The Republican National Convention culminates Thursday with former President Donald Trump expected to accept the party’s presidential nomination, achieving a comeback four years in the making and anticipated even more in the past week in light of Saturday’s assassination attempt.
He is expected to accept his third consecutive party nod in prime time before thousands of supporters at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. Trump’s running mate JD Vance addressed the same crowd on Wednesday.
Trump’s election opponent, President Joe Biden, tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling Wednesday in Las Vegas and is experiencing “mild symptoms” including “general malaise” from the infection, the White House said.
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Court commissioner orders competency exam for man accused of carrying concealed firearm near RNC
A court commissioner in Milwaukee has ordered a competency examination for a 21-year-old man accused of carrying a concealed firearm near the Republican National Convention.
Prosecutors charged Donnell Tinsley on Tuesday with a misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. According to a criminal complaint, federal agents stopped Tinsley on Monday as he was walking near the convention’s security zone after noticing he was wearing black pants and a ski mask and was carrying what the complaint described as a “large black tactical backpack.”
The agents searched him and found an AK-47-style pistol that can fire rifle rounds in the backpack. Online court records indicate that Tinsley’s attorney, public defender Elizabeth Ellsworth-Kasch, raised questions about whether Tinsley was competent to proceed during a court hearing Wednesday.
Court Commissioner Jeralyn Wendelberger ordered Tinsley to undergo a competency exam with a report due by Aug. 6. Tinsley remains in custody.
Ellsworth-Kasch didn’t immediately respond to a voicemail or an email seeking comment on the case on Thursday morning.
Trump’s speech will be a ‘message about uniting the country,’ Florida delegate says
Emotions and excitement at the convention have been building each day and will culminate Thursday night when Trump is expected to accept the Republican nomination for president, according to Blake Bell, a 40-year-old delegate from Florida and self-described “big Trump guy.”
“Being on the floor Monday when Trump came in, everyone had chills because it was the first appearance he made since the attempted assassination,” Bell said Thursday morning. “And tonight will be a historic speech. I know there won’t be a dry eye in the crowd.”
Bell said he thinks the tone of Trump’s speech will be different, adding that it “will be much more of a message about uniting the country.”
“I think there were a lot of people, even before Saturday, who were afraid to come out and say ‘I’m a Donald Trump supporter,’” Bell said. “I think it has been a stigma that the media has tried to put on people to make them feel embarrassed or ashamed that they support Donald Trump. I think on Saturday, after the assassination attempt, people woke up and they said, ‘We’re not ashamed anymore to say that Donald Trump is what’s best for this country.’”
Trump has written his own speech for Thursday’s address at RNC, AP source says
Trump has written his own speech for Thursday night’s address and it is expected to be more personal than his usual comments, according to two sources familiar with the planned remarks who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Trump’s speech on the last night of the Republican National Convention is also expected to lay out a stark contrast with the Democrats’ policies, which Republicans plan to make clear they are as much Harris’ as Biden’s.
