Donald Trump’s elusive wife Melania made a rare appearance at the Republican National Convention in support of Donald Trump’s third bid for the White House, but broke with decades of tradition by not speaking at the event.

Wearing Republican red, Melania, 54, walked, alone, into the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday accompanied by classical music.

She has kept a low profile during her husband’s 2024 White House bid. She had not been spotted in Milwaukee since the convention kicked off on Monday.

Last week, Melania issued a statement calling for unity following an assassination attempt against Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

“This morning, ascend above the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence. We all want a world where respect is paramount, family is first, and love transcends. We can realise this world again. Each of us must demand to get it back. We must insist that respect fills the cornerstone of our relationships again,” she said in a statement.

It is traditional at party conventions for the candidates’ spouses to give a speech and tell heavily-scripted anecdotes about family life.

On Wednesday evening, Usha Vance – the wife of Trump’s newly-minted running mate JD Vance – did just that. But Melania skipped delivering a speech.

Ever since her husband was first elected in 2016, Melania Trump has broken all the rules of normal American presidential politics.

In the White House during Trump’s first term, she was a reclusive figure compared to other first ladies, focusing on a narrow set of interests.

And since her husband left office, she has not been seen by her husband’s side on many occasions.

She wasn’t there when he had his mugshot taken in Atlanta. She wasn’t there in New York when he became the first former president to be convicted of a crime. And she wasn’t there when he officially won his party’s presidential nomination, for the third time, on Monday.

The former first lady spoke in both 2020 and 2016 during Trump’s presidential nomination. She was accused of borrowing from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech in her first appearance in 2016.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Donald Trump, defiant and bandaged, accepted the GOP presidential nomination on July 18 at the Republican National Convention in a speech that described in detail the assassination attempt that could have ended his life just five days earlier before laying out a sweeping populist agenda, particularly on immigration.

The 78-year-old former president, known best for his bombast and aggressive rhetoric, began his acceptance speech with a softer and deeply personal message that drew directly from his brush with death. Moment by moment, the crowd listening in silence, Trump described standing onstage in Butler, Pennsylvania, with his head turned to look at a chart on display when he felt something hit his ear. He raised his hand to his head and saw immediately that it was covered in blood.

“If I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark,” Trump said. “And I would not be here tonight. We would not be together.”

Trump’s address, the longest convention speech in modern history at just under 93 minutes, marked the climax and conclusion of a massive four-day Republican pep rally that drew thousands of conservative activists and elected officials to swing-state Wisconsin as voters weigh an election that currently features two deeply unpopular candidates. Sensing political opportunity in the wake of his near-death experience, the often bombastic Republican leader embraced a new tone he hopes will help generate even more momentum in an election that appears to be shifting in his favor.

“The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart,” Trump said, wearing a large white bandage on his right ear, as he has all week, to cover a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting. “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.”

While he spoke in a gentler tone than at his usual rallies, Trump also outlined an agenda led by what he promises would be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. He repeatedly accused people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally of staging an “invasion.” Additionally, he teased new tariffs on trade and an “America first” foreign policy.

Trump also falsely suggested Democrats had cheated during the 2020 election he lost — despite a raft of federal and state investigations proving there was no systemic fraud — and suggested “we must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement,” even as he has long called for prosecutions of his opponents.

He did not mention abortion rights, an issue that has bedeviled Republicans ever since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federally guaranteed right to abortion two years ago. Trump nominated three of the six justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. Trump at his rallies often takes credit for Roe being overturned and argues states should have the right to institute their own abortion laws.

Nor did he mention the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in which Trump supporters tried to stop the certification of his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump has long referred to the people jailed for the riot as “hostages.”

Also read | Republicans find god’s plans in Trump’s escape 

Indeed, Trump barely mentioned Mr. Biden, often referring only to the “current administration.”

“It was Donald Trump who destroyed our economy, ripped away rights, and failed middle class families,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign chair, in a statement after the speech. “Now he pursues the presidency with an even more extreme vision for where he wants to take this country.”

With less than four months to go in the contest, major changes in the race are possible, if not likely.

Trump’s appearance came as Mr. Biden, the 81-year-old Democratic incumbent, clings to his party’s presumptive nomination in the face of unrelenting pressure from key congressional allies, donors and even former President Barack Obama, who fear he may be unable to win reelection after his disastrous debate.

Long pressed by allies to campaign more vigorously, Mr. Biden is instead in isolation at his beach home in Delaware after having been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Hours before the balloons were scheduled to rain down on Trump and his family inside the convention hall, Biden deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks appeared nearby in Milwaukee and insisted over and over that Mr. Biden would not step aside.

“I do not want to be rude, but I don’t know how many more times I can answer that,” Fulks told reporters. “There are no plans being made to replace Biden on the ballot.”

Thursday’s RNC program seemed designed to project strength and masculinity in an implicit rebuke of Mr. Biden.

Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White called Trump “a real American bad ass.” Kid Rock performed a song with the chorus, “Fight, fight!,” echoing the word Trump mouthed on stage in Pennsylvania as Secret Service agents surrounded him. And wrestling icon Hulk Hogan described the former president as “an American hero.”

Hogan drew a raucous response when, standing on the main stage, he ripped off his shirt to reveal a red “Make America Great Again” shirt.

“As an entertainer, I try to stay out of politics,” Hogan said as he briefly broke character. “I can no longer stay silent.”

Like many speakers during the convention, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested that recent events were divinely inspired and that he wondered “if something bigger is going on.”

“I think it changed him,” Carlson said of the shooting, praising Trump for not lashing out in anger afterward.

“He did his best to bring the country together,” Carlson added. “This is the most responsible, unifying behavior from a leader I’ve ever seen.”

Former first lady Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump, the president’s elder daughter and former senior adviser, joined Trump in the convention hall ahead of his speech, making their first appearances there. Neither woman spoke.

At nearly 93 minutes, the former president’s speech eclipsed the 74 minutes for which he spoke eight years ago, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The convention has showcased a Republican Party reshaped by Trump since he shocked the GOP establishment and won over the party’s grassroots on his way to the party’s 2016 nomination. Rivals Trump has vanquished — including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — put aside their past criticisms and gave him their unqualified support.

Even his vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s choice to carry his movement into the next generation, was once a fierce critic who suggested in a private message since made public that Trump could be “America’s Hitler.”

Security was a major focus in Milwaukee in the wake of Trump’s near-assassination. But after nearly four full days, there were no serious incidents inside the convention hall or the large security perimeter that surrounded it.

The Secret Service, backed by hundreds of law enforcement officers from across the nation, had a large and visible presence. And during Trump’s appearances each night, he was surrounded by a wall of protective agents wherever he went.

Meanwhile, Trump and his campaign have not released information about his injury or the treatment he received. The former president on Thursday described his story of surviving the attack — and vowed he would not talk about it again.

“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump told the packed convention hall. The crowd of thousands, which was listening in silence, shouted back, “Yes, you are.”

Milwaukee:

At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, a fashion trend with a difference has emerged – fake ear bandages, donned by attendees as a symbolic gesture of support for Donald Trump.

Trump has appeared at the convention wearing a large bandage where a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his right ear at a rally on Saturday.

“We’re helping President Trump set a new fashion statement,” said Arizona delegate Susan Ellsworth. “We’re standing in solidarity with him for his wound. And we just want him to know how much we love him.”

The four-day convention will culminate with a prime-time address by Trump on Thursday when he formally accepts the party’s nomination to face Democrat Joe Biden in a rematch of their 2020 race.

Delegate Michael Schafer, sporting a bandage taped to his right ear, said the trend was not quite the same as the ubiquitous red “Make America Great Again” hat.

“I think it’s something that’s of the moment,” he said.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of JD Vance, at the Republican National Convention said that neither JD Vance nor she expected to find themselves in this position on Thursday. “But it’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American Dream,” she added, introducing her husband after Donald Trump named him his running mate for the US presidential polls.

Future Second Lady Usha Vance: “Neither J.D. nor I expected to find ourselves in this position — but it’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American Dream.”

FULL REMARKS: pic.twitter.com/JJgdJbem0H

— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) July 18, 2024

Usha, born to immigrant parents from Andhra Pradesh, shared their story from the stage of the RNC. Recounting their first meeting and the journey that led them to this moment, she said “There was only one thing to do, to explain, from the heart, why I love and admire JD, why I stand here beside him today, and why he will make a great Vice President of the United States.”

She shared how they met at the law school, where JD was a “working-class student” who had “overcome childhood traumas” and served in Iraq as a Marine. “A tough Marine who had served in Iraq but whose idea of a good time was playing with puppies,” she said.

Usha shed light on the Ohio senator’s curious and enthusiastic approach to their differences when they first met, including his adaptation to her vegetarian diet and learning to cook Indian food from her mother. “Although he is a meat and potato kind of guy, he adapted to my vegetarian diet and learnt to cook Indian food from my mother,” she said.

JD and Usha Vance met at Yale Law School and married in 2014. The couple has three children together – Ewan, 6, Vivek, 4, and Mirabel, 2.

JD Vance also delivered a powerful speech at the RNC, talking about his roots in small-town Ohio and the economic challenges communities across the Rust Belt faced. He spoke about the struggles of small towns in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and other states, where jobs have been sent overseas and children have been sent to war.

He vowed to be a champion for these forgotten communities, promising to never forget his humble beginnings. “I promise you this: I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from,” JD said.

“To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and every corner of our nation, I will fight for you, I will stand with you, and I will never forget the struggles we face.”

JD Vance introduced himself to a national audience on July 17 after being chosen as Donald Trump’s running mate, sharing the story of his hardscrabble upbringing and making the case that his party best understands the challenges facing struggling Americans.

Speaking to a packed arena at the Republican National Convention, the Ohio senator cast himself as a fighter for a forgotten working class, making a direct appeal to the Rust Belt voters who helped drive Mr. Trump’s surprise 2016 victory and voicing their anger and frustration.

“In small towns like mine in Ohio, or next door in Pennsylvania, or in Michigan, in states all across our country, jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war,” he said.

“To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and every corner of our nation, I promise you this,” he said. “I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.”

The 39-year-old Ohio senator is a relative political unknown, having served in the Senate for less than two years. He rapidly morphed in recent years from a bitter critic of the former President to an aggressive defender and is now positioned to become the future leader of the party and the torch-bearer of Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” political movement.

The first millennial to join the top of a major party ticket, Mr. Vance enters the race as questions about the age of the men at the top — 78-year-old Mr. Trump and 81-year-old President Joe Biden — have been high on the list of voters’ concerns. He also joins Mr. Trump after an assassination attempt against the former President — in which Mr. Trump came perhaps millimetres from death or serious injury — underscoring the importance of a potential successor.

But Mr. Trump’s decision to choose Mr. Vance wasn’t about picking a running mate or the next Vice President, said Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who introduced the senator at a fundraiser earlier on July 17.

“Donald Trump picked a man in J.D. Vance that is the future of the country, the future of the Republican Party, the future of the America First movement,” he said.

In his speech, Mr. Vance shared his story of growing up poor in Kentucky and Ohio, his mother addicted to drugs and his father absent. He later joined the Marines, graduated from Yale Law School, and went on to the highest levels of U.S. politics — an embodiment of an American dream he said is in now in short supply.

“Never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I’d be standing here tonight,” he said.

Mr. Vance gained prominence following the publication of his bestselling 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which tells the story of his blue-collar roots. The book became a must-read for those seeking to understand the cultural forces that propelled Trump to the White House that year. Mr. Vance spent years as a Trump critic, assailing the former President with insults, before he changed his mind.

Mr. Vance, who had never attended, let alone spoken at a previous Republican convention, spent much of his speech talking up Mr. Trump and going after Mr. Biden, using his relative youth to draw a contrast with the 81-year-old President.

Mr. Vance says he was in fourth grade when “a career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good American manufacturing jobs to Mexico.”

“Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington as long as I’ve been alive,” he added. “For half a century, he’s been a champion of every single policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”

The crowd inside the convention hall welcomed Vance warmly. They erupted into chants of “Mamaw!” in honour of his grandmother, and chanted “J.D.’s Mom!” after he introduced his mother, a former addict who has been sober for 10 years.

Mr. Vance was introduced on July 17 night by his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, who talked of the stark difference between how she and her husband grew up — she was a middle-class immigrant from San Diego, and he is from a low-income Appalachian family. She called him “a meat and potatoes kind of guy” who respected her vegetarian diet and learned to cook Indian food for her mother.

Mr. Trump, again wearing a bandage over his injured ear, watched Mr. Vance speak from his family box and was often seen smiling.

Most Americans — and Republicans — didn’t know much about Mr. Vance before July 17 night. According to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which was conducted before Trump selected the freshman senator as his choice, 6 in 10 Americans don’t know enough about him to have formed an opinion. That includes 61% of Republicans.

Democrats have attacked Mr. Vance for his past support for a national abortion ban, his criticism of U.S. involvement in Ukraine, and his eagerness to blame Democrats for Trump’s assassination attempt. But the young senator steered clear of such controversies in his remarks, which were light on the red-meat conservative attacks that convention audiences typically expect.

Mr. Biden’s campaign responded with a blistering statement calling Vance “unprepared, unqualified, and willing to do anything Donald Trump demands.”

“Tonight, J.D. Vance, the poster boy for Project 2025, took center stage. But it’s working families and the middle class who will suffer if he’s allowed to stay there,” said Michael Tyler, Biden campaign communication director.

Convention organizers had stressed a theme of unity, even before Mr. Trump survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13. Mr. Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election and the subsequent attack on the U.S. Capitol, officials said, would be absent from the stage.

But that changed with former White House official Peter Navarro, who was greeted with a standing ovation hours after being released from a Miami prison where he served four months for defying a subpoena from the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of the former president’s supporter.

“If they can come for me, if they can come for Donald Trump, be careful. They will come for you,” he said in a fiery speech, comparing his legal troubles to those faced by Mr. Trump, who earlier this year was convicted on 34 felony charges in his criminal hush money trial.

Also spotted on the floor of the convention: Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign chair, and Roger Stone, who were both convicted as part of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in that election. Trump pardoned both Manafort and Stone.

Beyond Mr. Vance’s primetime speech, the Republican Party focused on July 17 on a theme of American global strength.

In a particularly powerful moment, the relatives of service members killed during Mr. Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan took the stage, holding photographs of their loved ones.

Christy Shamblin, whose daughter-in-law Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee died in the attack, spoke of the six hours she said Trump spent with her family in Bedminster, New Jersey and “spoke to us in a way that made us feel understood.”

“Donald Trump carried the weight for a few hours with me. And for the first time since Nicole’s death I felt I wasn’t alone in my grief,” she said.

Herman Lopez, whose son, Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez, was among those killed, read aloud the names of all 13 U.S. service members who died in the Aug. 26, 2021, attack.

Also featured were the parents of Omer Neutra, one of eight Americans still being held hostage in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

His parents, Ronen and Orna, said Mr. Trump called them after their son, a soldier in the Israeli army, was captured, and offered support. As they spoke, the crowd chanted “Bring them home!”

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is seen during the Republican National Convention on July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee.
| Photo Credit: AP

Analysis

Leaders, including many former critics and challengers, rallied behind Donald Trump on the second day of the Republican National Convention, several of them attributing to god his escape from an assassination attempt on July 13. Several of them cited the Bible, and suggested a divine plan in Mr. Trump’s leadership of the party. “I saw President Trump, a dear friend escape death by mere inches, and my thoughts immediately turned to the book of Isaiah..That says no weapon formed against you shall prosper,” Ben Carson, an African American leader who was an opponent of Mr. Trump in the 2016 primary and later a member of his Cabinet, said.

Two other primary opponents of Mr. Trump in 2016, Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders were also among those cited godly plans in Mr. Trump’s escape from death, which has become a key talking point among a section of his supporters, as is his show of courage in the aftermath. “The most repeated phrase in the Bible is, ‘do not be afraid ‘or ‘fear not.’ It appears 365 times in scripture,” said Mr. Carson.

Mr. Trump’s daughter-in-law and co-chair of the RNC, Lara Trump cited Proverbs to draw a stark contrast between the nominee and his opponents: “The wicked flee when no man pursues; But the righteous are bold as a lion.”

“It (Mr. Trump’s escape) reminds us that the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind is in the hands of god..” said Mr. Rubio, thanking Mr. Trump for “transforming our party”. Mr. Rubio has travelled a long way from his stiff challenge to Mr. Trump in 2016.

Far from resisting the transformation of the party under Mr. Trump, both Senators are now among the loudest cheerleaders of it. Mr. Cruz, who was the last standing primary challenger to Mr. Trump in 2016, all the way until the Convention, was effusive in his praise for him this time. “I worked hand-in-hand with President Trump to reduce illegal immigration to this country to a 45-year low. We will do it again,” he said, blaming illegal immigrants for crimes in the U.S.

Indian origin leaders

Two people of Indian origin — former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy — featured among the evening speakers, at the Convention of a party that is accused by its critics of fanning nativism among the country’s white population. Mr. Ramaswamy spoke on American identity, counting legal immigration as integral to it while arguing illegal immigration is in conflict with it. “America is built on the rule of law. You cannot enter this country by breaking the law.”

Ms. Haley, whose primary challenge to Mr. Trump collapsed early on, made a turnaround by pledging her absolute endorsement of his candidacy. She said she was not in agreement with Mr. Trump on all issues but curiously bracketed her militarist, interventionist foreign policy doctrine with his largely non-interventionist one.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who also made a short-lived attempt for nomination this time, fell behind Mr. Trump. Both Ms. Haley and Mr. DeSantis sought to keep their endorsement of Mr. Trump more as an opposition to the Democrats and the combination of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their ticket. In fact, Ms. Haley spent a considerable portion of her speech to portray the danger of Ms. Harris — whose mother was an Indian immigrant — ending up as President if Mr. Biden were to be elected again.

Milwaukee:

Climate change is little more than an afterthought for attendees at the Republican National Convention, who are gathered this week to crown Donald Trump as their party’s nominee for this November’s election.

“I don’t believe all that,” said Jack Prendergast, from New York, who believes that human activity does just as much harm to the planet as “when a volcano goes off.”

“Trump is going to drill pipelines and we’ll become the leading supplier of energy in the world, in the gas and the oil,” Prendergast told AFP.

And the former president has promised as much — adopting the slogan “drill, baby, drill” to sum up his fossil fuel-friendly approach.

Trump, who withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord during his first term, on Monday appointed a fellow climate skeptic as his running mate: Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.

The 39-year-old, who would become Trump’s vice president if they are elected, has previously accused Democrats of stirring up fears about climate change for political gain.

The two men will run on a 5,000-word Republican platform adopted on Monday by the party’s delegates which makes no mention of plans for climate change or renewable energy.

Instead, it promises to end “green” policies it deems “socialist,” and says the United States will become the world’s number one oil and natural gas producer — a position it already holds, according to official data.

Trump himself has said he is opposed to wind power — a widely-touted alternative to fossil fuels — as he is convinced it “kills all the birds.”

‘Bright future’ 

Climate groups such as the Sunrise Movement have criticized the Republican platform, saying the party “has made it clear that they’re happy to make the climate crisis worse.”

But for Stephen Perkins of the American Conservation Coalition — perhaps the only booth at the Republican convention focused on preserving the planet — you have to take Trump’s comments with “a grain of salt.”

“I think that some of his comments are meant to be more entertaining than policy positions,” said the 29-year-old, wearing a striped blue polo shirt.

His organization is hoping to show what a “conservative approach to environmental policy and climate policy look like,” which he thinks could entice younger voters.

But he concedes it’s a “slow process,” with older Republicans averse to agreeing to action on climate change.

According to a Yale survey published on Tuesday, more than two-thirds of Americans do believe in the existence of climate change.

However, that does not necessarily translate into support for Democratic President Joe Biden, who has pushed through several initiatives to combat global warming during his time in office.

Perkins instead believes Biden is at the mercy of a “radical sect” of progressives “that doesn’t engage in nuance.” His convention stand shows the word “destruction” alongside images of left-wing environmental activists throwing soup at a work of art.

If he had it his way, he would show that “we have a bright future ahead” despite the challenges of climate change, instead of “the doom and gloom.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, center, and Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, right, are joined in the box by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., left, during the Republican National Convention on July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee.
| Photo Credit: AP

Immigration took center stage as the Republican National Convention resumed on July 16, with speakers spotlighting a key element of former President Donald Trump ’s political brand that helped endear him to the GOP base when he began his first campaign in 2015.

Among speakers slated for Tuesday night were families who’ve been impacted by violent crime — part of a GOP strategy to link crime to border policies. They include the family of Rachel Morin, a Maryland woman whom prosecutors say was killed and raped by a fugitive from El Salvador and whose story has been frequently highlighted by Trump on the campaign trail.

Immigration has long been one of Trump’s banner issues, as he has criticized the unprecedented number of migrants entering the country illegally through the U.S. border with Mexico. The numbers of unauthorized crossings have fallen abruptly after President Joe Biden issued a rule suspending many asylum claims at the border.

At rallies and other campaign events, Trump has pointed to examples of migrants who committed heinous crimes and has blamed migration for the trafficking of drugs like fentanyl, even though federal data suggests many people smuggling fentanyl across the border are U.S. citizens. He has vowed to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.

Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric has also strayed into talking points not backed by evidence, including unfounded claims that migrants are entering the country to vote in the 2024 election.

Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House majority leader, made that statement in his remarks, declaring, “Biden and Harris want illegals to vote now that they’ve opened up the border.”

Senate candidates who were addressing the convention Tuesday not only blamed Biden for the number of migrants crossing the border, but just as often faulted Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Republicans have increasingly focused on amid speculation that she could replace Biden as the Democratic nominee after the president’s poor debate performance.

The GOP candidates, mindful of their own races, sought to blame their Democratic opponents as well. Pennsylvania candidate David McCormick, for example, tied in his challenger, Sen. Bob Casey, with the term “Biden-Harris-Casey wide open borders.”

Kari Lake, the party’s Senate candidate in Arizona, stuck to a message that appealed largely to the GOP base and her reputation as a former television news anchor turned conservative firebrand. She blasted the “fake news” for spending “the last eight years lying about President Donald Trump and his amazing patriotic supporters.” She also blamed Biden and Democrats for the situation on the U.S.-Mexico border, saying they’re “full of bad ideas.”

In the latest signal the party is solidifying to take on Biden in November, several of Trump’s fiercest GOP primary rivals will also speak Tuesday. They include former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Trump’s survival of an attempted assassination Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania was on the minds of many inside the hall. One of the delegates in the crowd could be seen with a folded white piece of paper over his ear — an apparent tribute to the bandage Trump wore when he entered the hall Monday to a roaring crowd.

Scalise, who was injured in a politically motivated shooting in 2017 while he was practicing for a charity baseball game, spoke of his own experience when he touched on Trump’s attack.

“While I was fighting for my life, Donald Trump was one of the first to come to console my family at the hospital. That’s the kind of leader he is. Courageous under fire, compassionate towards others,” Scalise said.

In the wake of Saturday’s attempt on Trump’s life, there was a heightened focus on security at the convention, which drew thousands of people to downtown Milwaukee, including a number of high-profile elected officials.

A man armed with an AK-47 pistol and wearing a ski mask was taken into custody Monday, the convention’s first day, near the Fiserv Forum where the convention is being held, a federal law enforcement official said Tuesday.

The 21-year-old was arrested after being encountered by U.S. Capitol Police and Homeland Security Investigations agents who said he was acting suspicious, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Police found the weapon in his backpack, the official said.

On Tuesday, five Ohio police officers who were in Wisconsin for the convention shot a man who was in a knife fight near the convention, killing him, Milwaukee’s police chief said.

The man who police shot had a knife in each hand and refused police commands, Milwaukee Chief Jeffrey Norman said at a news conference. Two knives were recovered from the scene, the chief said.

Trump and Vance were expected to appear in the hall each of the last three nights of the convention. Vance will speak Wednesday and Trump will speak Thursday.

Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Lawrence Tabas said he hoped the assassination attempt on Trump would reset the tone nationally, beginning with Trump’s scheduled remarks Thursday.

“After a brush with death, I do believe — going through that — that his message will be better, and I think will appeal to our better emotions,” Tabas said in an interview after the Pennsylvania GOP’s delegation breakfast in suburban Milwaukee.

Trump, who has long decried rivals with harsh language and talked about prosecuting opponents if he wins a second term, seemed poised to deliver a more toned-down speech. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said in an Axios interview outside the RNC that he spent three or four hours going through his father’s convention speech with him, “trying to de-escalate some of that rhetoric.”

“I think it lasts,” the younger Trump said of the change in his father’s rhetoric. “There are events that change you for a couple minutes, and there are events that change you permanently.”

Milwaukee:

A homeless black man, armed with two knives near a Republican Party National Convention site in Wisconsin, was shot dead by police officers from Ohio on Tuesday.

According to the police, the man, identified by relatives as 43-year-old Samuel Sharpe, was armed with a knife in each hand. The situation escalated when Sharpe charged at an unarmed individual, prompting the officers to open fire. Two knives were recovered from the scene.

“Someone’s life was in danger,” Milwaukee police chief Jeffrey Norman said during a press conference. “These officers, who were not from this area, took it upon themselves to act and save someone’s life today.”

The incident occurred amidst heightened security in Milwaukee, with thousands of officers from various jurisdictions present to ensure the safety of the Republican National Convention, which started on Monday and is set to conclude on Thursday.

The shooting, however, has sparked outrage among Milwaukee residents, who questioned the necessity of out-of-state officers patrolling their neighbourhood, which is located over a kilometre away from the convention site. Many locals gathered at the scene, voicing their anger and planning a nighttime vigil to honour Sharpe.

“They came into our community and shot down our family right here at a public park,” said Linda Sharpe, Samuel’s cousin. “What are you doing in our city, shooting people down?”

Linda Sharpe described her cousin Samuel as a long-time resident of a tent encampment situated across the street from King Park, where the shooting took place. This encampment is a known fixture in the neighbourhood, which hosts several social service clinics and a shelter. Residents believe that Milwaukee police officers, familiar with the local homeless population, might have been able to de-escalate the situation more effectively.

Norman explained that a group of 13 Columbus officers, part of a bicycle patrol, were in their designated area when they noticed the altercation involving Sharpe. They approached the scene and repeatedly commanded Sharpe to drop his weapons, but he ignored their orders and moved towards the unarmed individual, prompting the officers to fire.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office has scheduled an autopsy for Wednesday and further investigation into the shooting is underway. 

Watch: What is the Republican National Convention?

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PTI

As United States of America prepares for its presidential election later this year, the 4-day Republican National Convention began at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Wisconsin on July 15.

The convention is an event in which delegates of the United States Republican Party will select the party’s nominees for President and Vice-President in the country’s presidential election.