Highlights: Day 1 of the 2024 Republican National Convention

The first night of the RNC was supposed to be about the economy, with the goal of uniting voters of all ideological persuasions who are frustrated by high prices. But some of the biggest applause lines came from harsh criticisms of transgender people.

It’s a reminder that cultural issues motivate the GOP base as much as financial ones. A trio of speakers unabashedly went after Democrats who have sought greater acceptance for transgender people. Of particular outrage to Republicans this year was Biden marking Transgender Day of Visibility. It happened to overlap with Easter in 2024, a byproduct of the Christian holiday being based off the lunar calendar.

To many in the LGBTQ+ community, it was a coincidence. But to many Republicans, it was an insult.

“They promised normalcy and gave us Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. “And let me state this clearly, there are only two genders.”

Sen. Ron Johnson said at the convention it was all part of a “fringe agenda” that “includes biological males competing against girls.”

Rep. John James tried to equate it to part of a broader critique of Democrats, saying that they promised to offer the country hope and had failed. “Our daughters were sold on hope, and now they’re being forced on the playing fields and changing rooms with biological males,” James said.

▶ Read more takeaways from day 1 of the RNC

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is arguably responsible for the GOP’s biggest policy accomplishments, particularly in installing conservative judges at all levels of the judiciary. But that didn’t matter much to the Trump-friendly crowd at the RNC, which greeted the Kentucky Republican with boos — a tangible rejection of someone demonized as an establishment Republican who has insufficiently supported the former president.

Just a short while later, Vance enjoyed a much different reception. The second-youngest U.S. senator — and the first millennial to appear on a major party ticket — received raucous applause when he walked onto the convention floor for the first time as Trump’s running mate.

The dueling moments offered a window into the changes that have swept the GOP under Trump — bookending an era in which McConnell has gone from one of his party’s most powerful leaders and incisive tacticians to getting jeered on the convention floor by his own party’s activists.

▶ Read more takeaways from day 1 of the RNC

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.”

▶ Read more about the former first lady’s expected RNC appearance

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

Former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson is seated in Trump’s family box at the RNC, sitting two seats away from the former president. Trump is immediately flanked by Vance and Florida Rep. Byron Donalds.

Just a week after the AFL-CIO reaffirmed its backing of President Biden, another union leader came and spoke at the Republican National Convention.

Teamsters Union President Sean O’Brien said workers are being taken for granted and sold out to big banks, big tech and the corporate elite. O’Brien said the Teamsters “are not beholden to anyone or any party” and will work with a bipartisan coalition.

“I don’t care about getting criticized,” O’Brien said as he defied organized long-standing support of Democrats.

Trump shook hands with people as he entered, including his son, Donald Trump Jr.

He’s standing near his vice presidential pick, JD Vance. Trump is smiling and mouthing, “Thank you.”

Trump is entering the stadium as musician Lee Greenwood sings his signature song, “God Bless the USA.”

“Is there any doubt who’s going to be the next president of the United States? Prayer works,” Greenwood said when he took the stage.

The delegates were all on their feet as Trump came out, cheering and many holding up signs or their phones to take photos and video.

President Biden said he doesn’t believe he’s spoken with former President Barack Obama since his halting debate performance, but that he doesn’t plan on seeking Obama’s advice about staying in the presidential race.

Obama has expressed support for Biden amid calls from some Democrats for him to leave the race in the weeks after the debate.

Biden said Monday that Obama had “helped me from the beginning” but that running in November’s election “is my job to get this done.”

Pressed during an NBC News interview about who he turns to for advice on seeking reelection, Biden replied simply, “me.” He added of his career in politics, “I’ve been doing this a long time.”

Trump’s vice presidential pick rose to national prominence when he detailed his upbringing in a widely read memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

“I actually understand a little bit what people are going through,” Vance told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “Yeah, it was tough when I was dealing with it, but now I really do think it’s a blessing that’s given me a perspective a lot of politicians don’t have.”

JD Vance’s wife, Usha, has left the law firm where she worked after her husband was chosen as Trump’s running mate.

“Usha has informed us she has decided to leave the firm,” Munger, Tolles & Olson said in a statement.

“Usha has been an excellent lawyer and colleague, and we thank her for her years of work and wish her the best in her future career.”

Vance met Usha at Yale, where she received both her undergraduate and law degrees. She spent a year clerking for Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served as an appeals court judge in Washington, followed by a year as a law clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts.

The streets of downtown Milwaukee were largely quiet Monday evening, with most of the day’s protests wrapping up earlier in the afternoon. At one of the convention’s main entrances, a sole anti-Trump protester stood holding a sign, telling those entering the arena to “enjoy the clown show.”

Anthony Marlow, a retired sanitation worker, said he had spent the day protesting the convention, arguing at times with Trump supporters.

“I want them to know they are not welcome in this great city,” he said. Referencing Trump’s reported denigration of Milwaukee weeks earlier, Marlow added, “He don’t appreciate Milwaukee. The man is a clown.”

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.

President Biden said he thought the legal argument made by the federal judge in Trump’s classified documents case was “specious.”

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Trump’s case, siding with defense attorneys and ruling the special counsel named to the case had been illegally appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. The Justice Department will appeal the decision.

Biden said in an interview with NBC, “My generic point is — the basis upon which the case was thrown out, I find specious.”

He said that he disagreed with the U.S. Supreme Court opinion that found presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts.

President 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.

Hitting on the evening’s theme of economic policies, Florida Rep. 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.”

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.

▶ Read more about the investigation into the Trump assassination attempt

President 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 airing Monday night, 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.

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

In an NBC News interview airing Monday night, 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.

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.

The floor speeches get plenty of attention, but it’s the time-filling band that has the internet talking during the RNC’s first night.

The band Sixwire has had delegates on their feet, clapping and waving signs and cowboy hats during covers of songs by artists including Collective Soul, John Mellencamp and Loverboy. A rendition of the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” had delegates cheering and screaming like they were at a rock concert and not a political convention.

(It probably helped that video of their nominee, Trump, was playing on screens throughout the arena as he’s danced to the same song at a number of campaign rallies.)

According to their website, Sixwire was founded in 2000, is based in Nashville and has played at a number of large sporting events, including several Super Bowls.

Gasoline fell as low as $1.77 a gallon during Trump’s presidency, but that price dip happened during pandemic lockdowns when few people were driving. The low prices were due to a global health crisis, not Trump’s policies.

While gas prices did hit more than $5 a gallon nationally in June 2022. A number of factors drove those prices, including rising global oil prices, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions by the U.S. and its allies. Prices have fallen since then. Gas prices nationally have remained below $4 a gallon since August 2023. According to the AAA, the current average price for regular gas is about $3.50 a gallon.

Trump says Biden “couldn’t have been nicer” in a brief phone call after a bullet grazed Trump’s ear.

A White House official earlier characterized the call, which came hours after the shooting Saturday, as “good, short and respectful.”

ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl says he asked Trump in a brief phone interview whether the incident changed him.

“I don’t like to think about that … but yes, I think it has had an impact,” Trump said.

Trump’s campaign has begun advertising “Trump-Vance” T-shirts to donors hours after unveiling his vice presidential pick.

The campaign’s new logo featuring both men’s names looks very similar to Trump’s previous campaigns when he ran with former Vice President Mike Pence.

Virginia Gov. 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.

The amount of religious imagery and language is not surprising for a Republican convention. But it’s intensified two days after Trump narrowly avoided being assassinated in Pennsylvania.

Sen. Tim Scott, a former presidential candidate himself, put the attempt and the result in starkly Biblical terms Monday night and turned it quickly into a bit of civil religion with praise for Trump.

“The devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle,” Scott said. “But an American lion got back up on his feet!”

Sen. Tim Scott got some of the biggest applause of the RNC’s opening night thus far.

The South Carolina Republican got a lengthy standing ovation as he took the stage Monday night.

Scott nearly immediately referenced the assassination attempt on Trump, telling delegates, “If you didn’t believe in miracles before Saturday, you better be believing right now.”

Scott, who frequently references his faith and quotes Bible verses, got major applause for doing so on Monday.

“On Saturday, the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle,” Scott said, referencing the Pennsylvania rally shooting, adding of Trump: “But an American lion got back up on his feet and he roared.”

Scott is the first of those who had been mentioned as possible running mates for Trump to speak at the convention. He’s gone from one of Trump’s GOP rivals to one of his most passionate surrogates.

The speakers include nearly every Black GOP congressman — Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida, Wesley Hunt of Texas and John James of Michigan — and North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is running for the state’s governor.

The lineup of prominent Black men comes at a moment when Republicans hope to make greater inroads with voters of color, particularly working-class Black and Latino men. Trump, however, remains largely unpopular with Black voters and has lost some support among Latino voters, according to an AP analysis of recent polling.

Black Republicans like Donalds, Hunt and Scott have emerged as some of Trump’s most loyal backers in the party. The Black GOP lawmakers have conducted two “Congress, Cognac, and Cigars” events with Black men in Philadelphia and Atlanta.

Republican leaders are calling for unity and many are joining bipartisan calls to tone down the political rhetoric in America. But one of the first prime-time speakers at the Republican National Convention’s opening night session is among the party’s most incendiary voices.

Mark Robinson, the North Carolina lieutenant governor who is running for governor, recently said at a church service that “some folks need killing.”

Robinson steered clear of such rhetoric on the convention stage. He stuck to his own biography as a Black man who struggled economically as a child and adult before entering politics. And Robinson hailed Trump as a champion for working-class Americans.

Inflation is the easy criticism of President 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.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, said that under Biden “our lives are that much more difficult and way more expensive.”

Jerol Kivett, a delegate from North Carolina, said he trusts Trump’s opinion even though he doesn’t have much of an impression of Vance.

“If Donald Trump thinks he’s the man, then I think he’s the man. I don’t know him real well but all the choices he had were great choices,” Kivett said.

“I know very little about him other than he was in the military and of course is a congressman — I think he’s a senator, actually. But I know ver little about him.”

When asked about Vance’s youth, Kivett said, “Being 72, I’d like to see him have more grey hair. But, you know, I trust the vetting that’s been done. I wouldn’t have think he would have been chosen if there was any question.”

He cited John F. Kennedy’s youth when he was president and did a “great” job as president despite his age.

Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas says grocery and energy prices are crippling Americans and quoted Ronald Reagan in calling inflation “the cruelest tax on the poor.”

He says Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris don’t seem to understand the problem.

Hunt, one of a handful of Black Republicans in Congress, said in November “we can fix this disaster” by electing Trump and “send him right back to where he belongs, the White House.”

Inflation in the United States cooled in June for a third straight month, a sign that the worst price spike in four decades is steadily fading and may soon usher in interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

Firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene paid tribute to Corey Comperatore, the Trump supporter killed on Saturday, then shifted to a blistering attack on Democrats.

“They promised unity and delivered division,” Greene said. “They promised peace and brought war. They promised normalcy and gave us Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday.”

Since 2009, Transgender Day of Visibility has been celebrated on March 31, which this year fell on Easter Sunday and prompted an uproar on the right. Easter is determined by the lunar calendar and can fall on a different day each year.

The U.S. economy is a diverse and sprawling behemoth. It’s possible to have a solid job market and problematically high inflation at the same time. But nuance died a long time ago at political party conventions.

That’s why the convention speech by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, hit some simple bullet points. Republicans want lower prices, tax cuts and fewer regulations, a message he sprinkled with some culture war rallying cries.

“Republicans understand that Americans don’t want welfare — they want work,” Johnson said.

During a break between speakers, delegates danced and sang along with the hit by the Village People. On big screens throughout the arena, there were also images of Trump doing one of his fists-out dance moves that have become standard fare at many of his campaign events. The former president’s signature dance has been meme’d widely on social media.

A cheer rose up through delegates as their nominee appeared on screen.

RNC Chairman Michael Whatley is opening the first night of the convention with the GOP’s new theme: unity.

Mentioning the recent assassination attempt on Trump, and the “strength and resilience” he said the former president had shown, Whatley called on his fellow Republicans to “unite as a party,” adding, “and we must unite as a nation.”

Other Republicans including Trump have advocated for unity — a switch from the messaging throughout the campaign so far — in the wake of Saturday’s shooting in Pennsylvania.

Biden says he wasn’t surprised that a Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida dismissed the classified documents case against the former president.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon sided in a ruling Monday with defense lawyers. They’d argued the special counsel who filed the charges against Trump for obstructing government efforts to recover documents he had in his Florida estate was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.

“I’m not surprised,” Biden said when asked by NBC News for his reaction.

It was a legal victory for Trump but special counsel Jack Smith’s office says it would appeal the order.

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.

President Biden offered new details about his call with Donald 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.”

House Oversight Committee chair James Comer sent a letter Monday afternoon to U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle requesting more information about the assassination attempt of former President Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Cheatle is facing a wrath of bipartisan scrutiny since a lone gunman rang out a series of shots from a nearby rooftop over the weekend causing members of both sides of the aisle to raise concerns about a potential security failure by the Secret Service.

Cheatle is expected to appear before the Oversight Committee next week to testify about the protocol that was in place for Trump’s rally and what potentially went wrong. In the meantime, Comer is asking for a complete list of all law enforcement personnel — including from Secret Service, Homeland Security and local police — who were involved in staffing the rally as well as all audio and video taken by the various agencies of the rally itself.

Jerry H. Rovner, a delegate for Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and retired U.S. Navy captain, said he was supportive of Trump having picked Vance as his running mate, noting that he felt the Marine Corps veteran would be able to hit the ground running on military issues.

“Having JD Vance, a Marine, as our vice president, we don’t have to go through the explanation that we’d normally have to do, to a civilian,” Rovner said Monday on the floor of the convention hall, hours after Vance’s unveiling. “He understands the basics of what’s important, what makes our country strong.”