This morning Politico revealed the big shift at the RNC in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of President Trump on Saturday, and it’s one of unity.
Trump doesn’t even want speakers on stage to blame the left for what happened on Saturday and is selecting only some to actually discuss it.
Here’s what Politico writes:
The violence of Saturday is, at the very least, changing their strategy. Trump is notorious for mercilessly skewering his adversaries, taking shots below the belt and straight-up lying about opponents. Many would expect that after Saturday, he’d turn a damning finger on Democrats, blaming their rhetoric — like much of his party — for his brush with death.
Instead, we’re told that this week, Trump will adopt an unfamiliar, almost benevolent posture, and call for unity in the face of tragedy.
Adopting the nice-guy strategy is not an easy task for about a million reasons. Trump’s instincts when attacked are to lash out. He’s spent decades of his life identifying others’ bruises and gleefully pressing on them — an approach which has endeared him to his supporters, who see in him a fighter that takes no prisoners.
Then there is the emotional reality. From our conversations with Trump confidants in Milwaukee yesterday, we can tell you that many are shaken and angry over the fact that not only Trump, but their own colleagues had to duck for cover amid the crossfire, their lives hanging in the balance. Shelving those feelings for the time being and striking a tone of magnanimity is easier said than done.
And yet, there are signs that the party is certainly going to try:
1. Trump rewrote his convention speech to focus on unity, he told Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito, a Pittsburgh native who was at the rally and scheduled to interview the former president afterward but instead found herself shielding her daughter from flying bullets.
Pre-shooting, the address he was planning to give “was going to be a humdinger,” he told Zito, whom he called up yesterday because he felt bad about missing her interview, we hear.
“Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now,” he continued. “It is a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance.”
2. Trump’s team also spent much of yesterday reaching out to convention speakers and asking them to avoid focusing on the shooting or blaming the left for it — and instead center their attention on the fundamentals of the campaign.
The pivot was the brainchild of an early Sunday morning call with SUSIE WILES, CHRIS LaCIVITA, JASON MILLER and pollster TONY FABRIZIO. After hours of relentless and incendiary Republican attacks blaming Democrats for inciting the violence, the team agreed the party would need a reset: The convention shouldn’t be about the shooting but about drawing a contrast with President JOE BIDEN on the issues Americans care about most.
A little later, just before 8 a.m., we’re told Trump personally drafted his own Truth Social post adopting the “unify” messaging and clicked send.
As we’ve already reported, Trump will be announcing his vice presidential pick tonight. Someone suggested to me that it could be Nikki Haley, who was just invited to speak at the conference yesterday. Given how interested Trump is in unifying the country after what happened, I believe this is a very strong possibility. Picking Haley would strike a completely different tone for the conference and the election.
We’ll have to wait and see tonight who Trump picks, but after what happened, I really like that they are focusing on unity at such a time as this.