Wake up with the Washington Examiner: RNC Day 2, unanswered questions, and Democrats work in the shadows

Republican unity dominates the stage

Former President Donald Trump has often been a symbol of division. His shock takeover of the Republican Party wasn’t greeted with open arms by senior members of the GOP. The 2016 and 2024 primaries were a series of contentious fights that included name-calling and personal attacks. 

But as President Joe Biden falters and struggles to fight off a brewing revolution against him by Democrats and in the wake of nearly being assassinated, Trump and Republicans are trying on a new unity outfit. 

From Milwaukee, National Politics Correspondent Mabinty Quarshie and Congressional Reporter Cami Mondeaux took Day 2 of the Republican National Convention in and boiled it down. While the day is packed with speakers, events, meetings, and sideline bits of gossip, the new unity message dominated the day, with former Trump opponents Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley both addressing the crowd from the stage weeks after neither of them had been scheduled to make an appearance. 

“After a bitter primary against Trump, Haley officially folded back into the Trump-led GOP when she spoke to the convention Tuesday evening,” Mabinty and Cami write. 

“I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement. Period,” Haley said in throwing her support behind Trump. 

DeSantis, who gave Trump his endorsement after the former president became the presumptive nominee, used his time on the stage to attack Biden, poking fun at his age with a Weekend at Bernie’s jab. 

“We need a commander in chief who can lead 24 hours a day and seven days a week,” he said. “America cannot afford four more years of a weekend at Bernie’s presidency.”

Click here to read about the former foes, longtime allies, and family members who stood behind Trump. And click here for a preview of what to expect at the RNC today.

Known unknowns about Trump assassination attempt

It’s been more than 40 years since a current or former president has been shot. Saturday’s events in Butler, Pennsylvania, have sent the security world spinning and put the Secret Service in the hot seat with Congress and the White House. 

And every day that goes by with the biggest question everyone has unanswered, the more intense that scrutiny is going to become. 

We don’t know why the gunman set up on a rooftop hundreds of feet away from the former president and tried to kill him, Justice Reporter Ashley Oliver writes this morning. And there are several other questions that have gone unanswered as the Secret Service and FBI scramble to patch over severe failures over the weekend.

“Days after a gunman shot at former President Donald Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, questions persist about how the shocking incident could have occurred,” Ashley writes. 

“Authorities have not explained how or why Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old armed suspect, gained a clear line of sight of Trump from a rooftop about 400 feet away from the former president.” 

The Secret Service has oscillated between saying they are going to be cooperative with Congress and various committees asking Director Kimberly Cheatle to appear for an interview and then explaining why the briefings can’t happen. 

The House Oversight Committee lost its patience with Cheatle and the agency on Tuesday when it learned she was not going to make the agreed upon July 22 meeting. In order to make sure she does appear, the committee is planning to subpoena the director, according to a spokesperson. 

All this happened after Trump supposedly was under increased protection due to threats from Iranian actors with designs to kill the former president. There isn’t any indication the would-be assassin has any ties to foreign actors. Though the failures despite increased security are adding another layer of intrigue to an already murky situation for security services.

Click here to read more about the questions the country is waiting to hear answers about.

What Democrats do in the shadows

Democrats and Biden should be enjoying their time out of the spotlight. Two weeks of intense focus on the president’s age, physical fitness, and mental ability to keep going with the hardest job in the world put them in an uncomfortable position that had mostly been occupied by Republicans for the last year and a half. 

The circumstances for falling out of the limelight were dreadful. Not being the center of attention because your political opponent was the victim of an attempted assassination is not where any politician wants to be. However, the attention was going to trend toward Trump and the GOP regardless, as the RNC was set to dominate headlines and set the tone for the home stretch of Trump’s campaign. 

Sitting on the sidelines of reporters’ attention hasn’t swayed Democrats critical of Biden or forced them to rethink their calls for him to step aside in favor of someone else at the top of the ticket, Congressional Reporter Rachel Schilke writes today. 

No news isn’t exactly good news for the president, as several representatives for critical Democrats told Rachel that just because they aren’t talking about it right now doesn’t mean they’ve changed their minds about Biden’s fitness. 

“Of the 19 Democrats who had previously called for Biden to step aside, it appears that none of them are looking to walk back their desire for a new nominee,” Rachel writes. “Spokespeople for Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), the last vulnerable New York Democrat, and Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) told the Washington Examiner that their position on Biden’s candidacy has not changed.”

And some Democrats who haven’t outright called for Biden to step aside are voicing support for a letter instructing the Democratic National Committee not to move forward with a virtual roll call vote nominating Biden weeks before the convention in Chicago next month. 

“Proceeding with the ‘virtual roll call’ in the absence of a valid legal rationale will be rightly perceived as a purely political maneuver, which we believe would be counterproductive and undermine party unity and cohesion,” the letter stated. “Moreover, it would contradict what President Biden himself has repeatedly said to members of Congress in recent days, telling us that anyone who wants to challenge his nomination should do so ‘at the convention.’”

Biden was given a political reprieve this week. Now that Trump has announced his vice president pick, the calm the president has experienced could end as soon as Friday. 

Trump is set to speak to the RNC on Thursday night after days of silent appearances featuring the former president overseeing the political circus but holding his rhetorical fire for the closing event. 

Click here to read more about the brewing Democratic civil war.

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For your radar

Biden will receive his daily brief in the morning before participating in a radio interview at 12:15. He will deliver remarks at an event in Las Vegas at 1:30 p.m. and participate in a community event at 3:15 before flying to Dover, Delaware, en route to Rehoboth Beach. 

Vice President Kamala Harris is traveling to Michigan to speak at an event and participate in a moderated conversation before traveling back to Washington, D.C.