Just two days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Wisconsin Republicans said their commitment to Trump has never been stronger — and the campaign would never be the same.
The message from GOP leaders came as they were gathered for a delegation breakfast Monday morning, the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
GOP leaders, including former Gov. Scott Walker, also talked about the events of Saturday in biblical terms as they met at the Hampton Inn and Suites just outside the U.S. Secret Service’s soft security zone perimeter downtown. As he led a prayer with delegates, Walker thanked God for sparing Trump’s life.
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“We know that it was your hand that saved and spared his life,” Walker said mid-prayer, “just like you did more than four decades ago for our former president, Ronald Reagan.”
Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson too invoked “the hand of providence” for keeping Trump alive.
Johnson noted it was his chart on immigration the former president had turned to when bullets whizzed past him at the Pennsylvania rally Saturday, with some striking supporters nearby. Trump has claimed the chart he was referring to in the moment when shots rang out, “saved my life.”
“I’m very pleased to be that little slice of history on that one,” Johnson said.
While Trump survived the assassination attempt, one attendee at the rally was killed and two were critically injured, authorities said.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, Johnson said, he hopes Trump uses the moment to “catalyze Americans.”
Johnson told delegates there is more that unites Americans than divides them. He said despite President Joe Biden’s promise during his inaugural address four years ago to heal the nation by bringing people together, the Democratic Party has done the opposite.
“They’re not being unifying,” Johnson said. “I don’t want to be like them. This is a moment to rise above their behavior and realize it is our task to save and preserve this nation. The only way we do that is by unifying it.”
But during a speech on the convention floor Monday evening, Johnson’s tune had changed, when he said, “Today’s Democrat party is not the party of our parents and grandparents.”
“Today’s Democrat agenda —their policies are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values and our people,” said Johnson.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich: ‘We have crossed a watershed’
Joining the Wisconsin Republicans Monday morning was Newt Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker. He said the assassination attempt two two days prior has changed the tenor and tone of the convention.
“We have crossed a watershed,” Gingrich said. “We were right at the brink of falling apart as a country and potentially drifting towards a civil war.”
Gingrich said the shooting “shocked everybody.” He said he’s expecting the former president, known for his counterpunches, to strike a different tone focused more on unity than scoring political points against Democrats.
“Trump said this morning that he’s rewriting his convention speech, which I think is good,” Gingrich said.
The former speaker also said Republicans “have to get in the habit of voting early” in order to drive conservative turnout this November. His comments stand in contrast to the Republican National Committee’s 2024 platform, first approved in Milwaukee July 8, which calls for securing elections by requiring same-day voting. Gingrich said if every American votes, Trump will win in “a landslide.”
Throughout the breakfast meeting, Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming was bullish about the GOP and Trump’s chances of winning this fall.
He said while the theme of the RNC will be Republican unity, “the plain truth of the matter here is that the Democrats are a party in disarray. They’re a party in panic right now.”
“To be in a situation with a four-year incumbent Democrat president who has clearly lost the confidence of his own party, of his own party’s leaders of his own voters will historically go down … they’ll be writing books about it,” Schimming said. “It’s so bad.”
In a statement to WPR, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Communications Director Joe Oslund pushed back on Schimming’s claims.
“Wisconsin’s Democratic delegation and Democrats across the state have made clear we are united behind President Biden,” Oslund said. “Wisconsin Democrats have nearly 50 field offices open with more than 100 staffers organizing every day for victory in November.”
When asked about the 20 percent of Republicans who voted against Trump in Wisconsin’s April presidential primary and opted instead for candidates like former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Schimming said polling shows Trump is the clear Republican favorite heading into November.
“And I would underscore also, Gov. DeSantis and Ambassador Haley will both be speaking at this convention,” Schimming said. “It’s it’s as unified as I have ever seen it, and I’ve been traveling this state for 35 years.”
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