transcript
Former President Donald J. Trump chose the 39-year-old Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his vice-presidential nominee.
This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions.
- michael barbaro
From “The New York Times,” I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.” Today, on the first day of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump makes his choice of a running mate. We watched it unfold in real time from Milwaukee.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It’s Tuesday, July 16.
- michael barbaro
Are you OK?
- speaker 1
I’m getting phone interference.
- michael barbaro
Oh no, maybe that’s from your phone. There’s like 16 phones in this car.
- speaker 1
I’ll start it.
- michael barbaro
OK. It is 9:35 AM on Monday morning, and we are driving into downtown Milwaukee to the headquarters of the Republican National Convention. And it’s day 1, the opening hours of what will be the Republican Party’s crowning of their nominee, former President Donald Trump. And the singular event that hangs over this entire convention is the one that none of us expected, which is the attempted assassination of the presumptive Republican nominee.
And the news is just flying at us this morning. We just got word that he’s going to be announcing his running mate today, his choice of a VP. So this is a pretty extraordinary day already before 10:00 AM, and we’re going to try to make sense of it all.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We just went through the first round of secret service asking to see our badges. We are now stopped at a giant metal pop-up wall. And in front of us, cars are being slowly and very thoroughly inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs and security teams.
- speaker 2
Hi.
- speaker 3
Hi. You guys are good. You just have to get screened through the checkpoint.
- speaker 2
Perfect. OK, thank you. Thanks.
- speaker 4
Secret Service? Should I open the trunk?
- speaker 5
— turn the engine off and pop the hood for me, please?
- speaker 3
Yeah.
- speaker 4
Oh, the front hood? How do I do that? We’re in a rental car. Here we go.
- speaker 1
She’s got it. Look at her.
- speaker 4
[LAUGHS]:
- speaker 5
And also, don’t run into my barricade. People keep doing that even though it says stop on it, you know? Keep your eyes open, all righty? Let’s be safe, everybody.
- speaker 4
Great. Thank you so much.
[HONKS]
- michael barbaro
So we’re headed into deeper security.
- speaker 6
— take off your sunglasses. Can you back up for me real quick?
- speaker 1
Yep.
- speaker 6
Michael?
- michael barbaro
Yeah.
- speaker 6
Good. Good to go. Carlos?
- carlos prieto
Here.
- speaker 6
Good to go. And —
- carlos prieto
You too.
- speaker 6
— Rachel.
- rachel quester
Yes.
- speaker 6
Good to go. Thank you.
- rachel quester
Thank you.
- michael barbaro
There wasn’t a single package inside that bag that they didn’t search. Hi.
- speaker 7
Check in over here. Thank you guys for coming.
- speaker 8
Hi, I can take whoever’s next.
- michael barbaro
Once we made it through all that security, we walked into the first official event of the day, a briefing for reporters from the Trump campaign about what this first day of the convention would look like.
- michael barbaro
So we’re inside a very big ballroom that has a podium and two flags set up next to it. Wisconsin, United States, there’s about 200 journalists in here, filling a quarter of the room and a lot of red-shirted RNC staffers and volunteers who are kind of corralling us. And we’re going to wait and see what they have to say.
- michael barbaro
But just as this briefing was about to begin, we were told that it was for planning purposes only and that we couldn’t use any of the audio from it.
- michael barbaro
I just want to summarize what we heard in this news conference. Essentially, what senior advisors to the Trump campaign just told us is that this day is going to be very action-packed. It is going to begin in the early afternoon with the official technical nomination by delegates of Trump as the Republican nominee. And then in the early afternoon, around 3 o’clock or so, the nomination of a vice presidential candidate will occur.
See AlsoDeception - Wildfire and Smoke MapBench Lake Fire grows to 1,850 acres, stage one fire restrictions in effectWhat that means is that sometime between now, 10:30 AM or so, and 3:00 PM, we will know the identity of who Trump’s running mate will be. And finally, we are going to lay eyes on Donald Trump himself at around 9:00 PM in the evening. And the crowd is going to go wild because it’s the first time many of them, many of us will have seen him since the assassination attempt. So it’s a really packed schedule filled with a giant piece of news in the middle, which is who Trump picked as his running mate.
Mike Bender.
- mike bender
Hello.
- michael barbaro
To get inside Trump’s decision making, we turn to our colleague Mike Bender, a politics reporter at “The Times,” who’s been on the VP beat for the past few months.
- michael barbaro
OK, we just want to bug you for a minute about what is the status of the VP choice. Last time we talked to you, you told us that there were three top contenders — Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Ohio Senator JD Vance. So where do things sit here at 11:00 at noon on Monday?
- mike bender
Just hours before he’s actually supposed to make the announcement and nominate the running mate? I mean, I literally ran into a couple of sources who are with other VP contenders who are telling me that they haven’t received word one way or the other yet. I don’t think he’s told the person yet. I mean, we’re three hours from a nomination. I seriously do not think that Trump has actually made the formal offer yet.
- michael barbaro
We have to go — I think we have to just, like, explain that to people. We’re three hours from the necessary public disclosure of this information, and it’s not clear the decision’s been made.
- mike bender
Yeah, no, it’s amazing. I mean, Trump is known to vacillate over big decisions. He did almost the same thing back in 2016 when he picked Mike Pence. He decided to pick Mike Pence and then spent the night before their first news conference together, complaining to aides that he had made the wrong choice, wondering if he could pick someone differently. My reporting over the last week has been that he’s been going through similar iterations on this decision.
- michael barbaro
So we’re going to lightly stalk you until we get the news. And hopefully, when we get the news, you can break it to us. Or it will be broken over our heads, and then we’ll talk about it. And we’ll make sense of it.
- mike bender
Yeah, definitely. I am also hoping to be the first to know. And if I’m the first to know, you guys will be the second to know.
- speaker 9
[LAUGHS]:
- michael barbaro
OK thank you, Michael.
- mike bender
Yeah. [MUSIC PLAYING]
- michael barbaro
Just as we finished talking to Mike, he made a phone call.
- mike bender
Hey. You don’t think — why don’t you think it’s Marco? He called? Like, just now? OK, I just saw some folks outside for another contender who haven’t heard anything yet. So I mean, and that was 30 minutes ago. So I’m wondering if it’s happening now. No, I didn’t see that. OK. OK. OK. Thanks, bye.
- michael barbaro
So can you just tell us about that phone call you had?
- mike bender
Yeah, yeah, definitely. This was someone who is very close with one of the VP contenders, one of the final three. This contender just received a call from Trump’s team saying he’s not the pick.
- michael barbaro
Soon enough, Mike confirmed that Marco Rubio had been crossed off the VP list, and that Rubio wasn’t the only VP contender to receive that call.
- michael barbaro
So it’s 1:30 PM, and this is a little orthodox, but I’m peeking over the shoulder of my colleague Mike Bender. And I can see that he’s writing the following. Both Doug Burgum and Marco Rubio have been told that they are not Trump’s VP choice. So in real time, assuming that this is right, we’re left thinking that the choice is either JD Vance or some wildcard person who we haven’t even thought of.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- speaker 10
Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin a very important part of our program. I would like to ask that the aisles be cleared and the delegates please take their seats. Thank you.
- michael barbaro
In the meantime, the official business of this convention began. The nomination of Trump as the Republican nominee.
- rachel quester
Michael, tell me what’s happening.
- michael barbaro
OK. So at this point, 2:00 PM, the roll call of delegates is underway on the floor of the Convention Hall.
- speaker 11
West Virginia, 32 delegates.
- michael barbaro
So what’s happening right now is that the delegates from each state are publicly pledging their support to Donald Trump. And the delegates from each state represent the outcome of the primary vote that happened many, many months ago. So like right now, West Virginia’s designated speaker with a red hard hat on, is saying, from the great state of West Virginia —
- speaker 12
And to cast those 32 votes for our former and future president, Donald J. Trump!
[CHEERING]
- michael barbaro
— we are pledging our 32 delegates to Donald Trump, and on and on and on it will go. And so this is a formality, adding up all the delegates from all the states. But it’s actually a technically required component of Donald Trump becoming and accepting his party’s nomination. And Trump will become the official nominee when 1,215 delegates in this room have pledged their support to him, which will probably be in about 30 minutes.
- speaker 13
I stand before you today on behalf of the great state of New Hampshire.
- michael barbaro
And after Trump is nominated, this entire exercise happens all over again for his running mate whose identity we still don’t know. So that’s where a lot of the suspense of this moment is, not in the obvious fact that Donald Trump is about to be nominated, but that everyone in this room is about to nominate a running mate that they don’t know the identity of, that we don’t know the identity of. And we have to know the identity of it before it happens.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- michael barbaro
And all of a sudden, after not knowing how or when we would learn Trump’s choice, we finally do. And it’s delivered in classic Trump fashion.
- rachel quester
So I’ve just seen on Truth Social that Trump has announced his VP pick, and it is JD Vance of Ohio.
- michael barbaro
OK. “Daily” editor Rachel Quester breaking the news that it’s Vance, which we kind of thought it would be, but now we know.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- michael barbaro
After the break, Vance’s nomination and why Trump picked him.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We’ll be right back.
- michael barbaro
OK, so we’re walking to the Convention Hall. It’s a bit of a trek. It’s very hot outside and blazingly bright. And we are now entering the media doorway.
- speaker 14
Hi.
- michael barbaro
Hi. How are you? Thank you.
- speaker 14
Very good.
- speaker 15
Where are you all trying to get?
- speaker 1
To the floor.
- michael barbaro
To the floor? To the floor?
- speaker 15
OK. Just right out there and then somebody on the direction.
- michael barbaro
OK.
- michael barbaro
Around 3:30 or so, we walked out onto the convention floor just as Vance was being nominated as Trump’s running mate.
- speaker 16
USA! USA! USA!
- speaker 11
All right, time for a little convention business here. The question is on the motion that Senator JD Vance be nominated by acclamation —
- michael barbaro
This room is about to complete the nomination of Vance as VP.
- speaker 16
Aye!
- speaker 11
All those opposed signify by saying no. In the opinion of the chair, the “ayes” have it, and the motion is adopted. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table.
[APPLAUSE]
- michael barbaro
And just to give you a little bit of a sense of the feel of the room, JD Vance is smiling really widely. He’s leaning back. He’s laughing. Crowd is chanting JD, JD. And he seems a little in awe of the moment.
- speaker 11
I am proud to announce that Senator JD Vance has the overwhelming support of this convention to be the next vice president of the United states.
- michael barbaro
And that’s that. JD Vance, the vice presidential nominee. We got to get out of here.
- speaker 11
The chair is pleased —
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- michael barbaro
When that was over, we headed back to where Mike Bender was working to talk to him about Trump’s choice.
- michael barbaro
So welcome to “The Daily” studio here in Milwaukee.
- mike bender
OK.
- michael barbaro
Awesome.
- mike bender
Can you close this door?
- rachel quester
You can shut that, yeah. [MUSIC PLAYING]
- michael barbaro
Mike, you’re ready?
- mike bender
Yep.
- michael barbaro
So if you believe that Donald Trump made this decision, as we think he did kind of the last minute, even if he’d been thinking about it for a long time, what’s your understanding of why he chose JD Vance?
- mike bender
I think Trump is making this pick on who he thinks gives him the best chance to win in November. He announced this decision in a Truth Social post and mentioned a couple of key states in that statement, essentially saying that he thinks Vance can help him win in Pennsylvania, in Michigan, Wisconsin. These are essential states for victory in November, both for Trump and President Biden. Trump won them in 2016 but lost to Biden in those same states in 2020.
- michael barbaro
Hm! He’s very openly saying, I have made a strategic choice. What’s interesting about that, Mike, is that in our conversation a couple of weeks ago when we talked about who Trump was looking at closely, you had said that he wasn’t thinking about these traditional questions of, Does my VP win me X state, Y state? You know, he was engaging in questions of personal rapport. And he got along really well with Doug Burgum.
So clearly, the strategic question became front of mind for Trump. And I just want to understand, Was there something in the race that changed that made him suddenly think about this or what?
- mike bender
Well, well, well, look at “The Daily” fact-checking its reporters here on air. Well, you’re not wrong either, Michael. There has been a shift in the last few weeks with Trump. He’s gone from talking about finding a running mate who could help him govern, to finding a running mate who can help him govern and someone who can help him win.
And when he ran the analysis here, when he looked at the different set of candidates he has, his ultimate decision was that JD Vance is the one who can do that. Vance will take him deeper into the states where he needs to win in the Midwest and appeal directly to the working-class, blue-collar voters he needs to capture these battlegrounds.
- michael barbaro
Explain exactly why he thinks JD Vance helps him win those three or so key states? What is it about Vance’s story that maps on to that strategy?
- mike bender
The answer is both biographical and rooted in policy. Vance is a child of Appalachia. He grew up in a poor, working-class neighborhood in Ohio. He served in the military. And when he decided to run for his first elected office in 2022, he was very far right on a lot of issues. He is one of the most staunch anti-abortion voices in the Senate right now. He’s an economic populist, the sort of anti-trade isolationist.
He was one of the first voices urging the Senate to vote against aid for Ukraine at a time where his party leaders were supporting that. So for Trump, when it comes to selling the idea of Trumpism and MAGA-ism, JD Vance is a very effective communicator for him, particularly in a crucial area of the country, that if Trump wins some of these Midwestern states could mean the end of Biden as president.
- michael barbaro
Got it. So we should see this decision as Trump picking someone who is ideologically extremely aligned with him, perhaps even a little further to the right than Trump, an issue like abortion, and from and of the place in the country that Trump needs to win, the Midwest, Appalachia. And that combination means, for Trump, Vance.
- mike bender
Yeah, exactly. I think it’s also helpful to put this in the context of the other contenders.
- michael barbaro
Right.
- mike bender
Vance is not bringing a new piece of the puzzle to Trumpism. Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida, would have been a Spanish-speaking advocate who may appeal more to Latinos. Governor Doug Burgum, from North Dakota, could have helped settle down that pro-business Republicans who are nervous about Trump’s unpredictability. Trump is sort of signaling here that he’s not interested in adding to the party. He doesn’t want to make the tent bigger. He’s doubling down on this sort of white working-class, pro-MAGA piece of the party that he sees not just as a way to win in November, but very clearly the path for the party in the future.
- michael barbaro
Of all the candidates Trump was thinking about for VP — and we’ve talked about this with you — they went on a journey, right, from Trump skeptic to Trump supporter. But JD Vance’s journey stood out because he was so unstinting in his criticism of Trump. When Trump first entered the political scene back in 2016, I remember interviewing Vance and talking to him about this stuff. I mean, he compared Trump to Hitler. He called Trump the opioid of the masses. He suggested Trump was a con man. That’s a lot to overcome, but he did.
- mike bender
But he did. I mean, this is the most stunning 180 degree political flip-flop of our time. To go from saying the sort of things that you just brought up to now being chosen as his most trusted advisor, a running mate, a number 2, who will serve as president if something should happen to him, is extraordinary. I mean, you may have to go back to post-revolutionary times when we used to pick vice presidents by who came in second place to find a vice president who has said such searing criticisms of a president.
- michael barbaro
Fascinating. And ultimately, what’s your understanding of why Trump could get past that, somebody who is not very good at accepting criticism?
- mike bender
No, that’s true. But as much as Trump hates criticism for his own actions and deeds, he loves the redemption narrative. And he loves being asked for forgiveness. And JD Vance has spent several years seeking Trump’s approval by going on television, making nice with all of the right-wing websites and media in order to show how much he has changed his mind on Trump, and maybe most effectively, blame the media.
That point has been proven by Vance himself, who has explained his new thinking, his evolution on Trump by saying he was lied to by a media narrative about Trump. And now that he’s gotten to know Trump and now that he’s seen him, Trump in action as president, he has changed his mind.
- michael barbaro
Right. And it sounds like he never really needed to change his mind about some of the fundamental ideas of Trumpism. He had to change his mind about Trump. He seems always to have been fundamentally aligned with the ideas that Trump embraces — economic populism, some pretty far-right social positions. He needed to change his mind on the man, not the message.
- mike bender
Yeah, it was very personal, I think, for both Trump and Vance in this instance. Again, Vance is someone who grew up in rural Ohio, whose family is from Appalachia, saw some of the things that Trump has railed against when it comes to manufacturing jobs that are being shipped overseas, you know, these sort of pillars and institutions of society that have failed to uphold their end of the bargain when it comes to working-class, blue-collar, small-town Americans like Vance is.
- michael barbaro
If you are the Democrats right now, Mike, and you’re absorbing this news, where do you see the greatest vulnerabilities are going to lie for Trump now picking Vance?
- mike bender
Democrats are definitely going to use Vance’s old words against him, this sort of library of video clips and audio interviews of Vance going after Trump. But Democrats will also seize on Vance as an extremist, whether that’s his ardent abortion view and support for a national ban and his willingness to do what his predecessor, Mike Pence, wouldn’t. Vance has been on record already saying that he would have blocked the certification of the 2020 result, and that would have helped overturn that election.
- michael barbaro
Right. So you’re saying one simple way that the Biden ticket can go after Vance is by saying that you will enable Trump to break the law, overturn the election. We should expect that.
- mike bender
Yeah, I think so. I mean, looking back on what happened after 2020, the system worked because there was a lot of people around Trump who maybe they weren’t guardrails, but maybe more speed bumps. And there’s no indication that Vance has any willingness to play that role in the next Trump administration.
- michael barbaro
In that vein, it was pretty widely noted that in the hours after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, we saw JD Vance come out with a statement. It was the most strongly worded of anyone seeking to be his VP. And it had some factual problems. Here’s what he said. He said, “Today, the attempted assassination is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” We should say. There’s no evidence that that’s true. We don’t know the motivations of the shooter. We don’t know that he consumed any of that rhetoric or that Vance is even characterizing it correctly. So what should we make of the fact that Trump chose that running mate who made that statement in this moment?
- mike bender
I think Vance in a lot of ways kind of embodies the id of Trump and that instinct to fight. And even though these sort of manufactured statements from the campaign are calling for unity and calling for peace, what Trump really wants —
- michael barbaro
Since the attempted assassination, right.
- mike bender
That’s right. What Trump really wants is someone who is going to keep fighting. You know, factual or not, I think this shows the passion and the energy Trump was looking in at running mate, valuing that interest in fighting more than —
- michael barbaro
Interest in unity and peace.
- mike bender
Yeah, or facts on the ground.
- michael barbaro
Right. I want to end, Mike, with something you hinted at earlier, which is when you said that Trump is looking to Vance to set a path for the future of the Republican Party. What is that path with Vance as number 2?
- mike bender
Vance is only 39 years old. He’s barely old enough to be president.
- michael barbaro
Right, 35 is the requirement.
- mike bender
Exactly. So he’s obviously going to be viewed very much as the heir apparent for Trumpism. Trump knows this. And the signal it’s sending to everyone, not just in the party but the rest of the country, is that any remnants of a debate about whether this party snaps back to its sort of pro-business establishment culture —
- michael barbaro
Pre-Trump era.
- mike bender
— the pre-Trump era is exactly that. It’s a pre-Trump era. It’s over for Republicans. And when it’s not Trump, it’s going to be JD Vance or someone exactly like him.
- michael barbaro
Right. In other words, Trumpism is here to stay. It is the Republican Party now that I’ve chosen JD Vance.
- mike bender
There’s no going back anymore, Michael.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- michael barbaro
Thank you, Mike. This is really helpful. I really appreciate it.
- mike bender
Thank you for having me. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Are you guys from — are you guys from Michigan?
- speaker 17
Yeah. Hi.
- michael barbaro
We make “The Daily” podcast.
- michael barbaro
Back at the Convention Hall.
- michael barbaro
We wanted to ask folks from all the big swing states about the selection of JD Vance about an hour ago and what you make of that decision, and if you think it’s going to help Trump win this state.
- speaker 17
Absolutely. Look, I think the key thing in the platform is that it is dedicated to the forgotten men and women, and that is the blue-collar workers in the flyover states. JD Vance gets that.
- michael barbaro
It was clear that Republican delegates saw JD Vance as helping Trump win those key Midwestern states that will be essential to Trump winning in November.
- speaker 18
So if Donald Trump wins Pennsylvania, which we’re going to make damn sure he does, we’re going to work our asses off.
- michael barbaro
You think that Vance helps them do that?
- speaker 18
Yes.
- michael barbaro
And just to make sure — I want to understand why.
- speaker 18
Because JD Vance is like the common man. He’s like the common guy.
- michael barbaro
And that like Trump, they do see Vance as the future of Trumpism.
- speaker 18
And the other nice thing is he’s young. He’s 39 years old
- michael barbaro
Why’s that matter?
- speaker 18
It’s good to have somebody young with somebody that’s old in case, God forbid, something ever happens to Trump.
- michael barbaro
In other words, you already see him as the successor, the inheritor of Trump’s message and the party in MAGA?
- speaker 18
Well, yeah, he’s going to have to carry the mantle. That’s probably what’s going to end up happening. Trump is only there for four years. You need somebody afterwards for the next eight. You need somebody for the next eight after that.
- michael barbaro
OK, can I — [MUSIC PLAYING]
And you’re from Wisconsin. You’re a delegate from Wisconsin. This is important. Trump mentioned Wisconsin in announcing Vance. Why was Vance your number one choice?
- speaker 19
I think he brings youth to the field, to the vice president. And I looked at the upcoming years in ‘28, what’ll happen. And I think he was the man that can do it in ‘28 for the Republican Party.
- michael barbaro
You’re already looking forward to the next race?
- speaker 19
Yes, very much so.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- michael barbaro
We’ll be right back.
Here’s what else you need to know today. In a stunning decision, the judge overseeing Trump’s classified documents case threw out all the charges against him. In the process, she rejected what was widely seen as the strongest federal charges against the former president. Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, ruled that the special counsel who filed the charges had been given his job in violation of the Constitution.
That finding flew in the face of previous court decisions reaching back decades. In response, the Department of Justice said that it plans to appeal Cannon’s ruling.
Today’s episode was produced by Carlos Prieto, Clare Toeniskoetter, Jessica Cheung, Mooj Zadie, Eric Krupke, and Rikki Novetsky. It was edited by Brendan Klinkenberg and Rachel Quester, with help from Paige Cowan.
Contains original music by Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop and Marion Lozano, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.