Trump’s nomination, Biden’s path forward and Pa. musings: Where things stand in the presidential race

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The Republican National Convention’s closing celebration in Milwaukee Thursday night featured Donald Trump addressing delegates as their formal nominee for president of the United States.

The former president addressed the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania and spoke of political unity.

WHYY News politics reporter Carmen Russell-Sluchansky was ringside and joined “Morning Edition” host Jennifer Lynn for a final recap of the 2024 RNC.

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Jennifer Lynn: Carmen, I said “ringside” because pro-wrestler Hulk Hogan spoke last night adoringly about Trump. In his rousing speech, he repeatedly referred to Trump supporters as Trumpites. Is that going to catch on? Trumpites?

Carmen Russell-Sluchansky: Good question. It’s actually been used before, but I think mostly as a pejorative, so I wonder if this was Hulk Hogan’s way of coopting the word and now we’ll see Trump supporters adopting it like they did “felon” and “covfefe,” which isn’t even a word. By the way, in case you were going to ask or any of our audience wants to know, yes Hogan ripped off his T-shirt in his signature style, only this time it revealed a Trump-Vance shirt underneath.

JL: Well let’s focus on what the former president had to say in a more than 90-minute speech. It was a record for convention speech length and he went into great detail about what he experienced in Butler, Pennsylvania last Saturday. Was it the unity speech that he was expected to deliver?

CR: Well, it was a different speech than he’s given at other events of his that I have covered, mostly because he didn’t call the president names like he’s known for. I asked your question to members of the Pa. delegation and they overwhelmingly thought so.

Rhonda Fahmy from Luzerne County:
“I think his tone was definitely a matter of unity and he was pointing out the differences, this administration and what he would do as president. So I do think it will unify America behind the values that America wants to see.”

CR: Trump did go off script and call Nancy Pelosi “Crazy Nancy” once, and he went back to suggesting, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen, but certainly by comparison to other speeches it was sanguine.

JL: I know you were at the RNC, but have you gotten any responses from Democrats? Did they see this speech as one that fostered unity?

CR: Well I did get a statement from Biden-Harris 2024 national campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon. She was less impressed and said the former president — and I quote — “rambled on for well over an hour.” She wrote that the real message was in what Trump didn’t talk about, such as how he overturned Roe v. Wade or about his plan to free those arrested for January 6th attack on the Capitol, which Trump has said he would do on his Truth Social account.

JL: I take it the former president also did not bring up the democratic nomination since that would probably be seen as an attack. Did any of the delegates from our region have any thoughts about what’s going on?

CR: Well yes, since that was the other big news of the day and I was at the RNC, I figured I might as well get the thoughts of the people around me. They seemed to take some enjoyment from the challenges facing the Democrats right now, using words like “shambles,” “chaos” and “disarray.” I asked if any possible candidate might give them some concern in the race. The response was that it didn’t really matter because Trump would win anyway. However, since our Gov. Josh Shapiro’s name has appeared on lists of possible contenders, I asked if they thought he might be able to win his own state of Pennsylvania.

Jeff Bartos from Montgomery County:
“Josh is a talented and very smart politician, but no matter who they put on the ticket, the Democrats are going to have the Biden-Harris agendas. They’re going to have to answer for that, whether it’s inflation, whether it’s the border crisis, whether it’s crime.”

JL: Do we have any polling on whether Gov. Shapiro would be competitive in a race like that one?

CR: Don’t we have polling for everything these days? How else are pollsters going to make a living? But, seriously, a Washington D.C.-based group, BlueLabs Analytics, just released a new poll this week that shows that Shapiro would beat Trump, if the election were held today, outperforming Biden by several points not only in Pa. but across the decisive swing states. Ironically, Shapiro’s response to what happened in Butler appears to be bolstering his national stature as well. All that said, other candidates including Harris fared well against Trump in that poll.

JL: Meanwhile, in Delaware, President Joe Biden is resting, recovering from COVID. What happens if he does drop out of the race?

CR: Well, there are a few ways this can go, but they all basically lead to an open or brokered convention in Chicago in August where the delegates who have already been elected will have to decide on someone else to vote for. If Biden doesn’t endorse anyone, then they are basically free to vote for anyone who is likely to be campaigning. If he does endorse, many delegates will probably be more likely to vote for that person, but it doesn’t mean that they really have to, so there might still be some competition. There’s also talk about having a mini-election where the delegates vote virtually before the convention so they can go to Chicago knowing who their nominee is.

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