MILWAUKEE (Reuters) -Donald Trump will hear tributes from his former rivals for the Republican presidential nomination at the party’s convention on Tuesday, in a display of unity that contrasts with the divisions plaguing President Joe Biden’s Democrats.
The second night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee will feature speeches from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who were roundly defeated by Trump earlier this year in the state-by-state battle for the Republican presidential nomination.
“Tonight there’s a little bit of a focus on how the Republican Party is unified and how they’re lining up behind the president,” said Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser on the Trump campaign.
Trump’s rapturous reception at the Republican National Convention on Monday made clear that he enjoys the enthusiastic support of his party. The crowd chanted “Fight! Fight! Fight”, echoing his defiant response after he was grazed by a bullet in an attempted assassination on Saturday. A bandage on Trump’s ear served as a visual reminder of the incident.
Trump, 78, waved from a box where he sat alongside his newly anointed running mate, U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, 39. Vance is known as one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in Congress.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday found that 29% of U.S. voters, including 52% of Republicans, had a favorable opinion of Vance. By way of comparison, 42% of registered voters and 81% of Democrats had a favorable view of Biden’s running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
The survey of 992 registered voters, conducted Monday and Tuesday, found Trump leading Biden by 43% to 41%, within the margin of error.
The convention’s opening night also featured a speech from the head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters labor union, an unusual decision for a party that has traditionally favored business owners. While Teamsters head Sean O’Brien did not endorse Trump, he also might not endorse Biden either, which would be the first time since 1996 that the union does not back the Democratic candidate.
The attack raised fears of a more deeply fractured political landscape ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Authorities were still trying to identify a motive for the shooting, after the gunman was killed by the U.S. Secret Service.
Biden, who has portrayed Trump as a threat to U.S. democracy, condemned the shooting and urged Americans to rely on the ballot box to resolve their differences.
He said in an NBC interview on Monday that he made a mistake by saying Trump should be put in the “bullseye” politically last week but added that Trump has frequently employed violent rhetoric on the campaign trail.
Biden has ordered an independent review to determine how the gunman could have come so close to killing Trump despite the Secret Service’s heavy security presence.
The four-day convention will culminate with Trump’s prime-time address on Thursday, when he formally accepts the party’s nomination to face Biden in a rematch of their 2020 race.
The assassination attempt, followed by the convention, has pushed Biden to the background after weeks of speculation about whether he might drop out of the race after a disastrous debate performance last month raised fresh questions about his age and mental acuity.
REPEATED FALSEHOODS
Biden again rejected the notion on Monday when pressed by NBC’s Lester Holt, focusing instead on the myriad falsehoods Trump unleashed during the debate. The president has stepped up his unscripted appearances to try to demonstrate his capability but has yet to assuage some Democrats’ fears about his reelection chances.
Trump’s selection of Vance, the author of the best-selling book “Hillbilly Elegy,” completed the Ohio senator’s transformation from an outspoken Trump critic to one of his most loyal supporters.
Vance, who shares Trump’s affinity for political brawling, is likely to energize core Republicans, but it is less clear whether he can broaden the ticket’s appeal to moderate and independent voters wary of another Trump term.
Biden called Vance a Trump “clone” on Monday, and Democrats pounced on Vance’s opposition to abortion rights, an issue that has proven damaging to Republicans.
In a Fox News appearance on Monday night, Vance said he backed Trump’s position that each state should decide for itself whether to permit abortion.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne, Alexandra Ulmer and Gram Slattery in Milwaukee; Writing by Andy Sullivan and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, Howard Goller and Alistair Bell)
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