The NPR Politics Podcast - RNC Day 1: J.D. Vance Is Trump's Vice Presidential Pick

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

We're reporting from Milwaukee, Wisc., where the Republican National Convention kicked off by officially nominating Donald Trump and J.D. Vance as their 2024 ticket. Also: Trump is free, for now, of another set of criminal charges. And Biden came out swinging in an interview with NBC News.This episode: White House correspondent Asma Khalid, campaign correspondent Franco Ordoñez, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.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

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover the White House. I'm Franco Ordonez. I cover the campaign. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And the time now is 10.27 p.m. Central Time on Monday, July 15th, day one of the Republican National Convention. And we are here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Pfizer Forum Arena where it is now official Donald Trump is the Republican Party's nominee and Senator J.D. Vance from Ohio is the vice presidential nominee. 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 President of the United States. Delegates and alternates, ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to announce that Senator J.D. Vance has the overwhelming support of this convention to be the next vice president of the United States. So let's start with the big news of the day here. Trump has named his vice presidential pick J.D. Vance. Franco, tell us a little bit more about who he is. Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio. I mean, he is a former Marine who wrote a bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.

He's actually a one-time critic of Trump who said he'd even write in the name of his dog before voting for Trump. Then Vance did become one of Trump's staunchest champions on issues like trade, foreign policy, and immigration. And when did that transition come about? That came during the administration. And, you know, he really turned into one of the candidates of all those who are in the running for this job. He was kind of seen as the most ideologically in line with Trump. There was actually one of the pushbacks against him was that Trump didn't like beards. And when he was questioned about it, Trump responded that Vance looked like a, quote, young Abraham Lincoln. Well, this is really a messaging pick. I mean, he's 39 years old. And I think it really also shows the influence of Donald Trump Jr., as well as Eric Trump, and how the sons really

have kind of stepped into this sort of advisory role compared to Ivanka and Jared Kushner, when in the first part of the administration, she was much more establishment leaning and kind of advised him to pick Mike Pence, who no longer obviously part of the ticket anymore because he would not go along with not certifying the results of the election. J.D. Vance has said that he would not have certified the results of that election, gone along kind of with Trump's election lies, really. And I think it really symbolizes with Donald Trump Jr., J.D. Vance, even Charlie Kirk from Turning Point USA, who was on the stage tonight and was once a personal assistant to Donald Trump Jr. and now part of this kind of really right-wing MAGA young group

that is now also running turnout for the Republican National Committee really does symbolize the direction, the next generation that Trump wants to sort of hand the mantle over to. And that next generation being what? Folks who are more focused on prioritizing American interests, on the economy, foreign policy, and whatnot? Yeah. I mean, I think it's about putting, as Trump likes to say, putting the interests of domestic United States first. It's looking at issues like immigration, putting border enforcement, spending less on issues like Ukraine and other foreign wars. It's about putting U.S. priorities ahead of others.

You know, I think Democrats would argue that they do put America first, you know, that they're looking out for the interests of the United States across the world and within the United States, especially for those who are marginalized, who might not have gotten the kind of leg up that they feel people within the Republican Party have had. But I think that the real shift that we've seen is really this populist, nativist shift that is really culture-driven. You know, when we were talking to delegates on the floor tonight, they certainly, you know, thought about J.D. Vance and thought about, you know, he's young and maybe he can appeal to younger voters, which there's really no evidence for that. But he is somebody who goes on the air,

talks quite a bit, very forcefully about the MAGA message. And that's really one that's about crime and immigration. I mean, speaking of that populist message, I was really struck by Trump and his allies have really worked hard to kind of build themselves with working class Americans and to bring in the Teamsters union leader, Sean O'Brien. That was really quite amazing considering how close Teamsters have been with Democrats over the year. And for Sean O'Brien to not only speak, but to speak so forcefully to this crowd was pretty amazing. Calling Trump a tough SOB, saying that he would not follow in the footsteps of so many of his predecessors. Today, today the Teams are here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party.

You can be sure that that was watched very closely by Biden in the campaign. And it's relatively unprecedented, right? I mean, there hasn't been somebody from the Teamsters who's spoken at the Republican convention ever. It's never happened. Yeah, no, this is the first time that's happened. He was elected in 2021.

He's really seen a bit of a shift, obviously, within the Teamsters. Joe Biden won union households by 16 points in 2020, more than Hillary Clinton, about the same as what Barack Obama had done previously. Now, Sean O'Brien did not endorse Donald Trump on that stage, even though he did give the longest speech that we heard today. But he's also noted that he was not invited by the Democrats yet. Anyway, he'd like to speak at the DNC as well, but that he's open to other, you to unionize, the time that it would take to be able to try to unionize. Really, Donald Trump was no friend to unions, but there's a big culture piece of this. And I do think that if there was one theme out of this first night, it was this appeal to the working class. And I think that that's really key because of where we are. I mean, we're looking out right now onto this arena where the Milwaukee

Bucks play. And you know, all this red, white and blue, a lot of red, frankly, that's down there, you hear some of the background noise of people trying to clean up tonight. But this is Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it's one of those blue wall states. If Democrats are able to hold on to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan and able to pull over that one blue dot in Omaha, Nebraska, then Joe Biden would be reelected president. So if Donald Trump is able to take out one of the blocks of the blue wall, as he did in 2016, he's going to have to do it by making a working class appeal. I want to talk about the tone of the night, because this was really Donald Trump's first public appearance since the assassination attempt. He came in into the arena with a big gauze bandage over his ear as, was it Lee Greenwood was singing God Bless the USA. It was this moment, you just heard thunderous applause in the arena. It was, I think, relatively symbolic of where the

Republican Party is in this moment, which is Trump's party. It feels remarkably different than the 2016 convention that I remember seeing where Trump was first nominated. No question about it. I mean, we were there. We were doing the same kind of podcast. And we were talking about, you know, the WWE-like setting with Ted Cruz trying to stage a coup coming down from the rafters, you know, and trying to overturn what was the will of the delegates.

And it didn't work. But Trump had a lot of work to do. So this is the first convention we've had like this to be able to go to and see what it's like. And it's way more totally Trump, right? I mean, this is the Trump party. I mean, this is the TNC, if you will, the Trump National Convention, because it's very much, there's very much a sense of calm within the audience, a strong sense of confidence that they're going to win almost as like a zen confidence i i haven't been to a lot of these kinds of uh political conventions where uh republicans um have

weren't like where there wasn't this under sort of um you know under undercurrent of anger that i've seen at the cpacs i've been to over the last 15 years. Not here tonight. The Tea Party conventions I've been to. No, not tonight. And it's really the first gathering I've seen like that. And, you know, it's hard to separate that from Joe Biden's poor debate performance and where Republicans really feel like this is going with the wind at their back. I mean, I was also taken by the show of that moment. It kind of reminded me a bit of when Trump, then President Trump, returned after

recovering from COVID. And he came back, flew in, and then walked up the steps of the South Portico on the White House and took a moment and addressed, you know, supporters. You know, he kind of, you know, it wasn't as much of a spectacle as that was. But, you know, supporters, you know, he kind of, you know, it wasn't as much of a spectacle as that was, but, you know, you had cameras following his walk backstage to the crowd, you know, as you were pointing out the music playing, and then he like hugged and met with his family, you know, shook hands and then took a moment in front of the crowd, like you said, with the bandage, you know, very clearly on his right ear and just kind of soaked in all that energy, that adulation. The crowd was just cheering. They started to cheer, fight, fight, fight, fight. Let's remember, in the midst of the shooting on

Saturday, after he was shot in the right ear and Trump was pulled up by secret service, he said, wait a minute. And he stood up, pumped his fist, and he smiled to the crowd, fight, fight, fight. And to me, that was the crowd responding back to him today. I was actually surprised at how few people mentioned the shooting on Saturday, the assassination attempt. In fact, when Sean O'Brien people mentioned the shooting on Saturday, the assassination attempt. In fact, when Sean O'Brien spoke, the Teamsters head, he mentioned that. And as Franco had alluded to, noted that he called him a, what did he call him? A tough SOB, right?

That really was kind of like the biggest roar of the crowd, aside from Trump coming out of any of the speakers that we saw tonight. So, you know, clearly it's the subtext of what's going on here. Yeah, but not a lot of anger to that point. It does feel like a much more optimistic convention and optimistic mood given the events of the weekend in particular. Now, looking forward... I think that speaks to what you were talking about earlier, Domenico, is just how confident they feel. I mean, we're talking about, you know, we're talking about not the shooting on Saturday,

but also this is also momentum that was built, you know, a couple of weeks ago after that debate. I mean, since the debate, the Republican Party, the Trump Party per se, has been feeling very strong and very confident about how they've been doing. Looking forward, you know, this idea, though, that Donald Trump is saying that he is going to have a message of unity, that he's ripped up his speech, his acceptance speech for Thursday night.

I find it fascinating that he picked J.D. Vance because Vance is not exactly the unity candidate, because in what he said in the immediate moments after that assassination attempt was pointing the finger squarely at President Biden and Democrats. All right, well, let's take a quick break. And when we get back, we'll have more to discuss. And we're back. And just before the break, we were talking about this unity message in the Republican Party. Friggo, you were talking to some sources about this. What are you hearing? Yeah, I mean, I spoke with a source close to Trump who told me that, yes, indeed,

Trump does plan to make changes, that he's been working on retooling his speech to one more of unity. You know, and Trump says that he felt like he was, quote, touched by an angel during that shooting on Saturday. But I, you know, I do agree with Domenico. And I think let's let's wait and see. This is not Trump's M.O.

You know, he is known for his strong, strong language. He's not, you know, one.D. Vance, who really is kind of an attack dog, a fierce fighter who gave one of the most fiery statements following the shooting. You know, it's interesting, you know, you were mentioning J.D. Vance. He pretty explicitly suggested that the assassination attempt was the result of Democrats, Joe Biden campaign rhetoric. And earlier this evening in an NBC interview, Lester Holt asked the president about some of the rhetoric that he has used in some fundraising pitches, et cetera, and explicitly asked Biden about the idea of putting Trump in a bullseye, something that was reported the president said. And Biden said it was a mistake to use the word bullseye while discussing former President Trump. He said he really wants people, what he meant to say was that people ought to focus more

on what Trump is saying. I mean, did the president mention changing any of his language going forward? I don't know that it's clear that the president's going to change. I was talking about threats to democracy. In fact, Lester Holt asked him about that. But have you taken a step back and done a little soul-searching on things that you may have said that could incite people who are not balanced? Well, I don't think, look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy,

which is real, when a president says things like he says. Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody? Look, I mean, the fact is, you know, there's been plenty of violent rhetoric on the right. And, I mean, it's been Trump's brand to go after groups in really vitriolic ways for so long. I mean, from the Central Park Five before he was president to to Muslims, to immigrants, to even the press, right? I mean, in this campaign, we've seen documented evidence for the fact that his rhetoric has become even more vitriolic and has really brought in violent imagery, you know, even more so.

So, you know, this is not something that's like, oh, you know, Joe Biden really needs to watch his tone, because I don't think that this is if you're just objectively looking at who is using more violent rhetoric. It's clearly Donald Trump. Before I let you all go for the night, I just want to mention that in addition to formally receiving the nomination today, Trump got some other good news. A federal judge in Florida tossed out the federal case charging Trump with refusing to return classified documents after he left the White House. And I think it's important to talk about that case. It was in the news a lot. So what exactly happened? Yeah, Judge Eileen Cannon in Florida, federal judge, tossed out the classified documents case. It was one of the strongest cases seen to be against Trump because of all the documentary evidence. You know, she essentially said that Jack Smith, the prosecutor in this case,

was unconstitutionally appointed. This is sure to be appealed, but, you know, it's not going to happen before the election. So this case is basically another one that's been pushed off beyond the election. And, you know, the Trump team has been really adept at what I've been calling the three Ds, dismiss, delay, distract, and they got another win here with this one, no matter what happens in the end with whether the government wins an appeal or not. A big legal win and a big political win. Huge, both ways. All right, well, on that note, let's wrap up today's show.

We'll be back in your feed tomorrow again after night two of the Republican convention. And to all our NPR Politics Plus supporters who had their bonus episode bumped from all the news this weekend, we will reschedule it and we'll be back in your feeds very soon. By the way, if you're not a supporter yet, please check it out at plus.npr.org slash politics. It supports us. It supports all the good local journalism you appreciate. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover the White House. I'm Franco Ordonez. I cover the campaign. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.

And thank you all, as always, for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.