MILWAUKEE — Former President Donald Trump frequently used the words “administration” and “current leadership” in his speech at the Republican National Convention, but a senior official said he never used the word “Biden.”
Trump is set to formally accept the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday, the final night and culminating moment of the 2024 party convention.
The former president’s address to his party supporters and a national television audience inside the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee is likely to last more than an hour, Fox News chief political anchor and editor of “Special Report with Bret Baier” Bret Baier said, according to sources.
Trump campaign steps in to Biden confusion
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump gestures during day three of the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum on July 17, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Reuters/Evelyn Hochstein)
Trump’s speech came just five days after an assassination attempt that killed a gunman and another spectator at a Trump rally in western Pennsylvania on Saturday, immediately impacting the tone and message of the convention and changing the former president’s speech.
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According to sources, the speech will “explain the reasons for his choice of candidate” and part of it will focus on unity following his near-death experience over the weekend.
In an email to supporters the night before his speech, Trump said he would “share my vision for uniting our country and making it greater than it has ever been!”
Former President Donald Trump gestures with a bloody face as multiple gunshots ring out during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. (Reuters/Brendan McDiarmid)
The first three days of the convention were marked by a push for party unity, with former Republican presidential candidate and Trump rival in a fierce primary, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and former U.N. ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley among those who spoke from the podium in support of the former president.
Republicans are using the convention as a way to reunite the party and galvanize delegates and activists ahead of the final stretch of the campaign in which President Trump and President Biden face off again in 2024.
Trump’s speech came as Biden’s campaign pushed back against a series of reports over the past 24 hours that the president has become more open in recent days to listening to arguments about why he should not seek reelection in 2024.
“We don’t know at this point who the nominee will be,” a Trump political source told Fox News.
Hours earlier, the Trump campaign had contrasted a “united” Republican Party at the convention with the recent turmoil surrounding Biden’s reelection.
“What we’ve accomplished at this convention has demonstrated to the American people not only that the Republican Party is united, but that President Trump’s policies and agenda are firmly established and that he has a vision that will unify the country,” a Trump campaign official stressed.
On the second day of the Republican National Convention (RNC) held at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA on July 16, 2024, Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump applauds a gesture by Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. (Reuters/Elisabeth Franz)
“At the same time, the Democrats haven’t even thought about who their candidate should be,” the official claimed.
Following the devastating defeat at the debate to Trump last monthAt 81, Biden faces questions about whether he is physically and mentally capable of serving another four years in the world’s toughest job.
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Politically, Biden has resisted growing calls to end his campaign from Democratic lawmakers who are deeply concerned that Democrats could lose not only the White House but both houses of Congress in the fall elections.
Reports in the past 24 hours have said that top Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have had frank discussions with Biden about ending his campaign.
President Joe Biden waves as he descends the steps of Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. President Biden is back at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he is self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
And, according to a report from The Washington Post on Thursday: Former President Obama He recently told allies that Biden’s path to victory has narrowed significantly and he believes the president should seriously reconsider his decision to continue running.
“Our campaign is not envisioning a scenario in which President Biden is not the front-runner. He is and will continue to be the Democratic nominee,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters at a news conference near the Republican National Convention on Thursday morning.
“Over the past four days, Republicans have laid out a vision for the nation, and now it’s clearer than ever that Americans face a stark choice, contrasting visions for our country,” Fulks said ahead of Trump’s speech.
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