Washington Wednesday: At the convention

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 17th of July. Thank you for listening to The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up: the Republican National Convention.

AUDIO: [RNC PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE]

The RNC got underway Monday in Milwaukee.

And then after the pledge each of the states cast their delegate votes, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson made the Republican presidential nomination official:

MIKE JOHNSON: The chair announces that President Donald J. Trump, having received a majority of the votes entitled to be cast at the convention, has been selected as the Republican party nominee for the President of the United States. [APPLAUSE]

REICHARD: Our own political reporter Carolina Lumetta is there at the convention and will be for the duration. Carolina, welcome.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: Hi Mary! I’m joining you from the actual convention floor.

REICHARD: Well, the top line news is the announcement of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as Trump's pick as running mate.

AUDIO: It is a great honor to move that J.D. Vance be nominated by acclamation by this Republican National convention as its candidate for the office of Vice President of the United States of America. [APPLAUSE]

So what was the reaction from the convention?

LUMETTA: It was pretty jubilant. Delegates here really like his youth, his experience, the fact that he's from Ohio. A lot of them see this as sort of a passing of the baton. They say that he has a pretty good chance of succeeding Trump as the figurehead of the MAGA movement whenever Trump is no longer in the political sphere.

REICHARD: And what are your sources telling you about what Vance does for the ticket?

LUMETTA: There does seem to be a bit of divide between what delegates and voters like and what analysts say might be politically strategic. For example, I was chatting with a professor who studies the vice presidency—Christopher Devine. He said that it might actually hurt the Trump advance ticket that he's relatively new to politics. He's new to Capitol Hill. He hasn't even completed his first Senate term yet. Delegates like that he doesn't have all the deep—what they call—swamp connections, but that could hinder an administration. I'll read a little bit of what Devine emailed me. He said that this pic shows that Trump is probably, quote, looking for someone who will obey orders in a way that Mike Pence, who was otherwise exceedingly loyal, refused to do so. He said that Vance appeals a lot to the base of the Republican party. He'll be pretty active on the campaign trail. He's a good speaker, great with media interviews, but he's not necessarily going to appeal to people outside of the Trump base. And from an electoral standpoint, Ohio was already pretty much in the bag for Trump. So it's not entirely clear what the voter turnout effect will be with Vance now on the ticket.

REICHARD: Talking about the abortion issue now, we know that pro-life Republicans are divided over what to include in the GOP platform. Carolina, remind us of that controversy and what's the latest on that.

LUMETTA: Right. So I was actually covering this last week when the platform committee met. They drastically cut the pages on the platform planks for the party. Notably, they cut a lot of language in the pro-life and the marriage sections. So the new language simply says that the 14th amendment guarantees the right to life to everybody, but states can make their own abortion policies. And this is pretty much what Trump's new position is on the issue.

It also removes some language that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Delegates from swing states and blue states like this flexibility. They say it might be easier for Republicans to win, but longtime pro-lifers are very concerned about this.

The platform committee passed the rules last week, but it had to come to a floor vote this week. On Monday, there was a voice vote that easily passed. 

AUDIO: The question is on the adoption of the resolution. All those in favor signify by saying “aye.” For those opposed signify by saying “no.”

I heard a couple of scattered nos when they called out the role. But not nearly enough to make much of a difference and nobody came to the microphones to raise an amendment to try to add more to the pro-life plank.

I chatted with one delegate, Gayle Ruzicka, and she's been coming to these conventions since the 80s. And she said that she is very dissatisfied with this language. She doesn't think it's true for the Republican party. But in light of the shooting that happened on Saturday at a Trump rally, she said, it's simply not worth a floor fight. At this point, unity is really important. They didn't want to make a scene. And basically, they're just going to try again in four years to add some more pro-life language to this.

REICHARD: Well, talking about the attempted assassination on Saturday, how has that affected the tone there in Milwaukee? And do you feel safe there yourself?

LUMETTA: Well, Mary, I think that it's added a somber but determined air to the convention. People are definitely still talking about the shooting, expressing grief and prayers for the families that are affected. But delegates are very strongly motivated. There's this coordinated message we're hearing from lawmakers that the country needs to lower the national temperature. And they mostly point to instances when Democrats have likened Trump to Hitler.

But a lot of delegates are also telling me it's hard to reach across the aisle with a party that they say is destroying the country. I did get a chance to catch up with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise yesterday, and he talked to me a little bit about this. I'll play a brief clip of that right now.

STEVE SCALISE: Everybody needs to focus on the issues. We have big issues that divide us in this country and that's not going to change. But let's start talking about those issues between now and November. Not about the personalities. Again, I mean, it's not just elected leaders, it's people in the mainstream media too who have been saying a lot of this hyper charged rhetoric.

LUMETTA: As far as security goes, there is very tight security here. I have seen police officers everywhere. We're told that more than 4,000 law enforcement officials are here from multiple states. There is TSA-like security in what's called the Red Zone immediately around the Convention Center. There's a broader Yellow Zone around there too, where they're doing checks on people. There are bike brigades of police driving around everywhere.

We are told that there have been at least five arrests since Sunday, which is still common for a convention. There have been people arrested for public intoxication, only one or two for trying to breach some barricades. We're not sure what the situation was around there.

I will say Mary, we had an incident yesterday where a man was shot and killed in a police encounter about a mile from the convention center. This was also outside of both of those security zones. It's looking like he was a homeless man staying in a tent city nearby. Witnesses told local news that he had heard voices in his head. Law enforcement said that he was wielding knives But this does not appear to be any sort of concerted or organized attempt. We heard from the Secret Service Director that they have reviewed and strengthened security measures for the convention, but we're not told exactly what those are.

REICHARD: Well, you were there that first moment that President Trump, former President Trump, was first seen after the assassination attempt. What was that moment like?

LUMETTA: It felt like a very historic moment. The crowd went wild as soon as we saw on the screens him come out of this hallway and stand and wait for the Secret Service to clear his path. He does have a bandage over his right ear and it was kind of this big culmination of everyone talking about the attempted assassination on him. People worrying, but also feeling very motivated about the Republican cause. Then seeing him come out of that hallway, I think was very emotional for a lot of people here. Trump himself actually almost looked emotional as he walked onto the floor briefly and then up to his seating where he sat down with JD Vance and some other of his allies. He mouthed, “thank you, thank you” several times. The crowd also chanted “fight, fight, fight” several times throughout the day, but especially when he came out. Which is also what he said right as he was being brushed off of that stage in Butler, Pennsylvania. It was just a really big moment.

REICHARD: Well, while the convention does wrap up tomorrow, what should we expect for the remaining sessions?

LUMETTA: Well, the rest of the convention will have several speeches from party leaders, lawmakers. It all culminates on Thursday where the theme is “Make America Great Again.” We're going to get the Trump speech where he will formally accept the nomination. We're going to get that big classic balloon drop.

I was at an event with campaign manager Chris LaSavita and he said that Trump has been actually rewriting his RNC speech since Saturday. It'll still follow the convention themes, but he teased that we're also going to hear a pretty big unity message.

REICHARD: So what's it like for you being there?

LUMETTA: It's really busy. It's really crowded. It's always go, go, go. Always people to talk to, all these events happening. It's also a big party atmosphere. We've got popular rock music from live bands. I saw someone in a big ball gown made out of a Trump flag and an American flag the other day.

I will say we've had some very interesting speakers this year. Harmeet Dhillon, a lawmaker from California, offered a Sikh prayer to a deity she called the “One True God.”

DHILLON: We thank you for creating America as a unique haven on this earth where all people are free to worship according to their faith.

We also on Monday night had an endorsement from Teamsters Union President Sean O'Brien:

OBRIEN: Today, the Teamsters are here to say, “we are not beholden to anyone or any party.”

And this organization typically endorses left-winging and democratic causes. So he's catching a lot of flak for this. I talked to several delegates on the floor who said that was the most inspiring speech they'd heard thus far, and probably will start winning over a lot of blue-collar votes that are still on the fence about Trump. Overall, I'm running on a lot of coffee and a lot of adrenaline, Mary.

REICHARD: I bet you are, we thank you for that. Carolina is our politics reporter coming to us from Milwaukee. Carolina, thank

LUMETTA: Thank you, Mary.

REICHARD: You can keep up with all of Carolina's campaign reporting at WNG .org and selecting the button, Election Center 2024 on the homepage.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.