The former president said he would reveal his choice of running mate as the Republican National Convention opens in Milwaukee, two days after he was injured in an assassination attempt.
The Republican National Convention kicked off Monday morning with former President Donald J. Trump telling Fox News that he will announce his running mate on the first day, amid heightened tensions just two days after a would-be assassin tried to take his life.
The convention began as the stream of good news for Mr. Trump turned into a torrent. Already lifted by what some supporters call a miraculous intervention during the shooting at his rally in western Pennsylvania on Saturday, the former president was handed an unexpected gift on Monday. A judge he appointed, Aileen Cannon, flouted decades of precedent to dismiss in its entirety the criminal case accusing Mr. Trump of illegally holding onto highly sensitive state secrets after he left office, then obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them.
The announcement of a vice-presidential pick — widely considered either to be Senators J.D. Vance of Ohio or Marco Rubio of Florida, or Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota — will set the tone for the first night of the convention, when voters will get their first sense of how Mr. Trump’s G.O.P. will handle the assassination attempt on its standard-bearer.
Mr. Trump joined his political opponent, President Biden, in calling for unity as the nation confronted how deep it had sunk into the depths of political violence, telling The New York Post that he had thrown out a version of the speech he will give on Thursday accepting his nomination. He said he had planned to deliver “an extremely tough speech” castigating “the corrupt, horrible administration” but had thought better of it.
“I want to try to unite our country, but I don’t know if that’s possible,” he told the newspaper on Sunday.
Just hours after that call for unity was published, Mr. Trump was on his social media site hailing the dismissal of the classified documents case and calling for “the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts,” falsely claiming they had all been orchestrated by “the Democrat Justice Department.”
“Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System,” he wrote.
Meantime, the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, a target of Republican ire over border security, joined in the public criticism over security at Mr. Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa., telling ABC News that it shouldn’t have been possible for the gunman to fire at Trump as he did.
“A direct line of sight like that to the former president should not occur,” he said. “That is precisely why President Biden directed that an independent review of the incident occur.”
Here is what to watch on Day 1.
- How will the assassination attempt alter the program? Mr. Trump said he had considered delaying his arrival in Milwaukee by two days. But instead, he said, he flew in on Sunday evening to prove the attack had changed nothing. Convention officials said there was no need to tighten security because it was extremely tight already. But the Secret Service said the agency had altered Mr. Trump’s security detail “to ensure his continued protection for the convention and the remainder of the campaign,” and “reviewed and strengthened” its security plan for the event. Congressional Republicans promised to investigate the Secret Service’s decisions ahead of the shooting, which left Mr. Trump grazed by a bullet, a rallygoer dead and two others gravely injured. And Milwaukee city and county officials agreed to move a so-called free speech zone for protesters far from the 2,400 delegates and other conventiongoers filing into Fiserv Forum, the main convention hall. Other changes could be coming.
- A running mate for Mr. Trump. The veepstakes is down to three: Mr. Vance, Mr. Rubio, and Mr. Burgum. Mr. Trump told Bret Baier of Fox News that he would announce his choice on Monday but did not say when. Trump campaign officials had envisioned a grand entrance for the former president on the first night, with his pick joining him on the stage for a big reveal. But the pick might be announced during the day instead.
- Mr. Biden’s counterprogramming. The president’s efforts to prove himself after the debate disaster last month will continue on Monday night, in a prime-time interview with Lester Holt of NBC News. The special program, to run at 9 p.m. Eastern, just as the Republican convention officially starts, was initially supposed to be broadcast from Austin, Texas, but Mr. Biden canceled the trip out of respect for the bloodshed in Pennsylvania. Instead, he will sit down with Mr. Holt at the White House. NBC has promised to run the entire interview unedited, with portions expected to be released during the evening news at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. The interview will again be an opportunity for Mr. Biden to beat back calls from some Democrats for him to step aside. It will also be scrutinized for any misstatement or gaffe.
- And on the stage … In his address to the nation on Sunday, Mr. Biden said that he fully expected Republicans to attack his record as president. In the first hour of the convention, plenty of red meat will be dished out by the likes of Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Representative Byron Donalds of Florida and Charlie Kirk, a Trump acolyte and founder of Turning Point USA. But the most interesting speech may come from Sean O’Brien, the international president of the Teamsters. His decision to appear at the Republican convention has divided his union’s leadership and angered a labor movement that has largely stuck with Mr. Biden. Mr. O’Brien says he is merely trying to bring labor’s message to the broadest possible audience. How he does that without taking sides in the fiercely partisan environment of a political convention will be one to watch.