Trump, officially the Republican candidate, vows convention speech will be 'a lot different' after shooting
Both Democratic, Republican politicians say it's time for U.S. to cool down political rhetoric
The Republican Party officially nominated former U.S. president Donald Trump as its 2024 presidential nominee at the start of its national convention in Milwaukee on Monday.
The four-day convention opened in downtown Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum, two days after Trump survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, and hours after he secured a major legal victory when a federal judge dismissed one of his criminal prosecutions.
Trump is due to formally accept the party's nomination in a prime-time address on Thursday and will challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, are locked in what opinion polls show to be a tight election rematch. Trump continues to falsely claim that his 2020 loss to Biden was the result of widespread fraud and has not committed to accepting the results of this election, were he to lose.
In the wake of the assassination attempt on Saturday, Trump said he would be revising his acceptance speech to emphasize national unity, rather than highlight his differences with Biden.
"This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together," Trump told the Washington Examiner. "The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would've been two days ago."
Secret Service 'confident' in security plans for convention
Trump appeared to be shot in the upper part of his right ear as shots were fired at the stage where he was addressing the crowd at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., early Saturday evening. The would-be assassin's bullet clipped Trump's right ear but did no major harm.
A Trump supporter was killed, and two others were wounded before Secret Service agents shot dead the 20-year-old suspected gunman, whose motive has yet to be clarified.
By Sunday, the event was reverberating hundreds of kilometres away in Milwaukee were thousands of armed law enforcement agents roamed streets that were otherwise largely empty as delegates streamed in from around the country for the Republican National Convention.
Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the RNC's liaison with the Secret Service, said security plans had not been adjusted in wake of the assassination attempt on Trump.
"We are confident in the security plans for this event and we are ready to go," she told reporters on Sunday afternoon.
Biden, too, in a televised address from the White House on Sunday, said, "The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down."
Accusations of dangerous rhetoric
House Speaker Mike Johnson, the country's highest-ranking Republican, told NBC's Today show on Sunday that all Americans need to tone down their rhetoric. He accused Biden's campaign of making hyperbolic attacks on Trump.
"Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down," he said.
Trump has frequently turned to violent rhetoric in his campaign speeches, using the word "bloodbath," labelling his perceived enemies as "fascists" while calling migrants "vermin." He has accused Biden without evidence of a conspiracy to overthrow the United States by encouraging illegal immigration. Trump and other Republican officials and pundits have also mocked Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after he was attacked in his home.
In addition, threats to election workers, state officials and prosecutors and judges have never been seen so consistently as since his 2020 election denialism.
Trump and Biden are locked in a close election rematch, according to most opinion polls including by Reuters and Ipsos. The shooting on Saturday whipsawed discussion around the presidential campaign, which until then had been focused on whether Biden should drop out.
Biden's halting June 27 debate performance has resulted in concerns over whether the incumbent, 82 in November, could effectively manage the Oval Office for another four years.
Highly anticipated speech
For Trump, the convention represents a test.
Having consolidated party control, Trump could seize on the prime-time opportunity to deliver a unifying message or paint a dark portrait of a nation under siege by a corrupt leftist elite, as he has done at times on the trail.
"Trump's convention speech is going to be his introduction to the general public, to the people who aren't following politics closely. I think he will have even more eyeballs on him [because of the assassination attempt]," said Nachama Soloveichik, a Republican strategist who worked on Nikki Haley's unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign.
"I would say the message should be one of de-escalation and also reminding people that America is better than that."
As with previous conventions, a who's-who of prominent Republicans, including media personalities and members of Congress, are slotted to speak.
They range from relative moderates to apologists for the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters and hard-right firebrands who have expressed support for conspiracy theories and are divisive even within the party.
The first three days of the event are organized around broad themes, with Monday focused on economic issues, Tuesday focused on public safety and Wednesday focused on national security.
Republicans are expected to portray America as more prosperous, less crime-ridden and less vulnerable to threats abroad during Trump's 2017-2021 term than it is under Biden, though the record is decidedly mixed and difficult to compare given that the coronavirus pandemic had an impact on both the Biden and Trump presidencies in different ways.
The former president announced on Monday Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his choice for running mate. In picking Vance, Trump leans on a one-time critic of his who became a loyal ally and is now the first millennial to join a major-party ticket at a time of deep concern about the advanced age of America's political leaders.
It's Trump's second vice-presidential pick over the course of three presidential bids.
Trump, as an outsider candidate who defeated Republican establishment figures in 2016, chose Indiana's then-governor Mike Pence then. That political alliance ended when Pence refused to heed Trump's pleas to not officially certify Biden's 2020 win. Pence was threatened with deadly violence by some Trump supporters during the Capitol insurrection of early 2021.
With files from CBC News