MILWAUKEE – The risk of political division at this week’s GOP convention is fading in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Saturday.
Moments before the former president was shot at, with one bullet grazing his ear, Trump declared to a crowd of rallygoers that his nomination would be a moment of unity for the party.
“The world will see a vibrant Republican Party that is bigger, stronger, more confident, and more united than ever before,” he said in Butler, Pennsylvania.
But Republicans were going into the convention, a four-day affair that begins on Monday in Milwaukee, with lingering divisions over the party’s official platform and a bitter primary that revealed a sizable rift among Republican voters.
The party has largely coalesced around Trump since he clinched the delegates needed to secure the nomination in March, with even former foes making amends and getting behind his campaign.
But the gravity of the shooting, which immediately drew parallels to the failed attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981, will tower over the confab, energizing a base of supporters who already believed Trump to be a martyr for the conservative cause before Saturday’s events.
“I’ve never seen the Republican Party more unified in my Generation Z life,” said Brandon Maly, the chairman of the Dane County Republicans in Wisconsin and a delegate to the convention.
For Maly, too young to remember the events of 9/11, the assassination attempt represents the greatest moment of national unity in his lifetime. Political leaders from both parties, including Trump’s rival, President Joe Biden, condemned the violence while calling on Americans to lower the temperature of political rhetoric.
But the incident also gives Republicans the opportunity to move past Trump’s controversial decision to revamp the party platform, which sparked a wave of criticism from social conservatives upset at the more centrist position he took on abortion.
More than a dozen delegates on the drafting committee penned a letter disapproving of the abortion language, while Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, called the decision to leave abortion restrictions to the states a “profound disappointment.” Those divisions could resurface on Monday, when the full Republican National Committee approves its draft platform on the convention floor.
Tom Schreibel, a national committeeman for the RNC, said the divide was “overblown to begin with” in a brief interview with the Washington Examiner. “The Republicans have the united front, and the document that will be voted on is a good document that covers a lot of issues that Republicans can unite on.”
But that has not stopped Republicans from making every effort to keep the GOP convention a drama-free affair, particularly as attention shifts away from a Democratic mutiny over President Joe Biden.
The party drafted its platform behind closed doors in a break from precedent and reportedly worked to fill the drafting committee with Republicans loyal to the former president.
Biden has been engulfed in controversy since a disastrous debate performance that prompted donors, lawmakers, and party operatives to call for a new nominee. But the president will get a reprieve from those questioning his electability as the Republican convention begins.
Already, the shooting has sucked the oxygen out of the story, with no new Democrats calling on Biden to step down with the spotlight squarely on Trump.
A series of gestures this past week by Trump and former rivals appear designed to minimize the risk of embarrassment.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who refused to bow out of the presidential primary until long after it was clear she could not win, released the nearly 100 delegates bound to her on Tuesday and urged them to vote for Trump.
Sources familiar with the convention schedule confirmed over the next couple of days that she and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), another Trump primary foe, had been invited to speak at the event, despite initial doubts they’d get a spot onstage.
The idea of a drama-free convention was almost unthinkable even a few weeks ago. Trump was going to be sentenced in his hush money trial four days before events got underway, raising the possibility he could be jailed or put under house arrest for the remainder of the campaign.
At the very least, his status as a convicted felon threatened to revive fears over his electability at the very moment Republicans were crowning him their presidential nominee.
Instead, a series of events have conspired to put wind in Trump’s sails.
The judge in that case agreed to delay sentencing until September as Trump’s lawyers try to get the verdict thrown out, citing a recent Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
Days earlier, Biden stumbled so spectacularly in his first presidential debate against Trump that prominent Democrats have turned against him in a drip-drip of statements that threatened his candidacy.
The president’s refusal to step aside, combined with a Democratic split on whether he should, has consumed the news cycle for more than two weeks. Meanwhile, Republicans have laid low to maximize the damage inflicted upon Biden.
“I kind of wish the convention could get pushed back so the attention could remain on President Biden,” quipped Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), vying to become the next Senate GOP leader, before Saturday’s assassination attempt.
For Republicans, a byproduct of the debate fallout is they can project unity in the face of Democratic chaos.
“The enthusiasm and energy Republicans have is just a complete contrast to the weak and frail Democrat Party right now,” said Bill Schuette, a Michigan state lawmaker and delegate to the convention.
Mike McMullen, a consultant and delegate for Pennsylvania, mocked the Democrats’ internal warfare as a “three-ring circus.”
Meanwhile, the assassination attempt could also work in their favor. It will blunt efforts by Democrats to use the convention to paint the Republican Party as beholden by “MAGA extremism.”
The divisions in the Republican Party have not been erased entirely. Trump still has prominent critics, including those who voted to convict him in his second impeachment trial.
But most or all of those Republicans will be skipping the convention, citing everything from foreign travel to scheduling conflicts in their home states.
“I have limited time in my state and limited time with my family,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), one of the Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump.
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The Trump shooting will add a sober note to the convention after the suspected gunman killed one rallygoer critically injured two others on Saturday.
But the event is still expected to have the celebratory atmosphere common to conventions, with the selection of Trump’s running mate adding an element of intrigue.
