Vivek Ramaswamy is swinging for the rafters in this speech. Seems like he’s got the audience eating out of his hand, but he’s screaming at those of us at home.
I’m about as far as you can get from a fan of Vivek Ramaswamy, but he opens with a good joke. “One year ago today, I was a candidate for president, and I achieved the impossible: Most of you know how to say my name by now.”
Milwaukee — The Trump flag designers (I assume they’re three guys from Manistique, Mich.), having been in operation for nine years at this point, show no sign of artistic exhaustion.
“We in the Republican Party are the law-and-order team. We always have been, and we always will be, advocates for the rule of law.” – Speaker Mike Johnson
Milwaukee — I’m watching from the National Review press seats way up in the nosebleed seats of Fiserv Forum, the arena that is usually the home court of the Milwaukee Bucks. The only folks higher than us are the folks the “Potawatomi Club” deck near the arena’s roof.
The upside of watching from inside the arena is – well, you’re there. Your eyes look where you want to go, instead of where the network cameraman and control room want you to look.
The downside of watching from inside the arena is that you’re not seeing what everyone else is seeing on television at home, and your perception of how the speakers are doing is shaped by the enthusiasm and energy of the crowd. The Republican delegates — ladies in big hats, men in suits, a lot of red dresses and golf shirts, with MAGA hats of every color — are happy to be here, happy to hear one elected Republican after another pledge we’re going to elect Donald Trump in November, and ready to heartily chant “build that wall” or boo every time Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Democrats are mentioned. There’s a bigger appetite for red meat than at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse in the city hosting the Super Bowl.
House Republican conference chair Elise Stefanik, House majority whip Tom Emmer, and House majority leader Steve Scalise have all just gotten some of the warmest receptions and enthusiastic rounds of applause they’ll ever get in their career. There’s nothing wrong with any of this; this is what a political convention is. But if you’ve ever seen a pundit or talking head in the wrap-up show, effusively raving about a speech that seemed, ‘eh,okay’ to you at home, it may well be that their perceptions were shaped by those fervent cheering crowds of delegates.
“Many of you know I was the survivor of a politically motivated shooting in 2017. Not many know that while I was fighting for my life, Donald Trump was one of the first to come console my family at the hospital,” says congressional baseball shooting victim Steve Scalise. That’s who he is, Scalise concludes, “courageous under fire.”
Like old times: Congressman Scalise promises that Republicans will in a second Trump term “finish” building the border wall. The audience chants in response with a familiar chorus, “Build the wall.”
Hitting Biden on energy, Representative Steve Scalise notes that Biden approved the construction of the Nord Stream II pipeline for Russia, but he declined to give the go ahead to the Keystone pipeline “here at home.” In addition, “Biden let Iran and Venezuela export their oil, but he stopped liquid natural gas exports here in America,” Scalise observed.
Milwaukee — While some South Carolina delegates are already dreading Nikki Haley’s convention speech later this evening, others believe that the Trump team made the right call in inviting her.
“Here’s the thing. Trump is a forgiving guy,” says South Carolina delegate Jerry Rovner, who voted for Haley for governor but supported Trump in this year’s presidential primary. He pointed to Ohio Senator JD Vance, the formerly anti-Trump Republican who was tapped last night to serve as the former president’s 2024 running mate. “He doesn’t hold a grudge. He realizes this is politics. People say things. So I believe she’s here tonight to unite the party and make sure we get Republican elected.”
Rovner senses another motive behind Haley’s decision to attend this year’s convention: “I honestly believe she’s here to smooth things over because she wants a job in the new administration.”
Milwaukee — A Henry Repeating Arms advert truck next to a Pride-flag-displaying church. No longer the contradiction it may have been for the GOP in 2008.
