America's Talking - ‘Gift From God’: Trump Describes Assassination Attempt as He Accepts GOP Nomination

Episode Date: July 20, 2024

Former President Donald Trump accepted the GOP nomination for President Thursday night, less than a week after surviving an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Concluding the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Trump laid out his policy priorities and described in detail the attack that nearly killed him at the Saturday rally. “I stand before you this evening with a message of confidence, strength, and hope,” Trump said to begin the speech. “Four months from now, we will have an incredible victory, and we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country." Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulam, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire service. We are recording this on Friday, July 18th. Former President Donald Trump officially accepted the Republican nomination for President Thursday night in Milwaukee, just days after surviving an assassination attempt on his life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Earlier in the week, he named conservative U.S. Senator J.D. Van Gogh. of Ohio as his vice presidential running mate. The drama around the Republican National Convention unfolded as top Democratic leaders increasingly called for President Joe Biden to end his

candidacy to allow Vice President Kamala Harris or another Democrat to replace him ahead of next month's Democratic Convention in Chicago. Joining me to discuss all of this week's developing news is Casey Harper, the center scores Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief. Casey, you covered Trump's speech. Let's start there. What are your takeaways? I mean, it was a pretty sort of magical moment in politics. The first remarks after the survival of his assassination attempt, we saw a bit of a different Trump, a more serious Trump, a more somber Trump.

He described in detail the shooting from his perspective, what it felt like to have the bullet, you know, hit the side of his face, how the reaction of the crowd in particular affected him emotionally. he said that, you know, the fact that they didn't run in fear but supported him. He felt very loved by that. I found that interesting. He talked about raising his fist to fight and how bloody his hand was, which of course has become an iconic moment, an iconic photo. And many people, even people that I personally know, and, you know, in the media and on Twitter and elsewhere talking about that moment where he raised his fist and said, fight, fight, fight, was such a powerful moment. And a

moment where they said, oh, I'm going to vote for Trump, even though, which I thought was really interesting, that that really sealed the deal for some people. But it's such an interesting time, as you called it, I think earlier, surreal. And I think that's right. We have one candidate, the incumbent president, and there's talks of him resigning possibly in the next few days, even though he's already won the nomination, essentially, being forced out by his own party, while the other is a former president who lost, contested the election. and now running again, facing indictments. But the Supreme Court comes in and says, well, he's partially immune for some of them.

And now he survives an assassination attempt. And he's at a rally accepting the thing. So it's just a, it's a crazy time to be in the media, but just even to be an American. And so I think people are longing for some peace and stability. But I don't think they're going to get it at least maybe next year. But I don't think that's coming. Let me clarify one thing. Casey, not on President Biden, not necessarily resigning, but ending his candidacy to run again next year.

Let's talk a little bit about the drama leading up to President Trump's, former President Trump's selection of a vice presidential candidate. He finally announced, ended the speculation when he announced that it would be J.D. Vance, U.S. senator from Ohio. what do you think of the pick? You know, Vance, I think, is a very smart pick. He's young in a race where one of the main criticisms and talking points is how old the candidates are. So he's young. He's a fresh face, which means he doesn't have the baggage that someone with a longer career in politics will have. He's from Ohio, which is right in the neighborhood of the states that Trump really wants to take away from Biden, you know, Ohio, Pennsylvania in particular.

Some of these union states in the Midwest in that area where Biden has a lot of pool, Trump wants to weaken that. In fact, if you remember in 2020 in the election, one of the main reasons the Democrats gathered around Biden, even though he wasn't winning the primary, really. Buttigieg dropped out. Kamala Harris dropped out and rallied behind Biden because they thought Trump could beat Biden because, or they thought Biden could beat Trump because Biden has that appeal to union voters to working class. midwestern voters. And there's truth in that. And so I think Trump is trying to respond to this kind of chess game by putting Vance out there at the convention, Vance shared his story, which is very compelling. There's a Netflix movie about a movie on Netflix about him that you can watch about his story. He grew up in a very poor, kind of drug-riddled family that was sort of a, you know,

it's sort of typical of the experience of a lot of American families in the hollowing out of the Midwest over the last few decades. And so that's a really powerful moment. I think he did pretty good. He's a, he's a softer, gentler version of America first that I think accomplishes also, you know, accomplishes the reaching for the Midwest, but he also maybe can be less offensive to suburban women, which is an extremely important demographic in every election now, but especially this one. So he plugged some holes for Trump. And he's also put some intellectual Chops to the America First movement, which is often seen as kind of not having the intellectual chops. So he wrote, you know, he wrote Hillbilly Ellogy, which is really showed his Yale side

and explaining from a sort of anthropological and demographic view what happened in America to propel Trump to the White House. And it was a best-selling book. Of course, the Netflix movie came after it. So he's opposite of Trump in a lot of ways, but shares the messaging. And the question is Dan, do you think he is the heir apparent to the America First Movement? I find that a very interesting question. That is an interesting question, Casey, but let's set that aside for another day. While the Republican National Convention felt very much like a party, in fact, one of our colleagues said it felt like a rock concert, the Democratic National Convention, which is just a few weeks away in Chicago, it could have a much different feel and tone with widespread

speculation that Biden might actually step aside. Where are we at with that? I mean, we are in the, you know, by the time people start listening to this segment and by the time they finish it, there might be an update. I mean, that is how fast that story is changing. New developments are coming up constantly. Tons of media reporting that it's imminent that he's going to step down. Now publicly, the White House has sort of pushed back and denied this, but we don't know what's going up behind the scenes. I think what's really, interesting question if he steps down is does he throw his weight behind Kamala Harris and endorse her or does he leave it to an open convention and let you know gretchen wittenmer and gavin newsome

make their their bid if they want it and do they make that bid behind the scenes or publicly at the convention i mean if trump's um can convention if like a rock concert an open convention could feel like a knife fight and we have not seen anything like that where the the presidency to chance to take on don't Trump is just this, it's like the, going to be like the hungry game stand, either publicly or behind the scenes. Thank you for joining us today, Casey. Listeners can keep up with this developing story and more at thecenter square.com.