Days after attempt on Trump's life, Republican delegates name him as presumptive nominee

MILWAUKEE (CN) — The Republican National Convention began in earnest Monday as Republican party delegates from across the country coalesced around former President Donald Trump as their presumptive nominee to challenge President Joe Biden in November, just days after the candidate survived an apparent assassination attempt.

Ahead of the Milwaukee convention, where Trump was widely expected to easily secure the delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination, questions swirled about how an attempt on the former president’s life over the weekend would affect the event’s opening day.

The shooting at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday left Trump only lightly wounded, drew outrage and consternation from Republican lawmakers and political figures. But its impact was largely absent from the immediate move to crown Trump as the GOP’s nominee.

And instead of using the attempt on Trump’s life as a springboard to lay bare deepening political divisions among Americans, party officials framed the former president and his platform as unifying.

“This is a grassroots party,” said Jeff Kaufmann, chair of the Iowa Republican Party. “Donald Trump has earned the trust of the people … and Donald Trump has kept his word.”

Kaufmann argued that GOP criticism of the Biden administration was not rooted in partisanship, contending that it was rather a “broad and sincere concern” for the well-being and safety of Americans.

“It’s part of our service to our country,” he said.

Further, Kaufman said, Trump’s vision for his next administration would transcend party lines. “This is not a program just for Republicans, but one for all Americans,” he claimed.

Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, who led the Republican National Committee’s platform committee, agreed. She told the gathered delegates that the Trump campaign’s platform would unite Americans and reflect GOP values.

“Every American can read our platform and know what we believe,” Blackburn said, “and how we will make America safer, stronger, wealthier and greater than ever before.”

Among the issues laid out in Trump’s campaign platform are several of his hot-button issues, such as border security, inflation and tax cuts. The former president has also thrown his support behind some more extreme policies, such as carrying out “the largest deportation operation in American history” and efforts to clamp down on the rights of transgender people.

These policies, Blackburn said, would roll back what she called the failures of Democrats and the Biden administration.

“Democrats have forgotten who they serve,” she said. “We are here this week to remind them and America that we Republicans serve the people, and we will not forget them.”

The most direct invocation of the assassination attempt against Trump came from Michael Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, who led attendees in a moment of silence for the former president and the victims.

Members of the audience on more than one occasion erupted into chants of “fight, fight, fight” — the words spoken by Trump as he was whisked away by Secret Service on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Trump breezed to the nomination Monday, earning enough votes to clinch the nomination less than halfway through the delegate roll call. Florida was the state that pushed the former president over the edge.

The former president is likely to accept his party’s nomination on Thursday, the last day of the Republican National Convention.

Trump is expected to arrive at the event on Monday. The presumptive GOP nominee has said that he did not want to let the attempt on his life deter him from attending the event.

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