Follow live updates on the 2024 presidential election

By The New York Times

The Secret Service acknowledged Saturday that it had turned down requests of additional resources sought by former president Donald Trump’s security detail in the two years leading up to his attempted assassination last week, a reversal from earlier statements by the agency denying that such requests had been rebuffed.

Almost immediately after a gunman shot at Trump from a nearby warehouse roof while he spoke at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last weekend, the Secret Service faced accusations from Republicans and anonymous law enforcement officials that it had turned down requests for additional agents to secure Trump’s rallies.

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By the Associated Press

Trump’s campaign released an update on the former president’s health Saturday, one week after he survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The memo, from Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, who served as Trump’s White House physician, says Trump sustained a gunshot wound to the right ear from a high-powered riffle that came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear.”

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By Anjali Huynh, Globe Staff

President Biden is facing mounting pressure from within his party to drop his reelection bid, with questions aplenty as to who would replace him at the top of the ticket.

But at a Provincetown fund-raiser headlined by Vice President Harris on Saturday, the atmosphere did not reflect the uncertainty plaguing the broader Democratic Party.

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By the Associated Press

Chants of “fight, fight, fight” broke out early in Trump’s speech as he mentioned the assassination attempt.

“It was exactly one week ago,” Trump said.

“I stand before you only by the grace of almighty God,” he said. “I shouldn’t be here right now.”

“Something very special happened.”

Trump sent his best wishes to the two people who were wounded at the rally and are recovering.

And he said that 50-year-old firefighter Corey Comperatore, a spectator who was killed, “is a hero and we will carry his memory in our hearts.”

By the Associated Press

In a speech before Trump’s arrival, his new running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, talked about his hardscrabble upbringing, being raised by his grandmother as his mother faced addiction.

“I’ve got to be honest, it’s still a little bit weird to see my name on the signs,” he said, looking out at the crowd.

Vance also attacked Vice President Harris for her long career in government.

By the Associated Press

During Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, anyone could come to the White House and see him. But the world has vastly changed since the 1860s, and so has protection for presidents. Protective details have grown in size, responsibility and technology over more than a century of the Secret Service protecting presidents.

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By the Associated Press

White House doctor Kevin O’Connor said the president was infected by a strain of COVID-19 that has caused one-third of new infections in the United States.

The White House released O’Connor’s latest report on Biden’s condition on Saturday.

The doctor says Biden’s symptoms “continue to improve steadily” but that he’s still plagued by a dry cough and hoarseness. O’Connor also said Biden’s lungs remain clear and his vitals remain “absolutely normal.”

Biden is being treated at his Delaware beach home.

By the Associated Press

Representative Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called for President Biden to pass the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday.

Takano said in a posted statement on the social platform X that it has “become clear to me that the demands of a modern campaign are now best met by the Vice President, who can seamlessly transition into the role of our party’s standard bearer.”

Takano added he loves and respects Biden, “but the stakes are too high to fail.”

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By the Associated Press

Biden campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler told reporters during a conference call on Saturday that details will follow “as soon as we have the green light.”

Biden was forced off the campaign trail on Wednesday after he tested positive for COVID-19. The president was in Las Vegas when he got the news. He flew to his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and has been recovering there.

Saturday, July 20

By the Associated Press

Donald Trump on Saturday will hold his first public campaign rally since he was injured in an assassination attempt, with an event in the battleground state of Michigan alongside his new running mate.

Michigan is one of the crucial swing states expected to determine the outcome of the presidential election. Trump narrowly won the state by just over 10,000 votes in 2016, but President Biden flipped it back in 2020, winning by a margin of 154,000 votes on his way to the presidency. With JD Vance by his side, Trump will deliver remarks in Grand Rapids, a historically Republican stronghold that has trended increasingly blue in recent elections.

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By The New York Times

A week after Thomas Crooks opened fire at the Trump rally and was killed by the Secret Service, his ideology and motives remain a vexing question for investigators and the people who crossed paths with him.

In dozens of interviews, former classmates, teachers and neighbors said they still could not square their memories of Crooks — an awkward, intelligent teenager who liked to tinker with computers and spent his weekends playing video games — with the image of the stringy-haired gunman at the rally, armed with his father’s AR-15-style rifle as he clambered onto a rooftop and took aim at the former president.

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By the Associated Press

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown has become the latest Democrat to call for President Biden to end his campaign for reelection. The longtime senator is facing a tough reelection himself in one of several critical states for Democrats if they plan to maintain control of the Senate.

Citing topics like job growth and protecting Social Security, Brown said, “At this critical time, our full attention must return to these important issues. I think the President should end his campaign.”

The longtime senator represents a conservative state and is in a competitive race against Republican Bernie Moreno, who is endorsed by Trump.

Today, a dozen members of Congress have called for Biden to step aside.

By the Associated Press

The total number of representatives and senators calling for Biden to exit the race Friday has swelled to 11.

Representative Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky called Biden an “incredibly effective and empathetic leader,” praising his record on job growth and climate issues. However, he said that the party could not “risk the focus of the campaign being anything other than Donald Trump” and his ilk.

New Mexico Representative Gabe Vasquez said that while Biden is “an honorable public servant who has dedicated his career to bettering the lives of all Americans,” he believes there is too much at risk in the election and said he should “step aside.”

Vasquez is running for a second term in a swing district along the US border with Mexico where partisan control has flipped in each of the last three elections.

By the Associated Press

Utah’s Republican governor — a longtime skeptic of Donald Trump — said that “God had a hand” in saving the former president from an attempted assassination.

Governor Spencer Cox, who is up for reelection in November, said he’s decided to back Trump’s campaign after recently facing criticism within his party for being too moderate.

Just last week, Cox told an interviewer that he planned to write in a candidate for president in November.

But in a letter to Trump released by Cox, the governor offered fawning words of support and said Trump has an opportunity to bring the nation together.

“I know we have some differences and you probably don’t like me much. And that’s OK. I get it,” Cox wrote, adding, “I will do my best to help and support you.”

Earlier this year, Cox joined Biden at a White House event in which they called for less bitterness in politics and more bipartisanship. Cox had also expressed a desire for a different Republican presidential nominee.

By the Associated Press

Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat who has served in the House since 2001, has joined others in her party in calling for President Biden to step aside and explicitly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place.

“To give Democrats a strong, viable path to winning the White House, I am calling upon President Biden to release his delegates and empower Vice-President Harris to step forward to become the Democratic nominee for President,” McCollum said in a statement.

McCollum also suggested that Harris would need a “strong Midwestern running-mate” and encouraged her to select Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

McCollum’s endorsement of Harris and her mention of Walz are among the first public signs that some Democrats are beginning to look beyond Biden, focusing on potential candidates who they believe can effectively challenge Trump in November.

By the Associated Press

White House doctor Kevin O’Connor said the president still has a dry cough and hoarseness, but that his COVID-19 symptoms have improved.

O’Connor said Friday in his latest update on the president’s health that subsequent testing confirmed the coronavirus infection. He said Biden’s other vitals, such as his pulse, blood pressure and temperature, are normal and that he is tolerating treatment well.

Biden is being given the drug Paxlovid and is isolating at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

By the Associated Press

From his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he’s recovering from COVID-19, Biden signals that he’s not going anywhere when it comes to the presidential race.

In a statement Friday responding to Trump’s RNC address, Biden said he would be back on the campaign trail next week to “continue exposing the threat of Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda” while contrasting it with his own record.

As for the speech, Biden said it was the “same Donald Trump” that voters rejected in 2020.

“For over 90 minutes, he focused on his own grievances, with no plan to unite us and no plan to make life better for working people,” Biden said. “He avoided mentioning his Project 2025 agenda, but still proudly flaunted the worst of MAGA extremism.”

By Seth Moulton

In the early days after my contentious 2014 primary race for the US House of Representatives, when the party establishment had lined up against me, I felt like an outcast even though I had won. Then-Vice President Joe Biden showed up. He held a big rally for my general election campaign in Lynn, and I have treasured him as a mentor and friend ever since.

Perhaps he saw a little of himself in a young upstart taking on an entrenched incumbent. That’s how he won his first race, too.

The next year, after I had won the general election, he would invite me to breakfast at the vice president’s house and teach me about Congress. Sometimes he would pick up the phone to comment on a TV interview. Every time we crossed paths and I caught his eye, he would break into that big, wide Joe Biden grin and say how glad he was to see me. It was like that just last Christmas at the White House Ball.

More recently, I saw him in a small group at Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. For the first time, he didn’t seem to recognize me. Of course, that can happen as anyone ages, but as I watched the disastrous debate a few weeks ago, I have to admit that what I saw in Normandy was part of a deeper problem.

It was a crushing realization, and not because a person I care about had a rough night but because everything is riding on Biden’s ability to beat Donald Trump in November.

America needs him to win and, like most Americans, I’m no longer confident that he can. The president should bow out of the race.

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By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Representatives Greg Landsman of Ohio and Zoe Lofgren of California joined the growing number of prominent Democrats urging Biden to step aside as the Democratic nominee.

In a social media post, Landsman acknowledged Biden’s achievements and praised his presidency, but urged him to step aside.

”There is too much on the line, and we have to be able to make that case to the American people about the change we need and the country we all deserve,” Landsman wrote on X.

“It is time for President Biden to step aside and allow us to nominate a new leader who can reliably and consistently make the case against Donald Trump and make the case for the future of America.”

Lofgren, who served on the Jan. 6 House committee, wrote in a letter addressing Biden that his “candidacy is on a trajectory to lose the White House and potentially impact crucial House and Senate races down ballot.”

”It is for these reasons that I urge you to step aside from our Party’s nomination to allow another Democratic candidate to compete against and beat Donald Trump in the November election,” Lofgren wrote in the letter.

By the Associated Press

Pressed on whether Biden should drop out of the presidential race, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that ultimately it’s up to the president to decide if he wants to continue his campaign.

“The ticket that exists right now is the ticket that we can win on. There is of course work to be done, and that in fact is the case because we are an evenly divided country,” Jeffries said in an interview on WNYC radio on Friday.

Asked if he owes voters a clear answer on whether he thinks Biden should exit the race, Jeffries said: “The decision is one that can be made by only a single individual, the president of the United States of America, who has had an incredible 50-plus-year career in public service that includes the last three years in terms of legislative accomplishments, which are transformational, and incredible leadership on the global stage.”

“President Biden is correct when he says that he went through a primary process and 14 million or so voters gave him the Democratic nomination. It’s his decision to make,” he added.

Jeffries declined to divulge details of a closed-door meeting he had with the president on Thursday.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico became the third Senate Democrat to urge President Biden to drop out of the race.

”By passing the torch, he would secure his legacy as one of our nation’s greatest leaders and allow us to unite behind a candidate who can best defeat Donald Trump and safeguard the future of our democracy,” Heinrich wrote in a statement.

On Thursday, Senator Jon Tester of Montana became the second Senate Democrat to call on Biden to withdraw, joining Senator Peter Welch of Vermont.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Democrat Representatives Marc Veasey of Texas, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Chuy Garcia of Illinois, and Jared Huffman of California issued a joint statement urging Biden to withdraw from the re-election race. They expressed concerns that Biden’s “age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign.”

”These perceptions may not be fair, but they have hardened in the aftermath of last month’s debate and are now unlikely to change,” the four House members wrote in the statement.

”We must defeat Donald Trump to save our democracy, protect our alliances and the rules-based international order, and continue building on the storm foundation you have established over the past four years,” they added.

By the Associated Press

The director of the US Secret Service will appear Monday to answer questions in front of a congressional panel about the attempted assassination of Trump.

That’s according to a message posted Friday on the social platform X by Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service.

“We are committed to better understanding what happened before, during and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure it never happens again,” he said.

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee scheduled the hearing for Monday and the Department of Homeland Security initially suggested other dates that Director Kimberly Cheatle could appear in a letter to the committee but the committee rejected those dates.

By Samantha J. Gross, Globe Staff

Late Thursday night, a group of seven Democratic state senators — including a Democratic National Convention delegate — issued a joint statement urging President Biden to end his re-election campaign, saying he is “unable to effectively prosecute the case against Donald Trump.”

State senators Jo Comerford, Paul Feeney, Pat Jehlen, John Keenan, Jason Lewis, Michael Moore, and Jamie Eldridge, a Biden super delegate, cited recent polling and Biden’s effectiveness as a candidate in their call for the president to drop out and allow a different candidate to be nominated at next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

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By the Associated Press

Biden’s campaign chair is acknowledging that he has “seen some slippage in support” but that he is “absolutely” still in the race and can still beat Donald Trump.

Biden reelection campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told MSNBC on Friday that the growing calls for Biden to leave the race have made for difficult moments. But she insisted Biden isn’t dropping out and “we have multiple pathways to victory.”

The campaign has “seen some slippage in support, but it has been a small movement,” O’Malley Dillon said of the weeks since the president’s shaky debate performance late last month. That has caused many in his own party to urge Biden to bow out before November’s election.

O’Malley Dillon said that, after he recovers from COVID, Biden would be out campaigning next week. She urged Democrats to unify behind him and against Trump.

By Jim Puzzanghera, Globe Staff

“We love Joe Biden,” said Representative Stephen Lynch of Boston. “We’ve got some seniority here. And over those years, we’ve formed really strong and personal relationships with the president.”

Lynch talked as he headed back to his Capitol Hill office on July 9 after a private meeting of House Democrats amid anxiety about Biden’s reelection campaign after his poor debate performance against Republican Donald Trump on June 27. About two dozen of Lynch’s congressional colleagues have called for Biden to leave the race so far and pressure has been building on him as Republicans presented a unified front behind Trump at their convention this week.

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By the Associated Press

The last time Republicans gathered for a full convention, they were plagued by internal division and fear. Morale was near rock bottom. And the party’s presidential nominee showed little desire, or capacity, to add new voters to his political coalition.

What a difference eight years make.

The Republican officials, strategists and activists who packed Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention this week expressed a collective confidence at levels not seen in decades. Boos and infighting marred Donald Trump’s first convention in 2016, but this one was defined by overwhelming displays of unity as GOP leaders — Trump skeptics among them — reveled in what most view as an all but certain victory come November.

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By the Associated Press

On Friday, the Democratic National Committee ‘s rulemaking arm expects to meet to discuss plans for the virtual roll call nominating the president in early August, ahead of the party’s convention later that month.

Campaign officials say Biden was even more committed to staying in the race even as the calls for him to go mounted. And senior West Wing aides have had no internal discussions or conversations with the president about Biden dropping out.

But there is also time to reconsider. Biden has been told the campaign is having trouble raising money, and key Democrats see an opportunity as he is away from the campaign for a few days to encourage his exit. Among his Cabinet, some are resigned to the likelihood of him losing in November.

By the Associated Press

Former President Barack Obama has a delicate balance to strike: how to weigh the mounting opposition to President Joe Biden continuing his campaign with his loyalty to his former running mate.

In recent days, Obama has taken calls from congressional leaders, Democratic governors and key donors in which he has shared their unease about the prospect of Biden’s campaign following his calamitous June 27 debate performance against his predecessor, Donald Trump.

But even as Obama has listened to Democrats’ concerns, he has insisted that the decision to remain in the race is only for Biden to make, according to several people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss the private conversations.

By the Associated Press

As President Biden faces a growing drumbeat of pressure to drop his reelection bid, a majority of Democrats think his vice president would make a good president herself.

A new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 6 in 10 Democrats believe Kamala Harris would do a good job in the top slot. About 2 in 10 Democrats don’t believe she would, and another 2 in 10 say they don’t know enough to say.

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By the Associated Press

Critical days ahead, President Biden is facing the stark reality that many Democrats at the highest levels want him to consider how stepping aside from the 2024 election to make way for a new nominee atop the ticket could be the party’s best chance of preventing widespread losses in November.

Isolated as he battles a COVID infection at his beach house in Delaware, Biden’s already small circle of confidants before his debate fumbling has downsized further. The president, who has insisted he can beat Republican Donald Trump, is with family and relying on a few longtime aides as he weighs whether to bow to the mounting pressure to drop out.

By the Associated Press

For those conservative voters long turned off by former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, his somewhat softened tone in accepting the Republican nomination Thursday night was a welcome relief.

“He’s much improved,” said Dave Struthers, a 57-year-old farmer from Collins, Iowa, after watching the beginning of Trump’s speech in the basement of his farmhouse. “It’s more of a conversation with the American people, rather than yelling at them.”

Trump, who has a long history of divisive commentary, has said shoplifters should be immediately shot, suggested the United States’ top general be executed as a traitor and mocked Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband, who was beaten with a hammer by a far-right conspiracy theorist.

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By the Associated Press

Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump were at the Republican National Convention Thursday, making a rare appearance in support of former President Donald Trump’s third bid for president.

The former first lady and the former president’s eldest daughter have largely steered clear of the campaign trail this year, a contrast with Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns when both played a larger role. Neither gave speeches.

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By the Associated Press

The Republican National Convention celebrated former President Donald Trump not just as a party leader but a living martyr who survived a would-be assassin’s bullet and is ready to work for everyday Americans after a sweeping victory in November.

The portrayals of unity, including in Trump’s first speech since he was injured in the assassination attempt last Saturday, sought to erase the image of a man whose presidency often swirled in chaos and infighting and ended with a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Democrats have repeatedly wielded images of that day to try to thwart his return and have spotlighted his recurring use of inflammatory and hardline rhetoric.

Here are some takeaways from the closing stanza of the GOP gathering in Wisconsin.

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Friday, July 19

By the Associated Press

Trump concluded his speech after more than an hour and a half, leading the crowd in a change to “Make America Great Again” as he closed it out.

Melania Trump joined him on stage after he finished, and the band struck up, “Hold On, I’m Coming,” a song Trump frequently plays at the end of his campaign rallies.

By the Associated Press

Trump has returned to his signature topic, immigration, and his plans to launch what he says will be the largest deportation operation in American history.

“It is an invasion, indeed,” Trump said, using language that has been criticized for dehumanizing migrants.

Trump is again alleging that migrants “are coming from prisons, they’re coming from jails, they’re coming from mental institutions and asylums,” even though there is no evidence countries are sending their criminals or mentally ill across the border, as he alleges.

“We’ve become a dumping ground for the rest of the world, which is laughing at us. They think we’re stupid,” he said.

By the Associated Press

As he entered the second hour of his speech, Trump launched into his regular riff on Biden’s border policy and then stopped, realizing he was directing the audience’s attention to the same chart he posted Saturday just as gunfire broke out.

“Look at the chart that saved my life,” Trump said as a chart of detentions at the border under his and Biden’s administration displayed on the arena’s screens. The chart shows a major spike under Biden.

“Without that chart, I would not be here today.”

By the Associated Press

The name of Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief killed at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, is misspelled on the jacket brought to the convention stage. But that was not Trump’s doing. The Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company confirmed it was his gear and that it was sent to Trump, which the former president shared in his speech.

While the volunteer fire department gave no reason for the misspelling, it responded to a reader who pointed out the mistake on its Facebook page, noting that it “was in error years ago, and it was left that way by Corey.”

By the Associated Press

Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination and went more than 40 minutes before mentioning “the current administration.” He has not yet mentioned Democratic opponent Joe Biden by name. Instead, he spent what is typically an effort to rouse the party’s most faithful, calmly explaining how the assassination attempt has moved him.

In a stunning departure from his typical, pugnacious style, he said, “We are all fellow citizens.”

By the Associated Press

“I’m very thrilled to have a new friend and partner fighting by my side, the next vice president of the United States, the incredible Senator from Ohio, JD Vance,” Trump said as he ran through a list of convention speakers. He also saluted Vance’s wife Usha and noted the two had met at Yale.

“Smart people,” Trump said. “JD, you’re going to be doing this for a long time — enjoy the ride.”

By the Associated Press

After soberly recounting his harrowing assassination attempt and mourning those lost and wounded, Trump began to enter familiar terrain. He called for the country to unify and then said the best way to do that would be for Democrats to drop criminal cases against him.

“We must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement, which is what’s been happening in our country lately at a level that nobody has ever seen before,” Trump said.

“And in that spirit, the Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy. Especially since that is not true. In fact, I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country.”

Two of the cases center around Trump’s attempt to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.

By the Associated Press

In the middle of his remarks, Trump walked to Corey Comperatore’s fire jacket and helmet, which were hanging on a stand behind him. Trump leaned over and kissed Comperatore’s helmet and the crowd applauded. Trump returned to the lectern to continue his speech and thanked the fire department for sending his gear.

Trump says that more than $6 million has been raised in a fund to benefit victims’ families.

He then asked for a moment of silence in honor of the former fire chief.

By the Associated Press

The audience on the floor of Fiserv Forum is nearly silent as Trump accounts the details of Saturday’s assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.

Talk in the hall has turned to whispers, the silence only broken by applause when Trump praised the U.S. Secret Service who surrounded him and whisked him off stage.

Trump’s tone is vastly uncharacteristic of his typical bellicose campaign rhetoric, calm, reserved and thoughtful.

“Bullets were flying around us, yet I felt serene,” he said.

By the Associated Press

As Trump strode across the stage, two uniformed men wheeled out a firefighter’s jacket that appeared to belong to Corey Comperatore, who was slain during Saturday’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Secret Service officers are lined along the stairs that lead up to the stands. Hundreds of Trump supporters are watching their candidate prepare to speak for the first time since the shooting Saturday.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Trump has officially accepted the GOP nomination for president during his speech at the Republican National Convention.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Trump addressed an audience for the first time since the assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally.

In an interview with the Washington Examiner following the shooting, Trump said he rewrote his planned convention speech, which was set to criticize Biden’s policies, and instead prepared a message aimed at national unity.

Trump has appeared at various parts of the convention since Monday but has not yet delivered public remarks.

By the Associated Press

It’s unusual for a presidential nominee not to be introduced by a spouse or family member. At previous conventions, Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump have introduced the former president. But this year the title has gone to Ultimate Fighting Champion CEO Dana White.

“As an entertainer, I tried to stay out of politics,” White said. “But with everything that’s happened to our country over the past four years and everything that happened last week, I can no longer stay silent.”

By the Associated Press

Musician Kid Rock made an explosive entrance on the RNC stage and began singing ‘fight! fight!” as the crowd repeated it back to him, a reference to the words Trump shouted after his assassination attempt.

By the Associated Press

Melania Trump has made her first appearance at the convention with soft sweeping music playing in the arena.

By the Associated Press

Trump, in his speech, will speak directly about the failed assassination attempt and express gratitude to the American people “for your outpouring of love and support.”

“As you already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life,” he will say, according to excerpts released by his campaign.

He will say that, “Despite such a heinous attack, we unite this evening more determined than ever.”

By the Associated Press

Eric Trump’s children are sitting on the laps of their grandfather, Donald Trump, and their mother, Lara Trump, as their father talks on the RNC stage.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Former first Lady Melania Trump appears backstage at the Republican National Convention.

Melania Trump has remained out of the public eye, notably not present for a number of events in Trump’s presidential campaign.

By the Associated Press

In a move of showmanship, Hogan tore off his T-shirt to reveal a bright red ‘TRUMP VANCE 2024′ tank top. The crowd erupted into some of the loudest applause of the convention as Trump grinned from his box.

He then shifted his tone, introducing himself by his legal name, Terry Gene Bollea, noting that as an entertainer he tries “to stay out of politics.”

“I’m proud to support my hero as the next president of this United States,” he said. “He’s going to win in November and we’re all going to be champions when he wins.”

By the Associated Press

Retired pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, who once endorsed Barack Obama for president, made an unexpected appearance Thursday at the RNC, putting his full support behind Trump, who he has recently called his “hero.”

He walked on stage swinging an American flag.

“You know something, I have some great tag teams in my time,” Hogan said. “But you know something, I see the greatest tag team of my life, standing together, getting ready to straighten this country up.”

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Democrat Senator Jon Tester of Montana called on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.

In a statement, Tester said he has “never been afraid to stand up to [Biden] when he is wrong.”

”While I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election to another term,” Tester said in a statement.

Tester is the second Democratic senator to urge Biden to exit the race, following Senator Peter Welch of Vermont, who made a similar statement earlier this month.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said the former president committed only one crime: “loving America.”

She is involved in defending Trump in multiple court cases and described the criminal cases against Trump as “sham indictments and baseless investigations.”

Among the four criminal indictments against Trump, the former president was found guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

By the Associated Press

Since arriving in Milwaukee, GOP delegates and Trump supporters have begun rocking a version of the former president’s ear bandage following the shooting Saturday. On Thursday night, the large white bandage was swapped by some for an American flag bandage on their right ear.

By the Associated Press

Trump entered the arena, but he’ll be moving around a bit ahead of his own remarks.

His campaign says Trump will watch a few speeches from the friends and family box before returning to a hold room to greet his wife, Melania, when she arrives at the Fiserv Forum.

Trump will then return to the arena a second time to watch his son Eric give a speech, then go back off stage ahead of his own primetime remarks.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Trump has now arrived at the Republican National Convention for its final night. He is expected to speak later tonight and formally accept the GOP presidential nomination.

By the Associated Press

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is highlighting the foreign policy accomplishments of Trump’s administration, saying, “We put America first every single day.”

Pompeo also lashed out at Biden for the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan and blamed him for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Gaza’s attack on Israel.

“We can’t trust the Biden administration,” he said.

Pompeo, who also served as Trump’s CIA director and represented Kansas in Congress, considered challenging Trump this year for the GOP nomination. But he decided to stay out of the race, saying the time was not right for him and his family.

By the Associated Press

A group of Trump’s most loyal allies in the Senate are seated in the former president’s exclusive box at the RNC on Thursday night. Sens. Mike Lee, Bill Hagerty, and Ted Cruz are filling the seats ahead of the arrival of Trump’s family for his highly anticipated speech. Some Senate hopefuls are also lounging in the area, including Nevada GOP candidate Sam Brown.

Jim Puzzanghera, Emma Platoff, and Tal Kopan, Globe Staff

In this city where the classic sitcom “Happy Days” was set, it’s been exactly that all week for exultant Republicans unified behind their presidential nominee, Donald Trump, after he survived an assassin’s bullet.

And as Trump prepared to deliver his acceptance speech Thursday night to culminate end a lovefest of a convention, the contrast couldn’t be starker with Democrats in the midst of a Shakespearean drama over the fate of their presumptive nominee, President Biden.

“We’re solidly behind Donald Trump. Our entire party,” Representative Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican, said as he played cornhole with his wife in the festive plaza outside the convention arena Thursday morning. “Now, the Democrats, they’re in complete disarray.”

Republicans have displayed an almost giddy sense of confidence about their prospects this fall, with some asserting that the “hand of God” spared Trump’s life on Saturday night so he could return to the White House. With Trump ahead in polling averages in the key battleground states, Republicans have been talking about a landslide victory.

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By the Associated Press

The 2024 RNC in Milwaukee is officially a gathering to propel Trump into a third consecutive nomination. A parade of loyal lieutenants, including many former Trump primary rivals, have taken the stage to pay homage to the former and potentially future president, making clear just how deep the Trump brand is embossed on the collective Republican soul.

But beyond the primetime pep rallies in front of thousands of delegates — and Trump — the same cadre that make up the GOP’s next tier of power and prestige is jockeying for what seems unthinkable: A post-Trump Republican Party.

By the Associated Press

Down the block from the RNC, about 50 family members and supporters of two Milwaukee men recently killed in separate circumstances rallied and marched to call attention to the two deaths.

The event focused on the death of Samuel Sharpe, a homeless man fatally shot Tuesday by out-of-state police officers deployed to Milwaukee for the RNC, as well D’Vontaye Mitchell, who died last month after he was pinned down by security guards at a nearby hotel.

The deaths of the two men, both of whom were Black, has inflamed tensions within the city, with Sharpe’s killing in particular focusing scrutiny on the law enforcement approach to the convention.

Speaking to dozens of protesters and a phalanx of reporters, Angelique Sharpe attributed her brother’s death to the presence of out-of-state police officers.

“I’d rather have the Milwaukee police department who know the people of this community [than] people who have no ties to your community and don’t care nothing about our extended family members down there,” she said.

Police officials said Sharpe was shot by five Columbus, Ohio, police officers who spotted him lunging at another man with two knives.

At the rally, Angelique Sharpe said her brother suffered from multiple sclerosis and was acting in self-defense against a person who had threatened him in recent days.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

The fourth night of the Republican National Convention has begun in Milwaukee, with Trump set to give his first speech since the assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.

By the Associated Press

Unlike most national conventions, Trump’s wife Melania and daughter Ivanka who both spoke at the previous two conventions are not expected to address the convention. They are both expected to attend.

Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, ended the program Tuesday with a speech about Trump’s personal warmth and love for his family.

By the Associated Press

Representative Adam Smith on Thursday reiterated that Biden should step down.

Appearing virtually at a press event during the RNC, Smith said that he has had frequent conversations with former speaker Nancy Pelosi about Biden stepping aside, but wouldn’t disclose what she had said in response.

Asked about reports that Pelosi is working behind the scenes to convince Biden to step down, Smith said that no other Democrat has their thumb on the pulse of the party than her.

“We respect Nancy right up to the fact that she stepped aside,” he said. “She still was very capable but she passed the torch to the next generation.”Smith added, “So I think she’s a good person to listen to about where we’re at right now as a party.”

By the New York Times

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a key member of the House committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, sent President Joe Biden a four-page letter this month that compared the 81-year-old commander in chief to a tiring baseball pitcher and urged him to consult with fellow Democrats about whether to continue his campaign.

Raskin opened his letter, which was dated July 6 and was obtained by The New York Times, by writing that he shared Biden’s “mad love for American democracy and freedom.”

The letter, the authenticity of which Raskin confirmed Thursday, begins with nearly three pages of lavish praise for Biden. Raskin writes that he wishes to “remind you of your true greatness as a leader” and spends several paragraphs recounting Biden’s legislative achievements and defense of democracy.

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By the Associated Press

President Biden still experiencing mild upper respiratory symptoms from COVID-19, the president’s doctor says.

Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a statement Thursday that Biden does not have a fever and his vital signs remain normal. He’s being treated with the drug Paxlovid.

The White House announced Wednesday that Biden had tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling in Las Vegas. The president canceled an appearance in Nevada and kept prearranged plans to travel to his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. He’s isolating there.

By the Associated Press

Former president Barack Obama has privately expressed concerns to Democrats about President Joe Biden’s candidacy, and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi privately warned Biden that Democrats could lose the ability to seize control in the House if he didn’t step away from the race.

Pelosi also showed Biden polling that he likely can’t defeat Republican Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press, which cited people familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss it. The Washington Post also reported on Obama’s involvement, and The New York Times reported on Pelosi’s concerns.

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By the Associated Press

Biden’s reelection campaign insists it’s “not working through any scenarios” where he “is not the top of the ticket,” despite intensifying calls from congressional Democrats for him to abandon the race ahead of November’s election.

“He is, and will be, the Democratic nominee,” Quentin Fulks, principal deputy manager of Biden’s reelection campaign, told a Thursday news conference in Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention is being held.

Asked about reports that Biden might be softening to the idea of bowing out amid mounting pressure from his own party, Fulks said, “He is not wavering on anything.”

“The president has made his decision. I do not want to be rude, but I don’t know how many more times I can answer that,” Fulks told reporters. “There are no plans being made to replace Biden on the ballot.”

By the Associated Press

Biden is feeling fine and working while isolating in Delaware as he recovers from COVID-19, his campaign says.

“The president is feeling fine,” Quentin Fulks, principal deputy manager of Biden’s reelection campaign, told a news conference on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Fulks added that Biden is “continuing to make calls and do work. He has official meetings today, a lot of campaign calls that he’s getting through, and I think some Zoom calls that he’s hoping on potentially.”

Biden was campaigning in Las Vegas when he tested positive for the virus on Wednesday and flew to Delaware where he is self-isolating at his home in Rehoboth Beach.

By the Associated Press

Vice presidential nominee JD Vance chose an unlikely reference to illustrate his spirituality to an audience of influential Christian conservatives Thursday morning.

“I want to leave you with one more final thought and it comes from one of my favorite theologians, the character Jules in the movie, ‘Pulp Fiction,’” Vance told those gathered for the Faith and Freedom Coalition breakfast at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee. “Sorry, this will make sense in a second.”

Vance went on to describe a scene where the character, played by Samuel L. Jackson, is fired upon at point-blank range repeatedly but escapes unharmed.

Jackson’s character, a hardened hitman, is moved by what he describes as a miracle, as Vance described, and argues with his partner “whether God had come down from heaven and stopped these mother-eff— bullets — that was the exact phrase,” Vance said.

“What matters is, I felt the touch of God,” Vance recited from the Jackson character’s line.

By the Associated Press

House Speaker Mike Johnson is ramping up the pressure on U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, calling on Biden to fire her for security failures in the attempted assassination of Trump.

Johnson had already called for Cheatle to step down but says it’s clear she has no intention of doing so.

“I think there has to be accountability and it begins at the top. This is ridiculous,” Johnson said Thursday during a Fox Business interview.

Johnson also described a telephone briefing that Cheatle and FBI Director Christopher Wray provided lawmakers on Wednesday, saying “they did not give us satisfactory answers to some very important questions” while also acknowledging that some of the information may need to be discussed in a classified setting.

By the Associated Press

Biden is dismissing the idea that it’s too late for him to recover politically, even as he faces increasing pressure to bow out of the race.

In a radio interview with Univision’s Luis Sandoval that airs Thursday, Biden says it’s still early and that many people don’t focus on the election until September.

“All the talk about who’s leading and where and how, is kind of, you know — everything so far between Trump and me has been basically even,” Biden said in an excerpt of the interview.

Some national polls do show a close race, though others suggest Trump with a lead. And some state polls have contained warning signs too, including a recent New York Times/Siena poll that suggested a competitive race in Virginia.

By Amanda Kaufman, Globe Staff

In his first public appearances since he survived an assassination attempt, Trump has worn a bandage over his right ear, which was wounded in the shooting.

His supporters at the RNC have started sporting their own fake ear bandages on the convention floor in a showing of solidarity with the Republican nominee.

See photos.

By the Associated Press

President Biden has made it clear basically any which way you ask him: he’s definitely, assuredly, “one thousand percent” staying in the presidential race.

But in response to questions from journalists over the last few weeks, the embattled Democratic president has given some clues as to what could make him step aside — especially as the calls from his own party to end his candidacy continue unabated.

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By the Associated Press

Republicans throughout the week in Milwaukee have suggested the combative former president take a gentler tone in light of the shooting and have suggested the crisis provides a chance to de-escalate the divisive political rhetoric that has marked the 2024 campaign.

Donald Trump told the Washington Examiner that he had rewritten his acceptance speech in the wake of the Saturday shooting, emphasizing a call for national unity.

“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” he said. “Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches,” aimed mostly at the policies of President Biden.

“Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now,” he said.

Any such dialing down by Trump will come before a delegation, many of whom have been moved by Trump’s own defiant words in the grasp of U.S. Secret Service agents Saturday, and have sparked their echo in the form of chants of “fight, fight, fight.”

“I do believe that after going through that his message will be better, and I do think he will appeal to our better emotions,” Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Lawrence Tabas said. “He has an enormous compassion and empathy that doesn’t always come through.”

By the Associated Press

The RNC culminates Thursday with 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.

Trump is expected to accept his third consecutive party nod in prime time before thousands of supporters at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

How he approaches the speech in light of his injury at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, will be closely watched.

Here’s what to know about his speech and the final day of the convention.

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By the Associated Press

Democrats worried about President Joe Biden’s ability to win this November are making a renewed push for him to reconsider his reelection bid, using mountains of data, frank conversations and now, his own time off the campaign trail after testing positive for COVID, to encourage a reassessment.

Biden has insisted he is not backing down, adamant that he is the candidate who beat Republican Donald Trump before and will do it again this year. But publicly and privately, key Democrats are sending signals of concern, and some hope he will assess the trajectory of the race and his legacy during this few days’ pause.

Over the past week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have spoken privately to the president, candidly laying out the views of Democrats on Capitol Hill, including their concerns.

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By The New York Times

FBI officials told members of Congress on Wednesday that the gunman who tried to kill former President Donald Trump used his cellphone and other devices to search images of Trump and President Joe Biden, along with an array of public figures.

The 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, also looked up dates of Trump’s appearances and the Democratic National Convention, according to people on two conference calls held to answer lawmakers’ questions.

And, at least once, his browsing history signaled concerns about his own mental state. He also seems to have previewed his attack on Steam, a gaming platform he frequented, telling fellow gamers he planned to make his “premiere” on July 13, the day of the shooting.

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By The Washington Post

Last week, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) was in the Senate, voting against Biden nominees, one to become a judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and another to become a member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

On Wednesday night, he delivered a prime-time speech as Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick, the most consequential moment of the 39-year-old freshman senator’s political career. It capped a whirlwind 48 hours since Vance became Trump’s pick that he has spent in part writing his acceptance speech, which focused heavily on his personal biography and how it tied to Trump’s “America First” movement. He was widely cheered in the convention hall as he walked out to Merle Haggard’s “America First” and called out his home state of Ohio.

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By the Associated Press

Newly minted vice presidential nominee JD Vance built his Wednesday night speech to the Republican National Convention around his own Appalachian roots, but it wasn’t the first time he had shared his personal story.

Long before he was a U.S. senator from Ohio, Vance rose to prominence on the wings of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a bestselling memoir that many thought captured the essence of Donald Trump’s political resonance in a rural white America ravaged by joblessness, opioid addiction and poverty.

The 2016 book set off a fierce debate in the region. Many Appalachian scholars thought it trafficked in stereotypes and blamed working-class people for their own struggles, without giving enough weight to the decades of exploitation by coal and pharmaceutical companies that figure prominently in Appalachia’s story.

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By The Washington Post

GOP vice-presidential nominee JD Vance was the headliner on the third night of the GOP convention, which featured a number of misleading or inaccurate statements. Here are nine claims that caught our attention, in the order in which they were made.

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Thursday, July 18

By the Associated Press

Republicans welcomed JD Vance as Donald Trump’s running mate on the same night devoted to blasting President Joe Biden’s leadership on the world stage.

Vance, the 39-year-old Ohio senator, offered his life story as a son of Appalachia to reaffirm Trump’s connections to Americans who feel alienated socially, economically and politically.

The mix of national security talk, relentless attacks on Biden and the unveiling of a potential “MAGA” movement heir encapsulated what Trump’s “America First” agenda means for the GOP and the U.S. role as a global superpower.

Here are some takeaways from Day 3 of the RNC.

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By The Washington Post

A group of Republican senators followed Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle through the Fiserv Forum at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday evening, shouting questions at her about the agency’s failure to prevent the shooting at former president Donald Trump’s rally.

“This was an assassination attempt!” yelled Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, according to a video of the confrontation obtained by The Washington Post. “You owe the people answers! You owe President Trump answers!”

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming also followed Cheatle, and another person could be heard saying that Cheatle was “stonewalling” the senators about what happened on Saturday.

“It is appalling that the Secret Service Director refused to answer our questions,” Blackburn said in a statement. “This is one of the greatest security failures in the history of the agency. She can run but she cannot hide. She is a failed leader and she needs to immediately step down from her position.”

By the Associated Press

The convention is gaveling out after a benediction from Rev. Packy Thompson of Houma, Lousiana.

Thompson thanked God for Trump. “I also thank you for protecting him from the evil that was perpetrated last Saturday,” he said.

And the gathering is adjourned until Thursday.

By the Associated Press

“Tonight, J.D. Vance, the poster boy for Project 2025, took center stage. But it’s working families and the middle class who will suffer if he’s allowed to stay there,” Michael Tyler, Biden campaign communication director, said.

“Backed by Silicon Valley and the billionaires who bought his vice presidential selection, Vance is Project 2025 in human form – an agenda that puts extremism and the ultra wealthy over our democracy.”

By the Associated Press

Vance made a pledge to voters: “I pledge to every American, no matter your party, I will give you everything I have.”

He added, “To serve you and to make this country a place where every dream you have for yourself, your family and your country will be possible once again.”

After the speech, Vance’s extended family flooded the stage to an unusual song for a Republican convention – Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.”

The song became a political staple in 1992 when a very different young politician from a humble background ran for national office. That was Bill Clinton, who is, of course, a Democrat.

By the Associated Press

The Ohio senator mentioned speaking with someone who wondered if they would ever be able to buy a house. Vance then blamed the housing crisis on “Wall Street barons,” who crashed the economy, causing workers who built houses to lose their jobs and wages to stagnate. Then, he contended, Democrats let millions of illegal immigrants into the country, further increasing home prices.

But the housing affordability crisis has skyrocketed under Biden not for any of those reasons, but because interest rates have risen sharply along with inflation. Home prices were high under the prior three presidents, but low interest rates kept mortgage rates down, and homes therefore still within reach for many, especially in places like Vance’s home state of Ohio.

Now those mortgage rates have increased exponentially, putting previously costly but still affordable homes well out of the reach of most prospective first-time buyers. It’s one of Biden’s most intractable problems.

By the Associated Press

“Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington as long as I’ve been alive,” Vance, 39, said. “For half a century he’s been a champion of every single policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”

In contrast, Vance said, Trump in four years was able to reverse all those negative trends. “Just imagine what he’s going to do when we give him four more years,” Vance said, sparking chants of “four more years.”

By the Associated Press

He’s 39 and will be 40 by Election Day – by next month, in fact, the same age as Richard Nixon, when he was elected vice president in 1952.

Dan Quale was elected George H.W. Bush’s No. 2 at age 41 in 1988.

But Theodore Roosevelt was only 38 when he was elected vice president and assumed the White House at age 42 after President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901.

Even Roosevelt wasn’t the youngest. John C. Breckinridge was just 36 when he took the vice presidency after the 1856 election.

By the Associated Press

The crowd inside the convention hall welcomed Vance warmly, but they were somewhat quiet during his remarks — at least compared to other more fiery speakers from earlier in the night.

The muted reception was a reminder that Vance is still not well known, even among Republicans. And he was not the most talented orator among the list of veep finalists. Perhaps that’s why Vance has closely followed the script for much of his speech, according to the teleprompters in the room.

It’s also worth noting that the speech is more focused on Vance’s biography than the red-meat conservative issues that most excite Republican activists.

By the Associated Press

Vance’s autobiographical speech is supposed to introduce the 39-year-old freshman senator to the nation, but he seemed to have little choice but to immediately address Saturday’s assassination attempt on his running mate.

“For the last eight years, President Trump has given everything he has to fight for his country. He didn’t need politics but the country needed him,” Vance said.

“They said he was a tyrant. They said he had to be stopped at all costs. But what did he call for?” Vance asked. “He called for national unity.”

He also shared an unexpected private detail — two nights ago, he said, Trump gave each of his two adult sons a kiss on the cheek. “Sorry guys,” Vance joked about the moment, noting the two Trump sons “squirmed” like Vance’s own 4-year-old son when the Ohio Senator tries to kiss him.

By the Associated Press

He walked out to Merle Haggard’s “America First,” which has played several times during the convention.

By the Associated Press

Biden commented after Air Force One brought him back to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The president was in Las Vegas to speak to members of a Latino civil rights organization but canceled the appearance after learning he was positive for the virus.

The White House said the president was experiencing mild symptoms, had begun treatment and will isolate at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

By Danny McDonald, Globe Staff

In a speech to the Republican National Convention Wednesday night, Shabbos Kestenbaum, a recent Harvard Divinity School graduate who sued the university in January over its response to campus antisemitism, railed against the Cambridge institution, calling the Ivy League school’s culture anti-western, anti-American, and anti-Jewish.

“My problem with Harvard is not its liberalism, but its illiberalism,” he told the crowd in Milwaukee. “Too often students at Harvard are taught not how to think but what to think.”

Kestenbaum emerged as a prominent student activist after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and Israel’s retaliatory war in the Gaza Strip, which plunged American universities into turmoil, leading to frequent protests and allegations from students that their campuses had become hotbeds for antisemitism and Islamophobia.

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By the Associated Press

Donald Trump Jr. spoke movingly about his father’s bravery on Saturday after a would-be assassin opened fire, saying he showed “for all the world” that “the next American president has the heart of a lion.” But he toggled back and forth between talking about his father as a symbol of national unity and slamming his enemies.

“When he stood up with blood on his face and the flag at his back, the world saw a spirit that could never be broken,” Trump Jr said. “And that is the true spirit of America. America knows what it’s like to be down. We know what it’s like to be confused and afraid.”

By the Associated Press

An aircraft entered the restricted airspace surrounding the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday and was escorted out of the area by a North American Aerospace Defense Command F-35 jet.

The aircraft was not in communication with air traffic control when flying about 24 miles southwest of Milwaukee around 3:30 p.m., NORAD said. The F-35 jet was flying at about 4,000 feet and would have been visible from the ground, NORAD said.

NORAD did not provide any details about the type of aircraft it intercepted, where it was headed or if it knew it was violating the restricted airspace.

The Federal Aviation Administration has implemented temporary flight restrictions in and around Milwaukee throughout the convention which concludes Thursday.

By the Associated Press

“On Saturday I was shocked when I heard that he has been shot,” she said. “It was heartbreaking that someone would do that to another person.

“A lot of people have put my grandpa through hell, and he’s still standing,” she said.

Her father, Donald Trump Jr, came back out and urged the crowd to give her a hand for such a daunting first-time speech.

By the Associated Press

The parents of an American man captured by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and held hostage ever since are speaking at the Republican National Convention.

Omer Neutra is one of eight American hostages in Gaza. His parents, Ronen and Orna, say Trump called them after their son, a soldier in the Israeli army, and offered support. As they spoke, the crowd chanted, “Bring them home,” and many waved Israeli flags.

By the Associated Press

Relatives of some of the 13 American service members killed during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention Wednesday in an emotional moment that revived one of the low points of President Joe Biden’s presidency.

Many of the Gold Star families have criticized Biden for never publicly naming their loved ones. On stage Wednesday, one of the family members named each of the 13 service members, and the crowd echoed back each name as it was read aloud.

“Joe Biden has refused to recognize their sacrifice,” Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, told the crowd. “Donald Trump knew all of our children’s names. He knew all of their stories.”

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By the Associated Press

Instead of kayakers and tour boats, the summertime scene on the Milwaukee River has taken on a solemn tone this week during the Republican National Convention: Around-the-clock patrol boats, some with heavily armed officers.

Security planners have had to contend with the winding waterways through Milwaukee near the Fiserv Center RNC convention site, along with securing downtown streets. Roughly half a dozen police departments, along with state and federal agencies, have boats patrolling the river 24-hours-a-day until the convention ends this week.

“They’re committed to working those long shifts, throughout the days and nights,” U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Joe Neff said. “They’ve been all on board for making sure public safety is priority.”

By TheNew York Times

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has privately told allies that he is considering resigning from Congress after his conviction in a sweeping bribery scheme rather than face a potential expulsion vote, according to three people familiar with his remarks.

Two of the people, who were not authorized to discuss the conversations, cautioned that Menendez has not made a final decision and could still fight to serve out his term. Publicly, he has maintained his innocence and vowed to appeal Tuesday’s guilty verdict on 16 felony counts.

But the comments he made in phone calls with close associates in the hours after he left the Manhattan courthouse suggest for the first time that Menendez has absorbed how rapidly his political path forward is crumbling — and may be looking to avoid further public humiliation.

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By The Washington Post

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, in separate private meetings with President Biden last week, told him that his continued candidacy imperils the Democratic Party’s ability to control either chamber of Congress next year.

Jeffries (D-N.Y.) met with Biden on Thursday night at the White House, and Schumer (D-N.Y.) met with him on Saturday in Rehoboth Beach, Del. In the meetings, the congressional leaders discussed their members’ concerns that Biden could deprive them of majorities, giving Republicans a much easier path to push through legislation, according to four people briefed on the meetings who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private talks.

In a separate one-on-one conversation, a person close to Biden told the president directly that he should end his candidacy, saying that was the only way to preserve his legacy and save the country from another Trump term, the person said. Biden responded that he adamantly disagreed with that opinion and that he is the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump.

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By the Associated Press

Hundreds of people gathered Wednesday to remember the former fire chief shot and killed at a weekend rally for former President Donald Trump in a rural area of Pennsylvania shaken by violence perpetrated by a local 20-year-old man.

Outside Lernersville Speedway in Sarvar, Pennsylvania, where the vigil was being held for Corey Comperatore, a sign read: “Rest in Peace Corey, Thank You For Your Service,” with the logo of his fire company.

On the rural road to the auto racing track — lined with cornfields, churches and industrial plants — a sign outside a local credit union reads: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Comperatore family.”

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By the Associated Press

Four days after a gunman’s attempt to assassinate former President Trump, the public is still in the dark over the extent of his injuries, what treatment the Republican presidential nominee received in the hospital and whether there may be any long-term effects on his health.

Trump’s campaign has refused to discuss his condition, release a medical report or records, or make the doctors who treated him available, leaving information to dribble out from Trump, his friends and family.

Presidents and major-party candidates have long had to balance their right to doctor-patient confidentiality with the public’s expectations that they demonstrate they are healthy enough to serve, particularly when questions arise about their readiness. Trump, for example, has long pressed President Biden to take a cognitive test as the Democrat faces doubts after his stumbling performance in last month’s debate.

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By the Associated Press

Kellyanne Conway is reminding RNC attendees how many women served at top levels in Trump’s White House.

The former senior presidential adviser said Tuesday that she was one of five women, along with others including former press secretary-turned-Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in top jobs during Trump’s administration.

Conway noted that among them, they had 19 children in total. Party officials and strategists have noted that Trump has struggled in the past two elections — and again may in 2024 — to attract suburban, college-educated women.

In 2016, Conway became the first woman to successfully head up a Republican presidential campaign.

By the Associated Press

After an ABC News report that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made the case to President Joe Biden on Saturday that it would be best for him to drop his reelection bid, a spokesperson for the lawmaker is not denying the report.

“Unless ABC’s source is Senator Chuck Schumer or President Joe Biden the reporting is idle speculation,” the Schumer spokesperson said. “Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday.”

By The New York Times

The Democratic National Committee is pushing back by a week its plans to nominate President Biden for reelection in a virtual roll call as the party’s voters and many of its top officials continue to express discontent about heading into the general election with him atop their ticket.

Top party officials announced Wednesday that the virtual roll call for Biden would take place during the first week of August, an accommodation to Democrats who had protested about plans that would have started the voting as soon as next week.

Biden’s weak debate showing, his uneven public appearances, and his struggles in the polls have raised deep worries within his party. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats want him to quit the race, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Associated Press and NORC. Congressional Democrats have also warned that Biden’s sagging political standing will make it far harder for them to win down-ballot races in November.

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By the Associated Press

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’s 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, wounding the GOP nominee, remained as elusive as the moment it happened.

“He sat by himself, didn’t talk to anyone, didn’t even try to make conversation,” said 17-year-old Liam Campbell, echoing the comments of classmates who remembered the shooter in this quiet community outside of Pittsburgh. “He was an odd kid,” but nothing about him seemed dangerous, he added. “Just a normal person who seemed like he didn’t like talking to people.”

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By the Associated Press

In late June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognized an increase in COVID-19 cases in certain areas of the country and recommended new shots for all Americans this fall.

Officials acknowledged the need for shots is not as dire as it was only a few years ago. Most Americans have some degree of immunity from being infected, from past vaccinations or both. COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations last month were at about their lowest point since the pandemic first hit the United States in 2020.

But immunity wanes, new coronavirus variants keep emerging and there are still hundreds of COVID-19-associated deaths and thousands of hospitalizations reported each week.

By the Associated Press

Biden boarded Air Force One and told reporters traveling with him that, “I feel good.” The president was not wearing a mask as he walked onto Air Force One.

Shortly before the White House announced Biden’s condition, the president had stopped at the Original Lindo Michoácan Restaurant, mingling with customers, making small talk and taking selfies as he went table to table before participating in an interview with Univision.

By the Associated Press

Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a speaker at the UnidosUS annual conference broadcast on the White House’s YouTube channel.

Biden was slated to speak at the event in Las Vegas Wednesday afternoon as part of an effort to rally Hispanic voters ahead of the November election. Unidos US President and CEO Janet Murguía told the guests that the president had sent his regrets and could not appear because he tested positive for the virus.

The president had previously been at the Original Lindo Michoacan restaurant in Las Vegas, where he was greeting diners and was scheduled to have an interview with Univision.

By the Associated Press

President Biden has made it clear basically any which way you ask him: He’s definitely, assuredly, “one thousand percent” staying in the presidential race.

But in response to questions from journalists over the last few weeks, the embattled Democratic president has given some clues as to what could make him step aside — especially as the calls from his own party to end his candidacy continue unabated.

Here are the things Biden has cited — some serious, others not — that would make him reconsider his run:

• Divine intervention
• Cold, hard data
• A fateful accident
• A not-yet-diagnosed medical ailment

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By the Associated Press

Trump arrived at the convention center early Wednesday to do a walkthrough with his team in advance of his highly anticipated speech Thursday night. RNC staff walked the former president through how he would enter and walk to the podium.

He is expected to close out the four-day convention in Milwaukee, making his first public remarks since a deadly shooting at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. The visible signs of the assassination attempt were on display as Trump’s right ear remains heavily bandaged.

By the Associated Press

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is attending his first fundraiser since becoming the official Republican vice presidential nominee.

Vance said he would use his speech Wednesday night to make the case about the importance of reelecting Trump.

Speaking to a room of several hundred donors at Discovery World, a lakefront museum and aquarium in Milwaukee, he quipped that he’s told Trump he’s “very excited about this evening” and doesn’t plan to screw it up, but that it’s too late for Trump to change his mind.

Vance was introduced by Ohio Congressman Jim Banks, who called him the “future of the Republican Party” and the America First movement.

He applauded Trump for his choice, saying Vance was the best candidate to connect with working class men and women in critical states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

By the Associated Press

Senator Bob Menendez has shown no sign he will voluntarily resign from the Senate following his conviction on bribery charges, leaving Democratic senators contemplating an expulsion effort to force him from office.

While Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, has six months remaining in his term, Democrats have made clear they don’t want him in office any longer. Within minutes of the guilty verdict on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for his resignation and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who would name Menendez’s replacement, said that the Senate should expel Menendez if he refused to step down.

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By the Associated Press

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke during a moderated conversation on abortion access in Kalamazoo, Michigan, about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

“As we all know it was a heinous, horrible and cowardly act,” Harris said. “My husband and I are thankful he was not seriously injured that day. As soon as we saw what was happening, we said a prayer for his well-being,” she continued.

Harris also offered condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore, the fire chief killed while, authorities have said, defending his family from gunfire during the Saturday Trump rally in Pennsylvania.

By the Associated Press

Representative James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, has issued a subpoena to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle compelling her to appear before the committee on Monday for what is scheduled to be the first congressional hearing into the attempted assassination of Trump.

Comer said initially that the Secret Service committed to her attendance but that Homeland Security officials appear to have intervened and there has been no “meaningful updates or information” shared with the committee.

Comer said the “lack of transparency and failure to cooperate” with the committee called into question Cheatle’s ability to lead the Secret Service and necessitates the subpoena.

Cheatle has said the agency understands the importance of a review ordered by Democratic President Joe Biden and would fully participate in it as well as with congressional committees looking into the shooting.

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By the Associated Press

Vice President Kamala Harris has agreed to another date for a debate against Ohio Senator JD Vance, the GOP vice-presidential nominee.

That date is Tuesday, Aug. 13, which CBS News had offered and Harris accepted, according to an official from the Biden-Harris campaign granted anonymity to discuss debate negotiations.

She had initially accepted two other dates — July 23 or Aug. 13. But the Biden campaign has only agreed to a vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News, while the Trump campaign has insisted on one from Fox News.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

In a statement to The Los Angeles Times, Representative Adam Schiff, who is running for US Senate in California, called on Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race following last month’s disastrous presidential debate performance.

The Californian is the latest congressional Democrat to call on Biden to step aside.

“Joe Biden has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history, and his lifetime of service as a Senator, a Vice President, and now as President has made our country better,” Schiff wrote in his statement to The Times.

“But our nation is at a crossroads,” Schiff added. “A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.”

By Emily Sweeney, Globe Staff

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gave a snide shout-out to Massachusetts and Martha’s Vineyard on the migrant crisis during his speech at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.

DeSantis made a contemptuous reference to Martha’s Vineyard, which became a flashpoint in the national debate over immigration after dozens of migrants showed up on the island unannounced two years ago.

“Biden is just a figurehead. He’s a tool for imposing a leftist agenda on the American people. They support open borders, allowing millions and millions of illegal aliens to pour into our country and to burden our communities — but just don’t send any to Martha’s Vineyard, then they get really upset,” DeSantis said.

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By the Associated Press

House Speaker Mike Johnson says he will be calling on the Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle to resign in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

Johnson said Wednesday on Fox News that “it’s inexcusable” what happened and that the House will be launching a task force to investigate the security at the Trump rally last weekend.

“We need answers,” he said in a social media post. Cheatle was scheduled to appear before a House committee next Monday, but Johnson said he’s been told she may not appear.

By the Associated Press

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.

By the Associated Press

Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say 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.

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By the Associated Press

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 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT hour.

By the Associated Press

Democrats will look to hold a virtual vote to make 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 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.

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By Matt Stout and Brooke Hauser, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts summer fund-raising circuit is in full swing, apparently.

Vice President Kamala Harris is slated to gather with Democrats in the Berkshires later this month, marking what would be her second appearance in the Bay State in as many weeks, according to an invitation obtained by the Globe.

Massachusetts’ electoral votes are hardly in doubt. But what Massachusetts lacks in competition in the November election, it makes up for in other valuable assets, namely deep-pocketed donors. Before the July 27 event in Pittsfield, Harris is expected to appear at a fund-raiser Saturday in Provincetown, which, too, will benefit the Biden Victory Fund, a joint fund-raising committee of the Biden-Harris campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the 50 state Democratic parties.

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By the Associated Press

On the streets of Butler, Pa., in the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump, the same four words have been spoken again and again: “Of all the places.”

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By the Associated Press

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general says it has opened up an investigation into the US Secret Service’s handling of security for former President Donald Trump on the day a gunman tried to assassinate him at a Pennsylvania rally.

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By Bloomberg News

Elon Musk is pledging to pour $45 million a month into a pro-Donald Trump political group, a move that would flood the Republican nominee’s reelection effort with cash through the November election.

Musk’s planned cash infusion could help build Trump’s fundraising advantage over President Joe Biden, who has suffered from a donor revolt in recent weeks, with some calling for him to step aside for a new nominee. The billionaire entrepreneur endorsed Trump in a post on X after the former president was wounded while addressing a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday evening.

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By the Washington Post

President Biden pointed to the recent attack on former president Donald Trump in renewing his call for a ban on assault weapons such as the AR-15. An AR-style weapon was used in the shooting at a Trump campaign rally, “just as it was an assault weapon that killed so many others, including children,” he said.

“It’s time to outlaw them,” Biden said, speaking to the NAACP convention in Las Vegas on Tuesday, adding that “I did it once and I will do it again.” Biden successfully negotiated a 10-year ban on assault weapons as a senator in 1994.

“More children in America die of a gunshot wound than any other reason,” he told the convention. “That’s stunning and that is sick. And it’s sheer cowardice if we do nothing about it.”

One spectator was killed in the attack and two were critically injured. Trump said a bullet hit his ear, and he appeared at the Republican National Convention on Monday with a white bandage covering it. Authorities say 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks used an AR-style rifle owned by his father. The AR-15 is the best-selling rifle in the United States, according to industry figures.

By the Associated Press

Trump and Vance were expected to appear in the hall each night of the convention. Vance is slated to speak Wednesday and Trump will speak Thursday.

Trump, who has long decried rivals with harsh language and talked about prosecuting opponents if he wins a second term, seemed poised to deliver a more toned-down speech. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said in an Axios interview outside the RNC that he spent three or four hours going through his father’s convention speech with him, “trying to de-escalate some of that rhetoric.”

But there were also hints in Tuesday’s programming of some of Trump’s old grievances, including several references to Trump’s disproven theories of election fraud.

By the Associated Press

Trump’s survival of an attempted assassination Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania was on the minds of many inside the hall. One of the delegates in the crowd could be seen with a folded white piece of paper over his ear — an apparent tribute to the bandage Trump wore when he entered the hall Monday to a roaring crowd.

He was wearing it again when he arrived Tuesday night, appearing even earlier than he did the night before. Trump entered a few minutes after his newly chosen running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

Many of the speakers so far have referenced the assassination attempt on Trump’s life at a Saturday rally, and that’s something we can expect to hear more of as speeches go on.

By the Associated Press

President Joe Biden is trying to shore up support among disenchanted voters key to his reelection chances as he meets Wednesday with members of a Latino civil rights organization in the battleground state of Nevada.

Biden is set to deliver an address to the UnidosUS annual conference in Las Vegas, where he’ll announce that beginning Aug. 19 certain U.S. citizens’ spouses without legal status can begin applying for permanent residency and eventually citizenship without having to first depart the country, according to the White House. The new program, first announced by Biden last month, could affect upwards of half a million immigrants.

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By the Associated Press

The third day of the Republican National Convention kicks off Wednesday with Republicans — led by the newly nominated Donald Trump and JD Vance — shifting 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 expected to take the stage to outline what foreign policy would look like in a second Trump term.

That will likely include speeches from Richard Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

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By the Associated Press

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.

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By the Associated Press

Donald Trump‘s running mate JD Vance will introduce himself to a national audience Wednesday as he addresses the Republican National Convention.

The Ohio senator’s headlining address will be his first speech as the Republican vice-presidential nominee. He’s a relative political unknown who rapidly morphed in recent years from a severe critic of Trump to an aggressive defender.

Vance, 39, is positioned to become the next potential leader of the former president’s political movement, which has reshaped the Republican Party and busted many longtime political norms. The first millennial to join a major party ticket, he joins the race when questions about the age of the men at the top of the tickets — 78-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President Joe Biden — have been high on the list of voters’ concerns.

Trump, as the presidential nominee, is expected to speak Thursday, the convention’s final night.

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By the Associated Press

On the floor of the Republican National Convention Tuesday evening, vice presidential candidate JD Vance greeted and shook hands with excited delegates as he walked toward his seat.

It was a marked contrast from former President Donald Trump, who entered the hall a few minutes later and was separated from supporters by a column of Secret Service agents. His ear still bandaged after an attempted assassination, Trump closely hugged the wall. Instead of handshakes or hellos for those gathered, he offered fist pumps to the cameras.

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Wednesday, July 17

By the Associated Press

The Republican National Convention marched into its second day Tuesday, showcasing classic GOP themes like border security and public safety that have become the centerpieces of former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

With Trump’s primary rivals speaking, it was also an occasion for the GOP to demonstrate its unity, a sharp contrast to the Democratic party’s mounting concerns over the viability of President Joe Biden.

Here are some takeaways from the convention’s second day.

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By the Associated Press

Two nights into the Republican National Convention, the message has been relatively light on policy specifics even as GOP leaders, Party Chairman Michael Whatley included, insisted that Donald Trump and his party should use the gathering in Milwaukee to explain what a second Trump presidency would mean.

Instead, delegates have approved a shorter-than-usual platform that skirts many details. Speaker after speaker has opted for sweeping promises that Trump would improve the economy, make routine goods more affordable, secure the U.S.-Mexico border and end international conflicts — or at least remove the U.S. from those hotspots. And there’s been plenty of blame on President Joe Biden.

Certainly, conventions — for Democrats and Republicans — are often more about cheerleading, grand claims and attacks on the opposition. But it’s a notable trend given how insistent Republican leaders have been that Trump, who has never won the national popular vote and like Biden maintains high disapproval ratings, needs to broaden his appeal going into the fall.

By the Associated Press

Chairman Whatley banged his gavel to close the night.

By the Associated Press

Lara Trump, co-chaired the Republican National Committee and Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, spoke about the moments after the shooting happened on Saturday and how she had to turn off the TV so that the former president’s grandchildren did not have to watch the scenes playing out on TV.

“Last Saturday reminded us that we Americans must remember that there is more that unites us than divides us,” she said, adding that she’s aware that Trump’s rhetoric doesn’t always sit well with all Americans.

“Now you don’t have to admit that you like everything that he tweets, but Americans were better off when he was in office,” Lara Trump said.

She’s also sought to paint a more intimate side of Trump by saying his grandkids showed him drawings moments before he came down at Trump Tower to address the public after being convicted in the hush money case.

By the Associated Press

The son of Cuban immigrants, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio argued that Republicans must remain unapologetic about Trump’s “America First” agenda, even as critics cast it as isolationist and anti-immigrant.

Rubio sought to put a softer face on Republicans’ rhetoric and positioning on immigration. He avoided specific policy details but waxed eloquent about the makeup of the nation — finding a way to praise Trump’s running mate in the process as he talked of a citizenry made up of refugees, descendants of enslaved persons and immigrants simply seeking better opportunities.

“Americans are people as diverse as humanity itself. But out of many, we are one,” Rubio said. “Because as the life story of our next vice president, JD Vance, reminds us, we are all descendants of ordinary people who achieve extraordinary things.”

But as he offered that sweeping definition of what it means to be American, Rubio emphasized: “Putting Americans first must be what this election is all about.”

By the Associated Press

Madeline Brame, whose veteran son was stabbed to death in Harlem in 2018, brought the crowd’s focus Tuesday night to one of right’s biggest boogeymen: New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Brame has publicly criticized Bragg for being soft on crime, including in the case of her son’s alleged killer. The crowd responded with roaring applause as Bragg is one of the officials involved in Trump’s various legal battles. “They betrayed us and stab us in the back,” Brame said about Democrats. “Trump was right when he said they’re after us, he’s just standing in the way.”

By the Associated Press

As part of the convention’s ‘Make America Safe Again’ session, family members of those who have lost loved ones to fentanyl overdose appeared back-to-back on the RNC stage to make the forceful and at time emotional case for why Trump would fix the epidemic.

Michael Morin, the brother of a woman who was killed by a man who was allegedly in the country illegally, said that Trump would take more action on the drug crisis than Biden and Harris have in the past three and a half years. Another speaker, Anne Funder, lost her 15-year-old son Austin to an overdose two years ago. As she got choked up on stage, the crowd began to chat “Joe must go!” to which she responded, “Yes, he must.”

By the Associated Press

Tom King, a Pennsylvania delegate from Butler, Pennsylvania, said he spoke to Trump at the rally 10 minutes before the shooting erupted on Saturday. He says he sat about 20 feet in front of Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief who was killed.

“It was a great day to see the president,” said King, who is general counsel for the Pennsylvania Republican Party. “He was in a great mood. He was energetic, but he was very serious about what we need to do in Pennsylvania to win the election.” When an AP reporter asked him to specify what he said needed to be done in Pennsylvania, King said, “I won’t say what he said.”

“We pledged to do everything we could to help him,” he said. “He’s a great guy.”

By the Associated Press

The second night of the Republican National Convention has centered on issues of crime and immigration, with many speakers echoing unfounded claims that Democrats intentionally want to replace Americans through illegal immigration, a claim that has moved from the fringes of political conversation to a consistent fear among the GOP base.

“We stand for strong borders and believe that our nation must have a shared civic culture and we oppose any immigration that stands apart or in contrast to our American values,” Gov. DeSantis said during his speech.

“We are facing an invasion on our southern border. Not figuratively, a literal invasion,” Sen. Cruz contended during his remarks. “Every day Americans are dying. Murdered, assaulted, raped by illegal immigrants that the Democrats have released,” he continued.

And Rep. Steve Scalise, the GOP House majority leader, said that “Biden and Harris want illegals to vote now that they’ve opened up the border.”

By the Associated Press

Tonight is the first time Florida Governor DeSantis has spoken publicly in support of Trump following the GOP primary.

But he spent most of his speech criticizing Democrats’ policies on immigration, education and gender identity. DeSantis said the country needs to vote out President Biden saying he has failed as a leader. “I am alarmed that the current president of the United States lacks the capability to discharge the duties of his office,” he said.

“Donald Trump stands in their way and he stands up for America. Donald Trump has been demonized. He’s been sued. He’s been prosecuted and he nearly lost his life,” he said. “We cannot let him down.”

By the Associated Press

Trump’s last rival standing for the GOP nomination made clear where she stands now.

“Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” former South Carolina governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said.

Her words were greeted with an uproar of applause, a stark contrast to moments earlier when she took the stage to a mix of cheers and boos.

Explaining Trump’s “gracious invitation” that she speak, she said, “I haven’t always agreed with Trump but we agree more often than we disagree.”

By the Associated Press

Joking that she happens to know “a few people” who don’t agree with Trump and his campaign, Haley tried to appeal to the millions of Republicans who wanted her, not Trump, as the GOP nominee for president.

“My message to them is simple: You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him,” Haley said.

By the Associated Press

Senator Ted Cruz started his speech by saying “God Bless Donald J. Trump” and then went on to talk about his assassination attempt at a rally on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“Let me start by giving thanks to God almighty for protecting Donald Trump and for turning his head on Saturday as the shot was fired.”

The last time Cruz spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2016, he was booed while battling Trump for the GOP nomination for president. Since then, the two men have had a contentious and publicly tense relationship, exchanging personal insults. But Cruz’s appearance depicts an effort by Republicans to show a united front after Saturday’s rally shooting.

By the Associated Press

Senator JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, entered the GOP convention to Merle Haggard’s “America First.”

After walking across the floor with his family, he climbed into a box near the stage featuring VIPs including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin and members of the Trump family.

By the Associated Press

While traveling in Las Vegas, President Biden sat for an interview with BET, and was asked about potentially waning enthusiasm for his reelection among Black Americans.

Biden responded that such voters should turn out for him “because they know where my heart is. They know where my head is.”

He added that many Americans, especially young voters, weren’t watching the election closely until recently and “we’re just getting down to gametime now.”

Biden has done a series of TV interviews lately, hoping to reassure some Democrats who have called for him to leave the presidential race after his shaky debate performance last month.

Emma Platoff and Jim Puzzanghera, Globe Staff

“FEAR NOT,” read the T-shirts stocked in the merchandise shops at the convention center in Milwaukee, the text imposed over a photo of Donald Trump.

Fear not. It’s the same message the former president posted on social media the day after the attempted assassination, the same words — an apparent reference to the Bible — that pop up to greet visitors to his campaign website and have appeared in several fund-raising appeals over the past few days.

“Fear not,” his website prompts. “Unity. Peace. Make America Great Again.”

Trump has not always been the preferred candidate of religious communities. Now, in the wake of an assassination attempt last weekend, his political story is increasingly being told in the language of faith. As Republicans gathered in Wisconsin this week, with their candidate recovering from the shooting at a Saturday rally, their rah-rah Republican message has taken on fresh religious overtones.

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By Mike Damiano and Hilary Burns, Globe Staff

In JD Vance, Donald Trump has chosen a running mate who sees colleges and universities as “the enemy.”

A populist Republican senator from Ohio who grew up poor and graduated from Yale Law School, Vance has made clear in speeches, interviews, and writings that he believe universities are at the root of the country’s divisiveness and inequality. They have broken the “social contract,” he has said, by accepting billions of taxpayer dollars while burying young people under mountains of student debt. They have abandoned their truth-seeking mission and instead peddle “deceit and lies.” They indoctrinate students into progressive political orthodoxy.

“We have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country,” Vance said in a 2021 speech titled “The Universities Are the Enemy.”

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By the Associated Press

One of the first speakers was Matthew Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, who received a roaring applause when he asked the crowd to cheer if they supported Israel.

“This election is a critical moment for American Jewish community and for Israel,” Brook said, highlighting the Trump administration’s record in the Middle East.

“Now, my message here today to the Jewish community is clear: There is only one pro-Israel party, and it’s Republican Party,” he said.

By the New York Times

As one of the first speakers Monday at the Republican National Convention, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, struck a familiarly strident tone.

“Today’s Democrat agenda, their policies, are a clear and present threat to America, to our institutions, our values and our people,” Johnson said, attacking the transgender community and what he called “the sexualization and indoctrination of our children.”

Yet nearly as soon as he walked offstage, Johnson backtracked: He had been given the wrong speech.

“They loaded the first draft, rather than the revision made in light of Saturday,” Johnson said in a text to The New York Times.

Since a would-be assassin’s bullet tore through a part of his ear at a Pennsylvania rally Saturday, former president Donald Trump has been signing his emails and texts to supporters with two words: “Unity. Peace.” Republican leaders have tried to project a similarly toned-down approach, lowering the temperature and minimizing the savaging of Democrats. In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday morning, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, proclaimed, “This is going to be different.”

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By the Associated Press

Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican JD Vance have had their first chat since the Ohio senator became the GOP vice presidential nominee, but the two sides are still working on terms for participating in a debate, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations about the debate, said there had been no progress at bridging the disagreements on the network partner and format, but they expect discussions to begin now that Trump has selected Vance, a first-term senator from Ohio.

Harris, in her congratulatory voicemail to Vance regarding his VP selection, urged him to accept a debate hosted by CBS News on either July 23 or Aug. 13, according to one of the people familiar with the discussions. Vance returned Harris’ call on Tuesday and the pair exchanged pleasantries, that person said. A second person said they shared a desire to debate but didn’t discuss specifics.

Last month’s debate disaster for President Biden, Saturday’s attempted assassination of Trump, and the ages of both men atop their respective tickets could raise the stakes for the running mates’ potential faceoff.

By the Associated Press

Biden said that toning down the national rhetoric “doesn’t mean we should stop telling the truth” as he tore into his Republican rival.

Declaring that Trump’s administration was “hell” for Black Americans, he singled out the former president’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, seeing unemployment skyrocket amid early lockdowns and attempts to, as Biden put it, erase Black history.

The president is aiming to showcase his administration’s support for Black voters who are a tentpole of the Democratic coalition and of his personal political support. As part of his swing in Nevada, he’ll also participate in an interview with BET and address the Hispanic advocacy group UnidosUS, another crucial Democratic-leaning bloc.

By the Associated Press

The evening session began with a video focusing on concerns of crime, including news clips of border crossings and threats of foreign terrorism. Republicans plan to bring out speakers to argue that they have been damaged by Biden-era immigration policies. Trump and Republicans believe the border debate is among their strongest issues.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Representative Matt Gaetz mocked former House speaker Kevin McCarthy, asking if he would speak at the RNC and suggesting that if McCarthy did take the stage, he would be booed off.

Gaetz, a House Republican who voted to remove McCarthy as speaker last year, approached and interrupted him during a live interview on the convention floor.

”What night are you speaking? Are you speaking tonight?” Gaetz asked McCarthy. “If you took that stage, you would get booed off of it.”

By the Associated Press

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was seen on the floor of the Republican National Convention taking selfies with delegates and even running into political foes like Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, who helped orchestrate his ouster from the speakership in October.

But despite his own political battles, the California Republican said he was happy that Tuesday’s RNC session was focused on bringing the party together.

“I think what we’re going to have here with Nikki Haley and others, it’s a united Republican Party,” McCarthy told AP.

By the Associated Press

Biden implored an end to violence “of any kind” during his speech at the national convention of the NAACP in Las Vegas, condemning both the attempted assassination of Trump as well as incidents of police brutality and mass shootings that have shaken the country over the last decade.

“We all have a responsibility to turn down the temperature and condemn violence in any form,” Biden said, adding that “our rhetoric has gotten too heated.”

Citing the NAACP’s founding in response to race riots in 1908, Biden said the organization “knew well” the long history of lawless violence in the country and said all Americans “must fully and firmly condemn not only political violence but violence of any kind, no exceptions.”

“We are friends, we’re neighbors, we’re fellow Americans,” he said to applause.

Biden condemned “violence perpetrated against George Floyd in Minnesota,” against U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, threats against “Black election workers like Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in Atlanta” and mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, Uvalde, Texas, and Las Vegas.

Biden also called for greater attention to “incidents all across America that never make the news. There’s a Uvalde every day in communities across America.”

“Don’t be silent on one, and don’t be silent on others,” Biden said to cheers from the crowd.

By the Associated Press

Officials say police officers shot and killed a person in Milwaukee on Tuesday about five blocks outside of the Republican National Convention’s outer security perimeter.

The Columbus, Ohio, Fraternal Order of Police issued a statement saying members of the Columbus department were involved in the shooting. Officers from multiple jurisdictions are in Milwaukee providing additional security for the convention.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s chief of staff, Jeff Fleming, said he didn’t know what led up to the shooting, though he and Alexi Worley, a spokesperson in the convention’s joint command center, said there was nothing to suggest the shooting was related to the convention itself. Worley referred additional questions to the Milwaukee Police Department.

That agency didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking more details. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office said an adult male was shot and killed. An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday.

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By the Associated Press

Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle told ABC News that there was no law enforcement on the roof where the shooter eventually took up position and fired on the Trump rally because it was a “sloped roof.”

Cheatle said the agency considers a “number of factors” when securing buildings inside and outside of its perimeter.

“At that site itself, there were actually a number of buildings in the outer perimeter. I know that we’re all focused on this one particular building because of what took place there. But there are a number of buildings in that outlying area,” Cheatle explained.

“That building in particular has a sloped roof, at its highest point. And so, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof. And so, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside,” she told the broadcaster in an interview Monday.

By the Associated Press

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. apologized Tuesday after a video was posted online showing part of a private phone call between the independent presidential candidate and Republican former President Trump.

The video shows Kennedy listening on speakerphone as Trump shares disproven claims about childhood vaccines, an issue that has helped Kennedy amass a loyal following among people who reject the scientific consensus that the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risk of rare complications. Trump also appears to pitch Kennedy on endorsing his campaign.

“I would love you to do so,” Trump tells Kennedy. “And I think it’ll be so good for you and so big for you. And we’re going to win.”

By Mike Damiano and Auzzy Byrdsell, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a recent Harvard graduate who sued the university in January over its response to campus antisemitism, is set to speak at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night in Milwaukee.

“I will be discussing the plight of Jewish students on college campuses. I will be discussing the plight of American citizens still being held hostage in Gaza,” he said in an interview.

Kestenbaum said the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign contacted him “about two weeks ago” and he accepted their invitation to speak at the convention.

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By the Associated Press

A threat from Iran prompted moves by the U.S. Secret Service to boost protection around Donald Trump before Saturday’s attempted assassination of the former president, which appears unrelated to the original threat, according to two U.S. officials.

Upon learning of the threat, the Biden administration reached out to senior officials at the Secret Service to make them aware, the officials said, adding it was shared with the lead agent on Trump’s protection detail and the Trump campaign. That prompted the agency to surge resources and assets to protect Trump.

The officials spoke with The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.

The additional resources did not prevent Saturday’s attack at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania that left Trump injured to the ear, killed one rallygoer and severely injured two more.

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By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Former representative Liz Cheney, a vocal critic of Trump and the vice chair of the House Jan. 6 committee, criticized Vance the day after Trump named him as his running mate.

“JD Vance has pledged he would do what Mike Pence wouldn’t — overturn an election and illegally seize power. He says the president can ignore the rulings of our courts,” Cheney wrote on X, reposting a previous post from February in which she criticized Vance’s remarks.

By the Associated Press

Trump has announced that he and his chosen running mate, Vance, will speak at a rally on Saturday in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The event will be the first rally since both accepted their nominations at the convention.

The scheduled rally comes just a week after the attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally last Saturday, where Trump was injured, an attendee died and two others were seriously wounded.

By the Associated Press

Donald Trump Jr. described the 90 minutes when he didn’t know whether his father was alive after Saturday’s assassination attempt.

Donald Trump Jr. spoke with Axios’ co-founder Mike Allen at an event outside the RNC at Central Waters Brewing Company in downtown Milwaukee. The event was fully packed, reaching capacity with a few dozen attendees having to watch the conversation on a TV outside.

Donald Trump Jr., who was fishing in Florida with his daughter at the time, said it was about 90 minutes after the shooting before he knew his father was OK. When he saw images of the former president with his fist in the air, Donald Trump Jr. said he felt pride.

“To be shot and to stand up with that kind of resolve, I just told him, ‘Hey man, you’re the biggest bad-ass I know,’” the ex-president’s eldest son said.

After the initial happiness of knowing he was OK, Donald Trump Jr. said there was some levity when he asked his father about his hair and Trump responded by saying it was fine even though it had a little blood in it.

By Matt Stout, Globe Staff

Count Massachusetts leaders among those cautioning the Democratic National Committee’s to rethink plans of fast-tracking President Biden’s nomination.

US Senator Edward Markey and Governor Maura Healey both cast doubt Tuesday on the need to confirm Biden as the party’s nominee ahead of the Democratic National Convention next month.

Party leaders are pressing plans to nominate Biden through a virtual roll call as soon as July 21 amid concerns about his candidacy, multiple outlets have reported. Some congressional Democrats are circulating a letter, arguing it would be a “terrible idea” to stifle debate about the party’s nominee with the early vote, the Associated Press reported.

Markey said Tuesday that Biden “is going to be our nominee.” But he said Democrats should also “work through the process that we already have in place.”

”I don’t think that there’s any reason for us to short-circuit the convention process that we’ve already established,” Markey told reporters at an unrelated event in Bourne on Tuesday.

Healey, who earlier this month said Biden should “carefully evaluate” whether he is the party’s best shot at beating former president Donald Trump in November, said she is aware of discussions at the DNC of nominating Biden ahead of the August convention.

”I think they ought to take more time with it,” she said.

By the Associated Press

Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Lawrence Tabas said he hoped Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Trump would reset the tone nationally, beginning with the former president’s speech to the Republican National Convention on Thursday.

“I think his speech could be very important. Notice during his appearance (Monday), he was more subdued than normal, almost humbled,” Tabas said in an Associated Press interview after the Pennsylvania GOP’s delegation breakfast in suburban Milwaukee. “After a brush with death, I do believe — going through that — that his message will be better, and I think will appeal to our better emotions.”

“He has an enormous amount of compassion and empathy that doesn’t always come through,” he said.

By the Associated Press

A contingent of House Democrats is circulating a letter with “serious concerns” about nominating Biden as the party’s pick in a virtual roll call as soon as July 21, ahead of the Democratic National Convention in August.

The letter to the Democratic National Committee, which has not yet been sent, says it would be a “terrible idea” to stifle debate about the party’s nominee with the early roll call vote.

The party had planned the early roll call to ensure Biden would qualify for the ballot in Ohio, but the state has since changed its rules, making the issue no longer relevant, the letter says.

Representative Jared Huffman of California who asked pointed questions of Biden on a call with progressive lawmakers over the weekend, is among those raising concerns.

By the Associated Press

One day after its march in downtown Milwaukee, a coalition of protest groups says its activity in the city is “coming to a close.”

In a statement, the Coalition to March on the RNC said it has no further plans to organize demonstrations around the Republican National Convention.

“Our endorsing organizations will continue their work to stand with Palestine, defend and expand immigrants’ rights, defend women’s, LGBTQ, and reproductive rights, and demand peace, justice, and equity for all,” the coalition said.

The coalition says that in the coming weeks, many of its groups will be looking ahead to demonstrating in August outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

By Tal Kopan, Globe Staff

Donald Trump told Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., he agrees with the vaccine-skeptic about childhood immunizations and mused about the attempt on his life in a phone call between the two on Monday, according to a video of the conversation that leaked Tuesday.

”I agree with you, man, something’s wrong with that whole system,” Trump told Kennedy, saying he wants “small doses” of vaccines and not one that “looks like it’s meant for a horse.” He also claimed after the shots that babies “change radically,” although studies have repeatedly shown childhood vaccines are safe and effective and do not cause the adverse effects claimed by skeptics like Kennedy.

Trump also invited Kennedy to join his cause, saying “it would be so good for you, and so big for you,” and said he was going to win the presidency.

As Kennedy continued to hold the phone and fail in attempts to interject, Trump also divulged that his call with President Biden was “very nice actually” and said Biden asked him how Trump managed to move his head ever so slightly in time to avoid the bullet that grazed is ear hitting more deeply.

”I just turned my head to show the chart and something rocked me, it sounded like the world’s largest mosquito,” Trump said. “It was a bullet going right — what do they call it? An AR-15 or something, that was a big gun. Those are pretty tough guns.”

By The Washington Post

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, facing deepening scrutiny over an assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump, took responsibility Monday for her agency’s failure to prevent the attack but said she would not resign.

“It was unacceptable,” Cheatle told ABC News in an interview, her first public remarks since Saturday’s bloodshed at a political rally in western Pennsylvania. “The buck stops with me.”

Cheatle’s statements were published hours after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the shooting a security “failure” but stopped short of assigning blame - telling reporters at the White House that he had “100 percent confidence” in the US Secret Service and its director. The incident left one rallygoer dead and two others injured, officials have said. Trump has said he was struck by a bullet that “pierced” his right ear.

The shooting in Butler, Pa., was the first time since the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981 that a US leader has been attacked while under Secret Service protection. The agency’s failure to secure the rooftop used by the gunman — one of the most basic preparations for public speaking events — has raised questions about staffing, strategy, and leadership.

The strains are occurring as the agency shifts focus to safeguarding the Republican National Convention this week in Milwaukee.

In her interview with ABC News, Cheatle appeared to shift some of the blame to local authorities, who coordinated with the Secret Service on Saturday. She said agents moved quickly to stop the shooter after rallygoers spotted him atop a building just outside the security perimeter, but that police officers were inside that structure while the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was on the roof.

The Secret Service was tasked with securing the inner perimeter of the event, while the local police were assigned to safeguard the area that included the building, Cheatle noted.

By the Associated Press

The first night of the Republican National Convention kept its official focus on the economy Monday even after Saturday’s shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania in which former President Donald Trump was injured.

Speakers argued that Trump would fix inflation and bring back prosperity simply by returning to the White House as president. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin lamented, “Tonight, America, the land of opportunity, just doesn’t feel like that anymore.”

But Trump has released few hard numbers and no real policy language or legislative blueprints, and most of the speakers Monday didn’t get into details either. Instead, his campaign is betting that voters care more about attitude than policy specifics. Trump says he wants tariffs on trade partners and no taxes on tips. He would like to knock the corporate tax rate down a tick. The Republican platform also promises to “defeat” inflation and “quickly bring down all prices,” in addition to pumping out more oil, natural gas and coal.

The platform would address illegal immigration in part with the “largest deportation program in American history.” And Trump would also scrap President Joe Biden’s policies to develop the market for electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Democrats and several leading economists say the math shows that Trump’s ideas would cause an explosive bout of inflation, wallop the middle class and — by his extending his soon-to-expire tax cuts — heap another $5 trillion-plus onto the national debt.

By Aidan Ryan and Dana Gerber, Globe Staff

Dip into the chaos of the internet for a few minutes and you’ll hear some eye-catching claims: Donald Trump’s blood was fake. The Secret Service clearly anticipated the shooting. Trump’s triumphant, clenched-fist pose was just a little too photogenic to be real.

In certain quarters on social media in recent days, conspiracy theories whizzed around claiming the attempted assassination was staged by either the liberal “Deep State” to prevent a second Trump term or the Trump campaign itself to galvanize support.

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By the Associated Press

President Biden will speak at the NAACP convention in Las Vegas today, aiming to showcase his administration’s support for Black voters who are a tentpole of the Democratic coalition and his personal political support.

He’ll also participate in an interview with BET. Tomorrow, he’ll address UnidosUS, looking to bolster his appeal to Latino voters, another crucial Democratic-leaning bloc.

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By The Washington Post

The first night of the 2024 Republican National Convention featured many misleading GOP talking points that we have previously debunked. Here’s a guide to 13 claims that caught our attention, including four from an interview with vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance on Fox News.

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By the Associated Press

JD Vance is supposed to help Donald Trump win the Midwest this fall.

But almost immediately after the Ohio senator was announced as Trump’s vice presidential pick on Monday, one thing became clear: Vance, a 39-year-old Republican with less than two years in Congress, is not well-known among many in his party, even in the swing states Trump hopes he’ll deliver.

Trump’s team now has less than four months to strengthen Vance’s profile in the states that matter most this fall in his 2020 rematch against Democratic President Joe Biden. Already, a collection of political foes — Democrats and Republicans — is working to fill the void by seizing on Vance’s inexperience in government, his nationalist views and his critical comments about Trump himself.

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By the Associated Press

Nikki Haley, Trump’s former primary rival, was a last-minute addition to the schedule.

The former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor waited two months after dropping out in March to say she would vote for him. Then last week, she announced she would instruct her convention delegates to vote for Trump but wasn’t planning to attend the convention.

It wasn’t until Sunday — hours after the shooting — that her office reversed itself and said she would speak.

Tuesday, July 16

By the Associated Press

The Republican National Convention heads into its second day — now with Donald Trump officially as its presidential nominee.

Trump energized the crowd Monday night by entering the arena with a bandage on his right ear after being injured during an assassination attempt Saturday. Expect more speakers Tuesday to mention what they described as the former president’s strength and resilience after the shooting at his rally in Pennsylvania.

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By the Associated Press

Former first lady Melania Trump is expected to attend the RNC later this week, according to two sources familiar with her plans.

Melania Trump, who has largely avoided public appearances, did not appear next to the former president as he entered the convention earlier tonight.

In a statement following the attack, she called her husband a “generous and caring man,” noting that the shooter saw him as “inhuman” and lamented that “his human side” was buried beneath the “political machine.”

By the Associated Press

The Republican National Convention opened less than 48 hours after Trump was the subject of a shocking assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. The shooting, which left Trump injured and one man dead, loomed over the convention with speakers expressing gratitude for the former president’s survival and resolved to win back the White House in November.

Here are some takeaways from the first day of the convention.

By the Associated Press

Trump is greeting supporters as he exits the arena. He’s being protected by a noticeably larger security contingent of US Secret Service agents.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

By Jim Puzzanghera, Globe Staff

Sean O’Brien is trying to play both sides of the political field and he’s making the most of it.

The combative Medford native, who heads the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, snagged a prime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention Monday night as his 1.3-million-member union flirts with endorsing Donald Trump after backing President Biden four years ago. It would be a major loss for Biden, who has billed himself as the most pro-union president ever and has strong backing from other organized labor groups.

READ MORE

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Trump is at the RNC with a white bandage on his right ear after he was injured in a shooting at a rally on Saturday.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Trump told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that President Biden “couldn’t have been nicer” during their brief phone call following the attempted assassination of the former president.

”It was very nice,” Trump said. “He couldn’t have been nicer.”When asked if the near miss of a bullet striking his head had “changed him,” Trump replied, “I don’t like to think about that, but yes, I think it has an impact.”

During an interview with NBC, Biden described his phone call with Trump after the weekend’s shooting as a “very cordial” conversation.

By the Associated Press

JD Vance said his 7-year-old son was being noisy in the background when Trump called to offer him the vice president spot on the Republican ticket.

Vance knew Trump was calling with big news, but he didn’t know if it was good or bad news for him, the first-term Ohio senator told Fox News host Sean Hannity in his first interview since Trump announced his pick.

He said Trump also asked to speak to his son.

“The guy just got shot a couple of days ago, and he takes the time to talk to my seven-year-old,” Vance said.

“It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”

He said he and Trump have been close since Trump endorsed him in his 2022 Senate race, which he said he would not have won without Trump’s support.

By the Associated Press

Biden said he’s maintained an aggressive campaign travel schedule since the debate, attempting to show voters that he’s put a poor performance during it behind him.

“All I’m doing is going out and demonstrating to the American people that I’ve command of all of my faculties, that I don’t need notes, I don’t need teleprompters,” Biden told NBC News. “I can go out and answer any questions at all.”

Biden called last month’s debate a bad night but said he’d done a series of events around the country since then.

The president and his campaign team have spent weeks trying to reassure nervous donors, surrogates and Democratic leaders that Biden is up to a second term — but nearly 20 of the party’s members of Congress have called on him to leave the race.

By the Associated Press

Hitting on the evening’s theme of economic policies, Florida Representative Byron Donalds spoke about growing up poor and remembering how it affected his family with food prices, energy prices and housing costs.

“I remember as a kid, my mom yelling at me, ‘Turn off that light! You don’t pay the bill,’” he said.

Donalds said that when it comes to inflation and high prices today, “the evidence is in. Go to any grocery store. Buy eggs. Buy beef. Buy milk. Even housing prices have skyrocketed.”

He placed the blame on “Joe Biden’s debilitating economic policies.”

By the Associated Press

At the Pennsylvania rally, Police had a report of a suspicious man pacing near the magnetometers and were apparently exchanging photos of the suspect. Witnesses pointed and shouted at an armed man on a nearby roof.

When a police officer climbed up to the roof to investigate, the gunman turned and pointed his rifle at him. But the officer did not — or could not — fire a single shot.

A sniper cut down 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks within seconds of him firing an AR-style rifle toward the former president, but it was too late. Now investigators are trying to painstakingly piece together how an armed man with no military background managed to reach high ground and get the jump on teams of Secret Service agents.

By the Associated Press

Biden said nothing has changed his mind on continuing to stay in the 2024 presidential campaign.

Biden said, “We knew this was going to be a close race.”

In an NBC interview, he said that reporters should be focused on Trump’s lies, not on whether or not he’s running for office. He is running despite the June 27 debate and calls for him to step aside.

“I don’t plan on having another performance on that level,” he said.

“This is my job, to get this done,” he says.

By the Associated Press

Biden says whether the US Secret Service should have anticipated Saturday’s assassination attempt against Trump is “an open question.”

In an NBC News interview, Biden was pressed on the matter and said providing security is “a complicated process.”

Biden said there’s “a major piece” of the incident that “relates to local law enforcement.” He also said he feels safe with the Secret Service.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

In his NBC News interview, Biden said he wasn’t surprised that a Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida dismissed the classified documents case against the former president.

On Monday, District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled in favor of defense lawyers, who argued that the special counsel filing charges against Trump for obstructing efforts to recover documents from his Florida estate.

By the Associated Press

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem brought up the striking image of Trump after a gunman shot him when he stood and raised his fist with blood streaking across his face.

“Prior to this week, we already knew that Donald Trump was a fighter,” Noem said. But on Saturday, she said, “Even in the most perilous moment this week, his instinct was to stand and to fight.”

“Trump” chants broke out among the crowd.

Noem also praised Trump by harkening back to one of the most chaotic parts of his presidency, his management of the pandemic. She said Trump “let me do my job and he let me keep my people free.”

“When other states were pushing mandates and lockdowns, instead in South Dakota, we hit the gas. We embraced liberty,” she said.

By the Associated Press

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin came in to a big cheer and chants from the crowd about Biden that “Joe must go!”

“Yes, Joe must go,” Youngkin said when the crowd quieted a bit.

Youngkin, a businessman and political outsider when he ran for governor in 2021, painted Trump as a man of a similar story, calling him “an outsider, a businessman who stepped out of his career” to run for president.

“I believe this year Virginia will elect another Republican outside businessman as president of the United States,” said Youngkin, as he raised his voice to a roar.

By the Associated Press

Inflation is the easy criticism of Biden and Republicans just began to pivot to it as a theme of their convention.

The audience saw a video segment in which people longed for cheaper gasoline and grocery prices, just like they had during Trump’s presidency. What goes unsaid is that inflation was low in part due to the pandemic.

“I know Americans can relate when I say that every time I fill up my gas tank, go to the grocery store and try to pay the bills, I think, who doesn’t miss the Trump days?” said Sarah Workman, a single mother from Arizona who works two jobs.

Senator Katie Britt of Alabama said that under Biden “our lives are that much more difficult and way more expensive.”

By Jim Puzzanghera, Globe Staff

Sean O’Brien is trying to play both sides of the political field and he’s making the most of it.

The combative Medford native who heads the International Brotherhood of Teamsters snagged a prime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention Monday night as his 1.3-million-member union flirts with endorsing Donald Trump after backing President Biden four years ago. It would be a major loss for Biden, who has billed himself as the most pro-union president ever and has strong backing from other organized labor groups.

O’Brien acknowledges Biden — known as Union Joe — has been a “great” president for organized labor. But he told the Globe that Biden hasn’t delivered on all his promises and the Teamsters are worried their backing is being taken for granted.

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By Danny McDonald, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell is pressing for stricter gun laws in the wake of an attempted assassination of Trump during a Pennsylvania campaign stop over the weekend.

“It’s about time that this country address gun violence,” Campbell, a Democrat and former Boston city councilor, wrote Sunday on social media.

“We, the people,” she added, “have the power to ensure our government works to protect our children and our communities by implementing and enforcing common sense gun laws — and taking on the culture of violence that has become pervasive in our country.”

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By the Associated Press

Delegates had about an hour break after Monday’s organizing session, where they held a roll call to approve Trump as their official nominee.

That was also the first time they got a glimpse of his pick as running mate, JD Vance of Ohio.

Trump is expected to attend on Monday night but is not planning to speak to delegates until later in the week.

By the Associated Press

Biden offered new details about his call with Trump after the former president was injured in an attempted assassination attempt on Saturday.

Biden said that the private call was “very cordial” and that Trump thanked him for calling.

“I told him how concerned I was, and wanted to make sure I knew how he was actually doing,” Biden told NBC News. “He sounded good. He said he was fine and he thanked me for calling.”

Biden added of the call, “I told him it was literally in the prayers of Jill and me.”

By the Associated Press

Biden says in an interview with NBC that, at 81, he’s old, but that his opponent isn’t that much younger at 78.

“I’m old,” Biden said during an interview with anchor Lester Holt on Tuesday at the White House. “But I’m only three years older than Trump, No. 1. And No. 2, my mental acuity has been pretty damn good.”

Biden has sat for a series of interviews lately, trying to reassure Democrats who are nervous that he’s not up to a second term after a halting debate performance late last month.

Biden added, “I understand why people say, ‘God, he’s 81 years old. Whoa. What’s he gonna be when he’s 83 years old, 84 years?’ It’s a legitimate question to ask.”

But he said he’d rather be judged on his administration’s accomplishments.

Steven Porter, Matt Stout, and Amanda Gokee, Globe Staff

C.J. McLean of Loudon was driving home when she heard about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. “I was shocked,” she said.

“It’s not going to make him weaker,” she said. “He’s a fighter.”

Like many voters across New England and the nation, McLean said the way Trump emerged in the immediate aftermath of the shooting — his face blooded, pumping his fist defiantly into the air, yelling, “fight, fight, fight!” — projected a striking image that could strengthen his political standing.

“It’s not going to make him weaker,” she said. “He’s a fighter.”

In New Hampshire, where recent polls show a competitive presidential race, the strength Trump seemed to project in that moment was enough to make some undecided voters finally make up their minds.

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By the Associated Press

Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling says the city’s officers are prepared to handle security at the Democratic National Convention in August in light of the attempted assassination of Trump.

Snelling gave few details at a press conference to address the topic but said police are responding accordingly after the attempt to ensure the safety of the convention and the surrounding neighborhoods. He said police continue to be in constant contact with the Secret Service.

“If we get any additional intel, if we see things where we know we need to make adjustments or we need additional manpower, we will make those adjustments as soon as possible,” he said.

The DNC will convene in Chicago from August 19-22.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Harris called Vance to congratulate him after he was named Trump’s running mate, multiple outlets reported.

The two did not speak but Harris left a voicemail, according to reports.

By the Associated Press

Biden says it was “a mistake” to say he wanted to put Trump on a “bullseye” during a recent call with donors.

In a clip of an interview with NBC News airing later tonight, Biden is asked about the comment and notes that he didn’t say “crosshairs.”

The president said he meant that there was a lot of focus on his halting debate performance but not on Trump’s agenda, which he calls radical, but wasn’t getting enough attention.

Biden added of Trump, “I’m not the guy who said I wanted to be a dictator on day one.”

Some Republicans have seized on Biden’s comment after Trump was injured in an assassination attempt on Saturday. Both Biden and Trump have called for national unity after the attack.

By the Associated Press

On a call with reporters denouncing the pick, two of the four speakers were leaders of reproductive groups, both nationally and in Ohio.

“I will certainly take that matchup any day of the week and twice on Sunday,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign chairwoman. “Because while Trump and Vance have an agenda focused on themselves and their wealthy donor friends, President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting for the American people.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., added: “Trump’s vice presidential pick is great news for the wealthiest Americans and lousy news for everyone else.”

Campaign aides said Vice President Harris is prepared to debate Vance and contrast the Democratic agenda with that of Republicans when it comes to abortion rights, gun violence and the economy.

Vance, almost immediately after Saturday’s shooting at the Trump rally, accused Biden and his campaign of deploying rhetoric that “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” Asked about that statement, Ducklo stressed that “stopping political violence was a central motivation for this president” and repeated Biden’s statements that differences in political views have to be settled through voting, not through violence.

By the Associated Press

After officially nominating Trump and Vance to the GOP presidential ticket, delegates and RNC staff said a prayer for their new nominee and the victims of the rally shooting Saturday, including Corey Comperatore, the 50-year-old former fire chief who died after being shot while sitting in the bleachers behind Trump.

The convention recessed shortly after and will begin again at 5:45 p.m.

By Amanda Kaufman, Globe Staff

Ohio Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted formally nominated Vance as Republicans’ vice presidential nominee.

Vance has an “America-first attitude in his heart,” Husted said.

Vance formally became the nominee after a voice vote.

By Amanda Kaufman, Globe Staff

JD Vance appeared at the Republican National Convention for the first time as Trump’s pick for vice president, greeting Republican delegates to chants of “USA!”

He was joined by his wife, Usha Vance.

By Tal Kopan, Globe Staff

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., met with Donald Trump Monday, the Kennedy scion’s campaign confirmed. They met “to discuss national unity, and he hopes to meet with leaders of the Democratic Party as well,” campaign press secretary Stefanie Spear said in a statement to The Globe.

Politico reported the meeting was to discuss the possibility of Kennedy dropping his independent bid for president and endorsing Trump.

By Matt Stout, Globe Staff

US Representative Richard Neal was speaking to reporters Monday in Springfield when news broke that former president Donald Trump picked Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate on the GOP presidential ticket.

Neal said he personally hadn’t heard the news, but offered this: He read Vance’s book, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

“And his book is far removed from what he would be saying right now. I mean, like, how about a continent away?” Neal said, nodding to Vance’s evolution from a Trump critic to acolyte to, now, vice presidential pick. “The book, as you know, was very critical. And now he seems to subscribe to all the things that he abhorred just a few years ago, when he was writing a best-seller.”

By the Associated Press

The attempted assassination of Trump during a Saturday rally was front of mind as delegates cast their votes for his nomination during Monday’s RNC.

Michael Testa, a state senator from New Jersey, referenced the shooting as he announced all of the state’s 12 delegates for Trump during a roll call.

“We should all be thankful right now that we are able to cast our votes for President Donald J. Trump after what took place on Saturday,” Testa said.

Several delegates are breaking into chants of “fight, fight, fight,” the same words Trump was seen saying to the crowd as the Secret Service moved with him off the stage in Pennsylvania after he was injured.

By the Associated Press

Advocates are highlighting his history of opposing abortion access in Ohio, where voters last year overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that ensures access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care.

Lauren Blauvelt, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, said the announcement is a “disappointing decision,” calling Vance “an absentee senator more interested in his own political ambitions than in supporting the people he was elected to represent.”

“He has dismissed the overwhelming majority of Ohioans who voted to enshrine the right to abortion access in the state constitution and is out of step with the majority of Americans who believe that abortion is health care,” Blauvelt said.

Mini Timmaraju, president of the national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All, said Trump’s vice presidential pick “provides even more evidence that a Trump administration will stop at nothing to ban all abortion.”

“Make no mistake, Trump picked him because of — not in spite of — his anti-abortion bonafides,” she said.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

Vance, who is chosen to be Donald Trump’s running mate, is expected to speak soon.

Watch it live.

By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum praised Trump’s choice of Vance as his running mate. Burgum was rumored to be a top contender on Trump’s shortlist for vice president.

In a social media post, Burgum wrote that Vance’s “small town roots and service to country make him a powerful voice for the America First Agenda.”

“I look forward to campaigning for the Trump-Vance ticket to Make America Great Again!” he wrote.

By the Associated Press

Biden has ordered the US Secret Service to protect independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after the attempted assassination of Trump.

Kennedy is a longshot to win Electoral College votes, much less the presidency. But his campaign events have drawn large crowds of supporters and people interested in his message.

Trump was not seriously injured in the shooting over the weekend in Pennsylvania. There is an independent review of the attack.

By the Associated Press

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell faced a flurry of boos Monday at the Republican National Convention when he stood on behalf of Kentucky to send the state’s delegates to Donald Trump.

McConnell, a onetime critic who blamed the then-president for “disgraceful” acts in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, made a remarkable turnaround in March when he endorsed Trump as the GOP nominee. The two men came face-to-face last month when Trump visited Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill where they shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

By Samantha J. Gross, Globe Staff

A Provincetown fundraiser for the Biden-Harris ticket is still set to take place Saturday in the wake of the attempted assassination of Trump at a July 13 rally in Pennsylvania.

The event is set to happen even though the shooting caused the Biden campaign to scramble some preexisting plans. The assassination attempt, which resulted in the deaths of both the shooter and an attendee, led the Biden campaign to temporarily pull television ads. For her part, Harris said she would skip a planned campaign stop in Palm Beach County — Trump’s home base — for a conversation Tuesday about abortion rights, Politico reported.

The fundraising event also comes on the heels of a recent spate of setbacks for the Biden campaign after a poor debate performance divided the party and called into question Biden’s fitness to serve and ability to beat Trump this November.

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By Matt Stout, Globe Staff

Joe Barrett, a 67-year-old unenrolled Massachusetts voter, said he was leaning toward — but undecided about — voting for former president Donald Trump in November’s election. But after last month’s debate, Barrett said Biden missed a chance to convince him otherwise.

Then came Saturday, when Trump survived an attempted assassination, rising up from a stage in Pennsylvania, his face bloodied and fist in the air.

”If you were really undecided, you have to look at: Who do I want to be my leader, this guy who is probably getting past his prime or this guy that gets shot, gets up from a pig pile of people on him, and had that reaction?” said Barrett, a machinist from Billerica, Mass. “I think I can’t not vote for that.”

In a race where the candidates’ age and acuity has loomed large, Trump’s response in the seconds after shots rang out resonated for some voters. In interviews, others both for and against Trump, said the event had no influence on how they’re thinking of voting.

Barrett said Trump came off as a “very physically fit president that had a tremendous amount of determination.”

”He was so brave in my opinion,” Barrett said. “I think about putting the other guy in that place. I don’t think that it would have gone the same way.”

By Tal Kopan, Globe Staff

President Biden’s campaign quickly denounce Ohio Senator JD Vance after he was selected as Donald Trump’s running mate, portraying the Republican as an extremist. In a statement from Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign hit on Vance’s support of outlawing abortion, corporate tax cuts, and his views on the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

”Donald Trump picked J.D. Vance as his running mate because Vance will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people,” O’Malley Dillon said.

By Amanda Kaufman, Globe Staff

By the Associated Press

Donald Trump has received enough convention delegate votes to become the official Republican presidential nominee.

By Amanda Kaufman, Globe Staff

By Sam Brodey, Globe Staff

Former president Donald Trump has selected Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his 2024 running mate, elevating a hard-edged loyalist who will amplify the polarizing MAGA populism of the Republican ticket.

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By Amanda Kaufman, Globe Staff

Speaker Mike Johnson started the roll call vote. States are now formally awarding their delegates to a nominee.

Watch it live.

By the Associated Press

Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump, announced on X that he’ll be casting the vote at 3:30 p.m. declaring his father the Republican nominee for president. He lives in Florida and is expected to cast the vote with Florida’s delegation, putting Trump over the top with enough delegates to formally become the nominee.

By the Associated Press

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Florida Senator Marco Rubio have been told they will not be chosen as Trump’s running mate, multiple news outlets reported.

By the Associated Press

Trump has chosen his nominee for vice president, according to the Associated Press.

And Florida Senator Marco Rubio has been told he will not be chosen as Trump’s running mate, according to reports from the AP and The New York Times.

By the Associated Press

By Shannon Larson, Globe Staff

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Monday that the attempt on Trump’s life was “a very sad day for our country.”

”Political violence has no place in our country,” Powell said at the Economic Club of Washington, Bloomberg News reported. “I condemn it in the strongest terms.”

Powell said he was “grateful that the injuries to the former president were not more serious.”

By Shannon Larson, Globe Staff

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old Pennsylvania resident identified by law enforcement as the gunman behind the assassination attempt of Donald Trump, belonged to a local shooting club, a lawyer for the club confirmed to multiple media outlets.

In a statement provided to outlets including ABC News and the Washington Post, lawyer Robert S. Bootay III confirmed Crooks belonged to Clairton Sportsmen’s Club in Clairton, Pa., and said the club “fully admonishes the senseless act of violence that occurred” Saturday.

“The club also offers its sincerest condolences to the Comperatore family and extends prayers to all of those injured including the former president,” he said.

By Shannon Larson, Globe Staff

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas called the security at former president Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa., where he narrowly survived an assassination attempt, a “failure” in an interview on CNN Monday.

“When I say that something like this cannot happen, we are speaking of a failure. We are going to analyze through an independent review how that occurred, why it occurred, and make recommendations in findings, to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Mayorkas said.

Homeland Security oversees the Secret Service, which has come under heavy scrutiny following the attempted assassination of Trump. For this reason, President Biden has ordered an independent review of security measures before and after the attack, he said.

“We will carefully analyze in an independent and thorough fashion what occurred. Recommendations will be made. Those recommendations will be implemented. We are in a dynamic threat environment. We adapt to that dynamism every single day,” said Mayorkas, who noted that changes have been made to the Republican National Convention.

By Shannon Larson, Globe Staff

After surviving an attempted assassination at his rally in Butler, Pa., former president Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth Social account Monday that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should “receive Secret Service protection — immediately.”

“In light of what is going on in the world today, I believe it is imperative” that RFK Jr. be provided with Secret Service protection, Trump said. “Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!”

By Steven Porter, Globe Staff

New Hampshire’s elected leaders and candidates from across the political spectrum quickly condemned the assassination attempt that injured former president Donald J. Trump at a campaign rally Saturday evening in Pennsylvania.

Snipers subdued the suspected attacker within moments, but not before he killed one man in the crowd, injured others, and sparked a dramatic shift in the tenor of political discourse around an already tense presidential campaign.

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By Tal Kopan, Globe Staff

President Biden and Vice President Harris are getting an updated briefing from homeland security and law enforcement officials on the investigation into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

The White House said Monday that Biden and Harris are receiving updates in the Situation Room from officials including the attorney general, FBI director, and secretary of Homeland Security.

By Shannon Larson, Globe Staff

Donald Trump told Bret Baier of Fox News that he will announce his pick for vice president on Monday, the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he will accept the GOP nomination for the third time.

By Samantha J. Gross, Globe staff

In the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump, former congressman Joe Kennedy III said he believes independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should be provided with Secret Service protection.

Despite members of the Kennedy family distancing themselves from Kennedy, the Democrat, who is the US special envoy to Northern Ireland and grandson of the late Robert F. Kennedy, told CNN on Monday that despite their political differences, he believes his uncle should have the same protections as Trump and President Joe Biden.

The Kennedys have a tragic history when it comes to assassinations. President John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963 and his brother, Robert, was killed on the campaign trail in 1968.

RFK Jr.’s campaign has for some time pleaded for Secret Service protection for the independent presidential candidate. For months, the campaign’s security consultant Gavin de Becker has used social media to decry the fact that Kennedy doesn’t have Secret Service Protection.

“The Biden administration has refused to provide Secret Service protection to RFK Jr, which means 30¢ of every dollar donated to his campaign goes toward security,” he wrote on X in September.

Other elected officials weighed in on the issue after Saturday’s shooting.

New York Representatives Mike Lawler, a Republican, and Ritchie Torres, a Democrat, said on X that they plan to introduce a bill that would give “enhanced” Secret Service protection to Kennedy, Trump, and President Joe Biden.

Democratic Arizona Representative Ruben Gallego wrote on X that the federal government should ramp up protection for “all major presidential candidates, including Robert Kennedy, Jr.” Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, wrote on X that the government should “immediately provide secret service protection” for Kennedy.

By Shannon Larson, Globe Staff

After surviving an assassination attempt at his outdoor rally in Pennsylvania, former president Donald Trump recounted what he called the “very surreal experience” in an interview on Sunday with the New York Post, telling the publication he’s “supposed to be dead.”

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By the Associated Press

The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case of former President Donald Trump in Florida has dismissed the prosecution because of concerns over the appointment of the prosecutor who brought the case.

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By the Associated Press

First lady Jill Biden has spoken to Melania Trump following an attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The first lady’s office confirmed they spoke Sunday afternoon but have not released any details on the conversation. President Biden spoke with Donald Trump following the attack.

By the Associated Press

Kevin Rojek, the agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, said “it is surprising” the gunman was able to open fire on the stage before the Secret Service killed him.

Bomb-making materials were found inside both Crooks’ vehicle and at his home, officials said. The FBI described the devices as “rudimentary.”

His motive remained unclear. Crooks wasn’t on the FBI’s radar, and he was believed to have acted alone. Investigators combed through his social media accounts but found no immediate threatening writing or posts, or communications indicating an ideological motive.

By the Associated Press

The director of the US Secret Service says she’s confident in the plan to secure the Republican National Convention that begins Monday.

In a statement, Kim Cheatle said Monday the security plans for the event are “designed to be flexible.”

“The Secret Service will continuously adapt our operations as necessary to ensure the highest level of safety,” she said.

Cheatle says the plan will change as necessary to ensure the continued safety of attendees at the Milwaukee event.

By the Associated Press

Donald Trump’s campaign chiefs designed the convention opening this week to feature a softer and more optimistic message, focusing on themes that would help a divisive leader expand his appeal among moderate voters and people of color.

Then came a shooting that rattled the foundation of American politics.

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By Mike Damiano, Globe Staff

Two days after Donald Trump was shot, big questions about the attack remain unanswered.

The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting current and former presidents, has not fully explained how an armed man was able to reach a rooftop that had a clear sightline to the stage where Trump was speaking at an outdoor rally. And little is known about the motivations of the shooter, identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed at the scene.

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Monday, July 15

By the Associated Press

Donald Trump spent much of Sunday on the phone with friends, news hosts and local and foreign officials the day after he was injured in an assassination attempt.

Ohio Pastor Darrell Scott, a longtime ally, said Trump “was in great spirits” when they spoke Sunday morning, hours after the shooting.

“He was great, like he always is. He didn’t even make a big deal of it,” Scott said. “He was actually trying to downplay it somewhat, asking how I was doing.”

Former RNC chair Reince Priebus, who also served as Trump’s White House chief of staff, told ABC’s “This Week” that Trump was “grateful for the miracle of what happened, in his case. ... One quarter inch turned the other direction and we’re obviously talking about something very different this morning.”