meant to serve as witnesses for Trump as a friend and employer.
The former president’s persona has been well-defined after a term in office and a highly public profile since leaving office.
The father and son vouched for Trump as a boss and a grandfather.
“I have witnessed his leadership in quiet moments,” Steve Witkoff said. “When times are really tough, when he has everything to lose and nothing to gain, Donald Trump is there for you.”
Describing pain that was “unbearable,” Steve Wifcoff told of Trump’s outreach after the man’s son died of an opioid overdose.
“That’s who he is,” Steven Witcoff said.
The pastor of a Black church in Detroit that Trump visited last month has suggested that the former president came to his congregation to listen and learn.
“Could it be that Jesus Christ preserved him for a time such as this?” Lorenzo Sewell, a Detroit pastor, proclaimed, as thousands of delegates cheered and rose to their feet.
Sewell made repeated Biblical references, and reminded the crowd that Trump “came to the hood because he cares about average everyday Americans.”
Sewell also made several references to the assassination attempt, saying that “if President Donald Trump would have moved just a millimeter,” he would not have been at the convention.
Addressing his “Democrat friends,” Sewell asked if they knew of anyone who had been “convicted of 34 counts, raised 53 million dollars in 24 hours and could be the 47th president of America — and he was shot one time. Do you know anybody like that?”
A group of Trump’s most loyal allies in the Senate are seated in the former president’s exclusive box at the RNC on Thursday night. Sens. Mike Lee, Bill Hagerty, and Ted Cruz are filling the seats ahead of the arrival of Trump’s family for his highly anticipated speech. Some Senate hopefuls are also lounging in the area, including Nevada GOP candidate Sam Brown.
After a video montage of the former president dancing at various events to The Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.,” Donald Trump arrived for the fourth night of the convention.
With a bandage still covering his ear, Trump entered the floor of the arena to thunderous applause.
Trump will speak later as he formally accepts the party’s nomination.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is highlighting the foreign policy accomplishments of Trump’s administration, saying, “We put America first every single day.”
Pompeo also lashed out at Biden for the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan and blamed him for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Gaza’s attack on Israel.
“We can’t trust the Biden administration,” he said.
Pompeo, who also served as Trump’s CIA director and represented Kansas in Congress, considered challenging Trump this year for the GOP nomination. But he decided to stay out of the race, saying the time was not right for him and his family.
Down the block from the RNC, about 50 family members and supporters of two Milwaukee men recently killed in separate circumstances rallied and marched to call attention to the two deaths.
The event focused on the death of Samuel Sharpe, a homeless man fatally shot Tuesday by out-of-state police officers deployed to Milwaukee for the RNC, as well D’Vontaye Mitchell, who died last month after he was pinned down by security guards at a nearby hotel.
The deaths of the two men, both of whom were Black, has inflamed tensions within the city, with Sharpe’s killing in particular focusing scrutiny on the law enforcement approach to the convention.
Speaking to dozens of protesters and a phalanx of reporters, Angelique Sharpe attributed her brother’s death to the presence of out-of-state police officers.
“I’d rather have the Milwaukee police department who know the people of this community (than) people who have no ties to your community and don’t care nothing about our extended family members down there,” she said.
Police officials said Sharpe was shot by five Columbus, Ohio, police officers who spotted him lunging at another man with two knives.
At the rally, Angelique Sharpe said her brother suffered from multiple sclerosis and was acting in self-defense against a person who had threatened him in recent days.
There was some star power as the events of the fourth night of the RNC kicked off.
Professional wrestling fans recognized a couple of familiar faces as wrestling icon Hulk Hogan was at the convention. Additionally, Linda McMahon, who is the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), spoke from the stage, appealing to small business owners and others.
McMahon, who is married to former WWE CEO Vince McMahon and served in Trump’s cabinet as the U.S. administrator of the Small Business Administration, spoke of her long friendship with the former president, who appeared in several WWE storylines over the years.
“He is a good man. He has the heart of a lion and the soul of a warrior,” Linda McMahon said. “I believe if necessary he would stand at the gates of hell to defend our country.”
Hogan and Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White were expected to speak at the event, and musician Kid Rock was also set to perform.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty was also seen at the convention Thursday.
One of the “everyday Americans” speaking on behalf of Trump’s campaign is a former Playboy model who’s been listed among the country’s wealthiest self-made women.
Wisconsin native Diane Hendricks told delegates how she started off as a single mom who got into real estate, met her husband and “risked everything we had” to start ABC Supply.
Their company is the largest wholesale distributor of roofing supplies and one of the largest distributors of siding and windows in North America, with nearly 700 locations across the U.S. and Canada.
Hendricks talked about the tens of thousands of jobs she’s helped create in the U.S. and told aspiring entrepreneurs, “if I can make it, you can make it, too.” She also lauded Trump’s business acumen as what the country needs.
She’s been a big backer of GOP candidates both in her home state and elsewhere. Forbes lists her estimated net worth above $20 billion.
New York builders father and son Steven and Zach Witkoff were among speakers meant to serve as witnesses for Trump as a friend and employer.
The former president’s persona has been well-defined after a term in office and a highly public profile since leaving office.
The father and son vouched for Trump as a boss and a grandfather.
“I have witnessed his leadership in quiet moments,” Steve Witkoff said. “When times are really tough, when he has everything to lose and nothing to gain, Donald Trump is there for you.”
Describing pain that was “unbearable,” Steve Wifcoff told of Trump’s outreach after the man’s son died of an opioid overdose.
“That’s who he is,” Steven Witcoff said.
In the first speech of the night, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana who is also the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, tried to appeal to voters in states where key Senate races are taking place this year.
The GOP has been using the convention to appeal to swing state voters in hopes of retaining control of the House of Representatives and taking back control of the U.S. Senate.
Daines attempted to appeal to voters in states like Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Ohio and Montana.
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.
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.”
Unlike most national conventions, Trump’s wife Melania and daughter Ivanka who both spoke at the previous two conventions are not expected to address the convention but are expected to attend.
Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, ended the program Tuesday with a speech about Trump’s personal warmth and love for his family.
Trump’s moment of survival has shaped the week, even as convention organizers insisted they would continue with their program as planned less than 48 hours after the shooting. Speakers and delegates have repeatedly chanted “Fight, fight, fight!” in homage to Trump’s words as he got to his feet and pumped his fist after Secret Service agents killed the gunman. And some of his supporters have started sporting their own makeshift bandages on the convention floor.
Speakers throughout the week have attributed Trump’s survival to divine intervention and paid tribute to victim Corey Comperatore, who died after shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire at the rally.
“Instead of a day of celebration, this could have been a day of heartache and mourning,” Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said in his speech to the convention on Wednesday.
Video below: Vice president nominee JD Vance addresses delegates at RNC
The convention has tried to give voice to the fear and frustration of conservatives while also trying to promote the former president as a symbol of hope for all voters.
The convention has showcased a Republican Party reshaped by Trump since he shocked the GOP establishment and won the hearts of the party’s grassroots on his way to the party’s 2016 nomination. Rivals Trump has vanquished — including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — put aside their past criticisms and gave him their unqualified support.
Even Vance, Trump’s pick to carry his movement into the next generation, was once a fierce critic who suggested in a private message since made public that Trump could be “America’s Hitler.”
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Donald Trump made a rare call for unity in his address Thursday to the Republican National Convention—before returning to some of the more standard “American Carnage” fare that gets standing ovations among his ecstatic base.
Still wearing a bandage on his right ear, where he was injured in a shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania days earlier, Trump began his remarks by recounting the incident that claimed the life of one of his supporters. “I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” he said, calling his survival a “providential moment.” After his supporters chanted “yes you are,” he responded: “Thank you, but I’m not,” and said that he was now “more determined than ever” to be “president for all of America, not half of America.”
“Our resolve is unbroken and our purpose is unchanged,” he said, in a restrained voice.
But soon, he pivoted to some of his greatest hits, including rants about the “China virus” and Democrats who are “weaponizing the Justice Department” against him and the “illegal immigrant invasion.” He also couldn’t help but attack his opponent, President Joe Biden, whom he suggested he wouldn’t mention by name in the speech. “The damage that he’s done to this country is unthinkable,” Trump said.
The keynote was preceded with fawning remarks by Tucker Carlson, a surreal speech by Hulk Hogan, an insanely obnoxious performance by Kid Rock, as well as introductions by his son, Eric, and Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White.
The mood in the Fiserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks, was ostensibly celebratory. But it also tinged with an undercurrent of hostility, as the crowd pumped their fists and chanted, “Fight, fight, fight”—the same words Trump mouthed to his audience as he was escorted from the rally stage Saturday. “Less than four years ago, we were a great nation,” Trump told his faithful. “We will soon be a great nation again.”
The speech capped a week that was equal parts carnival and quasi-religious revival.
For four days, Republicans—some wearing a white bandage on their ear, in solidarity with the former president—strutted around Milwaukee’s Deer District, showing their love of Trump with elaborate outfits, mingling with MAGA celebrities like pillow salesman Mike Lindell, and even mixing it up here and there with the occasional friendly reporter. “I wouldn’t subscribe to Vanity Fair if it was free,” American Conservative Union President Matt Schlapp told me one afternoon, and he wasn’t going to let me spoil his good time. “It might be the best Republican convention ever.”
Here, you could snap a picture behind a mock-up of the Resolute Desk, get a book signed by Marjorie Taylor Greene, and listen to former White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley spin a humorous yarn about the time Trump spritzed him with hairspray after trying to get the former president to focus on the raging pandemic one day instead of tweeting. You could see a service dog in a MAGA hat, hear as much Lee Greenwood as you could handle, or encounter a guy in a shirt advertising his “UNVAXED SPERM.” You could buy Trump-themed mugs, stuffed animals, fine china or apparel that lets people know: I’M VOTING FOR THE CONVICTED FELON. You could even pick up a stately green book of Trump tweets in verse form, called the Collected Poems of Donald J. Trump, sold for $45 by Gregory Woodman and Ian Pratt, who wore “Covfefe” shirts but insisted they were familiar only with Trump’s literary work. “Good art,” Woodman told me, “transcends politics.”
Of course, politics was the actual business this week—and the substance of it all was exceedingly dark, in stark contrast to the festive atmosphere and jocularity among attendees. Even as Republicans spoke of “unity” and decried Democratic rhetoric following the Trump rally shooting, they showed little restraint themselves. “The left wants to groom children,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey claimed of Democrats at a Moms for Liberty event here. “They want to sexualize children. And they want to do it in the name of diversity.” “I can’t explain the level of vitriol in our politics today,” Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson shrugged at the same event. “I can’t get inside the mind of a leftist. It just makes no sense to me. But I know it’s destructive.” Lindell, hawking discount mattress toppers on Real America’s Voice one afternoon outside the Fiserv Forum, cast the election as a “battle of Biblical proportions,” suggesting, as others here did again and again, that Trump survived his assassination attempt thanks to divine intervention. (Thank God, Ted Cruz said in his convention speech, for turning [Trump’s] head on Saturday as that shot was fired.”)
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Donald Trump takes the stage Thursday at the Republican National Convention to accept his party’s nomination again and give his first speech since he was cut off mid-sentence by a flurry of gunfire in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.Trump’s address will conclude the four-day convention in Milwaukee. He appeared each of the first three days with a white bandage on his ear, covering a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting.Democratic Sen. Jon Tester called President Biden to drop out of the presidential raceThe Montana senator is up for reelection this year, hoping to hold onto Democrats’ only congressional seat in the state.“I have worked with President Biden when it has made Montana stronger, and I’ve never been afraid to stand up to him when he is wrong,” Tester told the Daily Montanan. “And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election to another term.”He is the second Democratic senator to call for Biden to exit the race. Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont called for Biden to step down earlier this month.Tucker Carlson says ‘everything was different’ after the attempted assassination of Donald TrumpFormer Fox News host Tucker Carlson says that he called Trump hours after Saturday’s assassination attempt and the former president didn’t talk about himself.“He said only how amazed he was and how proud he was of the crowd that didn’t run,” Tucker recounted. “Of course, they didn’t run; his courage gave them heart.”Carlson also said that Trump didn’t try to create division after the attack. “He turned down the most obvious opportunity to inflame the nation,” Carlson said. Carlson suggested that Trump went through a “transformation” after the assassination attempt at a Trump political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.Referring to the shooting, Carlson said, “Everything was different after that moment.” Carlson said he first noticed the “transformation” when Trump, surrounded by Secret Service agents on the stage and with blood running down his face, raised his fist in the air after the shooting. Carlson said that Trump “was no longer just a political party’s nominee, or a former president or a future president. This was the leader of a nation,” Carlson said. Country singer Jason Aldean greets Trump at the conventionHow much Trump loves music has come up several times in Thursday’s speeches, and he’s got a country star with him in the box.Jason Aldean is seated with Trump for the RNC’s final night. He and his wife, Brittany, shook hands with Trump and have been spotted speaking with him during the program.Aldean, a Trump supporter, dedicated his song “Try That in a Small Town” to Trump during a recent concert in Nashville following the Pennsylvania assassination attempt.Last year, the music video for the song — which became that summer’s political litmus test — received fervent criticism online, with some claiming the visual is a “dog whistle” and others labeling it “pro-lynching.”In the video, Aldean performed in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of a 1946 race riot and a 1927 mob lynching of an 18-year-old Black teenager named Henry Choate.‘Every attack on President Trump only strengthens our movement,’ Trump attorney and adviser saysAlina Habba, Trump’s attorney and adviser, offered a humanizing portrait of Trump, a man she said “loves this country” and “lifts up those around him.”She told the story of being on the phone with him outside a courthouse when a man on the street yelled, “God Bless you and President Trump!” She said Trump overheard the man and asked her to hand over the phone so he could thank him personally for his support.“The left has tried to demolish Trump, but there is no bulldozer big enough or strong enough to remove the legacy that he has built or the future he has created,” she said, adding, “Every attack on President Trump only strengthens our movement.”She also talked about Saturday’s failed assassination attempt.“So let us not forget that President Trump did not just take a bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania. He has and will continue to take them for each and every one of us.”RNC video uses Ronald Reagan quote from 1980 presidential debateA video that played at the RNC before conservative media personality Tucker Carlson took the stage evoked the voice of late former President Ronald Reagan.The video used Reagan’s words made famous during the 1980 presidential debate against former President Jimmy Carter: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”In the video, Reagan asked voters to “ask yourself” if it was “easier” to buy products at the grocery store, if unemployment numbers have risen or fallen, if America is “as respected throughout the world as it was,” and if the nation feels more or less secure than it was four years prior.New York builders attest to Trump’s personal characterNew York builders father and son Steven and Zach Witkoff were among speakers meant to serve as witnesses for Trump as a friend and employer.The former president’s persona has been well-defined after a term in office and a highly public profile since leaving office.The father and son vouched for Trump as a boss and a grandfather.“I have witnessed his leadership in quiet moments,” Steve Witkoff said. “When times are really tough, when he has everything to lose and nothing to gain, Donald Trump is there for you.”Describing pain that was “unbearable,” Steve Wifcoff told of Trump’s outreach after the man’s son died of an opioid overdose.“That’s who he is,” Steven Witcoff said.In a passionate speech, a Detroit pastor speaks in favor of TrumpThe pastor of a Black church in Detroit that Trump visited last month has suggested that the former president came to his congregation to listen and learn.“Could it be that Jesus Christ preserved him for a time such as this?” Lorenzo Sewell, a Detroit pastor, proclaimed, as thousands of delegates cheered and rose to their feet.Sewell made repeated Biblical references, and reminded the crowd that Trump “came to the hood because he cares about average everyday Americans.”Sewell also made several references to the assassination attempt, saying that “if President Donald Trump would have moved just a millimeter,” he would not have been at the convention.Addressing his “Democrat friends,” Sewell asked if they knew of anyone who had been “convicted of 34 counts, raised 53 million dollars in 24 hours and could be the 47th president of America — and he was shot one time. Do you know anybody like that?”Senators night in Trump’s family boxA group of Trump’s most loyal allies in the Senate are seated in the former president’s exclusive box at the RNC on Thursday night. Sens. Mike Lee, Bill Hagerty, and Ted Cruz are filling the seats ahead of the arrival of Trump’s family for his highly anticipated speech. Some Senate hopefuls are also lounging in the area, including Nevada GOP candidate Sam Brown.Donald Trump arrives for the fourth night of the RNCAfter a video montage of the former president dancing at various events to The Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.,” Donald Trump arrived for the fourth night of the convention.With a bandage still covering his ear, Trump entered the floor of the arena to thunderous applause.Trump will speak later as he formally accepts the party’s nomination.Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo takes RNC stageFormer Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is highlighting the foreign policy accomplishments of Trump’s administration, saying, “We put America first every single day.”Pompeo also lashed out at Biden for the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan and blamed him for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Gaza’s attack on Israel.“We can’t trust the Biden administration,” he said.Pompeo, who also served as Trump’s CIA director and represented Kansas in Congress, considered challenging Trump this year for the GOP nomination. But he decided to stay out of the race, saying the time was not right for him and his family. Down the block from the RNC, dozens gather to mourn two deadDown the block from the RNC, about 50 family members and supporters of two Milwaukee men recently killed in separate circumstances rallied and marched to call attention to the two deaths.The event focused on the death of Samuel Sharpe, a homeless man fatally shot Tuesday by out-of-state police officers deployed to Milwaukee for the RNC, as well D’Vontaye Mitchell, who died last month after he was pinned down by security guards at a nearby hotel.The deaths of the two men, both of whom were Black, has inflamed tensions within the city, with Sharpe’s killing in particular focusing scrutiny on the law enforcement approach to the convention.Speaking to dozens of protesters and a phalanx of reporters, Angelique Sharpe attributed her brother’s death to the presence of out-of-state police officers.“I’d rather have the Milwaukee police department who know the people of this community (than) people who have no ties to your community and don’t care nothing about our extended family members down there,” she said.Police officials said Sharpe was shot by five Columbus, Ohio, police officers who spotted him lunging at another man with two knives.At the rally, Angelique Sharpe said her brother suffered from multiple sclerosis and was acting in self-defense against a person who had threatened him in recent days.Professional wrestling and other stars present at RNCThere was some star power as the events of the fourth night of the RNC kicked off. Professional wrestling fans recognized a couple of familiar faces as wrestling icon Hulk Hogan was at the convention. Additionally, Linda McMahon, who is the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), spoke from the stage, appealing to small business owners and others. McMahon, who is married to former WWE CEO Vince McMahon and served in Trump’s cabinet as the U.S. administrator of the Small Business Administration, spoke of her long friendship with the former president, who appeared in several WWE storylines over the years. “He is a good man. He has the heart of a lion and the soul of a warrior,” Linda McMahon said. “I believe if necessary he would stand at the gates of hell to defend our country.”Hogan and Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White were expected to speak at the event, and musician Kid Rock was also set to perform.NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty was also seen at the convention Thursday.‘Everyday American’ is GOP-backing billionaireOne of the “everyday Americans” speaking on behalf of Trump’s campaign is a former Playboy model who’s been listed among the country’s wealthiest self-made women.Wisconsin native Diane Hendricks told delegates how she started off as a single mom who got into real estate, met her husband and “risked everything we had” to start ABC Supply.Their company is the largest wholesale distributor of roofing supplies and one of the largest distributors of siding and windows in North America, with nearly 700 locations across the U.S. and Canada.Hendricks talked about the tens of thousands of jobs she’s helped create in the U.S. and told aspiring entrepreneurs, “if I can make it, you can make it, too.” She also lauded Trump’s business acumen as what the country needs.She’s been a big backer of GOP candidates both in her home state and elsewhere. Forbes lists her estimated net worth above $20 billion.New York builders attest to Trump personal characterNew York builders father and son Steven and Zach Witkoff were among speakers meant to serve as witnesses for Trump as a friend and employer.The former president’s persona has been well-defined after a term in office and a highly public profile since leaving office.The father and son vouched for Trump as a boss and a grandfather.“I have witnessed his leadership in quiet moments,” Steve Witkoff said. “When times are really tough, when he has everything to lose and nothing to gain, Donald Trump is there for you.”Describing pain that was “unbearable,” Steve Wifcoff told of Trump’s outreach after the man’s son died of an opioid overdose.“That’s who he is,” Steven Witcoff said.RNC speeches open with an appeal to voters in swing statesIn the first speech of the night, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana who is also the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, tried to appeal to voters in states where key Senate races are taking place this year. The GOP has been using the convention to appeal to swing state voters in hopes of retaining control of the House of Representatives and taking back control of the U.S. Senate.Daines attempted to appeal to voters in states like Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Ohio and Montana.Trump says he’s rewritten his remarksRepublicans 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.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.”Trump’s family will be at RNC, but not everyone will speakUnlike most national conventions, Trump’s wife Melania and daughter Ivanka who both spoke at the previous two conventions are not expected to address the convention but are expected to attend.Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, ended the program Tuesday with a speech about Trump’s personal warmth and love for his family. The final day of the RNC is underwayTrump’s moment of survival has shaped the week, even as convention organizers insisted they would continue with their program as planned less than 48 hours after the shooting. Speakers and delegates have repeatedly chanted “Fight, fight, fight!” in homage to Trump’s words as he got to his feet and pumped his fist after Secret Service agents killed the gunman. And some of his supporters have started sporting their own makeshift bandages on the convention floor.Speakers throughout the week have attributed Trump’s survival to divine intervention and paid tribute to victim Corey Comperatore, who died after shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire at the rally.“Instead of a day of celebration, this could have been a day of heartache and mourning,” Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said in his speech to the convention on Wednesday. Video below: Vice president nominee JD Vance addresses delegates at RNC The convention has tried to give voice to the fear and frustration of conservatives while also trying to promote the former president as a symbol of hope for all voters.The convention has showcased a Republican Party reshaped by Trump since he shocked the GOP establishment and won the hearts of the party’s grassroots on his way to the party’s 2016 nomination. Rivals Trump has vanquished — including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — put aside their past criticisms and gave him their unqualified support.Even Vance, Trump’s pick to carry his movement into the next generation, was once a fierce critic who suggested in a private message since made public that Trump could be “America’s Hitler.” Notable speakers for RNC Day 4:Eric TrumpSen. Steve Daines, chair of the National Republican Senatorial CommitteeRep. Richard Hudson, chair of the National Republican Congressional CommitteeDiane Hendricks, a billionaire who is the co-founder of ABC SupplyLinda McMahon, the 25th administrator of the Small Business AdministrationFormer Secretary of State Mike PompeoSteve Witkoff, a businessman and developerAlina Habba, Trump’s attorneyTucker CarlsonDana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship
Donald Trump takes the stage Thursday at the Republican National Convention to accept his party’s nomination again and give his first speech since he was cut off mid-sentence by a flurry of gunfire in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump’s address will conclude the four-day convention in Milwaukee. He appeared each of the first three days with a white bandage on his ear, covering a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting.
During his remarks on Night 4 of the RNC, conservative media personality Tucker Carlson suggested that Donald Trump went through a “transformation” after the assassination attempt at a Trump political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
Referring to the shooting, Carlson said, “Everything was different after that moment.”
“This convention is different, the nation is different, the world is different. Donald Trump is different,” he said.
Carlson said he first noticed the “transformation” when Trump, surrounded by Secret Service agents on the stage and with blood running down his face, raised his fist in the air after the shooting.
“He was no longer just a political party’s nominee, or a former president or a future president, this was the leader of a nation,” Carlson said.
Carlson praised Trump for not lashing out in anger after the shooting.
“He did his best to bring the country together,” Carlson said. “This is the most responsible, unifying behavior from a leader I’ve ever seen.”
A video that played at the RNC before conservative media personality Tucker Carlson took the stage evoked the voice of late former President Ronald Reagan.
New York builders father and son Steven and Zach Witkoff were among speakers meant to serve as witnesses for Trump as a friend and employer.
The former president’s persona has been well-defined after a term in office and a highly public profile since leaving office.
The father and son vouched for Trump as a boss and a grandfather.
“I have witnessed his leadership in quiet moments,” Steve Witkoff said. “When times are really tough, when he has everything to lose and nothing to gain, Donald Trump is there for you.”
Describing pain that was “unbearable,” Steve Wifcoff told of Trump’s outreach after the man’s son died of an opioid overdose.
“That’s who he is,” Steven Witcoff said.
The pastor of a Black church in Detroit that Trump visited last month has suggested that the former president came to his congregation to listen and learn.
“Could it be that Jesus Christ preserved him for a time such as this?” Lorenzo Sewell, a Detroit pastor, proclaimed, as thousands of delegates cheered and rose to their feet.
Sewell made repeated Biblical references, and reminded the crowd that Trump “came to the hood because he cares about average everyday Americans.”
Sewell also made several references to the assassination attempt, saying that “if President Donald Trump would have moved just a millimeter,” he would not have been at the convention.
Addressing his “Democrat friends,” Sewell asked if they knew of anyone who had been “convicted of 34 counts, raised 53 million dollars in 24 hours and could be the 47th president of America — and he was shot one time. Do you know anybody like that?”
A group of Trump’s most loyal allies in the Senate are seated in the former president’s exclusive box at the RNC on Thursday night. Sens. Mike Lee, Bill Hagerty, and Ted Cruz are filling the seats ahead of the arrival of Trump’s family for his highly anticipated speech. Some Senate hopefuls are also lounging in the area, including Nevada GOP candidate Sam Brown.
After a video montage of the former president dancing at various events to The Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.,” Donald Trump arrived for the fourth night of the convention.
With a bandage still covering his ear, Trump entered the floor of the arena to thunderous applause.
Trump will speak later as he formally accepts the party’s nomination.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is highlighting the foreign policy accomplishments of Trump’s administration, saying, “We put America first every single day.”
Pompeo also lashed out at Biden for the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan and blamed him for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Gaza’s attack on Israel.
“We can’t trust the Biden administration,” he said.
Pompeo, who also served as Trump’s CIA director and represented Kansas in Congress, considered challenging Trump this year for the GOP nomination. But he decided to stay out of the race, saying the time was not right for him and his family.
Down the block from the RNC, about 50 family members and supporters of two Milwaukee men recently killed in separate circumstances rallied and marched to call attention to the two deaths.
The event focused on the death of Samuel Sharpe, a homeless man fatally shot Tuesday by out-of-state police officers deployed to Milwaukee for the RNC, as well D’Vontaye Mitchell, who died last month after he was pinned down by security guards at a nearby hotel.
The deaths of the two men, both of whom were Black, has inflamed tensions within the city, with Sharpe’s killing in particular focusing scrutiny on the law enforcement approach to the convention.
Speaking to dozens of protesters and a phalanx of reporters, Angelique Sharpe attributed her brother’s death to the presence of out-of-state police officers.
“I’d rather have the Milwaukee police department who know the people of this community (than) people who have no ties to your community and don’t care nothing about our extended family members down there,” she said.
Police officials said Sharpe was shot by five Columbus, Ohio, police officers who spotted him lunging at another man with two knives.
At the rally, Angelique Sharpe said her brother suffered from multiple sclerosis and was acting in self-defense against a person who had threatened him in recent days.
There was some star power as the events of the fourth night of the RNC kicked off.
Professional wrestling fans recognized a couple of familiar faces as wrestling icon Hulk Hogan was at the convention. Additionally, Linda McMahon, who is the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), spoke from the stage, appealing to small business owners and others.
McMahon, who is married to former WWE CEO Vince McMahon and served in Trump’s cabinet as the U.S. administrator of the Small Business Administration, spoke of her long friendship with the former president, who appeared in several WWE storylines over the years.
“He is a good man. He has the heart of a lion and the soul of a warrior,” Linda McMahon said. “I believe if necessary he would stand at the gates of hell to defend our country.”
Hogan and Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White were expected to speak at the event, and musician Kid Rock was also set to perform.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty was also seen at the convention Thursday.
One of the “everyday Americans” speaking on behalf of Trump’s campaign is a former Playboy model who’s been listed among the country’s wealthiest self-made women.
Wisconsin native Diane Hendricks told delegates how she started off as a single mom who got into real estate, met her husband and “risked everything we had” to start ABC Supply.
Their company is the largest wholesale distributor of roofing supplies and one of the largest distributors of siding and windows in North America, with nearly 700 locations across the U.S. and Canada.
Hendricks talked about the tens of thousands of jobs she’s helped create in the U.S. and told aspiring entrepreneurs, “if I can make it, you can make it, too.” She also lauded Trump’s business acumen as what the country needs.
She’s been a big backer of GOP candidates both in her home state and elsewhere. Forbes lists her estimated net worth above $20 billion.
New York builders father and son Steven and Zach Witkoff were among speakers meant to serve as witnesses for Trump as a friend and employer.
The former president’s persona has been well-defined after a term in office and a highly public profile since leaving office.
The father and son vouched for Trump as a boss and a grandfather.
“I have witnessed his leadership in quiet moments,” Steve Witkoff said. “When times are really tough, when he has everything to lose and nothing to gain, Donald Trump is there for you.”
Describing pain that was “unbearable,” Steve Wifcoff told of Trump’s outreach after the man’s son died of an opioid overdose.
“That’s who he is,” Steven Witcoff said.
In the first speech of the night, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana who is also the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, tried to appeal to voters in states where key Senate races are taking place this year.
The GOP has been using the convention to appeal to swing state voters in hopes of retaining control of the House of Representatives and taking back control of the U.S. Senate.
Daines attempted to appeal to voters in states like Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Ohio and Montana.
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.
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.”
Unlike most national conventions, Trump’s wife Melania and daughter Ivanka who both spoke at the previous two conventions are not expected to address the convention but are expected to attend.
Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, ended the program Tuesday with a speech about Trump’s personal warmth and love for his family.
Trump’s moment of survival has shaped the week, even as convention organizers insisted they would continue with their program as planned less than 48 hours after the shooting. Speakers and delegates have repeatedly chanted “Fight, fight, fight!” in homage to Trump’s words as he got to his feet and pumped his fist after Secret Service agents killed the gunman. And some of his supporters have started sporting their own makeshift bandages on the convention floor.
Speakers throughout the week have attributed Trump’s survival to divine intervention and paid tribute to victim Corey Comperatore, who died after shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire at the rally.
“Instead of a day of celebration, this could have been a day of heartache and mourning,” Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said in his speech to the convention on Wednesday.
Video below: Vice president nominee JD Vance addresses delegates at RNC
The convention has tried to give voice to the fear and frustration of conservatives while also trying to promote the former president as a symbol of hope for all voters.
The convention has showcased a Republican Party reshaped by Trump since he shocked the GOP establishment and won the hearts of the party’s grassroots on his way to the party’s 2016 nomination. Rivals Trump has vanquished — including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — put aside their past criticisms and gave him their unqualified support.
Even Vance, Trump’s pick to carry his movement into the next generation, was once a fierce critic who suggested in a private message since made public that Trump could be “America’s Hitler.”
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An attendee gets a bandage like the one Trump wears over his bullet-wounded ear.
Photo: Mark Peterson for New York Magazine
This year’s Republican National Convention has had a swaggering feel so far. The confab kicked off two days after Donald Trump survived a shooter’s bullet and arrives as he holds an unmistakable lead in the polls against President Biden, who faces questions from fellow Democrats over his fitness to run. On Monday, Trump announced his vice-presidential pick, ideological compatriot J.D. Vance, who received a hero’s welcome at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum. And as Republican lawmakers went after Biden and strained to stick to the event’s “National Unity” theme, Trump himself appeared with a conspicuous bandage on his ear. Below, Mark Peterson for New York Magazine captures the RNC in photos.
Trump appearing onstage before the convention gets underway.
Attendees escaping reality on the periphery of the convention.
Two young Republicans bearing American flags.
Former Division I swimmer and anti-trans activist Riley Gaines.
Trump’s wounded ear was still bandaged on Wednesday night.
More and more RNC attendees are wearing Trump solidarity bandages.
More and more RNC attendees are wearing Trump solidarity bandages.
The RNC’s primary slogan on display.
Trump running mate J.D. Vance headlined Wednesday night’s prime-time presentation.
Trump running mate J.D. Vance headlined Wednesday night’s prime-time presentation.
Attendees stand for the national anthem on day three of the RNC.
Rival MAGA representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert.
Rival MAGA representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert.
Texas governor Greg Abbott got a speaking slot on Wednesday night as well.
Trump and others in the VIP box watch North Dakota governor Doug Burgum give his speech.
Trump and others in the VIP box watch North Dakota governor Doug Burgum give his speech.
Representative Matt Gaetz addresses the convention.
An attendee brandishes a Trump sign with light-up red eyes.
The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 17.
The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 17.
Trump acknowledging one of the speakers on Wednesday night.
Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia, who spoke on the second night of the convention with his beloved Babydog at his side.
Trump, a bit subdued, appeared again with a large bandage over his right ear that was pieced by a bullet on Saturday.
Two Trump supporters look on.
Two Trump supporters look on.
The VIP stands (top) where Trump and other luminaries take in the festivities.
Rudy Giuliani, who was recently disbarred for lying about the 2020 election as Trump’s attorney.
Just a few of the 50,000 Republicans who came to Milwaukee to nominate Trump a third time.
Just a few of the 50,000 Republicans who came to Milwaukee to nominate Trump a third time.
Matt Gaetz, the Florida congressman, greets a fellow Republican.
Trump makes his way from the VIP stands to the Fiserv Forum’s floor.
Elise Stefanik gives a prime-time address before thousands.
Elise Stefanik gives a prime-time address before thousands.
A video of Trump dancing to the Village People’s “YMCA” thrilled attendees.
Former Trump rivals Ted Cruz and Nikki Haley came to praise him.
Former Trump rivals Ted Cruz and Nikki Haley came to praise him.
Marco Rubio, another former rival who was on Trump’s VP shortlist, touted “America First.”
Kevin McCarthy, the former House Speaker who was deposed by a hard-right faction of Republicans.
Newt and Callista Gingrich.
Newt and Callista Gingrich.
Hands raised in prayer.
Lara Trump, the nominee’s daughter-in-law and the co-chair of the RNC, speaking to the convention.
Kari Lake, the Republican Senate candidate who rose to fame by denying Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.
Trump touches the cheek of Senator Tom Cotton’s son.
J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha, are greeted by a raucous crowd welcoming Trump’s running mate on the first day of the convention.
The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 15.
The Republican ticket.
A bandage covers Trump’s right ear, which was injured two days earlier in Pennsylvania. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Much bleeding took place….”
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia addresses the convention during its Make America Wealthy Once Again theme night.
“I realized Donald Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re Black, white, gay, or straight. It’s all love,” Amber Rose told Republicans in a prime-time speech.
Lara Trump, the candidate’s daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin.
Vance is introduced to the convention as the vice-presidential nominee.
South Dakota governor Kristi Noem.
Trump flanked by his sons Donald Jr. and Eric.
Tucker Carlson.
J.D. and Usha Vance meet their newest fans.
From left, Tiffany, Eric, and Lara Trump with Kimberly Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr.
Trump was somewhat muted in his first appearance since the shooting.
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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.
Follow the AP’s Election-2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Republican National Convention starts Monday in Milwaukee, two days after Donald Trump was injured in an assassination attempt, with the violent scene at his campaign rally horrifying the country and amplifying already intense political divisions.
Trump and his advisers are pledging resilience in the face of the attack, with plans going forward for the event to showcase the former president and his platform as his party formally chooses him to be its nominee.
It was not immediately clear if and how Saturday’s attack would alter the four-day event, which normally has a celebratory atmosphere. Republican officials have said they want to defy the threat Trump has faced and stick to their plans and their schedule. But at the very least, the event is expected to include a heightened focus on security and a grim recognition of how stunningly close the presumptive Republican nominee came to losing his life.
AP correspondent Jackie Quinn reports on the opening day of the Republican National Convention, just days after an apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
Here’s what to watch for on the first day of the Republican National Convention:
The shooting has drawn bipartisan condemnation and bipartisan calls for unity. But it has also led to some Republicans blaming President Joe Biden, pointing to his words casting Trump as a threat to democracy. Some have demanded that prosecutors now drop the criminal cases Trump faces, including one in which he’s been convicted. Two other cases are pending and one was dismissed by a judge Monday.
As elected officials, politicians and a few regular Americans address the conference, the question is which tone will prevail in the aftermath of the attack: Will it make speeches even more fiery or will calls for calm prevail?
Even before the attempt on Trump’s life Saturday, Republicans were largely firmly aligned with him and planned to show party unity at the convention. But that message is expected to be even more pronounced as the former president and GOP officials look to project resolve, with Trump saying Sunday that “it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win.”
The show of unity is a departure from the party’s recent history. In 2016, the first time Republicans formally crowned Trump as their nominee, the opening day of their convention was marked by angry dissent from anti-Trump delegates on the floor of the event. After his turbulent presidency concluded with an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, his political standing seemed weaker than ever when he launched his third White House campaign in 2022. But Trump flattened a field of GOP challengers and his legal problems have galvanized his supporters.
What to know about the 2024 Election
Trump has still not named a running mate, and an announcement could come as soon as Monday. His top three contenders, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, are scheduled to speak to Republican delegates at some point this week, according to event organizers. And per tradition, the person Trump selects as his vice-presidential running mate is expected to give an address Wednesday night.
Trump has compared his search for a new vice president to his former reality TV show, “The Apprentice,” leading to speculation that the showman might opt for an onstage reveal of his pick at the convention. He could also make the announcement on social media, as he did in 2016 when he selected Mike Pence to be his running mate.
Before the shooting, the 2024 race was rocked by upheaval among Democrats after Biden’s shaky debate performance last month led members of his party to start staging a public intervention calling for him to bow out as their nominee and raising the real possibility that Trump may be running against someone else.
Republicans have long sought to paint Biden as incompetent, but since Biden’s campaign has become seriously questioned, Trump and the GOP have stepped up their criticisms of Vice President Kamala Harris. That’s expected to continue as the convention kicks off, with more references to “the Biden-Harris administration.”
The theme for Monday’s program is “Make America Wealthy Once Again,” according to Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee. Focusing on economics not only makes sense because it can be a key issue for swing voters, but it’s an area where Trump might have an edge over Biden when it comes to voter views on job creation and cost of living.
Look for Republicans to focus on Trump’s proposals to impose higher tariffs on foreign-made goods along with extending the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017, which expire next year. Biden wants to extend the middle-class tax cuts while raising taxes on highly profitable companies and the richest Americans.
Expect Republicans to also focus on inflation, even though the worst price spike in four decades is steadily fading, according to a new report from the Labor Department. Biden claims Trump’s tariffs would only aggravate the problem.
As Trump tries to win over undecided and middle-of-the-road voters, one of the key questions is to what degree he’ll feature some of the far-right characters in his orbit, his lies about his loss in the 2020 election, his calls for retribution against his opponents and his embrace of those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Key messages of Trump’s third campaign for the White House have included venting his grievances from the past election and decrying his legal problems. He has said that if he’s elected president, he expects to pardon many of those arrested or convicted for their roles in the violent siege on the Capitol and has even played a song at his rallies that he recorded with some of the jailed defendants.
Though candidates typically try to moderate their message as they move into the general election, Trump has rarely been typical — or moderate — and some of the messages he’s featured in his campaign could be jarring to the voters he’s looking to sway.
Biden is getting his own slice of the prime-time spotlight Monday when he appears in an interview on NBC with Lester Holt as he continues to try to reassure members of his party about his candidacy.
He canceled a planned Monday trip to Texas and his reelection campaign temporarily suspended its television ads after Saturday’s shooting. But the pause in Democratic counterprograming to the Republican convention won’t last.
After the NBC interview, he’ll fly later Monday to Nevada, where he will address the NAACP convention in Las Vegas on Tuesday and do an interview with the BET network.
The president has made decrying Trump as a threat to democracy and the nation’s founding values a centerpiece of his campaign. He had to soften that message in the shooting’s immediate aftermath, but plans to use the trip to highlight what his campaign calls stark contrasts between himself and Trump.
In addition to hoping to defuse some of the GOP criticism coming from Milwaukee, the campaign hopes the trip could help Biden reclaim standing with some Democrats who are still skeptical he’s up to the rigors of the campaign.
Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.
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(CNN) — Speakers at the second night of the Republican National Convention made many false and misleading claims throughout the night which focused heavily on immigration and crime.
Here is a list of fact checks from CNN’s Facts First team.
After criticizing President Joe Biden as weak, House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed in his Tuesday speech at the Republican National Convention that Democrats’ policies have brought communities “dramatic increases” in “violence, crime and drugs.”
Similarly, House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik referred to “Biden’s violent crime crisis,” and a video played near the beginning of the Tuesday evening proceedings featured a narrator saying, “It’s not just big cities. Rising crime is a problem everywhere.”
Facts First: Johnson’s claims about dramatic increases in violence and crime are false, as is the convention video’s claim that there is a problem “everywhere” with “rising crime.” Official data published by the FBI shows violent crime dropped significantly in the US in 2023 and in the first quarter of 2024, though there were increases in some communities; violent crime is now lower than it was in 2020, President Donald Trump’s last calendar year in office.
Stefanik’s claim of a “violent crime crisis” under Biden is subjective, but she certainly did not acknowledge that the current numbers under Biden are superior to final Trump-era numbers.
Preliminary FBI data for 2023 showed a roughly 13% national decline in murder and a roughly 6% national decline in overall violent crime compared to 2022, bringing both murder and violent crime levels below where they were in 2020. And preliminary FBI data for the first quarter of 2024 showed an even steeper drop from the same quarter in 2023 – a roughly 26% decline in murder and roughly 15% decline in overall violent crime.
There are limitations to the FBI-published data, which comes from local law enforcement – the numbers are preliminary, not all communities submitted data, and the submitted data usually has some initial errors – so these statistics may not precisely capture the size of the recent declines in crime. But these statistics and other data sources make it clear crime has indeed declined to some extent nationally, though not everywhere.
Crime data expert Jeff Asher, co-founder of the firm AH Datalytics, said that if the final 2023 figures show a decline in murder of at least 10% from 2022, this would be the fastest US decline “ever recorded.” And he noted that both the preliminary FBI-published data from the first quarter of 2024 and also “crime data collected from several independent sources point to an even larger decline in property and violent crime, including a substantially larger drop in murder, so far this year compared to 2023, though there is still time left in the year for those trends to change.”
From CNN’s Daniel Dale
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise claimed Tuesday in his Republican National Convention speech that the Biden administration has “eroded the American energy dominance that President Trump delivered.” He also claimed that Democrats are waging an “assault on American energy.”
Facts First: Scalise’s claims are misleading. The US under President Joe Biden is producing more crude oil than any country ever has. The world record was set by the US in 2023, according to the federal Energy Information Administration, averaging about 12.9 million barrels per day – exceeding the Trump-era record, an average of about 12.3 million barrels per day in 2019. US production of dry natural gas also hit a new high in 2023. So did US crude oil exports.
CNN’s Matt Egan reported in December that the US was exporting the same amount of crude oil, refined products and natural gas liquids as Saudi Arabia or Russia were producing, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.
None of this is to say that Biden is the reason that domestic oil production has increased; market factors are the key driver of companies’ investment and production decisions, and the Energy Information Administration has credited technological improvements in fracking and horizontal drilling technology that have made oil wells more productive. Egan reported in August: “The American Petroleum Institute, an oil trade group that has been critical of the Biden administration’s regulatory efforts, noted that approved federal permits and new federal acres leased have both fallen sharply under Biden.”
Still, despite Biden’s often-critical rhetoric about fossil fuel companies, some policy moves to get tougher on those companies and his major investments in initiatives to fight climate change, he certainly has not come close to stopping fossil fuel production as Trump has claimed.
Biden has also approved some significant and controversial fossil fuel projects, including the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska and the Mountain Valley gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn
Scalise said Tuesday that migrants are arriving in the US after having been deliberately freed from prison.
“On the border, Biden and Harris opened it up to the entire world. Prisons are being emptied,” said Scalise, a Louisiana Republican.
Facts first: There is no evidence for Scalise’s claim that “prisons of being emptied” so that prisoners can travel to the US as migrants.
“I do a daily news search to see what’s going on in prisons around the world and have seen absolutely no evidence that any country is emptying its prisons and sending them all to the US,” said Helen Fair, who is co-author of the World Prison Population List, which tracks the global prison population, and a research fellow at the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research at Birkbeck, University of London.
Trump, now the Republican presidential nominee, has repeatedly made such claims in his own speeches and interviews. But Trump has never provided any proof for the claim.
Trump’s campaign has provided CNN with only a vague 2022 article from right-wing website Breitbart about a supposed federal intelligence report warning Border Patrol agents about Venezuela freeing violent prisoners who had then joined migrant caravans.
But this supposed claim about Venezuela’s actions has never been corroborated, and experts have told CNN, PolitiFact and FactCheck.org that they know of no proof of any such thing having happened.
The recorded global prison population increased from October 2021 to April 2024, from about 10.77 million people to about 10.99 million people, according to the World Prison Population List.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale
Lara Trump, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee and the former president’s daughter-in-law, hailed the state of the country during the Trump administration. Among other things, she said there were “record low unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and women.”
Facts First: These claims need context. Lara Trump didn’t mention that the Trump-era record lows for African American unemployment, Hispanic Americans unemployment and women’s unemployment were all beaten or matched during President Joe Biden’s presidency, though the Trump-era record for Asian American unemployment still stands.
The current record low for the Black or African American unemployment rate, 4.8%, was set under Biden in April 2023.
That beat the Trump-era low that was a record at the time, 5.3% in August 2019 and September 2019. (A cautionary note: This official data series goes back only to 1972.)
The Hispanic or Latino unemployment rate hit 3.9% under Biden in September 2022, tying the record low first set in 2019 under Trump.
The unemployment rate among women hit 3.4% under Trump in September 2019 and October 2019, the lowest since the 1950s, but it fell to 3.3% under Biden in January 2023.
The record set under Trump for Asian American unemployment, 2% in June 2019, has not been matched under Biden. The lowest Biden-era rate was 2.3% in July 2023.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale
Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York claimed in her Republican National Convention speech Tuesday that Biden’s presidency has led to the “highest rate of inflation” in her lifetime.
Facts First: This claim is out of date.
While the year-over-year inflation rate in June 2022, about 9.1%, was the highest since late 1981, inflation has declined sharply since that Biden-era peak, and the most recent available rate, for June 2024, was about 3%. That rate was exceeded as recently as 2011.
Stefanik was born in 1984.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn
Eric Hovde, the Republican running for Senate in Wisconsin, claimed in his RNC speech Tuesday that the Biden administration “emboldened drug cartels to flood our streets with fentanyl killing over 100,000 Americans every year” by opening the country’s southern border and allowing “criminals and terrorists to enter the country.”
Facts First: It’s a significant exaggeration that fentanyl kills more than 100,000 Americans every year due to the country’s “open” borders. The number of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids in 2023, including fentanyl, was approximately 75,000, according to estimated and provisional data.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in May that roughly 107,500 people in the US died from a drug overdose, but that is the total number of people who died from an overdose from any kind of drug.
Synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, were involved in the majority of those fatalities, making up nearly 70% of overdose deaths in 2023, but they did not account for all of them.
In fact, compared with 2022, there were around 1,500 fewer overdose deaths involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids in 2023. The estimated number of deaths involving cocaine and psychostimulants such as methamphetamines increased in 2023.
Specifically, in 2023, there were 74,702 deaths from synthetic opioids, and most of those deaths were from fentanyl. By comparison, in 2022 the estimated number was 76,226, according to the CDC.
It is also worth noting that fentanyl is largely smuggled by US citizens through legal ports of entry, rather than by migrants sneaking into the country. Contrary to frequent claims by Republicans, the border is not “open”; border officers have seized an increasing amount of illicit fentanyl, numbering in the hundreds of millions of pills, under Biden.
From CNN’s Jen Christensen
Trump makes false claims about election fraud in RNC video
For the second consecutive night, the Republican National Convention played a video in which Trump urged Republicans to use “every appropriate tool available to beat the Democrats,” including voting by mail. Trump relentlessly disparaged mail-in voting during the 2020 election, falsely claiming it was rife with fraud, and he has continued to sharply criticize it during the current campaign
But Trump’s comments in the convention video also included some of his regular false claims about elections. After claiming he would “once and for all secure our elections” as president, Trump again insinuated the 2020 election was not secure, saying, “We never want what happened in 2020 to happen again.” And he said, “Keep your eyes open, because these people want to cheat and they do cheat, and frankly, it’s the only thing they do well.”
Facts First: Trump’s claims are nonsense – slightly vaguer versions of his usual lies that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen and that Democrats are serial election cheaters. The 2020 election was highly secure; Trump lost fair and square to Joe Biden by an Electoral College margin of 306 to 232; there is no evidence of voter fraud even close to widespread enough to have changed the outcome in any state; and there is no basis for claiming that election cheating is the only thing at which Trump’s opponents excel.
The Trump administration’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a post-election November 2020 statement: “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.”
From CNN’s Daniel Dale
Kari Lake said Tuesday that Democratic Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, her likely opponent in the state’s US Senate race this fall, voted last week to let undocumented immigrants “illegally cast a ballot in this upcoming election.”
“These guys are full, they’re full of bad ideas,” Lake said in her speech. “Just last week Ruben Gallego voted to let the millions of people who poured into our country illegally cast a ballot in this upcoming election.”
Fact First: This claim is false.
The House did not vote on whether to allow noncitizens to vote. The chamber passed a bill on July 10 that would require documentary proof of US citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Gallego voted against the legislation, which is not expected to be taken up by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and experts say it rarely occurs. When people register to vote, they must provide a driver’s license or Social Security number, and their identity is checked against existing databases. Voters are required to swear under penalty of perjury that they are a US citizen. Noncitizens who vote illegally can face imprisonment or deportation.
Gallego said in a statement that he opposed the bill because its “only purpose is to disenfranchise tens of thousands of Arizonans, and I will not vote to take away the rights of Arizonans to stop something that is already illegal.”
“Of course, only U.S. citizens should vote,” said Gallego. “But this bill isn’t about that, it’s about making it harder for Arizonans to vote, including married women, servicemembers, Native Arizonans, seniors, and people with disabilities.”
From CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn
Perry Johnson, a Michigan business owner who previously ran for governor and president, said Tuesday that income rose consistently under Trump.
“Under Trump, family income went up every year. That is a fact,” Johnson told the crowd.
Facts first: Johnson is incorrect. Median family income fell in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic in both inflation-adjusted and non-adjusted terms.
Typical family income grew by several thousand dollars during each of Trump’s first three years in office, before adjusting for inflation. But it fell by $1,660 in 2020, when the pandemic wreaked havoc on the US economy.
After factoring in inflation, typical family income fell by nearly $2,900 in 2020, after rising in each of the first three years of Trump’s administration.
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Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance will introduce himself to a national audience Wednesday as he addresses the Republican National Convention.The Ohio senator’s headlining address will be his first speech as the Republican vice-presidential nominee. He’s a relative political unknown who rapidly morphed in recent years from a severe critic of Trump to an aggressive defender.Vance, 39, is positioned to become the next potential leader of the former president’s political movement, which has reshaped the Republican Party and busted many longtime political norms. The first millennial to join a major party ticket, he joins the race when questions about the age of the men at the top of the tickets — 78-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President Joe Biden — have been high on the list of voters’ concerns.Trump, as the presidential nominee, is expected to speak Thursday, the convention’s final night.Vance is expected to lean into his biography, as someone who grew up in hardscrabble Kentucky and Ohio and became a Marine, an Ivy League graduate, a businessman and a bestselling author with his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” The book exploring his blue-collar roots made him a national name when it was published in 2016 and was seen as a window into some of the cultural forces that propelled Trump to the White House.Vance, though, was a harsh critic of Trump at the time, referring to him in interviews as “noxious” and someone who “is leading the white working class to a very dark place.” He even once referred to him as “America’s Hitler.”Video below: Former Donald Trump rivals take stage at RNC on Day 2He began warming to Trump over the years, especially as he sought in 2022 to run for the U.S. Senate. Vance won Trump’s endorsement, which helped him secure the party’s nomination for the Ohio Senate seat.Vance has become one of Trump’s most aggressive defenders as the former president has sought the office a third time, sparring with journalists, campaigning on his behalf and appearing with the candidate at his trial in New York.In his first interview after accepting Trump’s offer to join the ticket, Vance sought to explain his metamorphosis. Vance said in a Fox News Channel interview Monday that Trump was a great president and changed his mind.“I think he changed the minds of a lot of Americans, because again he delivered that peace and prosperity,” Vance said.Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s son and a close friend of Vance, is also slated to speak Wednesday, according to a person close to Trump Jr. who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official speaking schedule has yet to be released.Beyond Vance’s prime-time speech, the Republican Party intends to focus on a theme of American global strength.Republicans contend that the country has become a “global laughingstock” under Biden’s watch and are expected to make a case Wednesday hitting on their theme to “Make America Strong Once Again.” That’s expected to include Trump’s “America First” foreign policy that redefined relationships with some allies and adversaries.Democrats have sharply criticized Trump — and Vance — for questioning U.S. support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion.
Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance will introduce himself to a national audience Wednesday as he addresses the Republican National Convention.
The Ohio senator’s headlining address will be his first speech as the Republican vice-presidential nominee. He’s a relative political unknown who rapidly morphed in recent years from a severe critic of Trump to an aggressive defender.
Vance, 39, is positioned to become the next potential leader of the former president’s political movement, which has reshaped the Republican Party and busted many longtime political norms. The first millennial to join a major party ticket, he joins the race when questions about the age of the men at the top of the tickets — 78-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President Joe Biden — have been high on the list of voters’ concerns.
Trump, as the presidential nominee, is expected to speak Thursday, the convention’s final night.
Vance is expected to lean into his biography, as someone who grew up in hardscrabble Kentucky and Ohio and became a Marine, an Ivy League graduate, a businessman and a bestselling author with his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” The book exploring his blue-collar roots made him a national name when it was published in 2016 and was seen as a window into some of the cultural forces that propelled Trump to the White House.
Vance, though, was a harsh critic of Trump at the time, referring to him in interviews as “noxious” and someone who “is leading the white working class to a very dark place.” He even once referred to him as “America’s Hitler.”
Video below: Former Donald Trump rivals take stage at RNC on Day 2
He began warming to Trump over the years, especially as he sought in 2022 to run for the U.S. Senate. Vance won Trump’s endorsement, which helped him secure the party’s nomination for the Ohio Senate seat.
Vance has become one of Trump’s most aggressive defenders as the former president has sought the office a third time, sparring with journalists, campaigning on his behalf and appearing with the candidate at his trial in New York.
In his first interview after accepting Trump’s offer to join the ticket, Vance sought to explain his metamorphosis. Vance said in a Fox News Channel interview Monday that Trump was a great president and changed his mind.
“I think he changed the minds of a lot of Americans, because again he delivered that peace and prosperity,” Vance said.
Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s son and a close friend of Vance, is also slated to speak Wednesday, according to a person close to Trump Jr. who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official speaking schedule has yet to be released.
Beyond Vance’s prime-time speech, the Republican Party intends to focus on a theme of American global strength.
Republicans contend that the country has become a “global laughingstock” under Biden’s watch and are expected to make a case Wednesday hitting on their theme to “Make America Strong Once Again.” That’s expected to include Trump’s “America First” foreign policy that redefined relationships with some allies and adversaries.
Democrats have sharply criticized Trump — and Vance — for questioning U.S. support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion.
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Kari Lake just can’t help but play the hits. When taking the stage at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, the former newscaster and Republican candidate – who can’t decide whether she wants to be governor or a senator – immediately defaulted to regurgitating stale, empty talking points about “fake news.”…
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TJ L’Heureux
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On the floor of the Republican National Convention Tuesday evening, vice presidential candidate JD Vance greeted and shook hands with excited delegates as he walked toward his seat.Video above: See former President Donald Trump’s entrance at Day 2 of the RNCIt was a marked contrast from former President Donald Trump, who entered the hall a few minutes later and was separated from supporters by a column of Secret Service agents. His ear still bandaged after an attempted assassination, Trump closely hugged the wall. Instead of handshakes or hellos for those gathered, he offered fist pumps to the cameras.The contrast underscores the new reality facing Trump after a gunman opened fire at his rally in Pennsylvania Saturday, raising serious questions about the agency that is tasked with protecting the president, former presidents and major-party candidates. Trump’s campaign must also adjust to a new reality after he came millimeters from death or serious injury — and as law enforcement warns of the potential for more political violence. Trump campaign officials declined to comment on the stepped-up security and how it might impact his interactions going forward. “We do not comment on President Trump’s security detail. All questions should be directed to the United States Secret Service,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, said Monday that he could not discuss “specifics of the protection or the enhancements made, as they involve sensitive tactics and procedures. I can say, however, that personnel and other protective resources, technology, and capabilities have been added.”Video below: Get the Facts: Verifying claims made about security at Trump rallyThe Secret Service had already stepped up Trump’s protection in the days before the attack following an unrelated threat from Iran, two U.S. officials said Tuesday. But that extra security didn’t stop the gunman, who fired from an adjacent roof, from killing one audience member and injuring two others along with Trump.The FBI and Homeland Security officials remain “concerned about the potential for follow-on or retaliatory acts of violence following this attack,” according to a joint intelligence bulletin by Homeland Security and the FBI and obtained by The Associated Press. The bulletin warned that lone actors and small groups will “continue to see rallies and campaign events as attractive targets.”Underscoring the security risks, a man armed with an AK-47 pistol, wearing a ski mask and carrying a tactical backpack was taken into custody Monday near the Fiserv Forum, where the convention is being held.The attack has led to stepped-up security not only for Trump. President Joe Biden’s security has also been bolstered, with more agents surrounding him as he boarded Air Force One to Las Vegas on Monday night. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also received Secret Service protection in the shooting’s wake.Related video below: Biden orders Secret Service for RFK Jr.Trump’s campaign has also responded in other ways, including placing armed security at all hours outside their offices in Florida and Washington, D.C.Trump has already scheduled his next rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday. That’s where he will appear with Vance for their first event as a presidential ticket. But the new posture complicates, at least for now, the interactions Trump regularly has with supporters as he signs autographs, shakes hands and poses for selfies at events and on airplane tarmacs.In many cities he visits, the campaign assembles enthusiastic supporters in public spaces like restaurants and fast food joints. Sometimes Trump stops by unannounced. The images and video of his reception and interactions — circulated online by his campaign staffers and conservative media — have been fundamental to his 2024 campaign.During the GOP primaries, in particular, his easy interactions served as a contrast to his more awkward top rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. But those events can get rowdy and chaotic. While he was in New York during his criminal hush money trial, Trump aides arranged a series of visits to a local bodega, a local firehouse and a construction site. Before his arrival at the bodega in Harlem, thousands of supporters and onlookers gathered behind metal barricades for blocks to watch his motorcade arrive and cheer. But others in the neighborhood were frustrated by the visit, including people being dropped off at a bus stop just in front of the store, and others trying to enter their apartments after work. At one point, an individual who lived in the building started shouting from a window that was just above the entrance where Trump would eventually stand and give remarks to the cameras and answer reporters’ questions.Long before the shooting, convention organizers had clashed with the Secret Service over the location of protest zones at the convention. RNC leaders repeatedly asked officials to keep protesters farther back than had been originally planned, arguing that an existing plan “creates an elevated and untenable safety risk to the attending public.”One person familiar with the dispute said that the original plan would have put protesters “a softball throw away” from delegates and close enough to throw projectiles over the fence.The protest area was eventually moved, but the episode still raises frustrations and suspicions among some Trump allies.___Associated Press writer Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this report.
On the floor of the Republican National Convention Tuesday evening, vice presidential candidate JD Vance greeted and shook hands with excited delegates as he walked toward his seat.
Video above: See former President Donald Trump’s entrance at Day 2 of the RNC
It was a marked contrast from former President Donald Trump, who entered the hall a few minutes later and was separated from supporters by a column of Secret Service agents. His ear still bandaged after an attempted assassination, Trump closely hugged the wall. Instead of handshakes or hellos for those gathered, he offered fist pumps to the cameras.
The contrast underscores the new reality facing Trump after a gunman opened fire at his rally in Pennsylvania Saturday, raising serious questions about the agency that is tasked with protecting the president, former presidents and major-party candidates. Trump’s campaign must also adjust to a new reality after he came millimeters from death or serious injury — and as law enforcement warns of the potential for more political violence.
Trump campaign officials declined to comment on the stepped-up security and how it might impact his interactions going forward.
“We do not comment on President Trump’s security detail. All questions should be directed to the United States Secret Service,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, said Monday that he could not discuss “specifics of the protection or the enhancements made, as they involve sensitive tactics and procedures. I can say, however, that personnel and other protective resources, technology, and capabilities have been added.”
Video below: Get the Facts: Verifying claims made about security at Trump rally
The Secret Service had already stepped up Trump’s protection in the days before the attack following an unrelated threat from Iran, two U.S. officials said Tuesday. But that extra security didn’t stop the gunman, who fired from an adjacent roof, from killing one audience member and injuring two others along with Trump.
The FBI and Homeland Security officials remain “concerned about the potential for follow-on or retaliatory acts of violence following this attack,” according to a joint intelligence bulletin by Homeland Security and the FBI and obtained by The Associated Press. The bulletin warned that lone actors and small groups will “continue to see rallies and campaign events as attractive targets.”
Underscoring the security risks, a man armed with an AK-47 pistol, wearing a ski mask and carrying a tactical backpack was taken into custody Monday near the Fiserv Forum, where the convention is being held.
The attack has led to stepped-up security not only for Trump. President Joe Biden’s security has also been bolstered, with more agents surrounding him as he boarded Air Force One to Las Vegas on Monday night. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also received Secret Service protection in the shooting’s wake.
Related video below: Biden orders Secret Service for RFK Jr.
Trump’s campaign has also responded in other ways, including placing armed security at all hours outside their offices in Florida and Washington, D.C.
Trump has already scheduled his next rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday. That’s where he will appear with Vance for their first event as a presidential ticket.
But the new posture complicates, at least for now, the interactions Trump regularly has with supporters as he signs autographs, shakes hands and poses for selfies at events and on airplane tarmacs.
In many cities he visits, the campaign assembles enthusiastic supporters in public spaces like restaurants and fast food joints. Sometimes Trump stops by unannounced. The images and video of his reception and interactions — circulated online by his campaign staffers and conservative media — have been fundamental to his 2024 campaign.
During the GOP primaries, in particular, his easy interactions served as a contrast to his more awkward top rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
But those events can get rowdy and chaotic. While he was in New York during his criminal hush money trial, Trump aides arranged a series of visits to a local bodega, a local firehouse and a construction site.
Before his arrival at the bodega in Harlem, thousands of supporters and onlookers gathered behind metal barricades for blocks to watch his motorcade arrive and cheer. But others in the neighborhood were frustrated by the visit, including people being dropped off at a bus stop just in front of the store, and others trying to enter their apartments after work.
At one point, an individual who lived in the building started shouting from a window that was just above the entrance where Trump would eventually stand and give remarks to the cameras and answer reporters’ questions.
Long before the shooting, convention organizers had clashed with the Secret Service over the location of protest zones at the convention. RNC leaders repeatedly asked officials to keep protesters farther back than had been originally planned, arguing that an existing plan “creates an elevated and untenable safety risk to the attending public.”
One person familiar with the dispute said that the original plan would have put protesters “a softball throw away” from delegates and close enough to throw projectiles over the fence.
The protest area was eventually moved, but the episode still raises frustrations and suspicions among some Trump allies.
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Associated Press writer Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this report.
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Ohio police officers in Wisconsin for the Republican National Convention shot and killed a man who was wielding two knives near the convention, Milwaukee’s police chief said Tuesday.
Five members of the Columbus, Ohio, police department fired on the man, who had a knife in each hand, refused police commands and charged at an unarmed man before police fired, Milwaukee Chief Jeffrey Norman said at a news conference. Two knives were recovered from the scene, the chief said.
Police released body camera footage that showed officers on bikes talking before one of them says, “He’s got a knife.”
Several officers then yell “Drop the knife!” as they run toward two men standing in a street. When the armed man moved toward the unarmed man, police fired their weapons.
Alex Brandon/AP
“Someone’s life was in danger,” Norman said. “These officers, who were not from this area, took it upon themselves to act and save someone’s life today.”
Thousands of officers from multiple jurisdictions are in Milwaukee providing additional security for the convention that began Monday and concludes Thursday.
The shooting fueled anger from residents who questioned why out-of-state officers were in their neighborhood located about a mile from the convention site.
The Columbus Division of Police, as well as the chief of staff for Milwaukee’s mayor and a spokesperson for the convention’s joint command center, all said there was nothing to suggest the shooting was related to the convention itself.
A cousin and others identified the man killed as 43-year-old Samuel Sharpe.
Milwaukee residents and activists quickly converged on the site of the shooting, many of them expressing outrage about the involvement of a police department in town because of the convention.
About 100 people held a vigil and march without incident on Tuesday night, pausing for a moment of silence at the blood-stained spot where Sharpe was killed.
“They came into our community and shot down our family right here at a public park,” said Linda Sharpe, a cousin of the man who was killed. “What are you doing in our city, shooting people down?”
Linda Sharpe said her cousin lived in a tent encampment across the street from King Park, where the shooting occurred.
Residents said the encampment was a long-standing feature of the neighborhood, which is home to several social service clinics and a shelter. Some said Milwaukee police officers are familiar with many of those living in the tents and might have been able to deescalate the situation.
David Porter, who said he knew Samuel Sharpe and is also homeless, was angry that officers from outside of Milwaukee were in his neighborhood.
“If MPD would have been there, that man would still be alive right now,” Porter said, referring to Milwaukee police.
Norman, the Milwaukee chief, said 13 officers who were part of a bicycle patrol from Columbus were within their assigned zone having a meeting when they saw the altercation.
“The officers observed a subject armed with a knife in each hand, engaged in an altercation with another unarmed individual,” Norman said. They only fired after the armed man ignored multiple commands and moved toward the unarmed man, the chief said.
“This is a situation where somebody’s life was in immediate danger,” Norman said.
The Columbus Division of Police has received attention because of its special unit deployed to Milwaukee that works to improve police-community relationships and had a visible role in guiding the largely uneventful protests on Monday.
The shooting happened near King Park, roughly a mile from the convention center, where a small group of protesters gathered before marching on Monday. That demonstration was followed by dozens of Columbus police officers, wearing blue vests that read: “Columbus Police Dialogue.”
The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office said an autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday.
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