Devin Nunes is contractually obligated to be there for his job as CEO of Truth Social.
I believe that is Devin Nunes seated next to Donald Trump tonight.
Six years ago, he was one of the biggest players in the Republican House.
John McCain spent his entire political career trying to claim the mantle of Teddy Roosevelt (not my favorite Republican, by any means). Appreciate, therefore, the irony of circumstances allowing Donald Trump Jr. to claim Teddy’s aura for his father.
‘America is Trump Tough’ says Trump Jr., echoing a Ford commercial.
Don Jr. now doing a riff on his father’s shooting in terms that are familiar to Christians as a Christ narrative of bleeding, suffering, and carrying a Cross.
Don Jr. says Democrats used to be the party of Martin Luther King, Jr. He’s trying to be charitable. But MLK was mostly an independent suspicious of the major parties; he was more a Republican than a Democrat in the 1950s, and while he sided with LBJ in 1964-65 on civil rights, he burned his bridges with Johnson almost immediately over Vietnam.
“Maybe it’s the ghost of Corn Pop!” Echoing Jeff, Donald Trump Jr. can deliver lines well.
J.D. Vance’s speech is probably going to disappoint a lot of political pundits, because people who write and speak about politics will want to hear more of Vance’s own philosophy as the now heir-presumptive to Trumpism. But I’d expect that the bulk of his remarks will focus on introducing him to voters (especially those who didn’t read Hillbilly Elegy or see the movie), promoting Trump, and attacking Biden. I won’t be surprised if Vance’s own idiosyncratic politics, which are out of step with most Republican voters and officeholders on a series of issues, are little discussed.
I’ll confess I missed Don Jr’s prior speeches, but he is more than serviceable as a speechmaker, and interestingly enough in a completely different way than his father’s much more extemporized style.
The speech from Sgt. William Pekrul, a World War II veteran age 98, was more than mere “showmanship.” It was genuinely moving in way I rarely feel stirred.