The NPR Politics Podcast - After Assassination Attempt, Trump Reclaims The Limelight

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

In a lengthy speech formally accepting the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump made his case for serving a second term focused on mass deportations and border security, isolationist "America First" foreign policy and deep tax cuts.This episode: White House correspondent Asma Khalid, campaign correspondent Franco Ordoñez, senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson.The podcast is produced by Jeongyoon Han, Casey Morell and Kelli Wessinger. Our intern is Bria Suggs. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi. Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at AutographCollection.com. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover the White House. I'm Frank Ordonez. I cover the presidential campaign. And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent. And the time now is 11.51 p.m. Central Time on Thursday, July 18th of 2024.

And we're here. You can in fact probably hear some of the balloons being popped from the balloon drop this evening. But we are here just as Donald Trump wrapped up his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination in Milwaukee. I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America. And he started his speech with this dramatic, yet I would say rather somber, retelling of the assassination attempt. So many people have asked me, what happened? Tell us what happened, please.

And therefore, I will tell you exactly what happened. And you'll never hear it from me a second time because it's actually too painful to tell. This is the first time the public has heard directly from Trump since the shooting. I started to, like this, turn to my right and was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I'm very lucky I didn't do, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear.

I said to myself, wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet. And moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down. My hand was covered with blood. Franco, what did you hear in that story? I mean, it was very dramatic. And I can tell you, when I looked across the arena, folks were really, you know, really gripped and on the edge of their seats. Some people even crying. I mean, when he said, I'm not supposed to be here, I mean, you could hear some of the crowd. Folks were like saying, yes, you are.

I mean, it just shows to me how powerful, you know, surviving an attempted assassination can be, but also how helpful it can be politically. And, you know, in this scenario, they used it to their advantage. Yeah, the guy survived an assassination attempt. He earned the right to milk it for all it's worth. So Trump started off his speech tonight with these calls for unity, and he didn't sound angry. But as the speech went on, it seemed like it turned into a bit of a classic Trump campaign speech. 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.

Franco, you spent a lot of time listening to the president out on the campaign trail. Was this his usual shtick? I mean, certainly the second part of the speech was absolutely kind of like hitting the greatest hits of the speech. You know, attacking the Biden administration on immigration, saying the border was as it ever has been in history under his administration. There were record numbers of border crossings under him as well. You know, no inflation, according to him, under in the Trump administration, you know, saying he stopped human trafficking, which he did not, saying that the country is on the edge of World War Three, talking about that he is not a threat to democracy, that Biden is a threat to democracy and repeating these claims that they stole the election from him. And these are things you often hear when he goes out on the road. Absolutely.

I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've heard some of these phrases, some of these sentences. You know, Mara and I were looking at each other during the speech and saying, yep, we've heard this one before. Yeah, and look, the campaign was trying to shape the coverage of the speech by telling us in advance that it was going to be different, that he'd ripped up the speech. That was one of the biggest lies told here, because this was exactly what he does in a rally. He had ripped up his speech, and he was completely

rewriting it, and you were going to hear a new tone from Trump and a call for national unity. What you heard in the speech was when he would talk about unity, he says, in that spirit of unity, Democrats should just stop their persecution of me. So it was unity behind him. We just heard that cut of tape where he says, I'm running to be president of all of America, not half of America. That is something that I think that every single presidential candidate that I have covered actually says. That is anodyne. To say that that's some new and dramatic and profound call for unity is actually ridiculous. But I don't recall hearing that from Trump in 2016.

Not from him. Not from him. But this is a standard thing. It's almost boilerplate to say I'm running to be president for all of America, not half of America. That is as far as his national unity message got. I don't disagree at all. I absolutely agree that it is anodyne and it is like what every president says. But Trump is so far from any president before that. It's

amazing that when he says something like something that every other president has said, it's almost like noteworthy. Well, I don't know, because the rest of the speech didn't follow in that spirit. It felt like the unity was the lead and then the meat of this speech was classic Trump. One thing we did not hear mentioned at all from Trump was abortion. One of his biggest accomplishments. Yes. Yes. That he is often talks about how proud he is that he nominated the three conservative Supreme Court justices who gave the court the majority to overturn Roe. He knows it's unpopular. He's been trying to kind of shove it off to the side, saying,

oh, it's a state's thing. But abortion, the word abortion did not cross his lips tonight. I do want to talk a bit about the mood at this convention overall and to contrast it with when Trump first ran for president in 2016. My impression is that people here have been really remarkably happy and optimistic, cheery, happy to chat. I'm curious if that was your impression. They were 100% pro-Trump. Don't forget, 2016, party very divided. There were never-Trumpers inside the convention. There's not a single never-Trumper in here, I don't think.

Or at least we certainly haven't heard a peep out of them. This is a party that is 100% unified behind Trump. The platform is his. There really wasn't anything about this that wasn't Trumpian. All right. Well, on that note, let's take a quick break and we'll be back in a moment. And we're back. And I want us to discuss some of the religious rhetoric that we have heard that has cropped up this week around the former President Donald Trump. The idea that he was protected by some sort of miracle, that God was able to help him turn his head to escape that assassination attempt on him last weekend. This idea that God was in the room.

Here's how evangelical leader Franklin Graham put it in his remarks tonight. Last Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, President Trump had a near-death experience. No question. But God spared his life. It's a similar message we heard from Trump's son, Eric. By the grace of God, divine intervention, and your guardian angels above, you survived. And, frankly, from Trump himself.

I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God. Franco, this idea that Trump is a vessel for God has long been a part of his appeal to evangelical supporters, but this week has felt different. Like the messaging about God is meant to appeal to a broad swath of the Republican base. What did you make of that? Yeah, I think it has been a big part and it has been a big part ever since the shooting itself. I mean, sources were telling me that Trump felt like he was touched by an angel. The Trump campaign was showing images on social media of pictures of Jesus behind President Trump. I mean, and the language used today, as you were pointing out, by Trump himself, it was more emphatic than I would say than we have heard in the past.

He has mentioned it before, but I felt it was a few more beats this time. Oh, I think it was a lot more. He said, I felt safe and secure. I had God on my side. Later, he said, it was a providential moment when I rose. He said, the crowd was confused. They thought I was dead. And then they see me standing up. I mean, he's fully accepted the religious aspect of his assassination attempt

and the confluence between him and God. God didn't just protect him. He almost was a godlike figure. There's a reason why so many speakers brought this up. I mean, because it's something that resonates with the audience here. Yeah. I heard this from some of the Republican voters I was talking to of their own accord would bring it up. I think it's a really interesting observation. You know, before we wrap up today's podcast, I think we need to address the very strange political split screen that we have been seeing all this week. Republicans here uniting behind Trump while President Biden

seems to be facing mounting pressure from some in his own party to drop out. I will say, of course, political parties always try to counter-program conventions, but I would say this is not counter-programming that Democrats had intended this week. Mara, why is this not getting resolved? 85% of the reason that Republicans are so confident is because the Democrats are imploding. It's not because Trump has found some incredible way to boost his poll numbers. It's that Biden is collapsing. It's not that Trump is soaring. That's why they're so confident, because the other guy is paralyzed and doesn't even know who's going to be at the top of their ticket.

Why is this not getting resolved? But things are happening. The Trump campaign is really, really lapping this up. You know, senior Trump campaign advisor Chris Lasavita was talking to Georgetown students earlier this week, and he described what was happening among Biden and his supporters as a coup against Biden. It was kind of the defense that they had when they were asked about, are you guys going to have a unity message? Are you going to reach across the aisle? The answer always was Republicans are unified. Look at what's happening to the Democrats and look at how they're trying to take Biden out. I mean, it was very strong and

there was almost like a palpable excitement about that. And as Mara says, you add that to the debate about the rising poll numbers, how well they're doing in some battleground states, they're feeling pretty good about themselves. And in terms of things are happening on the Democratic side, I mean, I think we're getting closer to Biden being off the ticket. One after another, prominent Democrats have gone to meet with him to tell him that they not only don't think he can win, but that he's going to, if he stays in the race, he's going to lose their chance of taking back the House and hurt other down-ballot candidates. One prominent Democrat told me today that Biden knows he's frail. Now, that's new. Up until now, Biden has insisted there was nothing wrong with him and he

was perfectly capable. So I do think things are moving. Pelosi, Jeffries, Schumer have all been to see him. Today, the second sitting senator, John Tester of Montana, said he should step aside. Peter Welch from Vermont was the only other senator who had done that. The one really important person we're waiting to hear from is James Clyburn. We haven't heard that he's talked to him. We know that he has been a supporter of Biden's, but also he's very much in favor of Kamala Harris taking over if that's what it comes to. All right. Well, that is a wrap for today's show. We will be back in your feeds on Monday, but we, of course, are going to keep an eye on all the breaking news this weekend. And if news

breaks, we will be there for you. Our executive producer is Muthoni Mathuri. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our producers are Jung Yoon Han, Casey Murrell, and Kelly Wessinger. Our intern is Bria Suggs. Special thanks this week to Patrick Murray, Zach Coleman, and Jay Siz for being our audio engineers on site here at the Pfizer Forum. Along with all of our other operations staff, both here in Milwaukee and back in Washington, who have made these podcasts this week possible. And another big shout out to NPR member station WUWM 89.7 Milwaukee's NPR for hosting us all this week. We are incredibly grateful for their help and their hospitality. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover the White House. I'm Frank Ordonez. I cover the campaign. And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent. And thank you all, as always, for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.