2024 Republican National Convention | RNC Night 2 | PBS News special coverage

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Just days after a shooter nearly took his life, former President Donald Trump appeared in public for the first time.

And tapped a former critic turned vocal defender to be his running mate.

Senator JD Vance as the party gathers in Milwaukee.

Are you ready for 4 more years of Donald Trump lingering questions remain about the assassination attempt.

Evil came for the man we admire and love so much.

How the GOP intends to expand its base.

You know what I see an American worker being taken for granted.

And if Mr. Trump continues to call for unity in America.

It's the 2nd night of the 2024 Republican National Convention.

And welcome to PBS News special coverage of the Republican National Convention here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

I'm Ana Navaz and I'm Jeff Bennett.

This is the 2nd night of the convention, and the theme tonight is Make America Safe once again.

Tonight we'll hear from congressional leadership and several Republicans who challenged Mr. Trump for the GOP nomination this past year, including his former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

The headliner for the night is Republican National Committee.

co-chair and daughter-in-law of the former president Laura Trump and of course our panel is here with us again, Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, David Brooks of The New York Times and Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post, and as always down on the convention floor in the arena we find our own Lisa Desjardin.

Lisa, hi, I'm and Jeff.

Tonight we will get a Republican view of the border, a Republican view of crime and Republican view of law and order in this country.

We will.

Back to here I'm told from families who have had experiences with crime themselves.

Of course we know violent crime in this country has been going down in recent years, but amid all of this discussion of safety, law and order, we do not expect to hear any republics to acknowledge that their nominee himself has 34 felonies against him, but law and order, the Republican way, that is the theme for tonight.

And Amy Walter, this in many ways will be a test of this new Republican focus on unity because issues like violent crime, issues like what's happening at the southern border.

This, these those issues have always been the sources of the, uh, the greatest heated, most heated rhetoric and vitriolic rhetoric from the former president.

Well, and this idea of showing a different Republican Party, one that is maybe shall we say a little bit softer trying to uh reach beyond its traditional audience.

I mean, the, the vibe.

I have gotten for the last couple of days here is a group of folks who feel like we've got this, we're gonna win.

Let's just not screw it up, OK?

So let's make it through this week without making any mistakes, um, that they that Donald Trump is on the path and we just got to make sure that he doesn't.

Nothing happens that would divert him from that.

David, are you picking up on that same vibe here?

Oh, for sure, if it may be a little more confidence than maybe just expressed, yeah, we definitely got there so, uh, hubris central here in the round, um, yeah, and the, the one, and I agree that this is the night to test whether they go a little raw.

When they go with little racial intonation and they certainly have these are the two issues on which they're prone to do that.

Uh, the one point I'd make is that Republican Party has been pretty anti-immigrant, or I should say, had been secured the borders for a long time, and if anything it's helped them with certainly Hispanic voters in Texas, in Nevada, and in Arizona, a lot of the border type states, uh, and so it's not the among different groups, views on the border and the wall are a lot more.

Complicated and then just, oh, you can tell what people think by what color their skin.

We have seen I should note Republican rhetoric veer into outright racism, echoing some white supremacist notions as well.

Do you think that will be avoided here tonight?

Well, I hope so, but you know, Tucker Carlson was sit next to Donald Trump the other night and he did some replacements, serious replacement theory in the in the course of his that's the idea that non-white people are replacing white people and so he's still sitting there with Donald Trump, so who knows, who knows, Jonathan, what do you expect?

Well, this goes back to what I was saying last night, and I get the feeling that I'm going to be saying this every night.

It's one thing to present a kinder, gentler version of the Republican Party and they might veer into outright racist or or dog whistling or bullhorning, but you also have to pay attention to who's sitting in the room, Tucker Carlson, who's taking the stage and the language that they're using, um, Bernie Moreno, who's running for the Senate in Ohio used the term illegals.

When talking about undocumented migrants coming over the border.

I think David is absolutely right.

This is where we're going to see whether this unity theme whether this kinder gentler version of the Republican Party is going to come through and I have no confidence that they're going to be able to do that and yet at the same time, the polling that we're seeing now suggests that the support for things like mass deportation, building the wall.

Much higher today than it was back in 2016 or in even in 2020 we didn't talk a lot about immigration in 2020.

Obviously we're talking about COVID, but this, this is what Democrats are counting on that the language will get so overheated that the calls from many around Trump about this idea of finding people who are here illegally deporting them is going to really detach many of these new voters of.

Color from the Trump orbit and yet As I said, the, the polling suggests that there is more support for it, certainly over the last few months as we've seen an influx of migrants at the southern border.

Well, I was going to ask you that.

What accounts for that?

Is it because of what's actually happening on the ground, or is it because of the way that Donald Trump has been talking about it for, and the way it's been covered, let's face it, we've been, there's been a lot of coverage about what's happening at the southern border and then if you live in uh some of these major.

cities.

I look at the front pages of a lot of newspapers every morning.

The Boston Globe almost every day or every week has a story about migrants who are basically living at Logan Airport or the challenge that Boston is having in housing and dealing with this influx of migrants, so this is something that people are actually feeling as well.

It's not just something now again many people are just seeing it on TV or hearing about it there.

A lot of people are also living that and of course we know all those pressures are what forced this administration to take much more harsher restrictions at the border and they've seen those numbers come down dramatically in a few months.

The question is whether that resonates with voters, whether it makes a difference.

I think we still have Lisa down on the floor with us, correct me if I'm wrong, team.

No, we'll bring her back here in just a moment.

So tell me a little bit about some of the other speakers we hear tonight in particular Rhonda Santos and Nikki Haley when you talk about who they're trying to reach here.

What message do you think we're going to hear?

David I look at all the speakers and you know the these speeches are generally written by a staff that's the convention party staff, so it almost doesn't matter who's speaking.

I mean, the speeches are almost intentionally bland and I wouldn't mind seeing maybe a little more of that tonight, uh, the, the language I'm gonna be paying particular attention to is how they talk about deportations.

Obviously they're gonna talk about it.

It's in the platform, but you're, are they going to talk about families who've been living here for decades who they're going to rip out and send back to somewhere.

Uh, that, that, that does cross over into the place where swing voters say, really?

And so I'll be, I'll be a, especially when they talk about deportation.

I'll have my ears.

There is one caveat though to the bland to use your word, stage programming.

We saw West Virginia Governor Jim Justice come out with his dog, baby dog, who had a leather chair waiting for him there on the stage.

Amy, this, this question about this Republican focus on unity, how much is there a disconnect between what Republican leaders To include Speaker Mike Johnson, who's been talking about we have to tamp down the rhetoric.

How much of their, how much is a disconnect between what he's saying and what the base really wants because tonight, much like last night, the greatest applause lines were reserved for attacks on transgender rights and with the right sees this vo ideology.

I mean, that's still red meat for the base and that the enthusiasm around that red meat is obviously not going to go away and it's not like I think after this election none of those politicians are going.

to make direct attacks on their opponents or use some of this language.

We're not going to see negative ads suddenly disappear.

It just feels like for at this moment it's very clear what they're trying to do is make this as bland as possible, make things look as soft as possible and.

To, to be fair, I do also from the folks that I've talked to in and around here who are delegates or are involved in this.

Um, convention, what they'll also tell you is that assassination attempt definitely had an impact, right, a very sobering impact on people who were coming here and so I think you combined both of those things and that's.

Where you end up, you know, I think one thing we'll look for clarity on tonight.

Jonathan, weigh in on this.

This idea of unity that we've been hearing, is that just unity within the Republican Party, or is that some broader unity that we will hear calls for that's exactly what I was thinking, define unity.

Is it unity within this hall, unity within the Republican Party around the country, or is it unity in the way I think of it, and that is.

We have our, we have our core beliefs here but we're reaching out.

We're, we're about adding people to the coalition and showing that we unity applies to everyone and I'm not getting that.

I'm not, I'm not hearing it in any of the language that we've we've already heard in the last day and a half.

Let's listen in now and see if we do hear it.

This is the House Republican conference chair, Congresswoman Elise Stfanik speaking now.

From the Biden border, the most wide open border in our nation's history.

To B inflation, the highest rate of inflation in my lifetime devastating, hardworking families with skyrocketing prices for groceries, gas, and utilities to Biden's violent crime crisis fueled by Democrats, pro-criminal sanctuary cities, and defund the police policies like we have seen in my home state of New York.

While Corrupt Democrat prosecutors and judges waged illegal An unconstitutional lawfare against President Trump in an effort to do Joe Biden's political bidding.

And around the world.

The feckless and failed Joe Biden has caused chaos, weakening our national security.

From the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

To Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

To Hamas's terrorist attack against our most precious ally Israel.

And let me ask you a question.

What has been the response from the radical left on our college campuses, vile anti-Semitism.

chanting Death to Israel, death to Jews, death to America.

This is Joe Biden's Democrat Party.

saw that congressional hearing with the college presidents of so-called elite universities.

Wait they are former presidents.

You know, I asked one simple question at that hearing.

It was not a political question.

It was a moral question, and that was this.

is calling for the genocide of Jews, violate your university's code of conduct.

And one To the other To the other said it depends on the context.

Let me tell you, America knows it does not depend on the context.

President Trump will bring back more leadership to the White House condemning anti-Semitism and standing strong with Israel and the Jewish people.

President Trump will once again deliver the most secure border in our nation's history and unleash the American economy and he will bring peace through strength as commander in chief standing with our allies and causing our enemies to fear us.

President Trump has done it before and he will do it again.

This November We are counting on you, we the people, to save America by electing President Donald J. Trump.

It is clear for the whole world to see nothing.

Absolutely nothing will stop President Trump from standing and fighting for our great country.

And I have been proud to always stand in the breach during the toughest moments for President Trump.

From leading the charge against illegal impeachments to standing for election integrity to unifying House Republicans to proudly being the first member of Congress to endorse him for re-election.

And as we embark on the difficult path ahead to save America.

Call upon Galatians 6:9.

Let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.

We the people will never give up on President Trump.

We will never give up on the United States of America.

God bless you.

God bless President Donald J. Trump and God bless the United States of America.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the majority whip of the United States House of Representatives.

Congressman Tom Emmer of Minnesota.

How about that, Stefani?

Thank you Thank you, I'm Tom Emmer, a proud American and a proud Minnesota and the majority whip in the United States House of Representatives.

In 2022, Americans elected our House Republican majority to stop the Biden Harris agenda.

In spite of having one of the smallest majorities in history, House Republicans have held the line.

We fought back against the Democrats' reckless spending that imposed record breaking inflation on the hardworking Americans.

We passed bills such as the lower energy Costs Act and the rein in inflation Act to counteract Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's failed economic agenda and restore some fiscal sanity to Washington.

We ended the vaccine mandate in our military.

We passed over a dozen bills gutting specific Biden Harris regulations.

We passed the Parents' Bill of Rights.

We investigated the Chinese Communist Party.

We stopped the DC crime bill that would have made our nation's capital simply too dangerous to visit.

And We passed the strongest border security bill in decades.

Get ready Because when we grow our majority, When we flip the Senate.

And when we sent President Donald J. Trump back to the White House.

We won't just be holding the line anymore.

We'll be moving forward.

We will turn America first principles into law.

I know firsthand that Minnesotans can't afford 4 more years of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

That's right.

Which is why I'm confident.

That we will make history this November when we turn Minnesota red for the first time in 50 years.

The Democrats' disastrous record on crime, trade, and regulation has ruined the lives of countless Minnesotans.

When Minneapolis was in flames and businesses were in ruins.

Kamala Harris encouraged and enabled the criminals and the rioters.

Oh, it gets worse.

She even promoted a fund to release the criminals from jail.

It doesn't get reported much in our media, but one criminal, Kamala Harris Fred in Minneapolis, went on to murder a man in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Donald Trump stands with the people and the police.

Our men and women in blue, not with the criminals and the rioters.

Donald Trump also fought for Minnesota workers and farmers fighting back against Chinese trade abuses ending NAFTA and replacing it with the USMCA.

Joe Biden voted for NAFTA and China's entry into the WTO devastating Minnesota's economy and Kamala Harris, she opposed tariffs on China.

Of course, when they aren't outsourcing our jobs through bad trade deals, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are destroying them through taxes and regulation.

They are America last.

But next year Donald Trump with the support of Trump majorities in the House and Senate will put America first again.

Thank you.

And I'm confident that together we are going to make America great again.

God bless you.

May God continue to bless Donald Trump and his family, and God bless America.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the majority leader of the United States House of Representatives, Congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

God bless each and every one of you.

I'm House Majority Leader Steve Scalise from the great state of Louisiana.

And I was born in New Orleans, so I've seen some crazy things in my time.

But New Orleans has nothing on Washington DC these past four years.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have spent your tax dollars trashing America's finances in ways no sane or sober minded person ever would.

Let's talk energy.

They've eroded the American energy dominance that President Trump delivered.

Joe Biden approved the Nord Stream pipeline for Russia, but he killed the Keystone pipeline here at home.

Thousands Thousands of American jobs gone.

It doesn't end there.

Biden let Iran and Venezuela export their oil, but he stopped liquefied natural gas exports here in America.

President Biden's not done.

President Biden waived taxes on Chinese solar panels.

But he raised taxes on Americans.

When we When we elect Donald Trump as our next president and expand our Republican House majority, we will end the Democrats' assault on American energy once and for all.

Now let's look at taxes.

Biden and Harris want a $5 trillion tax hike.

And our 1st 100 days, President Trump and a Republican majority will make the Trump tax cuts permanent.

And yes, We will end taxes on tips.

and deliver And deliver another tax cut for working families.

On the border.

Biden and Harris opened it up to the entire world.

Prisons are being emptied.

President Trump and a Republican majority will repass HR 2, the strongest border security bill in decades.

We will lock down the border and yes, we will finish building the wall.

On voting.

Our most sacred right as citizens voting.

Biden and Harris want illegals to vote now that they've opened up the border.

Republicans will repass the Save Act to block illegal aliens from boating and our elections.

On foreign policy.

Biden and Harris brought us weakness and war.

President Trump and a Republican majority will begin rebuilding our military and we'll end the woop indoctrination in its ranks.

We will restore American power and peace.

On education, Biden and Harris opposed school choice.

They actually investigated parents at school boards.

President Trump and a Republican majority will pass legislation expanding school choice and we'll repass the Parents' Bill of Rights.

Parents should be free to choose what their children are taught and where.

Now lastly, I need to say something about Saturday's attempt on President Trump's life.

Many of you know I was the survivor of a politically motivated shooting in 2017.

Not many know that while I was fighting for my life.

Donald Trump was one of the first to come console my family at the hospital.

That's the kind of leader he is.

Courageous under fire.

Compassionate towards others.

Let's put Donald Trump back in the White House this November, so we can make America great again.

God bless you.

Donald Trump continue to receive God's blessing and God blessed these great United States of America.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

Good evening my friends.

What an amazing crowd and what a great time it is.

To unite our party and to send President Donald Trump back to the White House.

That's what we're going to do.

But we're not just uniting as Republicans.

We're uniting today as Americans.

In the wake of the assassination attempt on the life of President Trump.

Everyone hear me clearly and listen to me at home and make no mistake.

The house is conducting an immediate and thorough investigation of these tragic events.

And that work has already begun.

The American people deserve to know the truth, and we will ensure accountability.

I promise you that.

I promise you that.

This has always been an important principle to us.

We in the Republican Party are the law and order team.

We always have been and we always will be the advocates for the rule of law.

And we all know that That principle as well as many others is in serious jeopardy today.

So, we've come to a moment in America where the basic things that we once took for granted are being openly challenged like never before.

My friends, we are no longer just in a battle between two opposing political parties.

We are, but it's not just ours versus D's anymore.

We're now in the midst of a struggle.

Between two completely different visions of who we are as Americans and what our country will be.

The Republican Party stands for the foundational truce that made America the greatest nation in the history of the world.

We are the most free, the most powerful, the most benevolent nation that has ever been.

It's not even close.

It's not even close.

But we have no guarantee.

That this grand experiment self-governance can endure.

Unless we respond to the call to keep it.

248 years ago we boldly proclaimed in our declaration that all men are created equal, not born equal, created equal.

And that we're endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.

See, we understand that our rights do not come from government.

They come from God.

There's another thing that we recognize.

We recognize that we are made in His image.

And because of that, every single person has inestimable dignity and value.

And your values not related in any way to the color of your skin, what zip code do you live in?

Where you come from, what your talents are, or what you can contribute to society.

Your value is inherent because it is given to you by your Creator.

That's what we stand for.

I speak a lot about what I call the seven core principles of American conservatism.

What do we stand for as Republicans?

They want to know.

I, I, I think it boils down to a few things individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law.

He's through strength.

Fiscal responsibility, free markets, and human dignity.

Indeed, those are the seven core principles of American conservatism, but they're actually the core principles of our republic itself.

And while they resonate in our hearts and in the hearts of most Americans.

Listen to me, the radical woke progressive left has disdain for those principles, all right?

They have a very different vision for what America should become.

They want to tear down those foundations and remold us into some sort of borderless, lawless, Marxist socialist utopia.

We're here to say not on our watch.

We will not allow that to happen.

It was just 3 weeks ago that Kelly and I dropped off our oldest son at the Naval Academy.

And that's right.

In 4 years he'll graduate and he'll join the 1.3 million active duty service members who bravely defend our country.

We're so proud of Jack and all our children, but like most parents today, we're concerned about their future.

America can't risk 4 more years of Joe Biden's weakness that has invited so much aggression by our enemies.

We can't survive the dramatic increases in violence, crime, and drugs that the Democrats' policies have brought upon our communities.

And we cannot allow The many millions of illegal aliens they've allowed to cross our borders to harm our citizens, drain our resources, or disrupt our elections.

We will not allow it.

My friends were watching the principles of faith, family, and freedom that once defined our nation.

Now being trampled underfoot by the radical left.

As President Trump raised his fist and gave a rally cry on Saturday.

Now is our time to fight, and we will.

We're in a fateful battle of ideas, my friends, and we have to recognize that.

But in this battle and in November, the American people will reject the party of self destruction, and they will elect the party of peace and prosperity and opportunity.

The GOP will grow our House majority.

We will take back the Senate and we will return Donald J. Trump to the White House.

standing arm in arm, we will make America safe again.

Listen, we, we reach out tonight to everyone watching at home.

We invite all Americans who believe in the promise of our great nation to join us in this fateful battle.

We can and we will reverse this current decline.

We can restore our founding principles, and we can preserve this exceptional nation that God has entrusted to us and what Abraham Lincoln referred to as the last best hope of man on the earth.

Thank you so much.

God bless you.

God bless our troops, and God bless America.

House Speaker Mike Johnson addressing the crowd of delegates here on night two of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Let's return to our panel here.

We're joined now by Florida Republican Congresswoman Maria Salazar.

Thank you so much for just to be here with you and we were talking loud it is, it is indeed loud.

Can you hear me OK?

We were speaking earlier about this weekend's assassination attempt, former President Donald Trump, and you were saying that you believe he is a fundamentally changed man.

Tell me more about that.

Why you about it.

I have people who are, well, thanks for the opportunity.

I have people as a member of Congress, people that are very close to the president, and they have assured me that the conversations they've had with the president um they understand that he is a new person internally.

Internally, I mean after when you are exposed to this type of incident where you understand that your life you could have lost your life in that minute.

He now understands that the Almighty and the powers from heaven gave him another opportunity, which is a fantastic experience to to go through and that will definitely make him a different person.

Therefore we will have a different party.

Can I follow up on that?

What does that mean for you in terms of how he could lead or govern if reelected because I think it's also fair to say this is a man who's used incredibly harsh rhetoric before he's inspted and disparaged his opponents.

He's used some racist and off Of language against a number of groups, do you think all of that has changed very strong character and we understand that we all know his personality, but do you think that has changed?

I think that has changed for the better because now he's more contemplative.

Let's use that word, maybe not spiritual, maybe not religious, but he does understand that they have that God spared his life and gave him another opportunity to do good for the country and what does that mean?

I would say that it's to lower the Political rhetoric and now we have to be fighting the ideas, not the people, and, and that I mean that's the way the founding fathers, um, uh, created this nation at least that was their original idea, right?

And to O point during his first term there were these perennial predictions that his tone would change or that he was becoming more presidential and what we saw was a remarkably consistent Donald Trump.

I hear you say that something something's a bullet almost blew his head, you see, there are moments in life when they, they are so a biblical proportions that will def that change you as a person and I do believe that that's what from what I'm hearing that that's what has happened as it would have happened to to anybody.

How should the weekend's events change the approach of this party in your view?

Uh, well, the, I think that the Republican Party, according to my understanding, you know, I represent the largest minority in the country, the Hispanics.

And we are Miami-Dade County in Miami-Dade County, which is one of the most diverse districts in the country, I would say the most because we have 17 different nationalities, so I'm looking at it from the point of view of what's good for America and what's good for the average Hispanic, uh, which comes to this country to live the American dream.

That's what we want to preserve.

Give me the opportunity to live the American dream, the same opportunity my parents had, I was born 6 months after.

They came escaping from democratic socialism and and and that that's what we want for our children and for everyone who is trying to come to the country, which is, you know, millions of people wanting to come to the United States, so that's what we represent the GOP represents the American exceptionality and preserving it.

No revolutions evolution, let's improve the system.

Let's don't change it.

Let's talk about the issues because as you mentioned, Miami-Dade, it's almost 70% Hispanic.

Am I, am I right on that?

78 district, yeah, well, how do Hispanic voters view this issue of immigration because the polls have shown that increasingly Latino or Hispanic voters want to see border control, and they rank it as a as a top issue.

Listen, immigration, it's, uh, and I'm not sure if I am shouting, so I apologize I mean to be discussing this type of issues under this background is really challenging, but I think that.

Immigration is one of the most toxic topics in this country, and as you know, I wrote the only immigration reform law on the table right now called the Dignity Act, um, but Hispanics understand that there's no way that it's good for them or for the country to have an open border where anyone can come in.

There is a you have to.

Create a division between two groups of undocumented.

The ones who came in in the last 3.5 years, 8 million people and the other 13 or 14 who have been here.

Uh, picking up the jalapeno peppers in Southern California or the tomatoes in Miami or the oranges in Florida.

Those people, I believe that because they have been here they don't have a criminal record.

They have American children, they have contributing to the economy.

They have been paying taxes.

Those people should be looked at it with a dignity, and we can expand on that later.

The people who came in in the last 3.5 years we don't know, we really do not know what intentions they have and let me tell you something which I am living because the by.

Administration has cost the worst or has done the worst disservice to the Hispanics.

Because that border has been opened for so long.

Those topics that were important, the dreamers, the DACA, the TPS, all those people who are waiting for years to have some type of legality or dignity have been forgotten when you don't like that because the Dems have been promising for 30 years to do an immigration reform law to give some type of answer to these people and 0 and look what happens now with the open border, understanding all views certainly among Latinos.

Hispanics, it's not a monolith.

We know there are lots of different unique views on there I'm sorry, I didn't hear you understanding that among the Latino population, it's not to be viewed as a monolith.

There are a lot of different views there.

There was a chance on the table for bipartisan immigration reform, unlike anything we've seen in this country for 30 years.

And former President Trump pressured Republicans to walk away from that.

Was that a mistake knowing a lot of people want to see that reform, as I said, and I would say that I am the one of the leaders of immigration reform law in Congress.

As a Republican, it's time for the party to unite with the Democrats and find a solution for immigration not only for the illegals who are here for the legal immigration, people that want to stay after they study the diversity and they want to contribute in Silicon Valley.

It's a, it's a wide array, but I do believe that now because we are in a different era that that is going to be achieved or at least we could start the conversation of what are we going to do with so many people who have No documentation in this country again, was that a mistake to walk away from that bill though.

I, I know you say you want to work towards it now the beginning.

I'm sorry, was it a mistake for Republicans to walk away from the bipartisan immigration bill.

I mean, too little too late at the time, you mean the Langford uh is is that the one you're talking about, the one to send it up.

I didn't like it.

I liked the dignity Bill.

I think that was just a little patch just to do something.

let's do something real and deep.

That was not the case.

My bill does it, but like I said, immigration is something that it's very toxic and that the discussions need to be, you need to have the political willingness to really sit at the table, Democrats and Republicans, and try to solve starting with the uh undocumented.

Congressman, you are part of the red wave of women who were ushered into the house in 2020.

You defeated a longtime Congresswoman Donna Shalala.

What's the expectation for this time around?

The expectation for Republicans' chances in holding the House and potentially expanding their margins in the House.

Well, You have seen what the Biden administration did during 4 years and you have seen what the average American is saying that's the same thing that's happening in South Florida.

The economy, the inflation, the border, the weakness in the in the international arena from the United States Hispanics look at it just like any other American, and unfortunately the Biden administration has made it easy for us to for the Americans to see that what we the course that we're taking right now is not the right course for their lives or what they need for their families.

Congresswoman, talk to me about this ticket.

The Trump V ticket.

How does this help you or others in down ballot races.

It's not exactly an expansion of appeal, right?

It's sort of more of the same message.

What do you think the impact will be on down ballot races?

I, I believe that that uh JD V. My committee is going to look at him as another proof of the American dream.

I am the American dream, the guy was born in in poverty, his childhood was highly compromised, which can crush anybody if you have to go through what he went through and he was able to have the internal fortitude to come out of that and because the system gave him the opportunity.

He went to law school, he went to the military and now he's a VP.

Where does that happen?

So if you are, let's say, uh, out of the 17. uh uh communities that I represent, if you're Venezuelan, if you're a Colombian, if you're Brazilian, if you're Cuban or if you're Dominican, you go wow I wanna do the same thing so that's the way they're gonna they're gonna view a JD van, but isn't that system public schooling, public assistance, um, social, social programs, aren't those the things that Democrats promote?

The system that JD Vance used to to pull himself up.

Those are programs that Democrats promote.

That that that he is the programs that everyone wants because I would like as a Republican to have good food for the Browns and for the black kids.

I want to give assistance to those who need it.

Yeah, sure, I'm not saying that that doesn't belong to any party.

It belongs to the American system, but once you get that help and then you just move and you and you.

And you use the system to keep us Moving forward without the assistance from government that so that's the way I will see it.

I, I, I. I'm sorry, it's difficult.

We have a lot of background noise competing with this, but Congresswoman Maria Salazar, a real pleasure to speak with you and we'll have you back when we're not competing with so much noise on the floor for bearing with us.

So then I can definitely hear you better and give you a more rigorous answer.

We'll look forward to it thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Sure, be well.

Take care.

Let's go to Alisa Desjardin, who's on the floor.

Hey Lisa, what are you seeing?

Hey guys, speaking of of course this theme of justice, law and order, we're now in the Oregon delegation I have with me someone who is now a private investigator but a longtime investigator with the DA's office in Los Angeles where you saw a full range of crime and order.

I want to ask you first of all, how do you look at the crime situation in America right now.

We're hearing a lot about how many reasons why people should be afraid, but violent crime is down.

How do you say thanks?

I understand your name is Brent Smith, yes, go ahead, well, I, I definitely think you can't separate, you can't divorce, uh, leadership, city government, uh, county, state government away from law enforcement.

They are very intertwined, I think, as far as funding and.

And uh and just the moral support police officers have, I think that's the most important thing is that when they don't feel they're supported as law enforcements across all branches of law enforcement, it is very difficult to do your job.

It's a very difficult job, and what I always tell even in my classes I used to teach before you criticize police, you need a ride in the back seat with one of them on a Friday or Saturday night.

Your, your whole perspective will change.

The things that they have to put up with and deal with is incredible and from your colleagues, former and current, do you sense a morale issue for law enforcement?

What is that?

Tell us.

Well, Portland police department where I've, uh, I live in Portland area, uh, my friends that are there and because there's no support from city or local government, at least in Portland, not much.

I think the pendulum is changing.

It's, it's going bad because defunding I think in Portland has realized depends on.

Changing you mean what?

Things are improving.

Things are starting to improve, I think, because they realized defunding wasn't the answer because public safety when people who have public safety, they don't feel secure, they don't enjoy their community.

There's always just a fear, living in fear, so you need to have a strong law enforcement agency so that you can feel like you're gonna be safe, but that comes through funding.

It comes through support of local government.

One more question for you, sir.

I know you did a lot of white collar crime, you told me in Los Angeles, your nominee is convicted of white collar.

Crime, 34 felony counts in New York.

Donald Trump, you are someone who sworn to uphold the law to prosecute, investigate.

I, I have to ask him, you know, I know it's a difficult question, but honestly, how do you see someone who's been convicted of breaking the law?

Well, again, like most people, if you ask him what charges he was actually convicted on, most people don't even know what those are.

I believe that we have to deal with juries that may have a political bent.

I think the whole thing has been politicized and our judicial system has been politic.

uh, as a weapon, and I think there's things that Donald Trump has experienced that that whole po politicization and, and uh and weaponization of the justice system has really he's he's a victim of that.

Have you asked yourself if you would feel differently if he was a Democrat?

Department I think I'd definitely look at it.

I, I feel like I can be objective as a police officer.

You, you need to be objective.

You don't care which side of the, the, the political pendulum they are at that point, but it's, it's.

I think I would.

I think it'd be very objective about it.

I think I am with Trump.

I don't want to vote for somebody who I feel is a criminal, but I just don't think that's the case.

Brent Smith, thank you so much.

Alternate delegate from Oregon back to you guys.

All right, that's our Lisa Desjardins live there on the convention floor back here with our panel and our PBS news studio.

Amy Walter, David Brooks, Jonathan Capehart.

Let's just take a minute here and reflect on some of the conversations we've had so far, Jonathan, weigh in for us on, uh, the conversation as it's been unfolding.

Also, I was struck by Congresswoman Salazar's conviction that former President Trump is a changed man.

We have not yet heard from him yet, but Your thoughts.

Um, I will believe it when I hear it.

Um, I'm just not, I'm just not there and I keep the dissonance between what she was saying during your interview about Donald Trump and the words we've been hearing from people on that stage is, I mean, it's just I feel whipsod.

I mean, Speaker Johnson's speech, Eli Steffani's speech, um, Steve Scalise's speech.

These, these were all sort of red meat speeches, you know, I zeroed in on Speaker Johnson talking about the seven principles of conservatism that he lives by individual freedom, human dignity, unfortunately it doesn't apply to people who need reproductive health care, families that want reproductive health care or LGBTQ people who want to live their lives unbothered by government or their neighbors, I mean if you're gonna talk about unity, LGBTQ people and other people who are not in this room.

Need to hear it and need to feel it from the from the stage and it's not coming from the stage so all due respect to Congresswoman Salazar.

If President former President Donald Trump gets on that stage on Thursday and gives a humdinger of a truly unifying national speech.

I, I will eat this laptop and I say iPad and I sit and I say that knowing that I will not do any damage to my.

How do you see it, David Brooks?

You know, I believe all souls are redeemable.

uh, and so I, I think when God has purposes for people that work in strange ways, uh, King David was not always the greatest guy.

The Soul of Tarsus, who I mentioned last night was not always the greatest guy.

And so I approach it with an attitude of preemptive mercy.

Martin Luther King said forgiveness is an attitude.

Uh, nonetheless, It is incumbent upon the person who we hope is redeemed to confess sin, to practice penitence to issue reparations to offer reconciliation and retrust.

So it's a rigorous process of forgiveness that has been laid out before us and so I remain open to the possibility that Donald Trump is a different person, but there is a process for re-engaging with those who have been wronged.

And so I keep my ears open to whether Donald Trump wants to engage in that kind of long and rigorous process.

You make us all want to be better people, David passed around the collection plate.

You know, I, I'm also struck by tonight is.

Really they're a parade of people who Donald Trump has defeated.

We have in primaries we had Vivek Ramaswami, who was on the floor.

We're obviously going to Nikki Haley and to Governor De Santi.

We will have Ted Cruz also who was his 2016, the last man standing uh between Donald Trump and the nomination in 2016, who was booed on this stage who didn't endorse him on the stage, remember that.

Well, that was a pretty crazy night at the Cleveland 2016 convention and there will be a couple of people who worked with Donald Trump during the his first administration, Ben Carson, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who's now the governor of uh Arkansas, but.

What's notable about this entire experience is how few people there are who actually worked in the White House for Donald Trump, his vice president, right, not endorsing him, not here, right, I wonder why his attorney general.

Many of the people who served on the defense or within, you know, those different departments, um, his former chief of staff John Kelly is former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, um, so former national security advisor, former Secretary of State, the list goes on, right, I'm not going to go through, but I, I have like 12345, you know, I started counting who's not who has.

Basically distance themselves from Donald Trump and so to me that's what's quite remarkable if we're talking about forgiveness or redeeming or what that there was a.

This is not simply like when we were in 2016 or even in 2020 this idea he's going to pivot, he's going to be disciplined maybe this there is a record and there are people who have seen him operate while he was president of the United States.

Many of those people, in fact, most of those people who worked with him have either publicly come out against him or certainly are not endorsing or Openly supporting him this time around, David, to that point, underpinning this whole conversation around his vice presidential pick is the idea, as Amy mentioned that his previous vice president is not here because supporters of Mr. Trump threatened his life on January 6th, and there is No longer any partnership between them.

How is, how is anyone going to handle that here?

Well, they used to be ignoring it.

I mean, you look at all the memoirs that have been written by former Trump people, John Bolton and the list goes on and on and on, uh, and they all speak to a person of extremely bad character, isn't about policy differences, yeah, let's go back to the floor as we expect to hear from vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance.

OK Uh A.

And you can see there in the distance.

Just making his way into the arena is Senator JD Vance of course just named to be former President Trump's running mate.

And we've talked about as well, Amy, that this is still someone that many here in the room, certainly the delegates, many people across the country are still very much getting to know.

He will not be addressing this crowd until tomorrow evening.

How do you think this introduction, this roll out to where the Republican Party is right now.

How do you think that will go?

When he speaks, I think it will be very well received because he is, as we talked about, uh, yesterday, he is the image.

Of the new Republican Party.

He's a later convert to Maga, um, but a convert nonetheless who has been a staunch defender of Donald Trump that every one of his lowest points, there was JD Vance, but remember he's had exactly one campaign under his belt.

He's been in Congress for like 25 minutes and it was a campaign.

It was a very hard fought campaign in a in a state where um you know Mike DeWine.

The governor won by over 20 points, um, it was a much closer race I think 6 points is the victory that he had, so this is a.

You know you're, you're going from um.

AAA or maybe even AA up to the bigs very, very quickly and without a lot of warm up.

Now I guess his warm up has been being the defender for Trump for all this time, and I think that's what Donald Trump is going to want to see from him is someone who's going to be On TV at rallies doing what he needs to do.

To, uh, you know, defend Donald Trump and the Trump policies, David Brooks, what does it mean that this ticket with all of its populist zeal.

is fronted by a former real estate developer and a former venture capitalist.

This is just the way it always is like Franklin Roosevelt was Franklin from the Roosevelt family, Josh Hawley went to whatever Ivy League law school he went to.

This is just some speed the way Americans do it when we get an angry populist, we want them to have gone to Harvard Law School.

I don't know why that's just the well educated, angry populist, but I would say, you know, I, I was walking out of here last night after Sean O'Brien spoke to Chiefster and I'm like trying to figure out how did that play with the crowd?

because I always think the crowd is not the audience.

They're the experts.

They're the actors in the stage, and we're really playing it out there in America.

And so I have two guys walking behind me down the stairs and one of them said, would it have killed him to mention small business once and it was like, like he was Mr. Union.

Business is bad.

There's still a lot of business people here.

And so this is a party in transition, and I think Vance is the avant garde of that transition, but a lot of these people they are not, are not there in the populist vein right yet.

Jonathan, I know we've been keeping an eye on who is seated in the family box as well.

What that says about the message that they're kind of sending today, I noticed Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders there as well.

How indicative of that.

You think, well, I mean, Amy talked talked about it.

I mean she worked for Donald Trump.

She was the press secretary.

Now she's the rode that wave into the state into the governor's mansion in, excuse me, in, in Little Rock in Arkansas, so.

That's what that means.

Yeah, we'll keep an eye on that box for sure.

We'll be back here with the panel in just a moment, but right now we are going to take a short break for our PBS stations.

We'll be right back with continued live coverage of the Republican National Convention.

Stay with us.

I'm Michael Beschloss, presidential historian and Newshour contributor.

Republican convention Cleveland 2016.

Donald Trump was about to be nominated and out onto the stage came his runner-up candidate Ted Cruz, who had bought him all the way through the primaries and whose father and wife Trump had personally insulted.

It became clear that Cruz was not going to endorse Donald Trump.

If you love our country and love your children as much as I know that you do, stand and speak and vote your conscience vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom.

There was booing.

There was some heckling, of course Ted Cruz became one of Donald Trump's most fervent supporters.

And welcome back to PBS News live coverage of the Republican National Convention.

Thanks for staying with us.

I'm I'm the Navaz, and I'm Jeff Bennett.

We have a couple of more hours this evening with many more speakers to go, but let's return to our panel in the booth that's Amy Walter, David Brooks, and Jonathan Capehart.

Jonathan, it's been more than 24 hours now since Donald Trump announced his pick of JD Vance to serve as his vice presidential nominee.

How are Democrats approaching this?

What message have they settled on to under Cut the strength of this ticket.

Well, I don't know if they've settled on a message, but what I've been hearing is that a lot of Democrats are happy that Senator Vance is the pick.

I mean, he, there's a lot in his background, a lot in his record that they can that they can run on and meaning run against him and so, um, could you imagine if the nominee had been Nikki Haley or Senator Rubio be a completely different conversation, but as you mentioned, Amy.

Senator Vance has only been in the Senate for a year and a half.

He's come way up in the big leagues, and I don't think we've ever seen anyone this quote unquote green since Sarah Palin.

Now since he was in Senator Vance is in the Senate, it's a bigger, it's a bigger stage, but he's untested on this stage and the thing I'll be watching for is how well does he, how well does he handle That stage And that microscope, the intensity is going to get.

Very strong and it can break people who are not prepared as we saw with Sarah Palin.

David, to that point, what do you make of this, especially the idea we've heard that, you know, there's a lot of ammunition.

There's a lot of opposition here that Senator Vance has shown to Mr. Trump in the past.

You can see those ads writing themselves and being rolled out here.

Does any of that make a difference in this race?

It makes a difference.

I remember when, when Ben JD was one of us never Trumpers, but you know, he says, listen, I, my mind was changed.

And a lot of people's minds were changed applause here as Donald Trump.

Makes an appearance.

We believe he's going to go up and sit with the family as he did last night.

A fist pump from the former president.

The crowd of delegates on their feet.

We'll see if Mr. Trump interacts with any of them as he makes his way up to the box there with the family.

And that bandage remaining on his ear still, can I just point out to you, David, I'd love to get your take on this, the fact that he made an appearance yesterday on night number one of the convention that he is here again tonight.

I think we can expect he'll be here every night until he speaks on the last night.

I it when we got off air.

He's going to be here every night.

the award for that.

You're absolutely right.

What, what does that say about where the excitement is right now that they feel he needs to be Here every single night.

I suspect with Donald Trump sees 8000 cameras in one room and he wants to be in that room, that's all it takes.

And so I think that's part also I think the a lot of the rituals of conventions, I think have eroded not only Donald Trump but they've eroded over the years and so the idea you build for that final appearance that really went away with Reagan, I guess.

I don't know, but so now it's it's TV, it's more familiar.

People want to see Donald Trump.

Donald Trump wants to see people and Like a good reality show.

He knows to come out exactly at key prime time, right?

Just you've got to appear so people turn on and say, oh, Donald Trump's here I guess I'll keep, I'll keep watching.

He is a master showman.

I mean, after, after he got shot, his first inclination was to put that fist in the air and gave the probably one of the most iconic visuals that we will see from this campaign or any campaign and coming into the hall yesterday, coming the hall tonight.

And in a very UFC that sort of wrestling federation wave in, you know, the backstage, the camera following him out from from back of house into the arena.

That's all stuff that people who watch wrestling they know that.

And so this is where you see the.

Genius of Donald Trump is in television.

It is in the pictures, which is why I'm so curious why he chose Senator Vance as his running.

Well, what about the tableau, because you see behind him, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, uh, I don't know who that member of Congress is, the woman in the black pantsuit, but I think it's Corey Mills behind him from New York regardless, yes, yeah, but what they represent, my eyesight is failing me, but the the the folks in that in that family box.

Not members of the family but members of Congress that message that it what does it convey and how might that land with suburban women voters Amy, I think we talked about this earlier, but his choice of ha Vance is basically a doubling down on this idea that they don't really need to win those women back.

This is not for the Whole Foods voter in Waukesha, which is a suburb right outside of Milwaukee.

It is for.

The working class voters who are in all kinds of, you know, places here in Wisconsin where Democrats are still holding strong.

Democrats in Wisconsin are still holding their base is still like 45% white knock college.

That's who JD Vance, he's thinking it's going to appeal to so this isn't about trying to get back all those voters from the suburbs who left in the era of Trump.

This is about bringing and in many cases, voters of color who fit not just white working class voters, but working class voters across the board, and I imagine it's also about promoting the movement, David Brooks, the JD Vance is in many ways the the populist protege of Donald Trump and this selection of JD Vance is not a signal about how Donald Trump intends to govern or trying to shore up any vulnerabilities.

It really is about promoting this movement, this mega movement that they care so deeply.

About this is a movement that did a hostile takeover on the Republican Party, and so that all those people around him were part of that renegade movement, and you know, as Amy says, the key divide in American politics these days is the diploma divide.

When John F. Kennedy was elected president, he lost college educated voters, but he won because he won working class voters by 2 to 1.

When Joe Biden was elected, he lost working class voters, but he won college educated voters right 2 to 1.

So this whole party has shifted towards The educated class or not this one, the other one, and so Donald Trump is aware of that and so they are, they're doubling down on that, and I think people who underestimate JD Vance.

I have worries about JD Vance because he's never really run anything, so I have real worries about that, but he represents a developed economic philosophy that has played well for Josh Hawley.

It plays well for Tom Cotton.

It plays well in working class Midwestern areas and Democrats have to respond to it with substance.

Take a listen now to the convention floor.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is taking the stage right now.

God bless Donald J. Trump.

And let me start.

By giving thanks to God Almighty for protecting President Trump.

And for turning his head on Saturday as the shot was fired.

Together we lift up in prayer all of our leaders for protection.

And our prayers are in particular with the family of fire chief Cory Comparatori and the others injured on Saturday.

Never before.

As an election mattered so much.

We are facing an invasion.

On our southern border.

Not figuratively.

A literal invasion.

11.5 million people have crossed our border illegally under Joe Biden.

Look around you.

This arena holds about 18,000 souls.

Now imagine 639 arenas just like this filled to the brim.

That is 11.5 million people, larger than all but 8 states in the nation.

But the numbers Don't show us the true price that our country is paying.

Every day.

Americans are dying.

Murder Assaulted raped By illegal immigrants.

That the Democrats have released.

Teenage girls.

And boys Wearing colored wristbands are being sold.

Into a life of sex slavery.

This is evil.

And it's wrong.

And it is happening every damn day.

Think of Kate Steinle.

She was 32.

Walking with her father on a San Francisco pier.

When a bullet tore through her heart.

The man who fired that gun.

He'd been deported 5 times.

Every Damn day.

Think of Lake and Riley.

Just 22 years old, a nursing student with dreams of healing others.

She went for a job.

And never came home.

Her life taken by someone who should have never been here.

Every damn day.

Or Rachel Marin, a beautiful mother of five, raped and murdered in suburban Maryland by an illegal immigrant, the Democrats released.

Every damn day.

Or Jocelyn Nungari.

Only 12 years old.

It was just one month ago today.

That she was brutally raped and murdered in Houston by two men who were supposed to be detained and monitored.

But instead released and allowed to roam free.

Every Damn, damn.

These aren't just stories.

Or statistics.

They're our daughters, our sisters, our friends.

The families Don't care about the empty numbers.

They care about the empty chairs.

At the dinner table.

About the voices.

They'll never hear again.

About the laughter.

Lost And about the dreams that will never be fulfilled.

I've sat with these families.

In living rooms where the silence is so loud that it hurts.

We photo albums.

are opened.

With trembling hands.

How did we get here?

It happened because Democrats cynically decided they wanted votes from illegals.

More Then they wanted to protect our children.

Today As a result of Joe Biden's presidency.

Your family is less safe Your children are less safe The country is less safe.

But here's the good news.

We can fix it.

And when Donald Trump is president, we will fix it.

We know this.

Because he's done it before.

I know this because I worked hand in hand with President Trump to secure our border and we achieved the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years.

It's real simple.

He's done it before and he'll do it again.

So tonight, I speak for Kate.

And Lincoln And Rachel Tonight I speak for Jocelyn.

And let us go forward together.

And keep our sacred oath to defend the Constitution.

And to protect the American people.

Let us secure our borders, enforce our laws, protect our children, and restore the future.

Because when we do that, When we remember who we are.

And who we love.

And we act to protect them.

Then and only then will we truly make America great again.

Thank you.

God bless Texas and God bless the United States of America.

At Texas Senator Ted Cruz there speaking on one of the key issues we expect to hear a lot of tonight, and that is immigration.

We'll be adding some necessary context for those remarks in just a moment, but before we jump into the policies, we want to welcome a very special guest here in our PBS news booth.

North Dakota Governor Doug Berggu, who's been making a number of headlines this year.

He's one of Donald Trump's challengers in the Republican primaries and of course on the short list of vice presidential picks.

Governor Bergen, welcome.

Thanks for joining us.

It's great to be here.

Thanks for having me on today.

So you have shared the I'd love for you to tell us in more detail about how you came to learn when former President Trump called you to tell you it wasn't going to be you as his running mate, but it seemed like he was extending a different kind of offer to you.

Tell us about that.

Well, he was, but I think I do want to say that I was having an emotion on Monday that I think most Americans were, which is, uh, just, just grateful that President Trump was alive.

I mean, to think that he walked in here last night less than 48 hours after this assassination attempt and think about where we would be.

If we were a millimeter difference, we wouldn't be at this convention.

We wouldn't, we'd the country would be in chaos and in mourning, and I, so that, you know, the very first words that Katherine and I had for him is like, hey, we're grateful that you're alive and and this we've approached we approach every day with gratitude and we've been approaching this entire last year that way one day at a time and in politics there's a lot of things that you can't control, and this is something we entrusted that President Trump Make a great choice.

So when he called and the first words were hello Mr. Secretary.

I think we, we had the news that the decision was that he'd made, but we've been pleased to be part of this and of course I wake up today grateful because I'm still the the governor of the great state of North Dakota.

I've got 151 days left.

It's one of the greatest jobs in the country is representing that state and, and have a lot of fun doing that and we're gonna as as governor uh part of how we jumped into this, jumped back in in January.

After we'd stopped out of the presidential race was really around the idea that for our state I've been governor under President Trump, Governor under President Biden.

One was like a breeze at our back and the other was the gale force wind, and I'm talking about the rules and regulations we're fighting over 30 different federal efforts through mandates or rulemaking that could be a single rule might be 800 pages to 1400 pages long, but these are designed to really curtail US energy, US agriculture, which is Really dependent on the fuel markets now and then of course we've got a big national defense presence in North Dakota as well.

So when you've got when you got your own administration coming after your, your largest industries, you have to say, hey, what can I do as a governor?

Well, the best thing I could do is to get a change in administration and President Trump, I think he's right on energy.

He's right on the economy.

He's right on agriculture, he's right on the border, and he's right on national defense, and those are all great things for our state.

A question about the rest of that phone call, so he says, hello, Mr. Secretary and then what else does he say?

Well, he's had a lot of tremendous things to say about the First Lady.

She had a great relationship with the president in the White House during the first term.

She's courageously the First Lady Catherine from North Dakota shared her struggle with addiction and her recovery and of course President Trump, they were doing a lot of things during his administration around around the disease of addiction, the opioid crisis, the First Step Act with criminal justice reform, a lot of things.

We're near and dear to both of us and from that relationship that she had with the Trump family, then that picked up again in January when we started spending time with them and of course President Trump has shared that he lost his own brother to the, you know, the disease of addiction and, and I think it's like every family there's hardly any family in America that hasn't been touched by it and so in the call, a short call, but he just said, hey, I've got to tell you, you know, you and Catherine have been terrific, uh, and uh, and, and so he expressed he expressed a lot of Attitude and appreciation for what we do and he said it from the stage before that he thinks there'll be a role for us in the future and uh but but there's going to be no rules for any cabinet leaders unless he's elected, so would you, would you serve in the cabinet?

Where do you think you could have the greatest value?

Well, I think we got to get him elected first.

Everything else is hypothetical before that, so that's, that's what our focus would be right now, but I think for me as a private sector guy, I would want to go either in the private sector or back in the public sector where you can have the most impact and one thing that I would say is that having spent most of my career in technology, I think we're all underestimating the impact of AI that it's going to have on government and the needs that we have.

We have 10,000 jobs available in America and just, just like at the federal level in North Dakota, a lot of the tail end of the baby boomers are retiring and and the way we're set up, we can't even get the jobs.

You can't even fill the jobs when they come open for government jobs, so there's going to have to be a productivity increase and governments at least.

20 years behind all of the classic sort of business process improvement that's been squeezed out of the private sector through competition when the when the federal government has got monopolies, there's no, there's no external forces that force that efficiency and and anytime we can take a a government job that's paid for by taxpayers and move that job into the private sector to fill one of these 100 million jobs.

Well then we have someone who's paying taxes as opposed to using tax dollars.

It's a double win for everybody.

So how efficiently we deliver services because I, I'm an operating guy.

I would never have been a senator, never been a congressman.

I my whole life I've run stuff and there's a way to run government.

We've done it in North Dakota where we can do things more efficiently and that's why we've been able to actually lower the cost of government have big tax, big tax relief across the state and now in North Dakota we've got the highest GDP growth of any state in the nation.

We have the lowest.

Unemployment, the highest workforce participation, and this is in spite of the wind in our face on all the rules and regulations that are slowing down agriculture and energy, so I think we know how to make it work.

Governor.

I'll just say I know we can what we always appreciate is we can always count on a substantive policy conversation with you.

Ken, if I can turn you to politics for just a moment because you mentioned you have to get this ticket elected before you have to make some decision about joining an administration or not potentially the decision to add JD Vance to the ticket doesn't necessarily.

expand the appeal in any way.

I just wonder what you think the argument is to former Haley supporters, for example, people who wanted a more moderate approach or looking for that here.

What would you tell them now?

Well, I think what you're seeing here and what you've seen in the campaign, what you see show up at the rallies, I've been asked like when I was with President Trump in New Jersey and you've got throngs of people that are, you know, out there in the crowd, and people said what was the demographic of the people that were there, and I said the Graphic was people who get a paycheck.

I mean these are working Americans.

They could be former Democrats, independents, Republicans, young, old families, but if you're someone who gets a paycheck, that paycheck is not making it to the end of the month and we've got a big swath of this country, like half that has no savings, but you're talking about folks who are already showing up to the rallies, right?

I'm asking you about the folks who've been sitting at home skeptical about former President Trump as a candidate and maybe more skeptical now with someone who basically echoes his message and JD Vs. What would you say to that?

Well, I think the JD Vance selection was very strategic.

You got someone who's got small town roots, uh, you know, he's got an incredible personal story of hardship, including economic hardship that can relate to a lot of Americans and then he also is, you know, adjacent to Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, 3 states that that that that that President Trump has to win to get back to the White House.

So I think strategically they've already been reports today they're going to use them heavily.

those states and I think that again connecting with working class people of of all, you know, independent Republican Democrats because President Trump's policies actually are very good for them.

They were good for them when he was in office.

They'll be good again, and I think they're going to be a powerful team.

The Trump path to 270 electoral votes that goes through the blue wall because that's what the Biden campaign, they're focusing on those same states.

Absolutely, and it's going to be, it's going to be a battle, but you heard you heard Tom Emmer, uh, here tonight from Minnesota, a neighbor to North Dakota.

I mean, I look at that state and and of course you've got every rural county is going to vote red.

I mean, rural Minnesota is Trump country just like North Dakota is, so as it is, and we know this in these swing states.

Going to come down to about 19 counties and in those 19 counties, there's people that voted for Trump in 16, those same households voted for Biden in 2020. Who are they going to vote for in 2024?

That's those are the people that are going to decide, but in the end of the day, I think all of you have got to experience the economy often carries the day, not rhetoric, not ideology.

People vote with their pocketbook, and I think that's going to be favoring President Trump's policies this fall.

We know we're living in a different era.

We've all been talking about this in the last few days.

About after the assassination attempt on former President Trump's life.

This seems to be a moment people say maybe we'll hear something different from him, but they all agree this is the time to lower the political temperature.

I'm curious what your message would be to some of the of your fellow Republicans we've seen on stage who haven't seen to get that memo.

They're they're still incredibly incendiary remarks being made, some vilification of certain communities if you I believe that that kind of rhetoric can fuel actual real world violence as we've seen in the past.

What's your message to your fellow Republicans about their language?

Well, I think just in a pure political whether people are attracted to or or you know, pushed away by certain kinds of language.

Just the, the math, the math point is if every Republican in America votes for President Trump, we might still lose an election because there aren't enough Republicans this race will be decided by independents.

So as a party we have to be in a position to attract those voters to come into the party and so I think there was when President Trump had this near death experience on Saturday night in one of the first things he said was, Hey, I'm ripping up my speech and I'm going to deliver a different speech on Thursday.

that's more about unity.

I think there is that gives a lot of hope to the group that you're talking about that might be out there saying, hey, is this a Republican Party that I can come back to and I'm looking forward with a lot of anticipation to tomorrow, to Thursday night's speech, and I think that President Trump is in a position to actually not just to unify the party but actually unify the country.

We're set to hear from former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley moments from now she even Though after after she dropped out of the primary election, she was still pulling 20% of the Republican vote in some states.

What should she say tonight to this crowd and to folks watching at home, uh, that would help bring the party together, the Republican Party, folks who even those supporters of hers who still aren't fully supportive of Donald Trump.

Well, I think the message is pretty, pretty simple because as people may have, may have hoped.

I mean, we know that there's a lot of people out there.

You're the pundits, you track all this stuff, and a lot of people were hoping in 2024.

2 years ago, a year ago that we might have a different set of people on the top of the tickets, but for those people, that's not me.

I'm I feel like we got the right person on the top of our ticket, someone who's going to be able to lead our country with strength, but for those people, they have to make a choice.

Either you don't vote or you've got a binary decision and you're going to be voting for really for one party or the other and which which vision of the party, which vision of the administration, do you believe in?

And I think that Nikki's got an opportunity to really declare which way she's going and and uh and I think a full throated endorsement for President Trump tonight will go a long way, but I know.

When you, when you see the numbers you see in the last a lot of Nikki's supporters and Nicky's donors have already come to the Trump camp.

That's already been happening, and I know that because I've been talking to him the last 6 months.

Governor, you've made the segue for us.

We thank you so much for coming by.

Governor Doug Berman, let's go now now to Nikki Haley.

Thank you, sir.

Hm My fellow Republicans.

President Trump President Trump asked me to speak to this convention.

In the name of unity.

It was a gracious invitation and I was happy to accept.

I'll start by making one thing perfectly clear.

Donald Trump has my strong endorsement period.

Our country Is that a critical moment.

We have a choice to make.

For more than a year.

I said a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for President Kamala Harris.

After seeing the debate, everyone knows it's true.

If we have 4 more years of Biden.

Or a single day of Harris.

Our country will be badly worse off.

For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump.

But there's more to it than that.

We should acknowledge that there are some Americans who don't agree with Donald Trump 100% of the time.

I happen to know some of them.

And I want to speak to them tonight.

My message to them is simple.

You don't have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him.

Take it from me.

I haven't always agreed with President Trump.

But we agree more often than we disagree.

We agree on keeping America strong.

We agree on keeping America safe.

And we agree that Democrats have moved so far to the left that they're putting our freedoms in danger.

I'm here tonight because we have a country to save.

And a unified Republican Party is essential for saving her.

For those who have some doubts about President Trump.

I want to tell you a few things about the commander in chief.

I know and worked with.

As ambassador to the United Nations, I had a front row seat to his national security policies.

We sure could use those again.

Think about it.

When Barack Obama was president.

Vladimir Putin invaded Crimea.

With Joe Biden as president, Putin invaded all of Ukraine.

But when Donald Trump was president.

Putin did nothing.

No invasion.

No invasions, no wars.

That was no accident.

Putin didn't attack Ukraine because he knew Donald Trump was tough.

A strong A strong president doesn't start wars, a strong president prevents wars.

Then look at the Middle East.

Every problem in that part of the world can be laid at the feet of Iran.

The dictators who chant Death to America.

Are the bankrollers and weapons suppliers for Hamas and Hezbollah.

They're behind the barbaric massacres and the hostage taking.

Once again, compare Trump.

And Biden.

Trump got us out of the insane Iran nuclear deal.

He imposed the toughest sanctions ever on Iran.

And he eliminated the arch terrorist.

Qasem Soleimani.

Iran was too weak to start any wars.

They knew Trump meant business and they were afraid.

And then there's Joe Biden.

He lifted the sanctions.

He begged them to get back into the nuclear deal.

He surrendered in Afghanistan.

He sent every possible sign of weakness.

Even now, while Hamas is still holding American Americans hostage.

Biden is pressuring Israel instead of the terrorists.

Between Israel and Hamas.

Donald Trump is clear about who is our friend and who is our enemy.

Then look at the border.

It's the single biggest faith is the it's the single biggest threat Americans face.

Under Joe Biden, migrants are coming into our country by the thousands every day.

We have no idea who they are, where they end up, or what they plan to do.

And let me remind you.

Kamala had one job, one job.

And that was to fix the border.

Now imagine her in charge of the entire country.

Under Donald Trump we didn't have the border disaster we had today and we won't when he is president again.

I was proud to serve America and President Trump's cabinet.

And I'll tell you something you won't hear from the critics.

He appreciated advice and input.

Americans were well served by his presidency, even if they didn't agree with him on all things.

Now, To my fellow Republicans.

We must not only be a unified party.

We must also expand our party.

We are so much better when we are bigger.

We are stronger when we welcome people into our party who have different backgrounds and experiences.

And right now we need to be strong to save America.

This is a defining moment.

Not only for our party.

But for our country.

Our fellow Americans are fearful right now.

Families are suffering from inflation and wages that don't keep up with prices.

Young people are being indoctrinated to think our country is racist and evil.

The Jewish community is facing an obscene rise in anti-Semitism.

Too many minorities are trapped in communities devastated by crime.

Our foreign enemies win when they see Americans hate each other.

They see that today.

Whether it's on college campuses.

Or in a field in Butler, Pennsylvania.

But we can conquer those fears with strength and unity.

No president can fix all of our problems alone.

We have to do this together.

America has an amazing ability to self-correct.

In this moment, We have a chance to put aside our differences and focus on what unites us and strengthens our country.

Let us join together as a party.

Let us come together as a people, as one country strong and proud.

Let us show our children and the world.

That even on our worst day, we are blessed.

To live in America.

God bless you.

Thank you.

God bless the United States of America.

And now ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the governor of Florida, Ron De Santis.

My fellow Republicans.

Let's send Joe Biden back to his basement and left Donald Trump back to the White House.

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.

Joe Biden has failed this nation as a veteran, I was appalled when 13 of our service members were killed in Afghanistan due to Joe Biden's dereliction of duty.

As a citizen, as a husband, and as a father, I am alarmed that the current president of the United States lacks the capability to discharge the duties of his office.

Our enemies do not confine their designs to between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. We need We need a commander in chief who can lead 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, America cannot afford 4 more years of a weekend at Bernie's presidency.

But let's be honest.

Let's be honest here.

Biden is just a figurehead.

He's a tool for imposing a leftist agenda on the American people.

They support open borders, allowing millions and millions of illegal aliens to pour into our country and to burden our communities, but just don't send any to Martha's Vineyard, then they get really upset.

They have unleashed progressive prosecutors across our nation who care more about coddling criminals than about protecting their own communities.

They use the unelected bureaucracy to impose their will on us without our consent and they weaponize political power to target their political opponents like they've done to our own nominee.

They want to ban gas automobiles, eliminate Second Amendment rights, and imposes gender ideology on every.

One from our infantrymen to kindergartners.

They stand for DEI, which really means division, exclusion, and indoctrination, and it is wrong.

They mandated that you show proof of a COVID vaccine to go to a restaurant, but they oppose requiring proof of citizenship to cast a vote.

They can't even define what a woman is.

Now Donald Trump stands in their way, and he stands up for America.

Donald Trump has been demonized.

He's been sued.

He's been prosecuted, and he nearly lost his life.

We cannot let him down, and we cannot let America down.

It is the values of this Republican Party that reflect our nation's founding principles.

We believe schools should educate, not indoctrinate.

We stand.

For parents' rights, including universal school choice.

We support law and order, not rioting and disorder.

We seek a strong focused United States military, not one distracted by a social agenda.

We reject entrenched political class, and we demand term limits for members of Congress.

We stand for fiscal sanity, for low taxes and for reduced debt.

We seek to reclaim the Constitutional government as envisioned by our founding fathers by bringing the administrative state to heal once and for all.

We believe that you must be a citizen in order to vote, and that photo I should be required before casting a ballot.

We stand for strong borders and believe that our nation must have a shared civic culture and we oppose any immigration that stands apart or in contrast to our American values.

We believe in the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence that our rights come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of the Almighty, including the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Now none of this is easy, but it can be done for decades, my home state saw elections determined by razor thin margins today, due to bold leadership, the Democratic Party lies in ruins.

The left is in retreat.

Freedom reigns supreme.

The woke mind virus is dead and Florida is a solid Republican state.

Now electing Donald Trump gives us the chance to do this all across America.

And we have a responsibility to step up and make it happen.

We have a responsibility to preserve what George Washington called the sacred fire of liberty.

This is a fire that burned in Independence Hall in 1776 when 56 men's pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to establish this nation.

It's a fire that burned at a cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, when our nation's first Republican president pledged this nation to a new birth of freedom.

It's a fire that burned at the foot of the Berlin Wall in 1987 when our nation's 40th president stood in front of that wall and said, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

This is not a responsibility we should fear.

It's a responsibility we should welcome.

After all, if not us, who?

And if not now, when?

Let's make the forty-fifth president of the United States, the 47th president of the United States.

Let's elect Republicans up and down the ballot, and let's heed the call of our party's nominee to fight, fight, fight for these United States.

Thank you.

God bless you.

Let's win.

November, thank you so much.

Very different addresses both in terms of tone and substance from Florida Governor Rhonda Santos, and before that, uh, Nikki Haley, lots to discuss here in the booth, but first we should say that joining us now is Chad Wolf, former acting head of the Department of Homeland Security in the final years of the Trump administration.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Yeah, it's good to be here.

And first I want to draw on your DHS experience because we learned today that Donald Trump's Secret Service protection had actually been increased prior to his Saturday rally.

What authorities say was an unrelated threat from Iran, so it was actually his enhanced security that failed on Saturday.

What questions do you want answered?

Oh, I've got an investigation unfolding.

I've got a lot of questions, right?

Uh, questions regarding resources, questions regarding the handoff to local or state law enforcement, whose responsibility was it for that structure where the shooter fired from, um, what was the force posture of the service and his detail?

Did they Request resources?

Did they request more technology?

I think all of that's going to come out in the investigation, and I think the American people really want to understand what went wrong here because look, the response when you saw his agents dive on him and protect him, and then obviously usher him out.

Great, but that's response, right?

A big part of their mission is preventative, and that's the part that failed and really failed and a really epic failure.

Um, so I think the American people want to know what went wrong here.

Well, on that point, is the secret.

Service in your view, is it stretched too thin?

Is this a systemic failure?

Well, the service just like other elements at DHS both operates from a budget and also operates trying to hire law enforcement officers and so every federal agency that is trying to hire a law enforcement officers has a challenge there.

We've just seen the numbers over the past several years, not be as high as they once were, both from a recruitment and retention standpoint, so they have challenges just like anyone else.

And so when you have a very active former president, and you have a big first family that requires a lot of protection.

A lot of different principles.

You're going to see their resources stretched thin, so absolutely I think that's part of it, but they still have a job to do.

They have a responsibility to do, and um just because you're stretched thin, that's not really an excuse.

Related to all of that, as I'm sure you saw, we've now seen Homeland Security and the FBI issue a bulletin to law enforcement, basically warning about copycat attacks in the wake of all this, right?

And we know, as you well know, about this heated political environment about the kind of rhetoric that can fuel real world.

Violence.

How worried are you about more of these kinds of attacks on political leaders and also what do you think leaders in this moment, including speakers here on the stage, need to do to tamp down the political temperature.

What do you want to hear from?

Yeah, so the bulletin is that doesn't surprise me.

We see that a lot from law enforcement when you have a big event they're always going to be worried about copycat crimes of, of nature.

I don't, I didn't see anything in that bulletin that was very specific, so I don't think it's specific intelligence.

I think they're just concerned and we see that after big large Events or or incidents occurring.

Look, I think, and we've heard it here and we've heard it from President Biden.

Everyone needs to take the temperature down a little bit.

I think that would be good for all sides.

I think when you have Language that talks about threats to democracy or equate someone to a mass murderer like you know, Hitler, which we've seen in the past.

I think that starts to fuel people, right?

And, and I think some folks will say, well, that's just, you know, that's politics.

Well, not everyone reacts the same way, and so I think it's, I think all sides should, should take the temperature down a little bit.

I'd love to talk about issues.

We should focus on issues and and the vision for America, right?

That America first approach that President Trump had for 4 years and obviously he's campaigning on again.

I think those are the issues that most Americans really care about the the economy, how it impacts their pocketbook, the safety and security, not along the border, along the border, but also in their communities.

I think these are the issues that they really, really do care.

So on the issues we know we're going to hear a lot about immigration tonight.

We've heard a little bit already.

It was a huge part of your portfolio leading this key agency we've now seen numbers drop dramatically at the border in the last few months we were seeing record highs after Title 4I lifted the COVID era pandemic restrictions.

We've now seen June numbers at about 130,000.

Those are the lowest since January of 2021.

We know President Biden's taken a lot of heat for a lot of the restrictions he's put on the border from his own.

Progressive wing is credit due here to President Biden for bringing down these numbers as dramatically as he has in the last few months I don't think so, and I'll tell you why.

The Border Patrol numbers that you cite, I don't disagree with you.

Those numbers have dropped, but what the other side or what they're not telling you is that the numbers at ports of entry have increased dramatically over 8,000%, and so you have more and more folks that are inadmissible between ports of entry, but they're being routed to ports of entry and so they're moving that influx of folks just to.

A port of entry and so the numbers don't capture those.

They also don't capture the number of folks being flown into American communities under the parole system that they put in place.

So you really have to take a look at the nationwide numbers which are a bigger number than the subset that you cite there.

That's just border patrol numbers if you look at the nationwide numbers, they're still astronomically high, and we've seen something during the Biden administration that we've never seen before.

Through the use of the CBP one app where people come into those ports of entry and the use of parole where they fly them in from 4 different countries into the United States.

We've never seen that before and so you need to take all of that into account when you're trying to understand the influx of folks coming into the country.

Do you have numbers around that when you say they're astronomically high?

Do you know what we're talking about?

Yeah, so at ports of entry and the parole, so the parole they've uh paroled upwards of 500,000 folks into the country about folks who are coming.

In from those countries they have agreements with to say we'll take up to this many people who apply in advance before arriving here, is that correct from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are the four countries that they're parrooling individuals in at ports of entry it's about our legal pathways, however, that's a legal means of arriving in the United States.

That's being litigated at the moment.

I would say it's very unlawful, the use of the parole system that they're using that's supposed to be on a case by case basis for the public benefit or for national security reasons, none of those actually fit.

Or those two definitions don't fit the number of folks coming into the country.

They just don't disagree on the policy, I understand.

I do, yeah, I disagree with that and the use of that CBP one app.

The CBP1 app doesn't ask any asylum questions, but yet they're allowing folks to come through ports of entry to allow to come into the United States and then seek asylum.

Well, the CBP1 app grants them a chance to meet with an asylum official.

It doesn't necessarily grant them entry, correct?

It allows them to come into the United States to meet with the USCIS officer.

Yes, right, but that doesn't mean that they're allowed to stay.

I mean, the other thing the Biden administration will point you to put the numbers to you is that they've now deported some 4 million people over the course of their administration.

Well, what that tells you is that they are allowed into the United States to meet with an asylum officer and if they're great and if if they meet a very low credible fear standard, they're released into American communities and so that's the end goal as far as deportations or removals, those numbers that they cite are actually returns, so.

Returns or if you were going to return someone as they cross the border, which is again important, but removals are actually removing individuals from the interior of the country.

So that's what ICE does and those numbers are at historic lows, and I think that's what most Americans are concerned about all these folks being released into the country when they do have their time in court if they go to court and they are being ordered removed, they're not leaving.

And so the removals from communities like New York, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Houston.

Those removals that are an all-time low today that bipartisan bill in the Senate that was shepherded by Senator James Lankford, it would have strengthened asylum laws.

It would have forced the president to shut down the border at a certain point.

It also would have ended catch and release, and yet President Trump, according to all the reporting, basically killed it because he wanted to be able to campaign on the problem of immigration.

Was that a strategic mistake on his part, policy-wise, the politics aside.

So I appreciate that.

I would disagree with the way you characterized that bill.

It did not end catch and release.

It did not string it didn't do any of that.

I look, I took a look at it.

Look, I'd been asked to talk about that bill for a long time.

You need to comment.

You need to comment.

I said I'm going to wait until I actually see the legislation.

And I did that and when I read the bill, I said this has got.

A lot of problems.

It's an untested system.

We'd never seen they started uh in that bill is a variety of new things that you would try to do to adjudicate asylum claims instead of actually just enforcing the law, let's go back to the law that's there enforce it, hold people accountable.

That bill created a structure I didn't think was going to be very effective.

It wasn't going to end catch and release.

It wasn't going to do a variety of different things and so I don't, I, I was against it, not because President Trump was against it.

Because operationally I knew that that wasn't going to work at the same time, can I just point out that that would have added, the bill would have added hundreds of border patrol personnel, and we know they've been vastly understaffed.

It would have added hundreds, dozens of the surveillance machines at at legal ports of entry where we know the fentanyl has been making its way through en masse.

I mean this is the kind of things that Customs and Border Protection have been asking for, right?

Oh, sure, I don't, I don't think you can be against either agents or technology, but if you're gonna hire more border patrol agents, which by the That's an 18 month tale.

That's not going to happen overnight.

That's 18 months by the time you authorize the money and you start hiring them until you get them on the line 18 months.

But if you're still gonna simply have them process illegal aliens as they come into the country and you're not trying to deter it, then you're not actually solving the problem.

You're just putting more resources to the problem, which is just processing more and more individuals.

You have to deter them and put some deterrence measures in place to stop the flow, otherwise you're never going to get control of the of the situation.

taking your point about What's operationally effective when the former president talks about mass deportations, how would that work?

How is that operationally effective?

It's going to be a challenge.

I've said that from day one.

I think any time that you're trying to remove anyone from the country, you first have to target them.

You have to locate them.

You have to have officers go out, put hands on them, remove them, detain them, put them on the flight line, and then actually repatriate them back to their home country, all very difficult, but that's not to say that you shouldn't try, and that's why we have ice.

has an ERO office enforcement removal officers, that's all they do.

That is their entire job in life, and we should allow them to do their job and under the Biden administration they're simply not doing it and the numbers bear that out.

It's DHS's own numbers.

So I would say let's get back to letting them do their job.

There's 1.5 million individuals here that have a final order of removal, which means to say every immigration judge they've seen has said you don't have a legal right to be here.

All those individuals need to either voluntarily depart or be removed.

Because that's what our law tells us to do.

We know another issue of great importance right now election security falls under Homeland Security as well, and I just wonder how you view this moment right now.

We've just had an election carried out in which all the relevant agencies said it was the most secure election in modern history.

What's your message to folks out there who are starting to cast doubt on what these election results could be coming up.

Well, I would say it's every American's right, I would say duty to vote.

Um, I think a lot of folks are obviously Concerned about election integrity issues from the previous election and from the COVID pandemic, we saw a number of different changes during that 2020 election.

Some of those are still in place.

Some of them are not states have changed some of those measures.

I would say again, continue to vote.

I think there's a lot, there's been a lot of work to try to secure our elections more from a DHS perspective, and I like to be very clear about this.

DHS's role in election security is very, very, uh, straightforward.

It's making sure that we, we eliminate.

Foreign adversaries from participating in our elections are trying to influence our elections and how high is your level of confidence in our to do that now?

I don't have the intelligence these days, so I don't see what the department sees and what the secretary sees.

I don't see any public reporting that says that they are actively doing that on a scale that I would be concerned about.

I'm sure they are still doing it.

From what I saw when I was at the department, they are doing this almost daily whether it's an election year or not, they're always trying to influence, but I haven't seen any, any public reporting that would give me a lot of concerns from a foreign influence perspective.

Now when you talk about voter rolls and you talk about what occurs at an elections.

That's nothing that the department has responsibility or jurisdiction over obviously that falls.

At the state level but also with the Department of Justice, the former acting head of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad, well, thank you so much for being with us.

Really appreciate your time.

I appreciate it.

Let's go to the floor.

Lisa Desjardin, our eyes and ears on the convention floor.

Lisa, what are you seeing?

Who are you with?

I am with the California delegation actually kind of just underneath where you guys are looking out for Mom.

I'm with Sara's Morris.

Sarah is with the Republican Party's first convention here from Imperial County and she's a kindergarten teacher.

I have an 8 year old, so that speaks to me.

We were talking about the border because Imperial is in the corner of California borders of Mexico and Arizona.

What has been going on in your county that you've observed you mentioned about fentanyl and what that means for you at school.

Um, it's a concern we've talked a lot about fentanyl the last two days.

It's, um, it's terrifying, so I teach kindergarten and we recently started having to carry the Narcan nasal spray in the elementary school, I teach 5 year olds I know you've said that they immigrants are coming through your area, but they're not staying.

Tell me a little bit about what's what's what's going on just in general, is it a strain on resources or, or do you know?

Um, so Imperial County has a lot of, um, law enforcement, federal law enforcement as, as that's a huge employer.

Um, we have a border patrol, customs ICE agents, and they are strained.

They're not being supported, but what do they, they can't say a lot and they're just watching these floods of people walking across and waiting to get picked up and processed and sent.

Throughout the United States.

You've seen this influx, we know we just heard Chad Wolf talking on our program at the numbers changing the rhetoric, does it matter to you?

We've heard the term illegals used here.

Our panel has been talking about that.

What do you think of that word?

I think it's, it's just a word.

The the real issue is that there's people coming into our country that don't always have good intentions.

A lot of them, um, are fleeing for bad reasons and it it's just a word I think we need.

Get to what the actual problem is is that our laws are not being followed.

Donald Trump is campaigning on the idea of mass deportation across this country.

You are someone who is familiar with local and state law enforcement, um, do you think that is possible?

Do you think that is a good idea?

I, I mean, I think it would all need to be looked at and in following the laws that we have in the United States, um, if, if somebody needs to be deported for a legal reason, then go for it.

Millions of people potentially that would be tough.

I love pizza.

You also, there's business, you have business with Mexico.

How do you balance that the, the good and the bad right now being at the border.

Uh, Mexico are our friends.

We love the citizens of Mexico and the citizens of Mexico for more or less um.

They, they respect our laws and from what I've noticed a lot of my friends, my neighbors who came over legally, went through the whole process, are very resentful.

They're former Mexican citizens now US and they see that the laws now are just not being followed when years ago they did follow them, they went through the process and they expect it for everyone, thank you so much.

Good luck when you get back in the classroom this fall.

Back to you, Ina and Jeff.

Lisa, thank you.

It is just.

9 p.m. here in Milwaukee, 10 p.m. on the east coast, 1004 to be exact.

This is PBS News special live coverage of the Republican National Convention joining our table here is the one and only Judy Woodruff.

Thanks so much for joining us again this evening.

It's great to be with you all, uh, another, uh, uh, night of uh uh Donald Trump at the Republican convention.

Well, react if you will, to what we heard uh from Nikki Haley and RhondaS Santis.

How did those two different messages strike you very different.

I listened to both of them.

I actually had to unplug my uh my cord at the toward the end of Governor De Santis.

It was clear to me that she was, she was, I mean, clearly reaching out and saying the party has to remember there are people out there who may not agree with Donald Trump 100%, and we need to think about them.

And here's, here are some of the ways that I work my way through that.

I disagreed with him, but we can, we can find our way back and that was an attempt to reach out.

Rhonda San us completely different message, uh, basically saying, you know, I, I for overused term At the risk of using a term we hear a lot scorched earth, um, uh, Florida, he celebrates as a place where undocumented Americans are not welcome.

Uh, where in the schools they are dealing with an issue of gender, children, as we know, uh, the state of Florida education system has been, uh, frankly, um, uh, at odds, at great odds over what to do about how to teach race, how to teach gender issues.

I was in Florida reporting on some of this earlier this year, so it's a very different message from the two of them.

Amy, they're really covering the bases here.

I mean, it's, there are conflicting.

Mess for sure being delivered from the same podium in the same stage in back to back speakers.

Is there a strategy here or is it just cast a wide net and it's the message appeals to you, welcome.

You're welcome in there.

Look, um, you know, I, I've been talking about this for a while now.

Rhonda Santis is basically the avatar for Red America.

He sort of sees himself as the defender of what Red America is.

Gavin Newsom sees himself as the avatar for Blue America.

And they're both basically making the case that if you live in my state, what you're doing is supporting the vision and the ideology of that America, so he's never gonna be, I think, like Judy said, the kind you'll be like, oh we wanna, we wanna just get a bigger net.

We want, we want blue America to come into our tent.

It's like, no, we're pretty happy here in Red America you would like it too, I think with You know what's what's interesting about both of those two, candidates says their central message in 2023 and going early into 2024 was we're gonna lose if we put Donald Trump.

Like, let's just be really clear, he's going to lose, he can't win this.

We've been doing nothing but losing since, uh, he, he won in 2016 and now we're at a point where as we open the show, you've got Democrats who are despondent, just assuming this is going to be a disastrous election and Republicans feeling incredibly confident about their choices.

On, on this question, David, about the lack of a cohesive message, at least on night two of this Republican National Convention.

You have Nikki Haley say, our, our foreign enemies win when Americans hate each other, and Ron DeSantis says of Joe Biden, we don't need 4 more years of a weekend at Bernie's presidency.

I mean, which of those two messages resonate?

Yeah.

Well, I know which one works for me.

Do you want to clarify the Sanders, obviously.

You know, I'm, I'm, I'm getting all religious this tonight, but by the fruit of their spirit ye shall know them.

Amen.

Let me know if you want to also call later in the show, um, so like Nikki Haley was graceful and she was joyful like she had differences with Donald Trump, but that's fine.

And by the way, I thought he was a good president.

I thought his national security policy was good and but you know, he's a good guy and so she was light and buoyant.

I, I think she's just a political talent.

I'm just watching like a political operator.

I just thought she's good at this.

Rhonda Sanders comes out joyless humorless, like brash, harsh, like I know this is his reputation, but he lived down to it, and so it it was a, I don't know if it was a different messages, but it was different messengers and that their speeches flew out of who they are.

The Haley message that we can't just unify the party as people have been repeating regardless of how they're presenting the message that we must expand the party with something she said as well.

Do you feel like that was a message for people in the room or people at home, or was that a message for the ticket itself?

All of the above, but certainly for the people in the room.

The thing that I noticed was that when Governor Haley came out, it was like tepid golf applause, you know, oh, here she is, right.

She finishes, but then govern then Governor De Santi is introduced and clearly he is the home favorite and that red meat he threw out, they devoured.

They're not interested, clearly not interested in the joyful Nikki Haley.

I still say.

If Nikki Haley were the the vice presidential nominee.

This would be a completely different race and the Democrats would be would have been extremely fearful about their chances in November, but this dissonance between the, you know, the paucity of the message coming from Nikki Haley.

There aren't many Nikki Haley replicants out there saying the same message, lots of Ron DeSantiss out there from Speaker Johnson to Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, the whole host of people who are just somehow.

That unity message is just not trickling down to the folks who are going on that stage and reflect, if you will, on the degree to which the apparent overtures to black voters last night just by inviting a Byron Donalds into the family box and having Tim Scott and Byron Donalds and others.

The degree to which that was undercut by what Rhonda Santa said when he characterized DEI diversity, equity and inclusion as division, exclusion, and indoctrination.

Exactly.

I mean, it's again it's the dissonance.

You can't ask for black votes and then go and and talk about issues that they actually care about.

They might be conservative and they might be African American and they might not agree with the Democrats but to talk about DEI in that way is insulting.

It's absolutely insulting.

And yet That's what this crowd is, that's what this crowd likes, so I, I don't know that's why I keep saying this idea that Donald Trump is going to get a huge amount of African American votes is laughable because the messages don't, the messages don't match.

Can we recalibrate here for a moment too because Judy.

It's been 3 days since the assassination attempt on former President Trump that everyone claimed in the moment and immediately after would change everything, would change the conversation and to be fair, we have not heard from former President Trump himself.

No, but so far what you would expect to hear from the folks who've been on this stage it's pretty much the same message they were delivering before that day.

Well, a number of them are inserting the word unite unify, unite.

In their remarks we are hearing, we certainly heard it from Nikki Haley.

I think Speaker Johnson, Mike Johnson mentioned it, uh, but there is a disconnect because This is a party where the speakers are asking us to they're mentioning unity, but they're also saying we need to fight, fight, fight, and there as, as, uh, Jonathan just said the red meat that you you hear from Wanda Sanders is not a message of unity.

It remains to be seen.

There's another 2 nights a little bit plus for them to to figure out how they're going and we don't know what former President Trump himself is going to say, but right now it's a conflicting message.

I feel like I'm being pulled in one direction and then in another by what I'm hearing.

Amy, how much of this so far is a reflection of What we saw in 2020 and when President Biden says, I beat him once, I can beat him again.

I mean, it, will he be proven right if the, if the, if the message from the, from the party is in many ways.

Reflective of what we've already seen from this president, former president, well, so this gets back to the other issue we've sort of touched on, but we'll be spending a lot more time in the next week about which is what's going on on the Democratic side and the fact that.

It is the president who should be able to make this case about the dissonance the president who should be talking about what a Donald Trump second term would look like, who would be pointing to these as examples of the differences between the two parties.

He's unable to do that because even within his own party.

He's seen as, you know, uh, not able to to go forward.

We still don't have an answer yet for whether he will be on the top of the ticket and that is at its very core we can't even begin to have a conversation about what does November look like when we don't have a presidential candidate.

OK, wait a minute.

We do have a presidential candidate.

I don't know how many times President Biden has to say.

I am running.

I am running, I am running and the message is y'all stop asking me to get out.

I'm not getting out this moment reminds me of the 2020 campaign when when Joe Biden's campaign was basically like the Hindenburg lost Iowa, lost New Hampshire, lost Nevada, lost one other state that's in there and I kept saying, gotta wait till black voters have their say and miraculously the Hindenburg sealed up and became president.

Of the United States and I, I think that the president is looking back on 2020, he said.

My candidacy was almost, you know, finito then here we are now we're in July, people.

People are losing their minds over polls that are snapshots in time and I still contend that if that debate was so disastrous in June 27th and it was his poll numbers should be in the toilet, but beyond the toilet and yet and the PBS NPR Marist poll, um, Washington.

Post ABC poll, NBC News, NBC News polls, all done after the debate, no change, no change, it is still a dead heat and within the margin of error.

I know I'm arguing with the polling arguing with the pollster.

I'm not a pollster, but I, I seriously I'd like to follow and I feel I'm trying to I'm trying to understand OK, this is how I explain it and see if this is, is what works so.

We assume Trump at the national level is where the polls say he is somewhere between up by 1 point to 2 points and you're right, it's not really moved that much since the debate.

That's basically maybe a point or two better than where he was before the debate.

The bottom hasn't fallen out.

But a Trump winning the popular vote by 1 point is a 5 point shift.

From where we were in 2020, so take the closest races, those states that Biden won by less than 1 point or by 2 points.

And now ship them 5 points.

That's.

It doesn't, it's not a, um, I think this is the challenge we have in this moment, uh, or this political moment, which is even when Trump by the numbers, if you just looked at the electoral college number, you would say, boy, if I didn't won pretty easily, pretty handily.

And then you look at the narrow margin he carried those states by now just shift it that much more so it doesn't take that much to go from.

I'm at 300 electoral votes if I'm Joe Biden too, I'm losing.

Does that, and I take your point, it's July if, if we were having this conversation in September late September I'd be like, how does he so that's the question which is not so much how much deeper can the hole get?

How does he get out of the hole?

Correct.

That's the question I was gonna ask.

Between now and September, how, how does the conversation change?

That's the question, it changes when stopped focusing on him and start focusing on him, but starts focusing on Donald Trump in 2020 is embedded in Democrats DNA, exactly, which is why I keep telling y'all.

That's why I keep telling them that autobiographical.

I've known Joe Biden for a long time.

I really admire Joe Biden.

I think he's been a very successful president, but 72 to 80% of the country thinks he's not fit to be re-elected.

They will vote for the Democratic Party because they don't like this crew.

But, and I'm a Muslim, but I look at the videos today he gave a speech, he gave an interview, and I thought that's not the guy I knew a year ago.

That's not the guy we all knew two years ago.

That's not the guy we knew 10 years ago.

And as, well, I hate to quote George Clooney, but not, why not?

They're often mistaken for each other, but but that's the line of the name.

But as he said, Times arrow only moves in one direction and members of.

Democratic members of Congress, let's face it, are still calling the White House worried, talking to each other, it's quieted down this week because of this convention, but my prediction is it's going to rise up.

We're going to hear a lot more about it as soon as this convention is over.

There's still worry every time President Biden goes out, the phone calls pick up the emails, the texts, we're all hearing it.

Judy, to that point though, in this moment compared to elections of years past.

Does it feel like more can change in a condensed amount of time?

I mean, the time between July and when voting early voting even begins in several weeks' time, I mean, you're absolutely right.

I mean, between now and November is a lifetime between now and the Democratic convention, not quite a lifetime, but, but you're right, I mean a week ago Donald Trump hadn't been shot.

I mean, look at, look what's changed just 4 days, so anything can happen, but on the current trajectory.

The Democratic Party looks unsettled on, on its nominee and Amy, when you walked us through the polling and why Democrats are so freaked out to use the phrase, those frontline Democrats in particular, it's not just that in their view, Joe Biden is on track to lose the presidency.

It's that Democrats are on track to lose the House.

They were already facing a tough Senate map.

They'll lose the Senate, and when you add to that, uh, a super conservative Supreme Court, it would give Republicans a monopoly on all the.

of power in Washington and the state legislatures, you know, the Pennsylvania state legislature, the Minnesota state legislature.

Democrats have very, very narrow majorities there, so that is at different levels and that's exactly right.

I mean, the, the most fascinating thing for us political dorks right now is trying to understand this disconnect between Biden's very poor numbers in some of these battleground states and Senate Democratic Senate.

Incumbents.

Doing really well performing and so the question is which is going to come first either did they start to go down as and and that that gravity takes old political gravity takes hold, or.

Could Biden.

Reach that number where they are, which is what the sort of traditional Democrat should be getting who isn't plagued with the challenges that um.

That David just talked about about.

The people feeling like he's just not up to the job.

You know what I find fascinating though?

Not a single member of the Congressional Black Caucus has come out to say that Joe Biden should not be the nominee and what strikes me is that if he were to step aside, Pamela Harris, who used to be a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and who would be if she wins make history as the first black and South Asian woman to be elected president.

You still have members who are saying, no, Joe Biden's still our guy.

Yeah, yeah, and, and it's also an oddity that Biden was thought to be the centrist.

And yet the defenders are Bernie Sanders and AOC and it's the moderates were like maybe because they're more in swingy districts, but I, I both those patterns are, are real, and I don't try to explain it.

I am not shocked by this.

Remember, Joe Biden's candidacy in 2020 when it was written off for dead, was saved by African American voters in South Carolina and then in the Super Tuesday state.

President Clinton, his presidency was held together because black voters stood with him when he after he got impeached, you know, African American voters, you know, you can, yeah, they're largely liberal, the stalwart voters in the Democratic Party, but they're also very pragmatic.

There's a reason why with two African Americans in the race for the nomination in 2020, Senator Harris and Senator Booker, everyone kept saying, well, why aren't they getting black support because Joe Biden was in the race.

Why was Joe Biden getting black support because he served as the vice president of the first black president of the United States when Congressman Cliburn said.

We know Joe Biden and Joe Biden knows us.

That us is weighted with history and knowing and relationship and so all I keep saying to Democrats, OK, you keep saying he needs to, he needs to go away.

He no longer should be the nominee.

The mistake they're making is not them saying and Kamala Harris should be, should replace him just sitting vice president, and I, I, and I tell Democrats if you replace President Biden.

With a nominee who is not the sitting vice president of the United States, you have guaranteed you will lose.

You cannot say to the base of the Democratic Party.

Yeah, we need your votes.

Listen to black women listen to black women, but when the black woman is the sitting vice president and you pass over her as the nominee or um you you you you don't think of her as the nominee.

Why, why would the base of the party then come out and vote?

We keep hearing that, I mean, no one has flat out said this, but I keep hearing that Republicans Donald Trump on down, want Joe Biden as the opponent that's the man they want to run against.

You are starting to hear though in the speeches and the comments around here, Kamala Harris's name I Haley for sure, yeah, it's, it's not just Joe Biden, it's Biden Harris, Biden Harris and Nikki Haley and Nikki Haley was tough on Kamala Harris during the campaign.

And we heard that again tonight during her primary campaign, she talks about that a lot and to your point, Jonathan, that's exactly right, whether Biden's at the top of the ticket or not.

Kamala Harris is going to be the center.

Of the campaign in 20 in these next whatever many weeks we have left.

So if you're Democrats, you have to be making the case that you also support the vice president and that you have confidence in the vice president and if not then it's helping make the case that Republicans are making right now, which is I hold that thought.

Let's go to the floor.

This is the governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, of course previously served as Donald Trump's White House press secretary.

And before I get started, I want to say, I have always been proud to stand with President Trump, but never have I been more proud than to stand with him right now tonight.

Not even.

An assassin's bullet could stop him.

God Almighty intervened because America is one nation under God and He is certainly not finished with President Trump.

And our country is better for it.

I am here tonight.

As America's youngest governor.

The first The first woman to lead the great state of Arkansas.

And most importantly, A mom to 3 amazing kids, Scarlett P, George.

When I was President Trump's White House press secretary.

The best job I got the chance to take my 4 year old son, Huck.

To bring your kid to work day.

Much Like Jill now drags Joe to bring your husband to work there.

And while I was briefing the president.

On the upcoming event in the Oval Office.

All of the kids who were attending that day.

Gathered in the rose garden, getting ready to meet him.

And we were walking out onto that beautiful perfect colonnade.

And I saw out of the corner of my eye.

That my son Huck was running full speed directly at the president of the United States.

Being the gracious person he is, President Trump bent down to give him a big hug.

And right in front of everyone.

Huck sidestepped the president.

Completely ignoring him in front of everyone and ran straight into my arms.

For my 4 year old son.

The most powerful man in the world.

Had nothing on his mom.

But because he's the amazing man he is.

President Trump didn't mind at all after all, he's a dad to 5 unbelievable kids and a grandfather to 10.

And while that story is certainly a special memory for my family.

It's an even greater reminder why I support President Trump, not for me, not for him, but for my kids and for yours.

Under President Trump, America was safer.

The world was safer and it felt like the next generation would have a chance at the American dream.

President Trump did the job that Kamala won't and Joe Biden simply can't.

When we're honest, Every American knows.

That we were so much better off.

Under President Trump.

So tonight I don't want to just speak about President Trump's successful policies.

While there are many.

I want to talk about.

The man that I know.

When the president hired me.

I was the first mom and only the 3rd woman to ever serve as the White House press secretary.

And in that role, I endured relentless attacks from the left.

I was insulted as a guest at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

My family was denied service and kicked out of a restaurant.

And a parent At my 3 year old son's preschool.

Spit On my car.

And in those moments it was President Trump who defended me.

And when an MSNBC hosts the offer of several books on empowering women.

Said I was unfit to be a mother.

And another MSNBC host.

Said I was vile.

Not even human.

And that I should be choked.

MSNBC again did nothing.

But our president.

pulled me aside.

Looked me in the eye.

And said, Sarah, You're smart You're beautiful, you're tough and they attack you because you're good at your job.

Never let them stop.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you That's the Donald Trump that I know.

And that's the Donald J. Trump.

I will always respect.

The left doesn't care about empowering women.

Biden and Harris can't even tell you what a woman is.

They only care about empowering themselves.

But we have a president.

Who believes and empowering every American and that our country is worth fighting for.

The last 4 years.

Republican governors have been leading that fight.

And doing what Joe Biden refuses to do.

We've deployed the National Guard to the border.

We've cracked down on crime and drugs.

We cut taxes to give hardworking Americans a break from Biden inflation, and we empowered parents with universal school choice across the country.

Donald Trump was the very first president in my lifetime to take a hard line against China, and I'm proud to be the first and only governor in the country to kick communist China off our farmland and out of my state.

President Trump is a leader.

And he's the leader our country needs.

And if ever there was a doubt.

Earlier this week, We saw just how tough resilient, courageous, and daring this man is, and we can't get him back in the White House fast enough.

Ladies and gentlemen, We are not called to stand still.

In the face of great danger.

You and I were put on this earth at a moment in time to charge boldly ahead.

We cannot know what the future holds.

But we know damn sure who holds the future in his hands.

God spared President Trump.

From that assassin.

Because God is not finished with him yet.

And he most certainly is not finished with America yet either.

With God as our guide and President Trump back in the White House, we will show the world that America is the place where freedom reigns and liberty will never die.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Tonight Let us not leave here.

Just excited about a great few days.

But let us leave here energized and committed to making sure that we protect our freedom and we have the ability to pass it on to the next generation because America is the greatest country that the world has ever known and our kids and our grandkids deserve to enjoy it the way each of us did, and we will with President Trump back in the White House.

Thank you so much.

God bless the great state of Arkansas.

And the amazing United States of America.

Thank you very much.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivering her remarks here at the Republican National Convention and moments of real emotion and power there coming from the former press secretary to President Trump.

Down on the floor are own Lisa Desjardin.

She's been talking to delegates there and asking them how the speeches have been resonating with them, Lisa.

Take us down there.

What's going on?

First, a couple of things I'm a good chunks of that speech were off prompter.

Those were impromptu remarks, some of them from Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

At least they weren't in the prompter.

Another thing is this is a much more crowded convention floor than we saw last night, and I can report for myself and producers Kyle and Ali, the temperature 10 to 15 degrees hotter than it was yesterday down here too, but I want to talk about Nikki Haley and her speech I have with me Paul Dame.

He is the state chairman for the Republican Party of.

And a pledged delegate for Nikki Haley, um, what did you think of her speech?

I thought it was really important that Nikki gave the, her supporters, uh, sort of a look behind the Trump that you see on TV and said, look, I've opposed Trump sort of in the behind the scenes area, he does listen to people that don't agree with him 100%.

You always do what you want, but he listens, and I think that was building on the message we heard from the Teamsters president last night.

So I think what Trump has kind of done with tonight, uh also with the speech from Rhonda Santos showing that he's trying to build a coalition of rivals and coalition of people who don't typically vote or may not be your typical Trump supporter, and so I think Nikki Haley was very clear in her support for Trump, and that's going to give some Nikki Haley voters enough to feel more comfortable voting for Trump.

Does it give you enough because I will say I spoke to another Haley pledged delegate here tonight.

I'm not going to identify anything about this.

Person because they were nervous about that.

Not sure about Donald Trump.

It's not on this convention floor now, not yet ready to vote for Trump.

Are you?

I think a lot of it will depend.

There's gonna be a lot of weight on what Trump himself says on Thursday.

It's one thing for Niki to go out there and encourage delegates to vote for Trump, but Trump is going to have to to reach across the aisle.

Nicky's done a lot.

She released her delegates, encouraged them to vote for Trump.

She supported Trump, and it's really upon the burden is on Trump to say to Nikki Haley voters who aren't sure about him why they should vote for him this time around.

JD Vance in some ways has Positions opposite and on foreign policy of Nikki Haley, what do you think of that choice?

Is that move you one way or the other of the three names that I had heard between Vance and Berggu and Marco Rubio, JD Vance was the pick least likely to bring Nikki Haley voters back.

I think, uh, I know in our state, a number of people who supported, uh, Nikki Haley had voted for Marco Rubio in 2016 and our Republican governor, Governor Phil Scott, most popular governor in America, has had great things to say about Governor Berggu.

So I think Rubio.

Bergham would have been better picks to bring that Nikki Haley faction back in, but Trump is putting together a different coalition than the Republican Party has seen before.

We'll find out in November if it's going to work out for him.

One last question, our panelists up above have been having a very robust discussion about this election and one of our panelists, Jonathan Capehart, believes, you know, Nikki Haley is vice president, would have been a much tougher job for Democrats than JD Vance.

Absolutely, I think, I think Nikki sort of neutral.

Is the plane in terms of of uh having a woman as vice president, she brings an incredible amount of foreign policy experience, and she was on Team Trump in in Trump's first term, so it's not an out of the the world, uh, you know, uh, thing to, to promote.

I, I do think one thing that the advance does bring that I hadn't realized so someone else mentioned it's the first time we've had a veteran on a presidential ticket since 2008 with John McCain.

So that's an element we'll see if that becomes a more central part of the.

theme, the first time we have a veteran in the White House on the White House team, if that will make a difference for some people.

Paul Dame, your state is a special one to our family, so thank you so much for talking to us.

I know our viewers learned a lot as well.

Thank you.

Lisa we can pass on a question to Mr. Dame there.

I mean, you know how much of the support for Nikki Haley, at least in Vermont, is transferable to Donald Trump.

Nikki Haley won Vermont in the 2024 primary.

She won it by something like 5 points if memory serves, uh, in his, in his view, how much of that transfers to Donald Trump or there Jeff Bennett wants to know how much of Nikki Haley's support in Vermont can transfer to Donald Trump.

She won her state.

Uh, I, I feel like even the week before I came here talking to our legislators, uh, other Nikki Haley supporters getting trying to get their input on, on what they thought should happen at the convention.

It seems like it's about a third of folks who support Nicky in the primary, ready to vote for Donald Trump because of all the problems we've heard about with safety and economics related to Joe Biden and competency issues that have become very apparent since the debate.

I think there's also a third of people who are never going to vote for Trump.

period.

And then there's a 3 that are kind of in the middle and they're looking for a reason for Trump to to reach out and vote that way and they may be waiting until the day before election day to decide.

Uh, yes, right now it is, yeah, OK.

I'm the job Lisa DesJardin, our thanks to you both down there.

uh, Amy, Amy sort of the same question to you.

I mean, where do those Haley voters go?

The Trump rather the Biden campaign is making a major play for them.

And you know, this was a debate even as the primaries were going on about whether those folks who were voting for Nikki Haley in the primaries were even open to supporting a Republican in November that these were people who were showing up, many of them in primaries where you could vote either Republican or Democrat, you didn't have to be registered as a, as a party like state like Virginia to basically.

Show their disdain for Donald Trump, where Nikki Haley though did the best.

Now whether these were people who are traditionally Democrats or whether they're Republicans are in a lot of these communities that we think of as not very long ago, Republican strongholds in these wealthier suburban areas, but we also saw her do quite well in uh some of the ritzier places in America like Aspen and.

Uh, the vineyard, she did great on the cape.

Not a lot of bugs on the cane to Santa's just slammed and exactly.

So, so this was always the question, but it's, there's no doubt that there definitely during the primaries, a lot of Republicans who were wary of Trump.

Some of them just because they never really got on board with him and have never liked him, but a lot of them did hear Nikki Haley's message about he can't win.

And thought, that's right, we don't want to have to lose another election, um, and so the question now for those voters is do they go ahead even though they still are not crazy about Donald Trump and vote for them, vote for him?

Did they skip the top of the ticket.

We're hearing people tell us that in focus groups like I'm just gonna skip the top of the ticket and go down there, or are they going to get to Jonathan's point, it's only July.

They're going to check back in in October.

And see where things are.

I find it interesting too.

There's some expectation setting going on here, David.

You heard from the Nikki Haley delegate Lisa was speaking with there that he needs to hear former President Trump make a message to him.

Speak to him directly, somehow bring him on board.

How, how do you see that unfolding?

First, I should say to America, if a journalist sticks a microphone in or fails, be as smart and as likable as that guy I learned a lot about about that that rough.

Thing of 2/3, 1/3.

That, that rings about true with the people, the Nikki Haley people I know.

I, I, I'm reminded as you're asking the question, I had lunch with a Republican senator.

This was now like in the first Trump term, and he said, I went out to one of my rallies and I looked out at the crowd and I didn't know anyone.

And what he was saying was he was elected when the Republican Party was over here and it shifted to over there and all these new people who he didn't know.

And that gentleman is no longer in the Senate, uh, and so what we're watching is the slow motion tectonic shifts of the two parties and in Vermont or on the Cape or even in Aspen the votes the alliances are shifting, and I think that what's important to know for each party is, do you understand this?

and I would say that JD Vance pick is a sign that some people in the Republican Party understand.

Do the Democrats understand where their people now are, and are they willing to campaign in a different kind of way.

We'll see you in Chicago.

We'll see, and we'll also see what Florida Senator Marco Rubio has to say he's taken the stage right now.

The last few days, Remind us That the life of every living thing.

And the breath of all mankind.

is in the hands of God.

We were brought to the precipice of the abyss.

And by the hand of God, Reminded Of what truly matters in our lives and in our country.

This thing we do called politics, it matters.

It's not unimportant.

But it is our people.

Who must always matter the most and everything we do.

By giving voice To everyday Americans.

President Trump has not just transformed our party.

He has inspired a movement.

A movement A movement of the people who grow our food.

And drive our trucks.

The people who make our cars and build our homes.

The people whose taxes fund our government.

And whose children fight our wars.

Americans like Corey comparatory.

He was the former, he was a former fire chief.

And a loving husband.

He was described as the best dad.

A girl could ever ask for.

As a man of God.

Who loved Jesus fiercely.

And looked after members of his church.

Corey was one of the millions of everyday Americans.

Who make our country great.

He wasn't rich.

He wasn't famous And the only reason Why we know his name and story now.

Because last Saturday.

He shielded his wife and daughter from an assassin's bullet.

And lost his life the way he lived it.

A hero For those still wondering who are in the press and many watching at home.

These, these are the Americans who wear the red hats and wait for hours under a blazing sun to hear Trump speak.

And what they want What they asked for.

It is not hateful or extreme.

What they want is good jobs and lower prices.

They want borders that are secure and for those who come here to do so legally.

They want to be safe from criminals.

And from terrorists.

And they want for our leaders to care more about our problems here at home.

And about the problems of other countries far away.

There is absolutely nothing dangerous.

Or anything divisive.

About putting Americans first.

Those who are offended, anyone who was offended about putting America first has forgotten.

What American is and what American means.

American isn't the color of our skin or our ethnicity.

Americans Our people as diverse as humanity itself.

But out of many we are one.

Because as the life story of our next vice president JD Vance reminds us we are all descendants of ordinary people who achieved extraordinary things.

Who do we come from?

We come from pioneers who ventured west to chase their dreams.

And slaves who overcame bondage.

To claim their right to the promise of America.

We come from exiles who fled tyranny in search of freedom.

And of immigrants.

Who left behind all they had and knew.

Because they could not be or achieve God's purpose for their life.

In the nation of their birth.

That is an American.

And putting Americans first.

Must be what this election is about.

When President Trump was in the White House.

Americans had more money.

And lower prices Our borders were secure.

And our laws were enforced.

Iran was broke.

The Taliban stopped killing Americans and Putin didn't invade anyone.

Now under Biden, High prices devour paychecks.

Criminals and drugs are allowed to flood into our country and terrorize our people.

And Iran has money to support terrorists.

The Taliban humiliated us in Afghanistan and not one but two major wars have broken out.

My fellow Americans.

The only way to make America wealthy and safe and strong again is to make Donald J. Trump our president again.

Our country has been injured.

Injured by the bad decisions of weak leaders.

But now Though bloodied by our wounds.

We must stand up and we must fight.

Fight not with violence or destruction.

But with our voices and our votes.

Fight not against each other.

But for the hopes and dreams we share in common and make us one.

And fight For in America where we are safe from those who seek to harm us.

On our streets And from abroad.

And we will not be alone in this fight.

For leading us in this fight will be a man who, although wounded and facing danger.

He stood up and raised his fist and reminded us that our people and our country are always worth fighting for.

It is time It is time to put our country and our people first again.

And to do, and if we do.

Together We will make our people wealthy again.

If we do together we will make our country safe.

Again Together we will make Donald Trump our president again.

And together.

We will not just make America great again.

We will make America greater than it has ever been.

Thank you.

God bless you.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Laura Trump.

Whoa.

I don't feel like I actually have to ask this question, but is anybody in this room ready to send Donald Trump back to 1600.

Pennsylvania Oh Well, it may not be a surprise that I actually had a very different speech that I was prepared to give up here tonight.

That all changed.

At 6:11.

On Saturday evening.

Nothing prepares you.

For a moment like that.

Our family has faced our fair share of death threats.

Mysterious powders sent to our homes, tasteless and violent comments directed towards us on social media.

But none of that.

Prepares you as a daughter-in-law.

To watch in real time.

Someone tried to kill a person you love.

None of that prepares you as a mother to quickly reach for the remote and turn your young children away from the screen.

So that they're not witness to something that scars the memory of their grandpa for the rest of their lives.

The prayers and well wishes we've received over the last 72 hours have been overwhelming, to say the least.

And my heart goes out to the family who lost a husband and a father because of this senseless act.

All of you here tonight and watching at home mean the world to all of us in the Trump family.

If Donald Trump has shown us anything, it's that when it feels impossible to keep going.

Those are the times we must keep going.

I don't know how many people here are watching at home have ever been to a Trump rally, but if you've never been.

Let me tell you about them.

Oh, some of you have been.

Oh Regardless of how the media have painted these rallies, you would be hard pressed to find and to join a happier group of people coming together over their love for the greatest country on Earth, the United States of America.

I dare anyone trying to leave a Trump rally without leaving with some new friends.

You always make friends at a Trump rally, right?

Veterans, teachers, blue collar workers, white collar workers, active duty military, police officers, firefighters, small business owners, Latino supporters, Christian supporters, Jewish supporters, black supporters, white supporters, Asian supporters, gay supporters, Republicans, independents, and yes, even Democrats.

At a Trump rally, you're not viewed as your profession, your religion, or the color of your skin.

You're viewed as one thing.

An American.

Last Saturday was a jarring reminder that we as Americans must always remember.

There is more that unites us than divides us.

We all want this country to be great, even if we don't always agree on the best way of doing that.

And with every bone in my body, I can tell you that all Donald Trump wants to do and has ever wanted to do is make this country great again for all of us.

Yeah Proverbs 28 reads, The wicked flee, though no one pursues.

But the righteous are as bold as a lion.

And that Truly epitomizes Donald Trump.

He is a lion.

He is bold, he is strong.

He is fearless, and he is exactly what this country needs right now.

Let's not forget what life actually looked like under President Donald Trump.

Trade deals across the world that benefited our economy.

Allied countries paying their fair share.

A safe and secure southern border.

Record low unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and women record investment in historically black colleges and universities.

The creation of the United States Space Force.

The most comprehensive prison reform in decades.

How about the peace agreements in the Middle East that they said would never happen.

And The largest tax cuts in American history.

Our energy independence.

Massive amounts of red tape cut and no.

New wars when Donald J. Trump was president.

Maybe most importantly though, You could actually feel it in your everyday life.

Now you didn't have to love everything that he tweeted.

But you cannot deny you were better off when Donald Trump was in office.

Americans were finally able to start saving money.

Home prices were affordable and gas hit a low of $1.87 a gallon.

As I speak here tonight, many of our fellow Americans don't know how they'll pay for their next trip to the grocery store.

New clothes for their children, or this month's rent.

Many of our fellow Americans worry that we are on the verge of a major terror attack here on American soil.

Many of our fellow Americans don't think their own children will be able to establish a better life than they themselves currently have.

Many of our fellow Americans are right now sitting and wondering how on earth this country could have moved in the wrong direction and so quickly.

The Democrats and the media know that they cannot convince you.

The American people, that your life is better off now because it's not.

So what will they do?

They'll try to sell you on some outrageous narrative about the terrible things that Donald Trump will do if he becomes president.

But you don't have to imagine what it would be like.

All you have to do is remember what it was like.

I know Oh yeah.

I know what you hear out there about Donald Trump.

I know what you read, what the media tells you, and what out of touch celebrities on the left say about this man.

But when I look at Donald Trump, I see a wonderful father, father-in-law, and of course, grandfather to my two young children, Luke and Carolina.

I know that I'm lucky enough to get to call him my father-in-law and see him a little differently than all of you.

But it's through that lens that I sometimes wish more people could see him.

This is a man who has sacrificed for his family.

And a man who has truly sacrificed for his country.

Donald Trump didn't need to run for president for fame or money, trust me, we all know he already had plenty of that.

I'll tell you why he did it and why he continues on, even in the face.

Of the unthinkable.

Because he loves this country.

He did it for his grandchildren.

For your children and grandchildren and for the generations to come.

I have seen this man dragged through hell and back, in and out of courtrooms, indictments, impeachments, mug shots.

And even an assassination attempt.

And yet he has never backed down.

I'll never forget watching my two children run up to him with their drawings and hugs for Grandpa.

Just moments before he took the elevator down in Trump Tower to address the media the day after his wrongful conviction.

Despite everything else he had going on, he had no other focus in the entire world.

Just a man, relishing time with his grandchildren.

It's a side of Donald Trump that not enough people get to see.

Maybe you got to see a side of Donald Trump on Saturday that you were not sure existed.

Until you saw it with your own eyes.

Martin Luther King Jr. once famously said, the ultimate measure of a man is not when he, where he stands in moments of convenience and comfort.

But where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

There's no doubt that Saturday was one of the most frightening moments.

Of my father-in-law's life.

Millimeter separated him from life.

And certain death.

And yet, it was in the midst of it all.

As he was jostled off stage by Secret Service that he knew how defining that moment would be for our country.

And he hoisted his fist in the air.

It was not just for the audience at the rally.

Not just for his supporters tuning in.

But for all of America and as a signal to the world that no matter what America will always prevail.

Though it's been strained and attacked, no enemy, no force, not even a bullet is strong enough to break our American grit and our American soul.

We are the country whose founders gave their fortunes, freedom, and lives to pursue the dream of a free society.

We are the country of Thomas Edison, Susan B. Anthony, Henry Ford, and Harriet Tubman.

We are the country who fought and won two World Wars.

And we are the country.

Who always rises to meet the moment, no matter how insurmountable the task.

And in that split second on Saturday, Donald Trump reminded us all of that very history and who we are at our core as a nation.

That is the Donald Trump that I know.

He is an American.

An American who conquered the business world.

An American who made himself a household name.

An American who was beloved by politicians and fellow celebrities for decades.

Until he ran for office with an R next to his name.

An American whom even Barack Obama admits people consider the American dream.

And instead of sailing off into the sunset after an illustrious real estate and television career, he decided to give back.

He decided to bring some of the things that had made him so successful in life.

To all of you.

In order to improve the lives of all Americans.

Black, white, brown, gay, straight, all Americans because that's the man that Donald Trump is.

I can tell you that my personal experience with Donald Trump has shown me his heart.

There wasn't a second that he made this small town girl who was way out of her element in New York City feel anything but welcomes and part of the family.

And if not for the support and encouragement of my father-in-law.

I wouldn't be where I am today.

It's been said by many that Donald Trump sees things in people.

That they don't even recognize in themselves.

In 2016 when he asked me to help him win my home state of North Carolina.

I'll be honest, I was terrified.

I had no idea how I would make it happen.

But he knew I would and I did.

When I was given an opportunity to join a television network as a commentator.

It was the push and support of my father-in-law that gave me the confidence to take that job.

Always the first one to call or text me after a TV hit and tell me, great job, keep going.

Not bad, right?

Or even a few months ago when he called and asked me to be the co-chair of our party.

He showed me potential in myself.

That I couldn't yet see.

So tonight, To my father-in-law.

I want to say thank you.

Thank you for your resilience.

Thank you for continuing on.

Thank you for raising wonderful kids.

Thank you for being an amazing grandfather.

Thank you for never giving up on me.

And thank you for never giving up on our country.

Tonight, I come to you, not as the co-chair of the RNC.

Not as the daughter-in-law of the candidate.

Tonight, I come to you as a mom and as a citizen of this country.

For those of you watching who have never voted for Donald Trump.

I know what the media and his political opponents have tried to tell you about this man.

Believe me, I have seen and heard it all.

But I have also seen the truth.

I am proud to know Donald Trump, to campaign for him, to vote for him, and to raise his grandchildren.

He will do what is necessary to protect you, protect your family, and protect this country because Donald Trump wants us all to be successful, to be safe, to be happy, to be strong and to be great again.

Tonight, I'm asking you to vote.

Not for the Donald Trump you see flashed on your TV every day, splashed across the headlines.

Tonight, I'm asking you to vote for the Donald Trump that Luke and Carolina called Grandpa.

I'm asking you to vote for the Donald Trump that my husband Eric calls Dad.

I'm asking you to vote for the Donald Trump that I call my father-in-law.

I'm asking you to vote for the Donald Trump who can and will make America great once again for All of us.

Thank you.

God bless you.

God bless the United States of America.

We love you.

Laura Trump daughter-in-law, former president Donald Trump featured there as the closing featured speaker on the 2nd night of the Republican National Convention, adding a lot of personal details to what's otherwise been a largely issuedba night.

A lot of speeches focused on things like immigration and voting and so on and and tonight we heard a lot more about his family and personal side to him.

We want to bring it back to the panel here.

We have Jonathan Capehart, David Brooks, Judy Woodruff.

And Amy Walter with us.

David, reflect on what we just heard there from Laura Trump wide ranging speech talking about the man she has come to know and pleading with people to show up for him.

Well, you guys wanted unity and so that was a unifying speech.

There was no real attack on the Democrats and I'm sick of unity.

It was kind of boring.

No, I, I think it was a fine speech.

I thought the two speeches of the night where Nikki Haley and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, those were well crafted speech.

They had moments of humor, humor, yo.

The pathos, uh, and really delivered a message, and so, you know, I, I think, I know, like all of us, I agree that we need to take down the temperature.

There's clear correlation between the amount of pressure in society and violence.

Look at 1968.

And so we need to bring it down, but I don't fault the Republicans for having a political convention and practicing politics and making, taking it to the Democrats when we get to Chicago, the Democrats are going to take it to the Republicans, and that's all fine.

So I thought Republicans doing Republican things.

Tonight was perfectly adequate and but I think what Larra Trump just did is probably what we're going to hear from Donald Trump.

Which is a change of tone.

It's just about a good person trying to do good for the country, and it won't be a lot of red meat, I suspect that this is a precursor of Thursday night.

Perfect.

adequate, so that's what, 3 out of 5 stars, 2.5 2.

All right, Jonathan, how, what's your assessment?

Hope springs eternal, David, on, on what you expect from from Donald Trump.

I mean, sir, fine, lovely speech from from uh Donald Trump's daughter-in-law.

I, I, to me the the best speeches of the night were um Governor Haley.

And Senator Rubio and in listening to the two of them, I think the I think the two speeches bridged the divide between the old fashioned GOP that we grew up covering um before Donald Trump came down that escalator and MAGA there is a way to do this unity thing that, you know, has popped up since the assassination attempt and has just about everyone has failed miserably.

At adhering to that, but I thought Governor Haley and Senator Rubio.

Did it perfectly for this audience.

And also did it in a way that made it possible for people not here but watching on television to make me think, hm.

The only problem is these are only 2 people.

Out of a cavalcade of people hurling red meat out at this audience.

What about that, Judy?

You have spent the past 2 years really crisscrossing the country talking to report uh voters, Republican and Democrat, those yeah, those, those Republican voters in particular, what do they want the future of this party to be?

Well, mixed, um, depending on which kind, whether they're Haley uh Nikki Haley Republican, a Donald Trump Republican.

Many of the people we've talked to have been Donald Trump Republicans.

I have to say what I've been hearing tonight is a number of the speakers asking the American people to give this man a second look.

Whatever you think about Donald Trump, think about it again.

He's a grandfather, he's a father, he's, you know, we, we've heard personal stories from almost every one of these last few.

Speakers and so yes, he chose JD Vance as his running mate, doubling down on, you know, who Donald Trump is and his ideology, but they're in a way they're acknowledging that's not enough, and we've got to reach out.

We've got to paint a portrait that of this man that will say, say to people, hey, he's not the awful person that you may have thought.

I just want to also just quickly say that they have some work to do.

We don't see Republicans, you know, I mean, former president.

Bush is not here.

Former Vice President Cheney is not here.

Paul Ryan, former Speaker of the House, there are a number of prominent Republicans who are not here.

What does that say about the state of this quote unified Republican Party.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, Mike Mike Pence, exactly.

Yeah, I think that's a really um excellent point, Judy, about can you give this guy a second chance, and right now part of Trump's success in the polls is that there has been this sort of.

Uh, some people would call it like nostalgia, not so much for Trump the person, but for Trump policies, and I think this is where voters have been.

They don't necessarily like Trump more than they did back in 2020, but they're seeing him through the prism of policy and his presidency rather than the prism of as Laura Trump talked about what you've seen on TV or his tweets or his behavior when he was president and that's Always been the question for the Democrats whether they could dislodge the nostalgia for prices weren't as high.

The border was secure.

We didn't have these wars.

We didn't have chaos with the OK but Trump as a person Trump, who has done these things as president, that is where we want to talk about and going back to The point we were, we were discussing at the very beginning of the people who aren't here, as Judy pointed out, it's not just Folks from the way past 8 years ago, 12 years ago the way past, but.

People in his administration from his first term 3.5 years ago, which feels like a lifetime in some moments you know if there's another theme that stuck out to me tonight, it is sort of the involvement of faith in a lot of the speakers and a lot of the comments we heard it with Congresswoman Salazar, who was here.

We've heard it with Governor Huckabee Sanders as well.

She actually said there, Judy, God Almighty intervened in invoking how she believes where President Trump was saved during that assassination attempt and I just wonder how you were.

Like on that you've been having a lot of conversations with around faith with evangelical voters, some who were not sure about former President Trump.

How do you think this kind of messaging will resonate with them, I think they are already in really good shape with evangelical voters.

I mean right now 8 out of 10 evangelical voters they voted for 8 out of 10 voted for him in 2020, not quite that many in in 2016 they had to they had to be persuaded and Mike Pence, by the way, did a went a long way toward persuading.

That they could, that he was someone they could trust, but they in my view they don't have much more work to do with the evangelical voters, um, I, I still, when I hear that conversation though about faith, you, you want to know what is Donald Trump himself going to say about that?

Is that language that he's comfortable with himself.

We don't know.

Is he going to bring that up on Thursday night.

I don't know.

The other thing that stuck out to me, David, uh, is how far this party has come in terms of valuing things like experience and qualifications.

They used to give Barack Obama a hard time about not having enough experience to be president.

JD Vance has served in the Senate.

How many months?

You know, he's not there necessarily because he can be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

He's there because of what he embodies of the message that he sends and this crowd and and this base is OK with that.

This is now a party in.

Which that experience governing being you were an ambassador, being a governor of a state doesn't seem to matter.

If you want to be a leader in these times, you want to be an insider who pretends he's an outsider.

And that's true of Modi in India, it's true of Donald Trump.

Um, and so I think that's the posture they're all searching for.

I'm not an insider, but I have a lot of experience and so that's Trump's posture.

It's also so different from Democrats are.

Because I'll hold that thought to talk about.

Thank you to all of you for being here.

Thank you to all of you at home for watching.

That concludes our broadcast coverage of the second night of the Republican National Convention.

If you're watching on YouTube, don't go anywhere.

Our coverage is going to continue there with Lisa Desjardin unpacking the evening's events and we will have full analysis of the convention so far and the day's other events on tomorrow's PBS Newshour.

Meanwhile, I'm on the Nava and I'm Jeff Be For all of us here at PBS News, thank you for joining us.

We'll see you back here tomorrow evening.

This program was made possible by the corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

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