RNC Convention 2024 is finally here. Let’s take a look at the top news surrounding Republicans, including news about Donald Trump, his new running mate, and more.
RNC CONVENTION 2024
The Republican National Convention got underway on Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The first order of business was to officially make Donald Trump their 2024 presidential nominee. The rest of the week will be traditional “red meat” for MAGA/Republicans who look to Trump as their omnipotent savior.
Not surprisingly, RNC Convention 2024 got off to a bit of unexpected drama.
Following the nearly successful assassination attempt against Donald Trump on Saturday, the US Secret Service has understandably created a tighter ring of protection around the new GOP presidential nominee. However, it’s too bad that Republicans pushed for Wisconsin to be an “open carry” state where guns can be legally transported almost anywhere.
Or, in other words, people are walking through the streets of Milwaukee with guns everywhere — which is not what the Secret Service (or perhaps the Trump family) wanted to see only 72 hours after the near-fatal shooting.
BLACK AMERICANS AND TRUMP
Following the news of the Trump shooting, swaths of Americans were shocked at the violent act and immediately offered prayers and words of support. However, at least 1 group took a different approach: Black Americans.
In fact, the Saturday mood among many Blacks was that the shooting was staged for sympathy. Some even asked the blunt question “Is he dead yet?”
According to Stacey Patton at News One:
On Saturday, when news broke about Trump being shot in the head, I interacted with many Black folks via phone and social media. Upon hearing the news, which hadn’t been confirmed by reputable sources, most of them asked, “Is he dead?” When the updates emerged that the former president was fine, the jokes and memes ensued alongside claims that the whole thing was a theatrical stunt to help Trump gain sympathy and secure his bid for the presidency.
People shouldn’t be disturbed that Black Americans may not be showing empathy toward Trump.
Black people haven’t forgotten that this son of a tyrant who got arrested at a Klan rally, called for the deaths of wrongly accused teenagers in 1989 and refused to apologize even after their exonerations.
We haven’t forgotten how he promoted the false claim that former president Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States. We haven’t forgotten how he called African nations “sh*thole countries” and how he defended white nationalists, saying there were “very fine people on both sides” at the deadly white nationalist-led rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
We haven’t forgotten how he told American congresswomen of color to “go back” to their countries and unleashed vitriol against NFL players for kneeling in protest against state-sanctioned police and vigilante killings of Black adults and children.
We haven’t forgotten how this slumlord who refused to rent to Black tenants, called Black Lives Matter protestors “thugs,” attempted to restrict diversity trainings in federal agencies and criticized the removal of Confederate monuments.
His “law and order” policies disproportionately target Black communities. So too did his attempts to restrict voting access. And even though he has publicly stated that he knows nothing about Project 2025, which was developed by the Heritage Foundation, Black folks know that the policy recommendations in that plan align with Trump’s nationalist agenda which includes reshaping federal agencies, restricting reproductive rights, reimplementing Jim Crow education and a more authoritarian style of government.
Ouch!
SAME OL’ TRUMP
On Monday morning, GOP political analysts were on every television network promoting the theory that Saturday’s shooting created a valuable opportunity for Trump to appear “presidential” and to use the tragedy to unite the country above violence and 2nd-grade rhetoric. They even went so far as to say how the assassination attempt had already made Donald Trump “a changed man.”
“He’s changed and we’re all freaking out,” a campaign insider said.
Well, those hopes and dreams didn’t last long. As of Monday afternoon, Trump was right back to his divisive ways.
After Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Trump on Monday, he was busy on his Truth Social Network barking about “ALL the Witch Hunts,” including “The January 6th Hoax in Washington, D.C., the Manhattan D.A.’s Zombie Case, the New York A.G. Scam, Fake Claims about a woman I never met…and the Georgia ‘Perfect’ Phone Call charges.”
Those are not the words of a changed man who’s grateful to be alive today after coming within a millimeter of death.
Additionally, it took a bystander to note that for all the claims that Donald Trump is a God-fearing Christian, he didn’t go to church on Sunday to thank God for being alive. Nor did he pay a visit to the family of the man who was killed at his rally, or to the hospitalized victims of the shooting.
Some things never change.
TRUMP PICKS A MATE
On Monday, Donald Trump named Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his vice-presidential running mate.
Interestingly, Vance was once a staunch critic of Trump and his policies and once compared ‘The Donald’ to Hitler. However, he must have drank the “Lindsay Graham Kool-Aid” because he has suddenly and miraculously fallen in love with his one-time nemesis enough to become his running mate.
“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,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network just as RNC Convention 2024 got underway in Milwaukee.
The 39-year-old Vance rose to national fame with the 2016 publication of his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” He was only elected to the Senate in 2022 and has since become a tenacious champion of the MAGA agenda.
OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
Updates on the RNC Convention 2024, Trump, and more.
Politico:
“I’m a Never Trump guy,” Vance said in an interview with Charlie Rose in 2016, a clip used in both the new ads. “I never liked him.”
Both ads also feature a screenshot of a Vance tweet from October 2016. “My god what an idiot,” he wrote, referring to Trump.
Vance expressed a similar sentiment in other interviews and since-deleted tweets from that time, including publicly mulling the idea of supporting Hillary Clinton, calling Trump “noxious” and “reprehensible.”