***Livewire*** Night One of the Republican National Convention

The first night of the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with an emphasis on “unity” in the aftermath of Saturday’s assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

This afternoon, Trump announced Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate. The 39-year-old senator from the Rust Belt—whose bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy was viewed by many as a chronicle of the forgotten men and women that Trump’s 2016 campaign and MAGA movement championed—is tied as the youngest Republican nominee for vice president in history with Richard Nixon, who was also a 39-year-old first term U.S. senator when President Dwight Eisenhower picked him as his running mate in 1952. Vance has been a rising star in the populist conservative movement and has shown himself to be a passionate advocate in the Senate for the working-class Americans who have been ignored by both parties.

In 2021, Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow interviewed Vance at his home in Cincinnati:

In the roll call vote today, Republican delegates gave Trump the GOP’s nomination for an historic third time, making him one of only six Americans to receive a major party’s nomination more than twice. The five others are Thomas Jefferson, Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, Franklin Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon.

Among tonight’s scheduled speakers are reportedly:

• Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI)
• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)
• Gov. Mark Robinson (R-NC)
• Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX)
• Rep. John James (R-MI)
• Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL)
• Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC)
• Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA)
• Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD)
• Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL)
• Charlie Kirk, the executive director of Turning Point USA
• Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
• Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Saturday’s assassination attempt has shaken an already unprecedented campaign pitting a sitting and former president against each other in a repeat of the last election. It also follows weeks of drama within the Democratic Party about replacing President Joe Biden as the nominee after his disastrous debate performance last month. And it comes after months—and years—of what Trump and Republicans have characterized as lawfare tactics waged against Trump by his political opponents, including Special Counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case which was dismissed by a federal judge just this morning.

In what looks unfortunately like an effort to big-foot the RNC coverage, Biden is scheduled to do a prime-time sit-down interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt at 9 p.m. Eastern this evening. If it proceeds like his interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, his declining poll numbers are unlikely to improve.

NBC News posted a preview clip of it:

Since Saturday, Biden has attempted to re-orient his campaign messaging after an assassin’s bullet left Trump one inch away and one head turn away from death.

The assassination attempt has left Democrats and their establishment media allies with no message to convey to a country exhausted by years of divisive rhetoric smearing Trump and the Americans who voted for him as deplorables, extremists, insurrectionists, racists, religious fanatics, traitors, and even terrorists. This demonizing rhetoric was ratcheted up exponentially by Biden, who centered his re-election bid on the message that Donald Trump is a Hitlerian existential threat to democracy and to the whole world—a characterization that by implication makes Trump a target for any would-be assassin incited to take out a dictator.

After defiantly raising his fist in the face of death, Trump now has the ability to be something no one expected him to be—a uniter. Trump told the Washington Examiner that he re-wrote his convention speech to focus on unity after the assassination attempt. “It is a chance to bring the country together,” Trump said. “I was given that chance.”

One thing seems certain: Trump has unified the Republican Party. Breitbart’s Joel Pollak, reporting from Milwaukee, notes that the mood inside the convention center is “jubilant,” but it’s “somewhat subdued among the anti-Trump protesters outside.”

Follow Breitbart News for live updates below, all times Pacific.

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4:10 p.m. PT

The Catholic Archbishop of Milwaukee Jerome Listecki opened the prime time coverage with a benediction.

The first speaker will be Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, followed by Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and George Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene.