Morning Report — JD Vance gets nod; Biden admits ‘mistake’

by Kristina Karisch - 07/16/24 6:30 AM ET

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Former President Trump selected Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate in a decision that will likely continue the “Make America Great Again” movement for many years to come.

The announcement came on the opening afternoon of the Republican National Convention, taking place in Milwaukee, and just two days after an assassination attempt on the former president at a rally in Pennsylvania.

It marks a meteoric political rise for Vance, who has gone from one of Trump’s most fierce GOP critics during the 2016 campaign to running alongside him for the White House in 2024. The first-term senator has greatly distanced himself from the comments he made about Trump eight years ago. Vance called Trump “noxious” and “reprehensible” and considered himself a “Never Trump guy.”

Since then, Vance has emerged as one of the most visible defenders of the former president. Vance reiterated in a May interview with CNN’s Dana Bash that his previous critiques of Trump were “wrong.”

“I didn’t think he was going to be a good president, Dana, and I was very, very proud to be proven wrong,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons why I’m working so hard to get him elected.”

Allies have praised Vance as an articulate voice of the New Right and the MAGA movement in Congress who has built a strong personal relationship with Trump, and Vance will likely be a fierce and willing attack dog in the bruising campaign to come. And the youngest of all the major choices that Trump considered, Vance brings youth to the Republican ticket, as members of both parties express an eagerness to usher in the next generation of leaders.

The Hill’s Brett Samuels breaks down how Trump decided on Vance as his vice-presidential pick.

In Milwaukee, the mood Monday was jovial and brimming with confidence, especially when Trump — his ear covered in a bandage — made a surprise appearance on the convention floor and was greeted by cheers and raucous applause.

“The party’s never been more unified,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who will speak Tuesday night with other Senate candidates, told The Hill. “The Republican Party was unified before Saturday, but now the Republican Party is not just unified but fired up in an even bigger way to win in November.”

▪ CBS News: Here’s what to know about the 39-year-old Vance.

▪ The Cincinnati Enquirer: What is “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance’s 2016 memoir?

▪ The Hill: Here’s what else happened on the first day of the Republican National Convention.

▪ Axios: Teamsters president Sean O’Brien delivered a fiery address castigating big businesses and corporate lobby groups. He said he hasn’t heard from Democrats about speaking at their August convention.

TRUMP’S LONG-AWAITED ANNOUNCEMENT is giving Democrats the chance to go on the offensive, imparting a jolt of energy into President Biden’s campaign, still reeling from a disastrous debate performance. Before boarding Air Force One Monday, Biden told reporters that Vance was “a clone of Trump on the issues” and that he did not “see any difference” between them (The New York Times).

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said in an interview that Vance’s attempt to “blame Democrats” for the shooting at Trump’s rally was “shameful.”

On the social platform X, Vance wrote that “the central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” and “that rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

“That’s the kind of rhetoric that directly leads to political violence,” Garcia told the Times. “There couldn’t be a more irresponsible pick than Senator JD Vance.”

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:

▪ Biden on Tuesday proposed eliminating tax breaks for landlords who raise their tenants’ rent more than 5 percent each year, as part of a larger effort by the administration to lower housing costs.

▪ Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is demanding answers from the state’s biggest power utilities as more than a quarter million people in and around Houston remain without power after Hurricane Beryl.

▪ 🌑 Researchers have found evidence for a substantial underground cave on the moon that is accessible from the surface, making the spot a prime location to build a future lunar base.

“BULL’S-EYE”: Biden suggested that it may have been a mistake to use the word “bull’s-eye” while talking about Trump on a campaign call last week, addressing renewed attention around those remarks in the aftermath of the shooting. “The truth of the matter was — what I guess I was talking about at the time was — there’s very little focus on Trump’s agenda,” Biden said in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt.

Holt responded that the issue is with the word “bull’s-eye.”

“Was it a mistake to use the word? I didn’t mean, I didn’t say crosshairs, I meant bull’s-eyes,” he said, making a circle with his hands in front of him. “I meant focus on him, focus on what he’s doing, focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate.”

ONE MESSAGE THAT HAS EMERGED over the last 72 hours? Unity. Both Republicans and Democrats have made calls to lower the political temperature on the heels of Saturday’s shooting — but it’s unclear how long that sense of goodwill will last.

LEADING THE DAY

© The Associated Press / Jacquelyn Martin | President Biden at the White House on Monday.

MORE IN POLITICS

BIDEN IS EYEING A RESET in the 2024 race, encouraging Americans in both parties to cool down the rhetoric and pushing Democrats to look ahead to November with him on the top of the ticket, writes The Hill’s Alex Gangitano. Democratic sources have described a “hold” on conversations over his stepping off the ticket after weeks of Biden calling into meetings with lawmakers and donors to try to ease concerns about his candidacy. In his conversation with Holt, the president defended his decision to stay in the race after a dismal debate performance at the end of June.

“I’m old,” Biden said. “But I’m only three years older than Trump, number one. And number two, my mental acuity has been pretty damn good. I’ve gotten more done than any president has in a long time in three-and-a-half years. I’m willing to be judged on that. I understand why people say, ‘God, he’s 81 years old. Whoa. What’s he gonna be when he’s 83 years old, 84 years?’ It’s a legitimate question to ask.”

RECALCULATIONS: Until the assassination attempt against Trump, the Democratic strategy to try to win in November was clear: Cast Trump as a danger to democracy itself and hope the ominous warning would be enough to overcome voter anxiety about Biden’s age, the state of the economy and the nation’s trajectory. But that strategy now faces complications, The Hill’s Niall Stanage explains in The Memo. Forceful critiques of Trump are now open to the counter-argument that they are fueling division, and Biden will grapple with how to strike the right tone when he holds campaign events in Las Vegas this week as Trump is in Milwaukee.

THE SECRET SERVICE is facing fresh scrutiny after Saturday’s assassination attempt, hauling the long-troubled agency back into the limelight over what many see as failures on its part to protect the high-profile presumptive GOP nominee. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said in a Monday interview with ABC News that the Pennsylvania rally shooting was “unacceptable” and that “it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”

In the days since the attack, Cheatle has faced calls from some to resign. She said Monday she would not resign from her role.

Congressional investigations into the attempted assassination are already moving swiftly across six committees in two chambers, with several groups of lawmakers receiving private briefings Monday and a public hearing coming next week.

▪ The Washington Post: Witnesses warned police of the shooter at least 86 seconds before gunfire began, video shows.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: A portrait emerges of Trump’s shooter: quiet, withdrawn, with little political footprint.

2024 Roundup:

▪ Leaders of the Democratic National Committee are moving to confirm Biden as the nominee by the end of July, even as Democrats remain fiercely split over his candidacy.

Democrats, feeling frustrated and defensive about their political predicament, are lashing out at the media for its relentless focus on questions about whether Biden is mentally and physically fit to serve four more years in office.

▪ Biden is locked in a tight race with Trump in Pennsylvania, a state he barely won in 2020, and in Virginia, a state where Biden defeated Trump by 10 percentage points in 2020, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College polls.

▪ A shocking assassination attempt, the dismissal of a major federal probe and intensifying divisions among Democrats have unexpectedly culminated to deliver a boost to Trump ahead of November.

▪ Delegates at the Republican National Convention approved a new party platform Monday that embraces Trump’s political positions, including a leave-it-to-states approach to abortion law.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will meet Thursday at 10 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The Senate will convene Thursday at 10 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief. In the afternoon, he will participate in an interview with BET’s Ed Gordon. Following, the president will speak during the 115th NAACP National Convention in Las Vegas. He will then participate in an economic summit with Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.).

Vice President Harris has no public schedule.

ZOOM IN

© The Associated Press / Jon Elswick | District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday dismissed the classified documents case against former President Trump in Florida.

COURTS

DOCS DISMISSAL: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon tossed the criminal charges accusing Trump of mishandling classified documents, ruling Monday that special counsel Jack Smith was not lawfully appointed. The ruling hands a major victory to the former president, marking the first time one of his four criminal cases has been dismissed entirely. Cannon, a Trump appointee, said that, after “careful study,” she determined that no legal statute grants an attorney general authority to appoint a federal officer with the “kind of prosecutorial power wielded by Special Counsel Smith.”

Trump faced 40 charges stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified records and efforts to obstruct the government’s retrieval of those records after he left the White House. He pleaded not guilty (The Hill).

“As we move forward in Uniting our Nation after the horrific events on Saturday, this dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday following the dismissal.

Smith will appeal Cannon’s ruling, a spokesperson announced Monday (The Hill).

▪ The New York Times: In declaring that the appointment of Smith as a special counsel was illegitimate, Cannon cut against decades of rulings by higher courts.

▪ The Hill: Read Cannon’s full ruling.

▪ The Hill: Five key takeaways from the ruling.

ELSEWHERE

© The Associated Press / Susan Walsh | World leaders are increasingly preparing — and worrying — about the implications of a possible second Trump administration.

INTERNATIONAL

The attempted assassination of Trump, coming so soon after Biden’s debate stumbles, is reinforcing an impression internationally that the U.S. is entering a turbulent and unpredictable period, prompting allies to question the country’s reliability and foes to gloat (The Wall Street Journal).

Politico magazine: To the world, Trump 2.0 looks even more likely now. Many foreign officials see an era of political violence ahead in the United States.

Israel struck southern and central Gaza on Monday to put more pressure on Hamas, following a weekend strike targeting the group’s leadership that killed dozens of Palestinians who had sought shelter in a makeshift camp. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told two top Israeli officials Monday the civilian casualties in Gaza were “unacceptably high” (Reuters and The Times of Israel).

Meanwhile, Israel and Egypt privately discussed a possible withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the border with Egypt as part of a cease-fire deal. The move could eliminate one of the main obstacles to a truce with Hamas (The New York Times).

Ukraine is targeting Crimea, a critical base for Russia’s invasion. Newly armed with deep-strike missiles, Kyiv is trying to degrade Russian abilities on the peninsula, aiming at airfields, air defenses and logistics hubs (The New York Times).

CNN: The West finally allowed Ukraine to strike back at Russia — and it seems to be working.

OPINION

■ The Trump shooting changed everything, by James Piereson, columnist, The Wall Street Journal.

■ How to read J.D. Vance, by The Washington Post editorial board.

THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press / Steven Senne | As heat waves blanket the country this summer, keeping cool is key.

And finally … 🌡️ If you’ve taken a step outside in the past few days (or weeks, really), you’ve probably noticed the sweltering temps. We’ve written about the Northeast heat dome and heat advisory ratings across the country here at Morning Report, and this week is no different.

After a 10-day stretch of record-high temperatures in the western part of the U.S., the core of extreme heat has shifted back toward the East Coast. About 100 million people are under heat alerts from Florida to Maine. Weatherbell Analytics estimates about 258 million people in the U.S. will see temperatures exceed 90°F during the next seven days. Prolonged exposure to this kind of heat can cause serious illness and even be fatal, with more than two-dozen heat deaths in the U.S. this summer, likely a significant undercount.

Look up the impacts in your city on this graphic by The Washington Post.

▪ National Geographic: Experts explain why you may want to change your heat habits: from how you read forecasts to how you stay hydrated and more.

▪ Vox: Too hot to sleep? Tips for a good night’s rest, even in extreme summer heat.

Stay Engaged

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