By Gram Slattery, Alexandra Ulmer, Steve Holland and Nathan Layne
MILWAUKEE (Reuters) -Donald Trump chose Ohio U.S. Senator J.D. Vance on Monday to be his vice presidential running mate, as the Republican Party officially nominated the former president to run again for the White House at the start of the party’s national convention in Milwaukee.
“As Vice President, J.D. will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The four-day convention opened in downtown Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum two days after Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, and hours after he secured a major legal victory when a federal judge dismissed one of Trump’s criminal prosecutions.
Trump is due to formally accept the party’s nomination in a prime-time address on Thursday and will challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
Vance, 39, was a fierce Trump critic in 2016 but has since become one of the president’s staunchest defenders, embracing his false claims that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud.
Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, are locked in what opinion polls show to be a tight election rematch. Trump has not committed to accepting the results of the election were he to lose.
In the wake of the assassination attempt, Trump said he is revising his acceptance speech to emphasize national unity, rather than highlight his differences with Biden.
“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” Trump told the Washington Examiner. The would-be assassin’s bullet clipped Trump’s right ear but did no major harm.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision on Monday to throw out federal charges against Trump for retaining classified documents after leaving the White House was the latest in a string of legal wins for the former president, who is due to be sentenced in New York in September for trying to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before his 2016 election victory.
His other two indictments on federal charges in Washington and state charges in Georgia – both related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat – are mired in delays and could be significantly limited after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in July that he had immunity for many of his official acts as president.
“This dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts,” Trump said on his Truth Social site on Monday, also referencing the prosecutions of hundreds of his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
NO PLACE FOR VIOLENCE
Following Saturday’s attempt on Trump’s life, Biden has tried to bring the temperature down after months of heated political rhetoric.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can’t allow this violence to be normalized,” Biden said in a televised address from the White House on Sunday.
The shooting immediately altered the dynamics of the presidential campaign, which had been focused on whether Biden should drop out due to concerns about his age and acuity following a halting June 27 debate performance.
Nearly two dozen of Biden’s fellow Democrats in Congress have called on him to end his reelection bid and allow the party to pick another standard bearer.
The focus this week will be squarely on Trump.
Having consolidated party control, Trump could seize on the opportunity to deliver a unifying message or paint a dark portrait of a nation under siege by a corrupt leftist elite, as he has done at times on the campaign trail.
Trump has frequently turned to violent rhetoric in campaign speeches, labeling his perceived enemies as “vermin” and “fascists,” and accusing Biden without evidence of a conspiracy to undermine the United States by encouraging illegal immigration.
Biden has often warned that a Trump victory would erode U.S. democracy. Some Republicans say those comments helped create the conditions for the shooting.
Investigators say they have been unable to identify an ideology that may have inspired 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks to shoot at Trump from a rooftop outside a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania. Though Trump escaped serious injury, a supporter was killed.
The FBI said on Monday it had gained access to Crooks’ phone and was analyzing his electronic devices.
Biden ordered an independent review of how the gunman, who was shot dead by agents, could have come so close to killing Trump. Congressional investigators were also due to question the head of the U.S. Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the former president.
Republicans attending the party’s convention said they were not inclined to reassess the party’s traditional opposition to firearms restrictions.
“If someone runs someone over with a car, they don’t ban cars,” said Melanie Collette, a delegate from New Jersey. “If someone stabs somebody, they don’t ban knives.”
(Reporting by Gram Slattery in Milwaukee and Andrew Goudsward in Washington, additional reporting by Tim Reid, Helen Coster and Nathan Layne in Milwaukee and Sarah N. Lynch and David Morgan in Washington; Additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer and Steve Holland; Writing by Andy Sullivan and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and Howard Goller)