MILWAUKEE — Former President Trump will refer several times to the “current administration” or the “current leadership” in his address to the Republican National Convention, but highly placed sources say the former president will not use the word “Biden” once.
Trump on Thursday will formally accept the GOP presidential nomination during the closing night and culminating moment of the 2024 convention.
The former president’s speech to the party faithful inside Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum and to a national television audience is likely to be north of an hour, sources told Fox News’ Bret Baier, the network’s chief political anchor and executive editor of “Special Report with Bret Baier.”
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is shown on the third day of the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 17, 2024. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
Trump’s speech comes just five days after he survived an assassination attempt. The shooting at Trump’s rally on Saturday in western Pennsylvania, where one spectator was killed, along with the gunman, instantly affected the tone and message of the convention and altered the former president’s address.
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According to sources, the speech will “lay out the case for the ticket” and will focus on unity in part of the speech in the wake of his brush with death last weekend.
In an email to supporters on the eve of his address, Trump said, “I will lay out my vision to UNITE OUR COUNTRY AND MAKE IT GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!”
A bloodied former President Trump gestures to the crowd after multiple shots rang out during his campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
A push for party unity was on display during the first three days of the convention, with former GOP presidential rivals Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – who battled Trump in a contentious primary season – delivered speeches from the podium in support of the former president.
Republicans are using the convention as a venue to reunite the party and energize delegates and activists ahead of the final stretch of the campaign in Trump’s 2024 election rematch with President Biden.
Trump’s speech comes as Biden’s campaign is pushing back against a slew of reports in the past 24 hours that the president has become more receptive in the last couple of days to hearing arguments about why he should drop his 2024 re-election run.
“We don’t know who the nominee will be at this point,” a source in Trump’s political orbit told Fox News.
Hours earlier, the Trump campaign contrasted what it calls a “unified” GOP at the convention with the latest turmoil surrounding Biden’s re-election bid.
“When you look at what we’ve done with this convention, we’ve demonstrated to the American people that not only is the Republican Party unified, but we have a unifying vision for the entire country with President Trump’s agenda and plan for America well established,” a Trump campaign official said.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump applauds alongside vice presidential nominee JD Vance during the second day of the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 16, 2024. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)
“At the same time, the Democrats can’t even figure out who their nominee should be,” the official argued.
Following his disastrous debate performance last month against Trump, the 81-year-old Biden has been facing questions about whether he has the physical and mental abilities to serve another four years in the most demanding job in the world.
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Politically, Biden’s been pushing back against a rising chorus of calls to end his campaign from elected Democrats, who are deeply concerned about the possibility of the party not only losing the White House but both houses of Congress in the fall election.
Reports over the past 24 hours indicated that top Democrats – including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – have had frank conversations with Biden about him ending his campaign.
President Biden waves as he walks down the steps of Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
And a Washington Post report on Thursday suggested that former President Obama has told allies in recent days that Biden’s path to victory has been vastly reduced, and he thinks the president needs to seriously reconsider his decision to keep running.
“Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not at the top of the ticket. He is and will be the Democratic nominee,” Biden principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters at a news conference on Thursday morning near the site of the Republican National Convention.
And ahead of Trump’s speech, Fulks said that “over the course of the last four days, Republicans have offered their vision for the country. And now it’s never been more clear that Americans will face a stark choice, a contrasting vision for this country.”
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