Morning Report — A Republican convention like no other starts today

by Kristina Karisch - 07/15/24 6:34 AM ET

The Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee today, just two days after an assassination attempt against former President Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Trump will be in Milwaukee today as scheduled, and will address the convention on Thursday. The event had been expected to be a tightly-scripted affair where Republicans were hoping to make few major headlines as they let Democrats dominate the news cycle with infighting over whether President Biden should remain the party’s nominee.

But now, the calculus has shifted.

In the hours after the shooting, Trump struck a grateful yet commanding tone, calling for unity. His political allies have rallied around him, widely sharing what many have described as an “iconic” image of him holding his fist in the air with blood on his face. Trump himself called on Americans to “stand united” and “show our true character” in statements on Truth Social.

“Right now, many of us are angry. We’re reeling from the shocking events last night,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who is scheduled to speak Wednesday night, said on NewsNation. “We should have a unifying tone. I think that’ll happen naturally, that we’ll have a unifying message, not just for the Republican Party, but for a nation who’s going to be hurting and need time to heal in the weeks and months to come.”

Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley said on “Fox News Sunday” that the RNC is “very comfortable” with the security situation for the convention.

The FBI said on Sunday that agents are investigating the shooting as a possible domestic terrorism attack and assassination attempt. There is no indication the 20-year-old shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, acted as part of a larger plot, but authorities said bomb-making materials were found inside the suspect’s vehicle. The shooting killed one man at the rally, injured Trump and critically wounded two others. Members of the Secret Service shot the shooter.

Here is what we know about the shooting, and here are six unanswered questions.

▪ CNN: The Secret Service faces serious questions about the security footprint and rooftop access at the Trump event.

▪ The Hill’s The Memo: The shocking attempt on Trump’s life pitches America into fresh turmoil.

▪ The New York Times analysis: The attack on Trump comes at a time when the United States is already polarized along ideological and cultural lines and is split, it often seems, into two realities.

▪ Politico magazine: Trump’s raised fist will make history — and define his candidacy. In the wake of the shooting, GOP officials were quick to blame Democrats for demonizing the former president.

Lawmakers and officials on both sides of the aisle were quick to condemn the shooting, denouncing political violence of any kind. Biden addressed the country on Saturday, just hours after the rally, and spoke twice from the White House on Sunday. In an Oval Office speech, he made a primetime plea to lower the temperature in American politics (The Hill).

“The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down,” Biden said.“Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy. It’s part of human nature… But politics must never be a literal battlefield, and, God forbid, a killing field.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Sunday said “there have been too many close calls” with political violence during his time in Congress. While appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Coons noted the acts of violence against his colleagues, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), as well as the attack on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband, Paul.

And Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), who was in attendance at Saturday’s rally, is calling for Americans to start taking personal responsibility for their rhetoric in a bid to lower the political temperature.

“Physically, I’m fine. Mentally, I’m fine. But … This has got to stop,” Kelly told The Hill in a phone interview on Sunday. “This has absolutely got to stop.”

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

▪ The gun fired at Trump on Saturday, the AR-15, is the most popular rifle in America. It’s once again at the center of a national crisis.

▪ About 7 percent of U.S. adults — nearly 18 million people — had suffered from long COVID-19 as of early last year, according to a recent report.

▪ Google’s negotiations to buy Wiz, a cybersecurity start-up, for $23 billion, come as the Biden administration has taken a hard line against consolidation in tech and other industries.

LEADING THE DAY

MORE IN POLITICS

ALL EYES ARE ON MILWAUKEE. At the convention — his first public appearance since the shooting — Trump is expected to announce his running mate, and he will formally accept the party’s nomination in a keynote address on Thursday night.

Expect coverage of speeches by politicians and big GOP benefactors alike, but don’t look for a detailed policy discussion over the next four days. Wayne Steger, a professor of political science at DePaul University in Chicago, told Morning Report that party conventions are “all symbolic, and they’re all pretty much theatrical in that they reinforce party symbols.” He expects Republicans to criticize Democrats and their policies, but that the focus will remain first and foremost on Trump himself.

“In this case, what will be different is that it will be focused a lot more on Trump than the party,” Steger added. “It’s going to be more candidate-centric than most of these conventions. We’re going to have more of a Hollywood type production than even is normal, in that they’re going to script this with suspense moments.”

One of those moments will be the VP announcement, the build-up to which Steger said “is absolutely something that Trump loves in terms of drama and attention.”

The Republican National Committee did release its party platform ahead of the convention. But it’s not a traditional policy document. Instead, the plan outlines 20 promises to voters, and notably skates over abortion, as Trump continues to side-step the issue that could be a critical motivator for swing or undecided voters.

Julia Mueller, a reporter at The Hill who will be on the ground in Milwaukee, told Morning Report that she and other journalists will be talking to attendees on the ground during the convention to understand how Trump and the GOP are appealing to voters.

“People that I talked to suggest that something important for Trump is to reach voters in the middle,” Mueller said, “and the platform that was released is an example of that.”

But at the end of the day, Mueller added, “this is Trump’s convention, and Trump’s [Republican] party — and show.”

Things to watch for this week:

▪ The Hill: Five key moments to look out for at the RNC.

▪ The Washington Post: These are the scheduled speakers at the RNC.

▪ The Hill: Former first lady Melania Trump is expected to make a rare campaign appearance at the RNC.

COUNTER-PROGRAMMING: Biden will sit down with NBC News’s Lester Holt for an exclusive interview that will air tonight, during the RNC. It will be the president’s second interview after the first presidential debate, as he faces questions about his mental acuity and calls to drop out of the 2024 race from some fellow Democrats (The Hill).

2024 Roundup

▪ As Biden works to shore up support with fellow Democrats following his debate performance, some Democratic political operatives said the shooting will end up sealing his electoral fate.

▪ Democrats backed off Biden about his debate performance in the hours after the Trump shooting, but the clock is still ticking.

▪ One name has loomed above all as Democrats debate how to convince him to step aside: former President Obama. But so far he has kept his thoughts to himself.

▪ Inside the glitzy fundraiser where Biden lost the support of George Clooney. Some donors who attended the June 15 event at L.A.’s Peacock Theater said this week that they noticed Biden seemed slow. As he greeted donors lined up for photos, he trailed off or spoke too quietly to be heard.

▪ The Democratic National Committee announced its 2024 party platform on Saturday. It outlines priorities for Democrats to “finish the job” under the Biden-Harris administration, and it emphasizes their differences with Trump.

▪ Democrats have made reproductive rights a centerpiece of their campaign message, but their effort has been drowned out in the past few weeks amid mounting concerns about Biden following his debate performance.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will meet at 2 p.m. for a pro forma session.

The Senate will convene at 11:15 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The president will receive an updated Situation Room briefing from homeland security and law enforcement officials alongside Vice President Harris. He will then sit for an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt. In the evening, the president will travel to Las Vegas.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host a dinner for members of the Foreign Affairs Policy Board.

The White House press briefing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

A programming note: Morning Report’s Alexis Simendinger will be back in your inboxes next week.

ZOOM IN

© The Associated Press / J. Scott Applewhite | House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), pictured in June, has called for Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security leaders to testify following the assassination attempt against former President Trump.

CONGRESS

TOP LEADERS IN CONGRESS quickly unified to rebuke Saturday’s failed assassination attempt, demanding briefings and planning investigations into the incident. Congressional Republicans are pledging investigations into and at least one hearing, with attention directed mostly at the Secret Service. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) swiftly requested that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testify at a hearing about the shooting on July 22 (NBC News).

“The tremendous bravery of the individual United States Secret Service agents who protected President Trump, eliminated the gunman, and possibly averted more loss of life cannot be overstated,” Comer said in a letter to Cheatle on Saturday night. Comer had also requested that the committee receive a briefing from the Secret Service about the shooting. The Secret Service agreed to that, a source told The Hill.

FUNDING WOES: House Republicans’ failed Thursday spending vote is exposing party divides on government funding, and it underlines the challenges to GOP leadership in its ambitious plan to pass all 12 annual funding bills by the end of the month. Republicans were caught off guard after 10 members of their party voted with most Democrats to tank a GOP-crafted bill to fund the legislative branch for the next fiscal year. The House has already cleared four spending bills, amounting to more than $1 trillion in government spending — but potentially tougher hurdles lie on the horizon.

“We bring in four bills when we come back in two weeks, and we’re gonna have some more opportunities to pass additional bills,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told The Hill’s Aris Folley on Thursday, as lawmakers prepared to leave town ahead of the Republican National Convention this week.

ELSEWHERE

INTERNATIONAL

ISRAEL ANNOUNCED that a Hamas commander was killed in a Saturday strike on southern Gaza, but the fate of the major target, Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, remains uncertain. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in a televised news conference on Saturday night, saying he approved the strike, but adding that it was “not absolutely certain” that Deif was killed. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Sunday that the head of the Khan Younis brigade, Rafe Salama, was “eliminated” in the attack. Gaza’s Ministry of Health said the strike killed at least 90 Palestinians and injured 300 others in Al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian zone(CNN and NPR).

Hamas said Sunday that Gaza cease-fire talks continue and Deif, the group’s military commander, was in good health — though the group gave no evidence for the claim (ABC News).

The Washington Post: As Israel trades threats with Hezbollah, there are fears that its military is overstretched and its resources depleted after nine months of war against Hamas.

SPORTS: 🎾 Carlos Alcaraz, a 21-year-old from Spain, beat Novak Djokovic on Sunday to clinch his second Wimbledon title and his fourth Grand Slam championship overall. Djokovic, 37, was playing for a record-tying eighth Wimbledon men’s singles title and record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title (ESPN).

⚽ Spain beat England 2-1 in the final of the European Football Championships in Berlin on Sunday, clinching a fourth championship title. Mikel Oyarzabal, off the bench as a second-half substitute, scored the decisive goal in the 86th minute (Yahoo Sports).

OPINION

■ The attack on Trump is antithetical to America, by The New York Times editorial board.

■ Trump’s shooting is a legacy of America’s violent past, by Timothy L. O’Brien, columnist, Bloomberg Opinion.

THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press / French Ministry Of Sport, Olympic And Paralympic Games | France’s Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics Triathlon gold medalist Alexis Hanquinquant took a swim in the Seine this weekend.

And finally … 🏊 To swim or not to swim, that is the question. With just 11 days remaining until the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Paris, officials are scrambling to ensure the Seine — Paris’s iconic and historically polluted riverway — is safe to swim in.

Swimming has been banned in the Seine since 1923. But the games, which begin July 26, are set to include triathlon events and marathon swimming in the river near the Alexandre III bridge. While the city has spent $1.5 billion in trying to clean up the waterway, it has so far been unsuccessful in removing contamination and quelling concerns among athletes and locals. On Saturday, French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra took a symbolic dip in the river in an attempt to ease concerns about water quality (CBS News).

▪ USA Today: If necessary, Olympic marathon swimmers could be moved to Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, which is just outside of Paris and will already be used for the rowing and canoeing events.

▪ The New York Times: Before an enthusiastic crowd on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the Olympic torch arrived in Paris on Sunday in a luxury Louis Vuitton suitcase.

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