MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
With his first major remarks since the attempt on his life last week, former President Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican Party's nomination for president.
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DONALD TRUMP: I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.
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A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
As the Republican convention ends and Trump starts this final stretch of his third attempt at winning the White House, we want to think about what the Trump campaign and the Republican Party might look like going forward.
MARTIN: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben and Stephen Fowler are still in Milwaukee, where the convention was held. And they are here with us after a very long night to tell us more. Good morning to you both.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey, good morning.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So, Danielle, you spent last night on the floor of the convention during Trump's speech. What did you see and hear?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, it was by far the most energetic night of the convention among the delegates. It was the fullest the arena got all week. And also, just everybody really pumped, and you could see it in what people were wearing. They had some wild outfits on. Any article of clothing that could have rhinestones and sequins and Donald Trump's face on it, it was there. It was also the Trumpiest night because it was the night Trump was speaking. The first three nights seemed scrubbed clean of the darkest bits of Trumpism. You barely heard about election denialism. There was much less demonizing of the Republican Party's perceived opponents. For much of the convention, this just felt like a very sanitized GOP.
Now, last night, everything was back on. The denialism came back in Tucker Carlson's speech and Eric Trump's speech, and also just a lot of anger came back. Also, I will say, things got rowdy. Terry Bollea, who listeners may know as Hulk Hogan, gave a speech where he tore open his shirt to reveal a Trump shirt underneath. That was the loudest moment of the night, including Donald Trump.
MARTIN: OK. Stephen, speaking of the former president, this was the first speech we've heard since that failed assassination attempt on Saturday, you know, very shocking. But did that change what we heard from him?
FOWLER: Not exactly. I mean, Trump started out with a more somber, subdued delivery. I mean, he spent about 20 minutes talking about the assassination attempt against him. It wasn't fiery and bombastic, like a raucous rally. But then it very quickly turned into what you'd expect, a rambling, wide-ranging message that he's been pushing on the campaign trail in 2024.
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TRUMP: The Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy.
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TRUMP: Especially since that is not true. In fact, I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country.
FOWLER: I mean, his voice was a little bit more subdued, but Trump still made false claims about the 2020 election, called COVID the China virus and continued a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric about, quote, "cities flooded with illegal aliens." I mean, the short and the long of it is, earlier this week, we heard Trump ripped up his speech and wrote a brand-new one more focused on positivity and unity. But we got typical Trump with a teensy bit of a different tone.
MARTIN: Danielle, to that point about unity, what does that actually mean to Mr. Trump? Like, what did he say? How did he describe that?
KURTZLEBEN: That's a great question. I mean, given that, like Stephen was saying, his speech ended up being largely a lot like one of his rally speeches in the end, there wasn't a lot of fodder that would create national unity. There was no effort to reach out to the other party. What he seems to mean is unity on his terms. This speech was a list of grievances. And also, his policies of just a few years ago would've been considered too extreme in the Republican Party, like mass deportations.
I mean, you can imagine an alternate universe Republican National Convention which looks more like a "normal," quote-unquote, party convention that includes Republican leaders of the past like, in this case, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Ryan or the last vice president, Mike Pence. But those people were nowhere to be found here. Any pre-Trump Republican has been memory holed. So the party is unified, but a lot of the people who don't agree are gone.
MARTIN: So, Stephen, talk a little bit more about that, if you would. This is Trump's party now. That's been made clear, especially clear after this convention. So how else is that playing out?
FOWLER: On the surface, the RNC was everything that Trump and Republicans could ask for. I mean, everyone is on the same boat rowing in the same direction. The speeches were all building on these big themes that the Republicans had on safety, the economy, foreign policy and everything. I mean, the delegates were fired up, the mood was joyful and there's really no question about what this Republican Party believes. There's zero daylight between the national party, the top candidates for offices like U.S. Senate, state parties, all the way down to the local delegates, it's all Trump. But therein, like Danielle says, lies the bigger picture. The current GOP is only filled with people that are fully on board with Trump and his vision, leaving out big groups of conservatives and conservative-curious people. Keeping with this metaphor, everyone's rowing in the same direction, but the boat's a little bit smaller than it used to be.
MARTIN: And to that end, Danielle, the policy platform - right? - was abbreviated and adopted in a hurry by the platform committee before the event even started. Now, you know, people can argue about whether the platform is anything that anybody actually really reads or pays attention to. But does that say something about the current GOP?
KURTZLEBEN: Yeah, it's the party of Trump. It's getting everybody in line before things even start. I mean, it was even summarized in a Trumpy way, in a sort of list of all caps bullet points. One really salient point here, abortion gets very little mention in the platform, and this is the party that got Roe overturned. It was super excited about it. And this is sort of a really illustrative example here. I talked to one delegate who was very upset about that. But also, she in the end was like, I love Donald Trump and I'm just excited to be here. So, yes, everyone is rowing in the same direction.
MARTIN: So, Stephen, before we let you go, both parties hope for a convention bump, right? There's momentum coming out of the convention. So how is the campaign and the party apparatus planning to capitalize on this moment?
FOWLER: Yeah, it is full steam ahead, especially as the Democratic Party is in a little bit of a disarray with question over President Biden's future. It wouldn't be surprising to be a boost in the polls, though Trump's numbers have been stable because of the consolidation of the GOP. Trump and vice presidential pick J.D. Vance are on the trail tomorrow in Michigan, and Vance is also campaigning in Ohio. So full steam ahead.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Stephen Fowler and Danielle Kurtzleben getting up early for us after a very long night. Thank you both so much.
FOWLER: Thank you.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you.
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MARTIN: Now to the Democrats. President Joe Biden is isolating at his Delaware beach home with COVID. And the questions continue over his ability to win reelection in November.
MARTÍNEZ: And top congressional Democrats recently spoke privately with the president and indicated they shared concerns they're hearing from lawmakers about his White House bid. Another prominent Democrat called for him to step aside. But Biden's campaign insists that he is not going anywhere.
MARTIN: NPR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh is with us now to tell us more about all of that. Good morning, Deirdre.
DEIRDRE WALSH, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So who is President Biden speaking with and what are they saying?
WALSH: The president has a very small circle of political advisers. It's mostly his family, a handful of longtime staffers and friends. But for political counsel, he also relies on former speaker Nancy Pelosi. He credits her with helping get through most of his legislative accomplishments. Also, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a top ally for years in the Senate, he spoke recently with both of them, along with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. CNN reported that Pelosi told Biden that she saw polls saying that he couldn't win and that he would ruin Democrats' chances to flip the House. Separately, a couple of outlets reported Schumer and Jeffries basically said the same thing.
None of these leaders have publicly denied these reports or come out and stated affirmatively that they want Biden to stay in the race. Instead, through their spokespeople, they're dismissing these reports as, quote, "idle speculation." Pelosi's spokesperson said the feeding frenzy from anonymous sources misrepresents any conversations she may have had with Biden. But you know, Michel, Pelosi is considered her party's sharpest political strategist. Democrats I talked to say the former speaker is working behind the scenes very deliberately, diplomatically. Another influential leader weighing in with Biden is former President Obama. A source familiar with his thinking tells NPR Obama views himself as a sounding board with his former vice president and is very protective of Biden's legacy.
MARTIN: So recognizing we're all kind of reading tea leaves here...
WALSH: Right.
MARTIN: Is there any sign that this is having any impact?
WALSH: You know, potentially. A Biden adviser told our colleague Tamara Keith the campaign hasn't had enough good moments, quote, "to get us back on solid footing." You know, covering Pelosi, if she thought her message was getting through to Biden behind the scenes about these party worries, it's unlikely there would be these anonymous reports, and if she really disputed them, she would be forcefully out there. We have seen her do strategic television interviews. What leaders are not saying right now really speaks volumes here.
MARTIN: So talk about these public calls for Biden to step aside. Are any of them particularly noteworthy?
WALSH: Right, they kind of had paused after the assassination attempt on Trump. But a second senator yesterday came out, Montana Senator Jon Tester, who's probably the most vulnerable Senate Democrat. He publicly called for Biden to withdraw. Tester represents a state Trump won by double digits in 2020. Another influential voice weighed in. NPR obtained a letter from Maryland Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin that he sent on July 6, almost two weeks ago. Raskin didn't explicitly call on Biden to step aside, but he talked about his legacy. He also compared him to an aging baseball pitcher, citing an example about a baseball championship series where the pitcher refused calls to be taken out of the game when he was tiring out. He stayed in and his team ultimately lost.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Deirdre Walsh. Deirdre, thank you.
WALSH: Thanks, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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