Day 1 of Republican National Convention comes to a close: Here's what happened
(NEXSTAR) — Donald Trump has become the official Republican presidential nominee after receiving the votes of enough delegates at the Republican National Convention, which started Monday in Milwaukee.
Trump has been the presumptive nominee for months. But it was the vote of RNC delegates in Milwaukee that made it official Monday afternoon.
Trump hit the necessary threshold with votes from his home state of Florida.
The Republican National Convention starts two days after Donald Trump was injured in an assassination attempt, with the violent scene at his campaign rally horrifying the country and amplifying already intense political divisions.
Trump and his advisers are pledging resilience in the face of the attack, with plans going forward for the event to showcase the former president and his platform as his party formally chooses him to be its nominee.
It was not immediately clear if and how Saturday’s attack would alter the four-day event, which normally has a celebratory atmosphere. Republican officials have said they want to defy the threat Trump has faced and stick to their plans and their schedule. But at the very least, the event is expected to include a heightened focus on security and a grim recognition of how stunningly close the presumptive Republican nominee came to losing his life.
Here are the latest updates from the first day of the Republican National Convention:
Trump gets emotional as he enters the stadium
With a large white bandage on his right ear following the assassination attempt against him, President Trump entered a convention floor where delegates stood and cheered, many holding up signs or their phones to take photos and video.
He was heralded by musician Lee Greenwood, who sang his signature song, “God Bless the USA.”
“Is there any doubt who’s going to be the next president of the United States? Prayer works,” Greenwood said when the former president took the stage.
JD Vance recalls the moment Trump called with VP news
JD Vance said his 7-year-old son was being noisy in the background when Trump called to offer him the vice president spot on the Republican ticket.
Vance knew Trump was calling with big news, but he didn’t know if it was good or bad news for him, the first-term Ohio senator told Fox News host Sean Hannity in his first interview since Trump announced his pick.
He said Trump also asked to speak to his son.
“The guy just got shot a couple of days ago, and he takes the time to talk to my seven-year-old,” Vance said.
“It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
He said he and Trump have been close since Trump endorsed him in his 2022 Senate race, which he said he would not have won without Trump’s support.
Vance’s wife resigns from law firm
JD Vance’s wife, Usha, has left the law firm where she worked after her husband was chosen as Trump’s running mate.
“Usha has informed us she has decided to leave the firm,” Munger, Tolles & Olson said in a statement.
“Usha has been an excellent lawyer and colleague, and we thank her for her years of work and wish her the best in her future career.”
Vance met Usha at Yale, where she received both her undergraduate and law degrees. She spent a year clerking for Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served as an appeals court judge in Washington, followed by a year as a law clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts.
Biden discusses the Secret Service response to Trump assassination attempt
President Joe Biden says whether the U.S. Secret Service should have anticipated Saturday’s assassination attempt against Trump is “an open question.”
In an NBC News interview airing Monday night, Biden was pressed on the matter and said providing security is “a complicated process.”
Biden said there’s “a major piece” of the incident that “relates to local law enforcement.” He also said he feels safe with the Secret Service.
Is it a rock concert or a political convention?
The floor speeches get plenty of attention, but it’s the time-filling band that has the internet talking during the RNC’s first night.
The band Sixwire has had delegates on their feet, clapping and waving signs and cowboy hats during covers of songs by artists including Collective Soul, John Mellencamp and Loverboy. A rendition of the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” had delegates cheering and screaming like they were at a rock concert and not a political convention.
(It probably helped that video of their nominee, Trump, was playing on screens throughout the arena as he’s danced to the same song at a number of campaign rallies.)
According to their website, Sixwire was founded in 2000, is based in Nashville and has played at a number of large sporting events, including several Super Bowls.
Vice President Harris reaches out to Vance
Vice President Kamala Harris reached out to Trump's pick for vice president, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, The Hill reports.
A campaign official told The Hill:
“Vice President Harris reached out to Senator Vance and left a message to congratulate him on his selection, welcome him to the race and express her hope that the two can meet in the vice presidential debate proposed by CBS News.”
Harris' camp wasted little time drawing a line between the Biden administration and the Trump-Vance ticket, posting on X, "J.D. Vance supports a nationwide abortion ban and voted to block protections for IVF."
In May, Harris and the Biden campaign agreed to a future vice presidential debate on CBS against Trump's then-undetermined running mate. CBS said at the time that the debate would take place on either July 23 or Aug. 13.
Jill Stein joins protest marching toward the RNC
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein joined with a group of about two dozen protesters who were rallying and marching in Milwaukee on Monday.
The Philadelphia-based group Poor People’s Army, which advocates for economic justice, organized the rally and march. It came after a larger march earlier Monday that attracted hundreds of people near the site of the RNC.
Stein called for a reduction in military spending and investments in public education, social housing and health care, adding that Americans were clamoring for a true third-party candidate on the ballot.
“How much do people want the same candidates that have been rammed down our throat for so long?” she said. “Not at all.”
Rapper 50 Cent will not appear at the RNC
In the wake of the assassination attempt against Trump, rapper 50 Cent, who was shot nine times in 2000, posted a photoshopped cover of his 2003 debut album, “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” with Trump’s head on it.
“I know the vibes,” he posted online. “We are all in trouble now.” The post was later deleted.
Social media users have overlayed 50 Cent’s “Many Men (Wish Death),” a track about the people who want to kill him, with images and video of Trump’s assassination attempt.
He later lamented, “Trump gets shot and now I’m trending.”
CNN journalist Kate Sullivan reported on Monday that 50 Cent was in talks to appear at the GOP convention, however, a representative for the artist told The Associated Press that the rapper is not going to appear at the Milwaukee convention. He will be in Shreveport, Louisiana, preparing for his upcoming Humor and Harmony Festival.
Running mate
Donald Trump selected Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate Monday, making the announcement via a post on Truth Social.
“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” wrote Trump, in part.
Trump highlighted the junior Senator from Ohio's law degree, his bestselling book "Hillbilly Elegy," and his "successful business career" in the post.
Prior to making his pick, the frontrunners were believed to be Ohio Sen. JD Vance, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. But a person claiming to have inside knowledge had earlier said Rubio was not Trump’s vice presidential pick. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum also had been told he would not be chosen as Trump’s running mate, AP sources said earlier Monday.
Trump had compared his search for a new vice president to his former reality TV show, “The Apprentice,” leading to speculation that the showman might have opted for an onstage reveal of his pick at the convention.
The Biden campaign’s messaging on Vance will highlight abortion
On a call with reporters denouncing the pick, two of the four speakers were leaders of reproductive groups, both nationally and in Ohio.
“I will certainly take that matchup any day of the week and twice on Sunday,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign chairwoman. “Because while Trump and Vance have an agenda focused on themselves and their wealthy donor friends, President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting for the American people.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., added: “Trump’s vice presidential pick is great news for the wealthiest Americans and lousy news for everyone else.”
Campaign aides said Vice President Harris is prepared to debate Vance and contrast the Democratic agenda with that of Republicans when it comes to abortion rights, gun violence and the economy.
Vance, almost immediately after Saturday’s shooting at the Trump rally, accused Biden and his campaign of deploying rhetoric that “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” Asked about that statement, Ducklo stressed that “stopping political violence was a central motivation for this president” and repeated Biden’s statements that differences in political views have to be settled through voting, not through violence.
‘Fight, fight, fight, fight’
After Wyoming delegates threw their support behind Trump in Milwaukee, they broke into an impromptu chant.
“Fight, fight, fight, fight,” they shouted. The couple dozen voices spread across the floor of Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, echoing through the arena, as they had a half dozen times earlier Monday afternoon.
The chants were the early incarnations of what is sure to be repeated at Trump campaign events this summer and fall, all tracing their origins to the frightening scene from Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
Trump, bleeding from his right ear, pried himself away from the protective grip of U.S. Secret Service, pumping his fist and mouthing, “Fight, fight.”
Vance blamed Biden for Trump assassination attempt, White House declines comment
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined direct comment when asked about Vance being quick to blame Biden for the attempt on Trump’s life.
“I’m not going to politicize this moment. We’re not going to politicize this moment. It is wrong to politicize this moment,” Jean-Pierre said Monday at her daily White Houe press briefing.
She repeated what Biden said about lowering the temperature and uniting the country when he addressed the nation on Sunday night.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell booed at RNC
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell faced a flurry of boos Monday at the Republican National Convention when he stood on behalf of Kentucky to send the state’s delegates to Donald Trump.
McConnell, a onetime critic who blamed the then-president for “disgraceful” acts in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, made a remarkable turnaround in March when he endorsed Trump as the GOP nominee. The two men came face-to-face last month when Trump visited Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill where they shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.
Biden’s campaign chair says Vance ‘will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6’
President Joe Biden’s campaign chair responded to Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate by saying Vance “will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people.”
Jen O’Malley Dillon said the campaign would spend “every single day making the case between the two starkly contrasting visions Americans will choose between at the ballot box this November:”
Vance has challenged the legitimacy of criminal prosecutions and civil verdicts against Trump and questions the results of the 2020 election.
He told ABC News in February that, if he had been vice president on Jan. 6, 2021, he would have told states where Trump disputed Biden wins “that we needed to have multiple slates of electors, and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there.”
“That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020,” he said.
FBI says it has gained access to cellphone of suspect in assassination attempt against Donald Trump
The FBI says it has now successfully gained access to the cellphone of Thomas Matthew Crooks and are analyzing all his electronic devices for clues as to a motive in the weekend assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
The bureau also said in a statement Monday that it has finished searching the suspect’s home and car.
FBI officials said Sunday that they were trying to access Crooks’ phone. They said the limited insight they had into recent communications didn’t reveal anything with regard to a motive in the attempted assassination.
The FBI has conducted nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement officials, attendees at the rally and other witnesses, and has received hundreds of digital media tips.
Trump has received enough convention delegate votes to become the official Republican presidential nominee
Donald Trump has become the official Republican presidential nominee after receiving the votes of enough delegates at the Republican National Convention.
Trump has been the presumptive nominee for months. But it was the vote of RNC delegates in Milwaukee that made it official Monday afternoon.
Trump hit the necessary threshold with votes from his home state of Florida.
Biden orders Secret Service to protect independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
President Joe Biden has ordered the U.S. Secret Service to protect independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
Kennedy is a longshot to win Electoral College votes, much less the presidency. But his campaign events have drawn large crowds of supporters and people interested in his message.
Trump was not seriously injured in the shooting over the weekend in Pennsylvania. There is an independent review of the attack.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.