Donald Trump was poised to announce his running mate on Monday as supporters gathered in Milwaukee for the Republican Party convention, an event energized by the recent attempted assassination of the former president.
As the nation continued to process the shocking images of a bloodied Trump being escorted off a rally stage over the weekend, approximately 50,000 Republicans converged on the shores of Lake Michigan for the four-day convention.
Trump is set to announce his vice presidential candidate later Monday, according to Fox News. The top contenders include Senators J.D. Vance of Ohio and Marco Rubio of Florida, as well as North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
Despite the assassination attempt on Trump’s life on Saturday, convention organizers have insisted that the event will proceed as planned.
“We’re not going to change anything because of a tragic event in Pennsylvania,” David Bossie, a co-chair of the convention, told AFP.
Nevertheless, the attempted assassination — in which one bystander was killed, and two more wounded — is the only story in town, four months before the election against Democrat President Joe Biden.
Trump himself dismissed any calls to postpone the convention in the hours after the shooting, vowing to be “defiant in the face of wickedness.”
“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” he told the New York Post in an interview aboard his plane en route to Milwaukee, during which he reportedly sported a white bandage on his ear and a large bruise on his forearm from where the Secret Service agents gripped him.
“By luck or by God, many people are saying it’s by God I’m still here,” he said.
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