Newt reports on the first night of the Republican National Convention 2024. He discusses the near-death experience former President Donald J. Trump had on Saturday when a bullet narrowly avoided his head, attributing Trump’s survival to providence. He describes the exuberance by attendees at the convention now that Trump is there. He also discusses Donald Trump's presidential platform, describing it as clear, comprehensive, and a strong statement of his intentions for America and notes its unanimous adoption as a sign of Trump's leadership of the Republican party.
On this episode of Mitual, I'm providing my first update in the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
The fact is that this is a.
Remarkable moment on something that if I had talked to you last Friday, I could never ever have imagined. The first big impact to realize about this convention is that this is a giant family reunion. Thousands and thousands of volunteers and activists from all over the country, many of whom have been doing this for twenty or thirty years, come together in this great moment of reorganizing and renewing the Republican Party, and all of a sudden on Saturday night, they were watching their candidate, their champion, the person that they had invested so much time and money and effort and so much faith and help in Donald J.
Trump gets shot. I can tell you.
Personally, I was watching it live. I've known Trump for over thirty years. I'm watching a personal friend get shot on television live.
It was horrifying.
Even of course responded by standing straight up, by putting his fist up in the air and then yelling fight, fight, Fight, and then he switched to the USA USA, and that became an iconic moment for his supporters, the emotional bond, the sense of commitment, the thrill that he survived. I described it as providential because I think it was go back and look at that scene. He has turned his face to look up to a very large screen making a point about illegal immigration, and he turns back to face the audience at the exact moment that the bullet arrived. If he had turned back three seconds later, the bullet would have hit him on the head, but because he turned back, the bullet missed his head and hit his ear. I'm told that he did not do too much damage. He's even hopeful that the bandage will be off. But there's when you look at that and you realize that this was something which Minister Yusuf in Atlanta told my good friend Randy Evans that this had to be providential. To be this close to being dead and not have it hit was astonishing. I used that term providential on Fox News with Sean Hannity later on that evening. I'm told that they went worldwide because it's the only way you could explain what happened. So by Monday, you have this deep sense across everybody who's at the convention that we are participating in something historic, and it's something that I could identify with both because Kyllis and I had made movies about Ronald Reagan and John Paul the Second, and when they met President Reagan and Pope now Saint John Paul the Second, they actually spent time talking about what was their mission since both of them had been shocked and both of them had survived. And I have a hunch that some of that's going through and affecting Donald Trump right now. He has a sense that God has saved him and that he has a duty to rise to that occasion and to do what's right for America.
And you could see it Monday night when he came into the convention hall.
He was more subdued, I think, more reflective, more willing for other people to have the spotlight than I've ever seen. The crowd reaction was just astonishing, beyond anything I could have dreamed of. So the first big story, of course, this will always be the convention that occurred at the time that President Trump survived an assassination attempt, and that's what it was. It was an assassination attempt. It was astonishing that CNN reported initially as Trump helped from stage after fall, which was just such blatant dishonesty that even by CNN's standards, it was pretty The second thing about this convention is, of course, the very first day is adopting the rules, recognizing the delegates adopting the platform.
The rules were adopted pro forma that nothing really changed the platform.
I want to take just a minute to say everybody should read this platform. It was reduced from about thirty seven thousand words to about four thousand. Everything in this platform was personally approved by Trump. He read through it, he edited it, he detoed certain things, and if you want a clear sense of what Donald Trump hopes to achieve as president, this platform is far and away the easiest to read, the clearest, and the most comprehensive statement of where Trump wants to take America. It's a remarkable document, and I think at the presidential level it is comparable to what we did with the Contract with America. They strongly recommend the platform, who was adopted unanimously without dissent, which in itself was a signed a tremendous organization and of the moral and psychological leadership to Trump now has over the Republican Party. Then, of course it was time for nominations. This will not come as a shock to anybody.
Donald J.
Trump was nominated unanimously supported by the convention. And then it came time for the second nomination, which of course as the vice president, which I'll talk about more than mint. They put JD Events of Ohio in be nominated. He had no opposition, He won decisive. By the end of the morning session, they'd adopted the rules, recognized the delegates, adopted the platform, nominated the president, and nominated the vice president. Let me talk for a minute or few now about the choice of JD Events, which I can tell you was not totally.
Clear even Monday morning.
I think the president was really a way that he regarded as the first real big decision of his next presidency. He is deeply committed to three principles. One to have a vice president capable of being president, because he recognizes, you know, there's always a risk. Two to have a vice president who shares his values and is willing to implement the mega doctrine in the platform which I just described. And three to nominate somebody who is young enough and energetic enough that they would have a chance to win in twenty eight.
And thirty two because Trump believes.
And I think he's right, it's going to take three consecutive terms to complete the scale of change that we have to complete in order to get America back on the right track. He had a lot of advice for some very very good people. Doug Berghum to the governor of North Dakota as a superb executive, was a one time the vice president of Microsoft. He gets along very well with Trump and he would have been an acceptable but not particularly exciting choice, probably end up in the cabinet in a significant role. Marco Rubio, I think, really was the person who came closest to becoming a nominee of the Advanced the Rubio, of course, as a US Senator, was a tremendous Speaker of the House in Florida. Ran against Trump in sixteen, and I know the Trump thinks very highly of him. I wouldn't be shocked to see Rubio end up as Secretary of State. And literally up until Monday morning, they were all in contention and Trump was really trying to weigh the decision.
And the reason how simple.
There is a group in the party who very strongly wanted JD. Evans, and one of the key people in that group was Donald Trump Junior.
But in addition, there were.
Very smart people who represent the heart of the MAGA movement intellectually, and they all felt that JD represented the energy, the drive, and the knowledge that would be so important to both implement Trump's policies in the next four years because the vice President, as President of the Senate, I can play a major role in trying to move things through the House and Senate.
And the second they thought Jadie Vance was.
A true innovator and leader who believed in the basics of the Trump movement and who would be capable of carrying that message on to the next generation. I'm going to spend some time in the Future podcast just talking about Advance. Until I was forced by Trump's choice, I really hadn't paid enough attention to him, And the more you get to see him and know about him, it's a very interesting American story. He's going to be a very important person. I should point out that he is the same age thirty nine that Richard Nixon was thirty nine. Dwight Eisenhower, who was in his seventies, picked him. Trump who's in his seventies picked Jdevance and as I watched them last night when they came to the floor, and it was very telling. Trump can the floor quietly sat and listened for well over an hour to a variety of speakers. Sat next events, and I think a senior mentor somebody who's done a great deal, who's already been president, He's already been through the process of one of the greatest comebacks in American history. And this young, new, eager and enthusiastic person who was prepared to learn from and be mentored by the President of State. So I think it's going to be a very interesting team in the future podcast and we talked at considerable length about Jdvance. I can tell you that the people I've been running into, and I've been all over the place frankly taking pictures and talking to folks and speaking to different delegations, there is a really positive happy People are so grateful that Trump survived. They're so thrilled that the assassination attempt failed. There's a feeling here I've never seen, even in the great nineteen eighty four Reagan renomination in Dallas, I've never seen the enthusiasm, the intensity, the emotional energy that we have here in Milwaukee in I think the rest of the week is going to be fascinating and I'll be reporting to you about it,