Republicans repeatedly echoed sentiments that the party has fully united behind former President Donald Trump, especially in the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt, and Ohio Sen. JD Vance drove that idea home in his address to end the night.
Speaking for the first time since becoming the GOP’s vice presidential nominee, Vance wove together the story of his rural upbringing with Trump’s successes in the business world in an effort to showcase how the two paths could merge together to form a strong basis for the campaign ahead.
“We love this country, and we are united to win,” he said. “My message to fellow Americans: Shouldn’t we be governed by a party who isn’t afraid to debate ideas and to come to the best solution?”
Vance, a former US Marine and Yale law school graduate who was elected to the Senate in Nov. 2022, said that his rural Ohio upbringing could have never prepared him for his catapult to the big stage of presidential politics, but said that he wouldn’t forget that upbringing on the journey ahead.
“This moment is not about me. It’s about all of us, and that’s what we’re fighting for,” he said. “I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.”
Vance praised Trump for being on the “right” side of the war in Iraq, the NAFTA trade deal of the 1990s, and trade deals made with China, and blasted President Joe Biden as being on the wrong side of all three issues.
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“At each step of the way, in small towns like mine, jobs were sent overseas, and our children were sent to war,” he said.
The senator promised that the GOP would “fight for American citizens” and would push on that message through the November elections.
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Biden was diagnosed with COVID on Wednesday and is coming under continued scrutiny to step aside, but his campaign issued a statement characterizing Vance as “unprepared, unqualified and willing to do anything Donald Trump demands” following the address.
“Vance is Project 2025 in human form, an agenda that puts extremism and the ultra-wealthy over our democracy,” the campaign said.
Biden’s campaign argued that Trump and Vance’s policies would slash health care, raise costs on families and give corporations additional tax cuts if they were elected to the White House.
Outside of Vance’s address, Republicans heaped praise on Trump for his actions following Saturday’s assassination attempt. Donald Trump Jr. praised his father as having “the heart of a lion” after he was fired at during the Pennsylvania rally, and Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson said that he was proud to be able to say he “served a president who literally took a bullet for our country.”
Emotions ran high at several times during the evening, including when Gold Star families whose loved ones were killed in an attack on Kabul airport in the lead-up to U.S. troop withdrawal in 2022 were brought on-stage to describe their experiences.
Peter Navarro also fired up the crowd, speaking on the same day that he was released from prison after serving a sentence for refusing to appear before the January 6 Select Committee.
“If they can come for me, if they can come for Donald Trump, they will come for you,” he said.
The convention will wrap up on Thursday with the main event, as Trump addresses the delegates in his first major speech since Saturday’s assassination attempt.
It is expected that UFC boss Dana White will introduce the former president. Trump’s son Eric Trump is also expected to address the convention, as is conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.
Coverage will begin at 6 p.m., and all speeches can once again be seen on NBC Chicago’s 24/7 Streaming News channel and on NBC Chicago and Telemundo Chicago’s websites and apps.
