The third day of the Republican National Convention kicks off Wednesday with Republicans — led by the newly nominated Donald Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio — shifting their focus to issues of national security and foreign policy.
Republicans are expected to focus on Democratic President Joe Biden’s handling of the ongoing crises in Europe and the Middle East. Former Trump administration officials are also expected to take the stage to outline what foreign policy would look like if he returns to the White House for a second term.
Vance will also introduce himself to a national audience Wednesday evening when he delivers his first speech as the Republican vice-presidential nominee.
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Most Americans — and Republicans — don’t know much about JD Vance
President Donald Trump’s running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, is unknown to most Americans.
According to a new poll from the AP-NORc Center for Public Affairs Research, which was conducted before Trump selected the freshman senator as his vice presidential choice, 6 in 10 Americans don’t know enough about Vance to form an opinion.
About 2 in 10 U.S. adults have a favorable view of him, and 22% view him negatively.
Among Republicans, 61% don’t know enough to have an opinion of Vance. About one-quarter have a positive view of him, and roughly 1 in 10 have a negative view.
Democrats have doubts that Biden is better positioned than Trump to win in November
Democrats are relatively dour about their party’s prospects come November, according to a new poll from the AP-NORc Center for Public Affairs Research.
Only about a third of Democrats believe Biden is more capable of winning than Trump is come November. About 3 in 10 Democrats think the two are equally capable of winning and 16% say victory is more likely to go to Trump.
By contrast, Republicans are overwhelmingly convinced that Trump is in the best position to win.
Trump also has the edge on Biden when Americans consider who is most capable of handling a crisis — 38% to 28%. And people are about equally divided on which candidate has the better vision for the country, with 35% saying Biden and 34% Trump.
The poll did offer a bright spot for Biden: 40% of adults say he’s more honest than Trump, while about 2 in 10 think the opposite.
Solid majority of Democrats want Biden to bow out, undercutting his claims average party members back him
About two-thirds of Democrats say President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party select a different candidate, according to a new poll from the AP-NORc Center for Public Affairs Research.
The poll was conducted two weeks after Biden’s debate flop and undercuts his claims since then that Democrats nationwide support his candidacy.
Democrats are slightly more likely to say they’re dissatisfied with Biden as their nominee now than they were before his halting performance. About half are dissatisfied, an uptick from about 4 in 10 in an AP-NORc poll from June.
Younger Democrats are especially likely to want to see him bow out — and to say they’re dissatisfied with him. Three-quarters of Democrats under the age of 45 want Biden to drop out, compared to about 6 in 10 of those who are older.
If there’s a glimmer of optimism for the Biden campaign, the poll does provide some evidence that Black Democrats are among Biden’s strongest supporters, with roughly half in the survey saying he should continue running, compared to about 3 in 10 white and Hispanic Democrats.
Overall, seven in 10 Americans think Biden should drop out, with Democrats only slightly less likely than Republicans and independents to say that he should make way for a new nominee.
Abortion remains top of mind for many Dems gathered in Milwaukee
Abortion was a central theme as Democratic leaders and women with harrowing personal stories of struggling to access reproductive care gathered in Milwaukee the week of the Republican National Convention.
Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar blamed Trump for abortion bans after the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. Trump frequently takes credit for appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the landmark 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.
“I want to speak directly to American women to tell you there’s only one team on that ballot that cares about you and that’s the Biden-Harris team,” she said. “The Trump-Vance ticket does not care about women.”
Amanda Zurawski, a woman from Austin who went into premature labor, developed sepsis and nearly died, said her story “was only made possible because of Donald Trump, and if it is up to Trump and his new running mate JD Vance, it could become a reality for far too many other Americans.”
Zurawski called Vance’s abortion agenda “extreme,” pointing out that he previously argued against the need for rape and incest exceptions in abortion restrictions.
Nearly two-thirds of Democrats want Biden to withdraw, new AP-NORC poll finds
Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to a new poll, sharply undercutting his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him even if some “big names” are turning on him.
The new survey by the AP-NORc Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted as Biden works to salvage his candidacy two weeks after his debate flop, also found that only about 3 in 10 Democrats are extremely or very confident that he has the mental capability to serve effectively as president, down slightly from 40% in an AP-NORc poll in February.
The findings underscore the challenges the 81-year-old president faces as he tries to silence calls from within his own party to leave the race and tries to convince Democrats that he’s the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump. The poll was conducted mostly before Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
It’s unclear whether the shooting influenced people’s views of Biden, but the small number of poll interviews completed after the shooting provided no early indication that his prospects improved.
Read more here.
Democrats aim to nominate Biden in first week of August, as some push him to quit the race
Democrats will look to hold a virtual vote to make President Joe Biden their party’s nominee in the first week of August, as Biden has rebuffed calls from some in his party to quit the race after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.
The Democratic National Convention’s rules committee will meet on Friday to discuss its plans, according to a letter sent to members obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, and will finalize them next week. The letter from co-chairs Bishop Leah D. Daughtry and Gov. Tim Walz states that the virtual vote won’t take place before Aug. 1 but that the party is still committed to holding a vote before Aug. 7, which had been Ohio’s filing deadline.
“We will not be implementing a rushed virtual voting process,” Daughtry and Walz wrote, “though we will begin our important consideration of how a virtual voting process would work.”
Surgeon general: ‘Thank God’ Trump is OK
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told The Associated Press he was “horrified” to learn that former President Donald Trump was injured in a shooting on Saturday.
“Thank God that former President Trump survived and is OK,” Murthy said in an interview.
A 20-year-old man’s assassination attempt on Trump using an AR-style rifle happened just weeks after Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis in America.
Republicans have roundly rejected Murthy’s calls for gun restrictions. Trump fired Murthy, an Obama appointee, from the Surgeon General post in 2017. Murthy is serving a second term with the Biden administration.
Murthy said he was also thinking of Trump rallygoers on Saturday, who feared for their lives.
“That kind of fear, by the way, is what millions of people experience every day in our country,” Murthy said of gun violence across the U.S.
House Dems’ c
ampaign committee says it raised a record $44M the past quarter
The House Democrats’ campaign committee says it raised a record $44 million this past quarter.
Despite the turmoil roiling the party over Biden’s reelection, strategists have said donors are stepping up to give to congressional Democrats as a firewall against a potential second Trump White House.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said Wednesday the total includes $19.7 million raised in June. Biden’s halting debate against Trump was at the end of the month.
3 days after attempted assassination, Trump shooter remains an elusive enigma
After three days, an enigmatic portrait emerged of the 20-year-old man who came close to killing former President Donald Trump with a high-velocity bullet: He was an intelligent loner with few friends, an apparently thin social media footprint and no hints of strong political beliefs that would suggest a motive for an attempted assassination.
Even after the FBI cracked into Thomas Matthew Crooks’ cellphone, scoured his computer, home and car, and interviewed more than 100 people, the mystery of why he opened fire on Trump’s rally Saturday, a bullet grazing the GOP nominee’s ear, remained as elusive as the moment it happened.
▶ Read more about the investigation
Former White House official Peter Navarro expected to speak at RNC, AP source says
Former White House official Peter Navarro was released Wednesday from prison and was expected to speak just hours later at the Republican National Convention, according to a person familiar with the schedule who spoke on condition of anonymity before its official release.
Navarro was released from custody after completing his four-month sentence for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Navarro will be heading straight to Milwaukee to speak at the third night of the Republican National Convention.
He is scheduled to speak in the 6 p.m. hour.
Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
Vance ‘will only be loyal to Trump,’ VP Harris says in new video
Vice President Kamala Harris is criticizing Republican Donald Trump’s new running mate ahead of the speech he’s making Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention.
In a video released by President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, Harris dismissed the choice of Ohio Sen. JD Vance as Trump looking “for someone he knew would be a rubber stamp for his extreme agenda.”
“Make no mistake: JD Vance will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country,” Harris says in the 45-second video.
Trump and other top Republicans have recently intensified their criticism of Harris. That comes amid speculation she could replace Biden at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket if he were to heed intensifying calls for him to leave the race.
Congressman calls for open process to pick new Democratic presidential nominee
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, the first House Democrat to publicly call on President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, says the Democratic National Committee should not “fast-forward” the nominating process for his reelection bid.
Doggett said in a statement Wednesday that plans for a quick nomination — which the DNC is considering with a virtual roll call before the August convention — would jeopardize their chances of winning. He called instead for an open process to select a new Democratic presidential nominee.
“Fast-forwarding the nomination process is no way to convince the many unconvinced voters in the growing number of battleground states,” he said. “The risk of Trump tyranny is so great that we must put forward our strongest nominee.”
“Short-circuiting the normal Convention process jeopardizes the White House, Senate and House,” he added.
Homeland Security inspector general investigates Secret Service handling of security at Trump rally
WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general says it’s investigating the U.S. Secret Service’s handling of security for former President…
