By MILWAUKEE — Welcome to The Campaign Moment. This week, we’ll be with you every night, running through the big moments and trends from the Republican National Convention.
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The big moment
After a somewhat odd first day, the Republican National Convention on Tuesday got a little bit more … conventional. And ugly.
Republican Senate candidates began the night’s program, while party stalwarts and a couple of Donald Trump’s top primary opponents who reluctantly got on board with him were featured speakers.
Here’s what I took away.
1. The volume shot back up, as dark rhetoric reigned
For the second night running, the GOP’s purported effort to turn down the volume ran into the reality that is: Red meat sells.
By the end of the night, it became clear that apocalyptic language was more than back, just 72 hours after the Trump rally shooting.
Gov. Jim Justice (R), U.S. Senate candidate for West Virginia, warned that the country would “become totally unhinged if Donald Trump is not elected in November.” And Bernie Moreno, U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio; Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.); and Trump himself in a pre-produced video all accused Democrats of destroying the country.
After Saturday’s shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, Republicans such as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) deemed beyond the pale rhetoric suggesting that Trump would end democracy or destroy the country (Johnson specifically cited claims that “the republic would end”). When Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) made such a comment about Democrats on Monday at the convention, he soon blamed it on being given the wrong script.
Kari Lake, the GOP’s Senate candidate in Arizona, took time out of her speech to direct the delegates’ ire at the media. She welcomed people to the convention before adding that the media was exempt from this: “You guys up there in the fake news media have worn out your welcome.”
And Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Tex.) speech was especially dark. He repeatedly tied crime from undocumented immigrants to Democrats.
“Americans are dying, murdered, assaulted, raped by illegal immigrants that the Democrats have released,” Cruz said. “Teenage girls and boys wearing colored wristbands are being sold into a life of sex slavery.”
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2. Haley and DeSantis gave key, if not effusive, endorsements
Eight years ago, Cruz, Trump’s vanquished primary foe, used the convention to demonstratively withhold his support for Trump. He savaged Trump for attacking his family and called Trump a “sniveling coward.”
There was no repeat Tuesday. In the night’s two most anticipated speeches, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed Trump, despite having danced around embracing him since exiting the 2024 race.
They made strong cases for Trump, though, perhaps tellingly, both focused more on how bad the alternative was.
There was little question they would back him; Republicans have learned to bend the knee to Trump, however reluctantly. (Cruz has become a strong supporter, as he was in his own speech Tuesday night.) But there was some question about how strongly they would do so.
Haley focused on making a logical case for Trump and giving her supporters the permission structure to back a candidate she once suggested this year was unfit for the presidency and “unhinged.” (Notably, Haley had called on Trump to make his case to her voters after she dropped out; he never really did, but now she has.)
Haley said Republicans should back Trump even if they don’t agree with him all the time, as she doesn’t. She also played up the strength of his foreign policy and insisted that she was giving Trump her “strong endorsement, period.”
“I had a front-row seat to his national security policies,” Haley said. “We sure could use those again.”
DeSantis delivered a more rousing address, though it focused almost entirely on Democrats.
“Life was more affordable when Donald Trump was president. Our border was safer under the Trump administration, and our country was respected when Donald Trump was our commander in chief,” DeSantis said, in his most directly pro-Trump comments.
3. The mother of a slain veteran brought down the house
If there’s one speech that is likely to live beyond Tuesday night, it might be anti-crime activist Madeline Brame’s.
Brame, the mother of a veteran who was killed in New York City in 2018, used her time late in Tuesday’s program to go after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — not coincidentally, the same prosecutor who brought the charges against Trump that resulted in him being found guilty on 34 felony counts.
She accused Bragg of being too lenient on the men responsible for her son’s death.
“Prosecutors like Alvin Bragg in New York, Kim Foxx in Chicago and George Gascón in Los Angeles have turned our great country and cities into war zones,” Brame said. “Poor and neglected communities like mine are suffering. And who else in here is sick and tired of being sick and tired?
“The Democratic Party that poor minorities have been loyal to for decades, including myself … they betrayed us. They stabbed us in the back.”
The crowd went wild.
Republicans have made a point to feature regular people at their convention. Few penetrated like Brame. And the decision to feature a critic of the man who indicted the former president was surely a choice intended to send a message to other prosecutors who would pursue Trump.
4. Election denial picked up, too
While election denialism hasn’t reared its head much — and Republicans have largely kept the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol at arm’s length — Tuesday night did feature some nods to purported election rigging.
Cruz said this supposed scourge of immigrant crime “happened because Democrats cynically decided they wanted votes from illegals more than they wanted to protect our children.”
Scott described a nightmare in which “it was easy for Democrats to rig the elections; they simply allowed all the noncitizens to vote.”
Similarly, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) claimed, “Biden and Harris want illegals to vote now that they’ve opened up the border.”
It is illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and there is no evidence it’s a significant problem. While some localities have allowed it in nonfederal races, the national Democratic Party has not pushed for that.
Trump, in his pre-produced video, also predicted, without evidence, that Democrats would cheat in the 2024 election.
“Keep your eyes open because these people want to cheat and they do cheat,” Trump said. “And frankly, it’s the only thing they do well.”
Take a moment to read:
“Democrats promptly attack Vance as abortion extremist and Trump loyalist” (Washington Post)“Who is — and isn’t — speaking at the Republican National Convention” (Washington Post)“Biden set to announce support for major Supreme Court changes” (Washington Post)“‘They’ didn’t shoot Donald Trump” (Washington Post)“Sen. Menendez convicted of bribery, other charges in corruption trial” (Washington Post)“Schiff Warned of Wipeout for Democrats if Biden Remains in Race” (New York Times