RNC Day 3 highlights: JD Vance makes first speech as Trump VP pick; Biden tests positive for Covid

A day after the attempt on his life, Trump called on the country to come together.

“In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win,” he wrote on social media Sunday.

For many attendees at the Republican National Convention here this week, being “united” means one main thing: coming together around Trump to beat Biden.

Vance, a right-wing populist known for his unbending opinions, introduced himself tonight as a vice presidential candidate open to compromise and eager for unity but unapologetically drawn to hot-button debates.

“We have a big tent in this party, on everything from national security to economic policy,” Vance told convention delegates as he accepted their nomination to be Trump’s running mate. “But my message to you, my fellow Republicans, is: We love this country, and we are united to win. And our disagreements actually make us stronger.” 

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Biden has arrived at his beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware, where he's expected to isolate after it was announced today that he'd tested positive for Covid.

As Vance wrapped up his speech and walked off the stage, he was accompanied by “Don’t Stop” by Fleetwood Mac, Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign song in 1992.

In his closing remarks, Vance argued that it was OK for people to disagree about how to address issues facing the country.

"We won’t always agree on every issue, of course, not even in this room. We may disagree from time to time about how best to reinvigorate American industry and renew American family," he said. "That’s fine. In fact, it’s more than fine. It’s good."

"But never forget that the reason why this united Republican Party exists, why we do this, why we care about those great ideas and that great history, is that we want this nation to thrive for centuries to come," he added.

Vance just wrapped up his speech after he formally accepted the vice presidential nomination. The convention is set to recess for the rest of the evening.

Vance spoke about his wife's parents.

"I am married to the daughter of South Asian immigrants to this country. Incredible people, people who genuinely have enriched the country in so many ways," he said.

The line echoed remarks of speakers last night who contrasted legal immigrants with "illegal" immigrants.

The parents of his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, immigrated to the U.S. from India.

Two decades ago, President George W. Bush accepted the Republican presidential nomination from a party thrilled with his decision to invade Iraq.

Tonight, newly minted Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance blamed that war on Biden, who voted as a senator to give Bush the authority to launch the Iraq War.

“When I was a senior in high school, that same Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq,” Vance said.

Vance told a story about finding 19 loaded handguns in his grandmother's house after she died.

"When we went through her things, we found 19 loaded handguns," he said as the audience applauded. "Now, the thing is, they were stashed all over her house — under her bed, in her closet, in the silverware drawer."

"It occurred to us that towards the end of her life, Mamaw couldn’t get around so well," he said. "And so this frail old woman made sure that no matter where she was, she was within arm’s length of what she needed to protect her family."

The story was met with big applause and laughter. He added that it was an example of American spirit.

Vance just gave a shoutout to his single mom, who, he said, "struggled with money and addiction but never gave up."

"I am proud to say that tonight my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober," Vance said.

His mom was sitting in the VIP box, next to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. The audience began chanting for her.

Vance talked tonight about how his grandmother, or "mamaw," raised him.

"She was an old woman who could barely walk, but she was tough as nails. I called her mamaw, the name we hillbillies gave to our grandmothers," Vance said. "Mamaw raised me as her own — excuse me. Mamaw raised me as my mother struggled with addiction."

“Mamaw was, in so many ways, a woman of contradiction,” Vance said. “She loved the Lord, ladies and gentlemen. She was a woman of very deep Christian faith ... but she also loved the F word. I’m not kidding. She could make a sailor blush.”

As Vance spoke, the crowd chanted, "Mamaw, mamaw, mamaw."

Sara Brady is at the convention this week and handmade a dress for every day of the convention. She said that, in total, she has spent 20 to 30 hours making her outfits for the week.

Brady is wearing a dress tonight featuring the "Appeal to Heaven" flag, the conservative Christian flag that was reportedly flown outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's New Jersey vacation home last summer, adding to recent scrutiny of the justice.

“I made this dress. I make political statement dresses," Brady told NBC News. "This is an appeal to heaven. It’s a rejection of the theory that kings have the divine right to rule over us. ... I just thought it was a great message.”

Vance addressed the assassination attempt on Trump, saying that a would-be assassin came "a quarter of an inch from taking his life."

"When Donald J. Trump rose to his feet in that Pennsylvania field, all of America stood with him," Vance said, drawing chants from the crowd of "fight, fight, fight."

"And what did he call us to do for our country? To fight. To fight for America," Vance said.

After she introduced her husband and now vice presidential nominee, Usha Vance made her way into the family box and is sitting next to Trump as they watch him speak.

We flagged last night how the convention used a 2005 song from Merle Haggard, "America First," that sure sounded like it was written for the Trump era.

Vance just walked out to the song before his address. The song came out the same year Vance served in Iraq, according to Stars and Stripes, which is worth noting because of this line in it: "Let’s get out of Iraq and get back on the track, and let’s rebuild America first.”

Moments into Vance's speech, the audience chanted, "O-H-I-O!"

Vance joined in briefly before saying they had to "chill with the Ohio love."

"We gotta win Michigan, too, here," he joked.

Ohio and Michigan are longtime and deep sports rivals. While Vance is an Ohioan, Michigan is a vital swing state.

Usha Vance, vice presidential nominee JD Vance's wife, spoke about how she met him at law school and why she believes he'll make a great vice president.

"That JD and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry is a testament to this great country," she said.

The president arrived in Dover, getting off Air Force One at 10:30 p.m. ET, pausing multiple times on the steps and moving very slowly but smiling and gesturing toward people on the tarmac.

It sounded as if Biden, who tested positive for Covid today, said he was “doing well” before he gave a thumbs-up to the media and slowly made his way to his motorcade.

Biden did not have a mask on while he was outside exiting the plane, but he put one on when he got into the motorcade. When he boarded the plane earlier today near Las Vegas, he told reporters that he was feeling "good."

Don Jr. said in his speech that during the assassination attempt, his father "may have moved to the ground, but he stood back up."

"And when he did, my father raised his fist into the air. He looked out at the crowd, and what did he say?" he asked the audience.

The line spurred the crowd to begin chanting what Trump said: "Fight! Fight! Fight."

"We will fight, we will fight, we will fight with our voices," Trump Jr. said, adding that in November they will fight with their votes.

Donald Trump Jr. began his convention speech addressing the assassination attempt on his father, saying something that "once seemed unimaginable became a terrifying reality."

"My father came under literal fire as an incredible, patriotic rally turned into a tragedy on a field in Butler, Pennsylvania," the former president's oldest son said. "A brave firefighter died, others were injured, and as those bullets rained down, we came millimeters away from one of the darkest moments in our nation's history."

Trump Jr., said that they lost an American hero that day in firefighter Corey Comperatore. He then praised how his father responded to the shooting.

Trump's son Don Jr. embraced anti-LGBTQ rhetoric during his speech.

"Left-wing activists are pretending to be educators, teaching our kids that there are 57 genders," he said. "But they can't even define what a woman is."

Speaking just days after an assassination attempt on his father, Donald Trump Jr. told convention attendees, "Long before the attempt on my father's life, every American I met was filled with fear and anxiety. They were afraid our country was being torn apart."

Donald Trump Jr. gave a tribute to Corey Comperatore, the 50-year-old former fire chief who was killed by an assassin's bullet during Saturday's shooting that injured the former president.

"We did lose an American hero that day, we wish he were with us tonight, but his memory will live on forever in the hearts of his family, his community and the nation that he loved," Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son, said tonight in his convention speech.

Shortly after, the crowd began chanting, "Corey, Corey, Corey."

Members of several Gold Star families criticized Biden for not publicly saying the names of the 13 American military members who died during the evacuation of Afghanistan in 2021.

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., who ran for governor and lost last year, railed against Biden for opposing the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

"Joe Biden advised against the mission that killed Osama bin Laden," Zeldin told attendees, pointing to Biden's opposition to the mission that led to the death of bin Laden when he was vice president.

Ninety-eight-year-old World War II veteran William Pekrul said that "America is still worth fighting for" during his RNC speech.

“It hurts my heart to see what our current president and vice president have done to the country I love so well," he said.

Pekrul said he would re-enlist today and storm any beach his country needed him to.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., posted a video on X showing her and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chasing Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle at the convention as they press for answers on the Trump assassination attempt.

"This was an assassination attempt. You owe the people answers. You owe the president answers," Blackburn told Cheatle, who continued to walk away from the senators.

In his speech tonight, Vance will brand Biden as a career politician who has been on the "wrong side" of trade deals and the Iraq war.

“Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington for longer than I’ve been alive," Vance will say, according to prepared remarks.

He'll also highlight periods from his youth that corresponded with times that Biden, in Vance's words, "screwed up" during his time in the Senate.

New excerpts from Vance's forthcoming keynote tonight show he'll make a forceful case for the "America First" approach Trump championed in office.

"President Trump’s vision is simple — we won’t cater to Wall Street, we’ll commit to the Working Man," he'll say, according to prepared remarks.

The parents of 22-year-old American Israeli hostage Omer Neutra addressed the RNC.

"Where is the outrage?" said Omer's father, Ronen, describing how Americans were killed and taken hostage during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

Ronen said that Trump called him in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, and he added to the audience, "We need your support."

The audience chanted "Bring them home" between the remarks of him and his wife, Orna.

NBC News asked Lara Trump, Trump's daughter-in-law and a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, about why there have been almost no references to Jan. 6, 2021, and the 2020 presidential election in the convention speeches this week. She said that "a lot of people changed their speeches after Saturday," when Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt.

"You may have actually heard a little bit more of those topics had Saturday not happened," she told NBC News' Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie.

Asked about the assassination attempt, Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., insinuated that the Biden administration has been “inciting violence” against Trump. NBC News’ Hallie Jackson questioned him about his recent tweets, asking whether they contributed to the “escalating rhetoric.” Collins defended his words, saying, “Tweets like mine help us get into a policy discussion.”

We just heard from a group of family members of some of the 13 American service members who died in a bomb attack outside the airport in Kabul during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

It was a powerful segment, and the family members who participated ended by blaming Biden for the attack by criticizing how the withdrawal was handled (a group of family members shared similar criticisms at a House hearing last year). After a long video interview with the family members, a group of Gold Star families took the stage with photos of their deceased relatives and spoke.

Herman Lopez, the father of the late Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez, criticized Biden for his comment at last month's debate that there hadn't been "any troops dying anywhere in the world" during his administration.

"That hurt us all deeply," Lopez said before he recited the names of the 13 service members who died in the attack.

Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., talked in his convention speech about Trump's spending hours with the families of service members who were killed as the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan.

"Two of them came up to me afterwards and said this was the best thing that had happened to them since they had lost their sons," Waltz recalled. "That night with President Trump."

"Mr. President, you helped them heal," he continued. "And I will forever, and they will be forever, and America will forever be grateful to you for that."

Gold Star Families will speak tonight at the convention.

Statement

"You didn't see any spy balloons under President Trump, did you?"

Shortly after it was announced that he had tested positive for Covid, Biden's X account posted: "I'm sick."

A follow-up post a few moments later added: "of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election," along with a fundraising link.

Quentin Fulks, Biden's principal deputy campaign manager, told NBC News' Tom Llamas that the tweet was designed to draw eyes. “I think that our campaign wanted to make sure that we got folks’ attention," he said.

"He may be experiencing some mild symptoms from Covid as he tested positive, but he is tired of schoolteachers and nurses paying more in taxes than people like Elon Musk," Fulks said.

In RNC speeches this week, many speakers touted familiar talking points seemingly aimed at women: Trump is a champion for women and mothers, and he is a family man, they said. But female speakers also openly acknowledged and addressed that his brash personality turns off some voters.

“How often do we hear: I want Trump’s policies without Trump’s personality? Well, good luck with that. We don’t get those policies without that personality,” former adviser Kellyanne Conway said today.

“Now, you didn’t have to love everything that he tweeted, but you cannot deny you were better off when Donald Trump was in office,” RNC co-chair Lara Trump, Trump's daughter-in-law, said yesterday.

"We should acknowledge that there are some Americans who don’t agree with Donald Trump 100% of the time. I happen to know some of them, and I want to speak to them,” said Nikki Haley, a former rival for the GOP nomination. “My message to them is simple: You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him. Take it from me. I haven’t always agreed with President Trump. But we agree more often than we disagree.”

Biden won female voters by 15 points in 2020, while Trump won men by 8 points.  

 

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine complimented former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy tonight but stopped short of saying he would appoint him to a Senate seat.

DeWine called Ramaswamy "articulate" and emphasized he was impressed with his speech last night.

"I’m not going to get into names at this point," he told NBC News' Tom Llamas about a potential open Senate seat in Ohio. "What I’ve said is, you know, we got to win this campaign."

Ramaswamy has expressed interest in Vance's Senate seat if Trump were to win in November.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former Fox News host who is engaged to Donald Trump Jr., blasted Biden for bringing the nation and the world "closer to World War III than any time in my life."

Raising her voice throughout most of her remarks, Guilfoyle also took a swipe at Biden's age and physical abilities.

"Joe Biden cannot lead America," she said. "He cannot even lead himself off a stage."

Trump is entering the convention now to James Brown's "It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World" in a version sung by Brown and Luciano Pavarotti. He still has a bandage on his right ear after the assassination attempt.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., talked in her remarks about her husband's being shot in combat — and seemingly compared it to the attempt on Trump's life.

"I know the fear and anguish of waiting for news about a loved one in harm's way and the pain of losing friends in combat," she said. "President Trump knows what it means to put your life on the line."

At a convention event earlier today, Trump said "God was with me" when a shooter tried to assassinate him.

"God was with me, I tell ya. That was a — that’s what they call a close call," he said in a video posted on X by podcaster Monica Crowley.

"And in many ways, it changes your, your attitude, your viewpoint toward life. And I think, honestly, I think you appreciate God even more really," Trump added.

The mayor of East Palestine, Ohio — where a freight train derailed in February 2023, spewing hazardous material — attacked the Biden administration's response to the disaster.

"I know a thing or two about train wrecks, and that's what the Biden-Harris administration has been," he said, pointing out that Biden didn't visit the site until a year later.

Conaway notably omitted any mention of the visit Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made to the disaster site on Feb. 23, 2023.

The Democratic National Committee has launched nine new billboards in Milwaukee, seizing on Vance's past comments about abortion. During a podcast interview in 2022, Vance said he would “like abortion to be illegal nationally.”

The new billboard, which appears in both English and Spanish and quotes that remark, was placed this afternoon, ahead of Vance’s RNC speech tonight.

“Every American deserves to know that this is Trump and Vance’s extreme Project 2025 agenda: Banning abortion nationwide, even without Congress, and coming after all of our basic rights,” DNC Spokesperson Aida Ross said in a statement.

Kellyanne Conway, who worked in the Trump White House, argued in her convention speech that Trump has a record of hiring women to important positions.

"My relationship with Mr. Trump was forged under fire in a foxhole in 2016 after he asked me to be his campaign manager. We had no idea that he was making history as the first successful presidential nominee ever to tap a woman to lead a campaign," she said.

Conway said that was "natural" for Trump, adding that he elevated women in New York real estate circles decades earlier. She said that at one White House meeting, the other people participating were working mothers.

The former head of the RNC had a simple message for Republican voters: re-elect Biden. 

“What the hell is wrong you? You know what you have to do,” former RNC Chair Michael Steele told several dozen people gathered at a Principles First panel. 

“You cannot give up on us,” he said of the country. 

The parents of 22-year-old Omer Neutra, who was kidnapped by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, will address the convention tonight.

In an interview ahead of their remarks, Ronen and Orna Neutra emphasized that they wanted to raise awareness about their son and other hostages.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum blasted Biden's energy policies, telling attendees, "The day that Biden halted permits for ... natural gas export facilities, just think about the party they must have thrown that night at the Kremlin because Biden's policies are making Russia and Iran filthy rich."

"Biden is acting like a dictator," he added.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., presented Biden with polling data that reflected the state of the race and how it could affect the party in a one-on-one meeting Saturday, two sources familiar with the meeting said.

The two met with no staff members in the room at Biden’s home in Rehoboth, Delaware, the sources said, describing their conversation as “blunt.” The sources would not say whether Schumer directly called on Biden to consider dropping out of the race.

Much of the recent public polling reflects that Biden narrowly trails Trump nationally and that Trump leads in several key battleground states; much of the polling data remains within the polls' margins of error.

The “drill, baby, drill!” chants at the convention sound like a portal into another dimension. It’s not 2008 anymore; the U.S. under Joe Biden is producing more crude oil than any country in history, according to a report in March from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro spokeon tonight, fresh out of federal prison.

Statement

"The J6 committee demanded that I betray Donald John Trump to save my own skin — I refused. Here's the thing about the Constitution. They demanded that I break the law because they have no respect for it. I refused, and a Democrat majority in the House then voted to hold me in contempt."

Sarah Philips, a petroleum engineer from West Virginia, said near the beginning of her convention remarks tonight that she was at the campaign rally where there was an attempt to assassinate Trump.

"I, in fact, was the first speaker on stage that day," Philips said. "As you can imagine, it was a terrifying experience, but nothing, nothing, was going to stop me from being here to support President Trump."

She added "thank God" Trump is alive.

Fifth-generation Arizona rancher Jim Chilton, whose ranch extends for more than 5 miles along the U.S. border with Mexico, called for a wall to help keep out "aliens."

Chilton said the area is "a known route for drug smuggling and human trafficking."

"These are not asylum-seekers," he said.

In his speech, Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott blasted Biden for "fighting tooth and nail to stop Texas and other Republican states from securing our own borders."

Abbott said he fought back and "directed the Texas National Guard to take back our land and wire it shut."

But, he added, "I see hope on the horizon, because on November the 5th, Joe Biden will be fired."

David Lara, who owns a small business on the U.S.-Mexico border, denounced the Biden administration in his speech for its handling of crime in his area.

"We are the fright line of the Biden border crisis. Small towns like mine bear the brunt of the chaos. Imagine crowds rushing the port, overwhelming Border Patrol when they know they don’t have enough agents to detain everyone. Imagine strangers terrorizing your homes, their neighbors, your yards and local schools," he said.

He said of crime and violence on the border, "Joe Biden [and] Kamala Harris do not care. In fact, they seem satisfied. They have done nothing to stop it and everything to make it worse." 

Biden signed an executive action last month imposing new restrictions on the border by temporarily shutting down asylum requests. That month, border crossings fell to their lowest rate since he took office.

As the Trump love fest continued nearby at Fiserv Forum, conservatives who refuse to back the former president declared the GOP officially dead. 

“The party is done,” shouted Joe Walsh, a tea party Republican who served one term as a congressman from Illinois beginning in 2011. 

Tom Homan, who was acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Trump administration, blasted Biden at the convention tonight, saying the border is now "unsecure."

"Biden is the first president in American history to come into office and unsecure the border. Who the hell does that on their first day in office?" Homan said.

Democrats hit back.

Abhi Rahman, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, said Homan was "a driving force behind Donald Trump’s inhumane family separation policy."

"His presence tonight is further proof that if Trump wins office again, he and his extreme allies’ Project 2025 agenda will wreak havoc on immigrant communities and families," Rahman added.

The main entrance to get into the hard security perimeter surrounding Fiserv Forum has devolved into a circuslike atmosphere, featuring musicians, preaching — and a lot of noise. 

One man, who has walked around the area for the last three days, is screaming expletives at the top his lungs into a megaphone. Another megaphone-wielding man is quoting Bible verses.

And a guitarist has set up with an amp and is belting out melodic Christian rock.

An anti-Trump protester also wheeled in a bicycle toting a poster calling the man who tried to assassinate Trump an “American hero.”

Oh, and there’s a person in a giant rat costume protesting animal testing.

About an hour earlier, a tense shouting match broke out at this intersection between anti-abortion-righs protesters and members of a nationalist group openly carrying handguns. 

Roughly 20 police officers are observing the spectacle from across the street. All of this is occurring feet away from the dozens of delegates and convention attendees waiting to go through security.

Statement

"Biden's FBI has even stated that practicing Catholics present an elevated risk of domestic terrorism simply because of their faith."

Navarro's speech leaned heavily into inflammatory and anti-migrant rhetoric, saying Biden had opened borders to "murderers and rapists."

"We read the papers — it's murderers and rapists," he said, denying that his statements were racist.

Navarro also argued that former Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have "blood on their hands."

He called his opponents "lawfare jackals," saying they would be held accountable on Election Day.

"I went to prison so you won't have to," Navarro said. "I am your wakeup call."

Peter Navarro, who was released from prison today after having completed a four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee, received loud applause and a standing ovation when he walked onstage.

Navarro, a top former Trump White House official, joked that he wished the audience could see the MAGA tattoo he got in prison.

He talked about being in prison extensively, arguing he was jailed for disagreeing with the government. (A jury found him guilty of obstruction of justice.)

"I went to prison, so you won't have to," Navarro said.

A delegate in the crowd is holding up a sign reading "Fire Cheatle," referring to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.

Cheatle, who has been the director since 2022, is under fire in the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans have called for Cheatle's ouster, as well, and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has subpoenaed her to testify at a public hearing Monday focused on the assassination attempt and the security on site in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., mocked Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., in his convention speech after Menendez was found guilty yesterday on all counts in his corruption trial.

"Under Biden-Harris, America has fallen sicker, lonelier and poorer. Under Trump, we prospered. We were richer; inflation was low," Gaetz began. "Inflation has gotten so bad you can no longer bribe Democrat senators with cash alone. You have to use gold bars just so the bribes hold value."

Some of the bribes Menendez accepted included gold bars. 

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, told the crowd that "Father Time has not been kind to Joe Biden" and blamed Biden's staff and family for letting him run for office again.

Jackson, 57, a medical doctor, added that "perhaps the greatest blame lies with his own vice president, Kamala Harris," before he accused Harris of not being "truthful with us."

"She has lied to us. She has put party above country, and she is as unfit in character as Joe Biden is in body and mind," Jackson added.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican, says he might be interested in running for governor of Florida.

“One thing that would be interesting is looking at an ecosystem like the state of Florida, potentially running for governor,” Suarez told NBC News’ Tom Llamas.

Suarez ran for president this year and endorsed Trump after he dropped out of the race.

In his convention speech, Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., criticized Biden for saying at the presidential debate last month that no U.S. service members have died on his watch.

"Joe Biden doesn’t even remember that it cost the lives of 13 American heroes," Mast said, referring to the deaths of troops during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Mast, an Afghanistan war veteran who lost his legs and a finger in combat, said Biden has "disgraced their sacrifice." He said neither Biden nor Harris deserves "to be saluted as commander in chief or to sit in the Oval Office."

A brief — but loud — skirmish erupted outside the main entrance into the hard security perimeter surrounding Fiserv Forum when protesters with an anti-abortion-rights group and members of a self-described “American nationalist” group called New Frontier USA began screaming at one another with megaphones. 

The confrontation grew heated as members of both groups — about a half-dozen on each side — neared one another to engage in a saliva-spewing shouting match. 

New Frontier USA members openly carried holstered handguns (in Wisconsin, it is legal to do so without a permit), adding a layer of tension.

The shouting match nevertheless didn’t seem to turn heads in the line of dozens of delegates and Republican faithful, just feet away, waiting to go through security to enter. 

After about 15 minutes, bicycle-mounted police officers separated the groups. They remain on the scene.

NBC News talked with four other delegates at the RNC who expressed sympathy for Biden over his recent Covid-19 diagnosis.

One delegate told NBC News’s Hallie Jackson that she’s “praying” for the president and hopes he has a “very fast recovery.”

If you think the idea of mass deportation is controversial … it’s not in this room.

The campaign has printed up “mass deportation NOW!” signs and distributed them around the room. They’ll be plenty visible on cameras as delegates wave them.

Vance started the day today by having breakfast with his wife and kids, a source familiar with the situation told NBC News. “His eldest son, Ewan, who is 7, is already starting to tell people to vote for his dad — but only if they’re 18,” the source said.

Vance, in addition to an event reported earlier, visited the Ohio delegation this afternoon for a reception at the Harley Davidson Museum. The name of the event, which included Ohio GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, was “Harleys and Hillbillies,” according to two sources who were in the room for the closed-press event. (It’s a play on the title of Vance's 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”)

So far, there has been a minimal presence of protesters at the RNC in Milwaukee.

Other than a large march Monday by a leftist group, the Coalition to March on the RNC, there has only been only a smattering of small and scattered protests through the first three days of the convention.

Heading into the convention, Milwaukee and Secret Service officials had laid plans for two “First Amendment zones” blocks from Fiserv Forum, where protesters could gather. (Protest organizers and progressive groups in Milwaukee were critical of the plan, saying the zones were too far away from the convention).

But the two zones have been almost completely empty through the first three days of the convention. For multiple hours each day, both Zeidler Union Square Park and Haymarket Square Park have been totally barren. 

The minimal protest footprint was on overt display at Zeidler this afternoon as Clifford Lee Johnson stood with three friends holding signs protesting Trump. “I have to say it’s just stunning,” Johnson, of Milwaukee, said of the sparse protest presence.

The four were the only ones in the park. Lee theorized that “maybe the assassination attempt somehow scared people off.”

“Or,” he added, “maybe a lot of people have a feeling that’s just like ‘Why? What’s the point?’”

Tennessee delegates at the RNC reacted to news that Biden has tested positive for Covid. “Bless his heart,” says one.

Another said: “Trump gets shot and he’s here. Biden gets a cough and he cancels.”

James Wigderson was among the first of several dozen people seated at the historic Pabst Brewing Co. tonight.

Wearing a red hat, Wigderson smirked when he was asked about the message emblazoned above his brow: “Make Red Hats Wearable Again.”

Wigderson drove 30 minutes from Waukesha, Wisconsin, for an event hosted by Principles First, an anti-Trump coalition of conservatives keen on beating him despite daunting odds.

Trump is expected to appear in the arena tonight for Vance's remarks.

Trump walked through the stage earlier today, preparing for his remarks for tomorrow.

There's no shortage of cowboy hats among the conventioneers eager to show off their loyalty to Trump.

In an interview with BET yesterday, Biden said he would drop out of the presidential race if he developed a medical condition that prevented him from running.

"If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said you got this problem, that problem," Biden said.

In response to shouted questions, Biden just told reporters as he was set to leave Las Vegas that he was "good, I feed good," despite his Covid diagnosis.

Biden was not wearing a mask; neither were the staff members boarding Air Force One with him.

Former Trump White House aide Peter Navarro spoke briefly with NBC News about his experience in prison and the message he wants to send in his convention speech tonight. Navarro was just released from prison ahead of his address.

“I went to prison so they won’t have to,” Navarro said. “I’m the wakeup call on the weaponization of our injustice system.”

About the message he will deliver tonight, Navarro said: “If we don’t control our government, their government will control us.”

Navarro said he did not get guidance from Trump about his convention speech.

When Vance accepts the Republican nomination for vice president here tonight, he will draw on his turbulent upbringing in a family that wrestled with drug addiction and other socioeconomic crises in a Midwest steel town.

It’s a story of working-class struggle familiar to those who read “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance’s bestselling 2016 memoir, or who saw the 2020 movie that Netflix adapted from it.

And though Vance’s story will be new to many in a broader prime-time audience, Trump’s campaign hopes it will ring true and reinforce his strength with blue-collar voters in battleground states. Vance will connect his experiences to issues like trade, inflation, immigration and the fentanyl crisis and to Trump’s policies to address them, multiple sources familiar with his speech said.

Read the full story here.

Biden tested positive for Covid after his first Las Vegas event today, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

Biden " is experiencing mild symptoms," she said. He will isolate in Delaware.

"The President presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorhea (runny nose) and non-productive cough, with general mailaise," said a section of the White House news release attributed to Biden's doctor.

The doctor added that Biden has received his first dose of Paxlovid.

"His symptoms remain mild, his respiratory rate is normal at 16, his temperature is normal at 97.8 and his pulse oximetry is normal at 97%. The President has received his first dose of Paxlovid," the doctor said.

Biden has tested positive for Covid-19, according to Janet Murguía, president of UnidosUS.

Biden was scheduled to speak at the group’s conference in Las Vegas today.

"Regrettably, I was just on the phone with President Biden, and he shared his deep disappointment at not being able to join us this afternoon," said Murguía, whose group bills itself as the largest Latino advocacy organization in the U.S. "The president has been at many events, as we all know, and he just tested positive for Covid."

“We're not going to get rid of him that quickly,” Murguía said.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has told allies that he will resign after being convicted on federal corruption charges, two people directly familiar with those conversations tell NBC News.

Menendez, who had been defiant for months in the face of calls from dozens of Senate Democrats to resign, appears to have finally relented after the guilty verdict and growing threats to expel him if he refused. He is calling allies to tell them of his intention to resign, these sources said, which would end a three-decade career in Congress that included a powerful committee chairmanship, writing major legislation and two criminal trials over allegations of corruption.

Read the full story here.

Ahead of Vance's GOP convention speech tonight, NBC News asked undecided voters in Nevada what they thought about his selection as Trump's running mate.

DJ Lendow, an independent who doesn't like Trump but isn't sold on Biden, said he's heard that Vance was in the military. "He's a Marine — but so is John McCain, who is a POW, and Trump just disrespected him," Lendow said. "He disrespected countless Gold Star Families."

Tricia Christensen, a Republican who doesn't like Trump or Biden, said she hadn't previously heard of Vance before she recently watched the film adaptation of his book, "Hillbilly Elegy." But she wasn't impressed to learn that he said he would have sided with Trump on the question of whether to certify the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.

"That dissuades me from voting, from being impressed with him," Christensen said. "Then he's just following Trump to get the role or to get the voters or whatever."

An estimated 14.81 million viewers tuned in to watch the convention last night, according to data compiled by Nielsen.

The second night of the convention focused on security and featured speeches from former presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, as well as remarks from Senate candidates like West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, accompanied by his famed bulldog, Babydog.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, who spoke at the GOP convention Monday, appears to have removed references to abortion from his campaign website.

When he ran for lieutenant governor, Robinson included a "pro-life" section on his "Issues" page that accused "the radical left" of believing that "low income families should abort their babies."

The page added, "As a Christian, Mark will stand for life.”

Robinson is using the same web address for his gubernatorial run and recently relaunched the "Issues" page. It now makes no mention of abortion, listing only "growing our economy," "improving our education system," "increasing public safety" and "expanding veterans care."

Activists with Truth Pharm organized tributes to victims of the overdose epidemic at one of the designated protest zones in Milwaukee. The activists were frustrated that the zone is so far from any of the foot traffic from the convention.

JD Vance, who is set to give his first speech tonight since he was named Trump’s running mate, chronicled his family’s battles with drug addiction in his bestselling memoir-turned-film, "Hillbilly Elegy."

Asked by NBC News’ Kristen Welker whether he believes Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle should resign following the attempted assassination of his father, Eric Trump said there is “no question about it.”

“How can this possibly happen?” he continued, saying that had the attempt been successful, the U.S. would have looked like a “third world country.” 

“This can’t happen in the United States. Somebody’s got to be held accountable. You can’t just sweep that kind of stuff under the rug," he added.

The Biden-Harris campaign is launching an ad that mentions Vance for the first time.

The 60-second spot focuses on Hadley Duvall, a young woman from Kentucky, who was sexually abused and raped by her stepfather starting when she was 5 years old. She got pregnant when she was 12.

A small group of pro-Trump protesters are gathered near one of the security checkpoints outside the RNC in downtown Milwaukee, waving flags and holding signs.

One of them is Amy Lee, who traveled from San Diego to support the Republican nominee.

“He puts America first,” said Lee, who was also wearing an American flag outfit. “He has sacrificed everything for this country, so people need to see that and get behind him.” 

Trump is participating in a walkthrough ahead of his speech tomorrow at the RNC.   

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and running mate Nicole Shanahan will be on the November ballot in North Carolina following a North Carolina State Board of Elections vote Tuesday to approve Kennedy’s nominating party, We the People, for ballot access. The approval brings Kennedy’s November ballot access to 12 states nationwide, and comes as Kennedy’s official campaign, continues to use We the People’s push for ballot access in all 50 states as a key campaign message intended to energize third party voters.   

Kennedy will be on the ticket in California, Florida, Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and North Carolina. Those 12 states offer a combined 170 electoral votes.

The Trump campaign said today that it won't agree to proposed dates for a vice presidential debate until at least the Democratic National Convention.

“We don’t know who the Democrat nominee for Vice President is going to be, so we can’t lock in a date before their convention. To do so would be unfair to Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, or whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate," Trump campaign aide Brian Hughes said in a statement.

In an interview clip with BET News that aired on CBS News last night, Biden responded to questions about re-evaluating his decision to remain in the race and said a "medical condition" could cause him to reconsider.

"If doctors came to me and said, you got this problem, that problem, but I made a serious mistake in the whole debate," he said.

The full interview will air tonight at 10 p.m. on BET.

Trump's vice presidential pick JD Vance said in remarks this afternoon that the press was dishonest after the assassination attempt on the former president on Saturday by implying that Trump needed to tone down the rhetoric.

“Well, Donald Trump got shot and he toned down the temperature. That’s what a real leader does,” he said.

Vance went on to say that people are much worse off under Biden than they were four years ago under Trump.

“The guy who actually connects with working people in this country is not fake Scranton Joe, it’s real President Donald Trump," he said.

“Those same exact families would say, absolutely, yes, it is time to go back to the leadership of Donald Trump," he continued. "It is time to get rid of the corrupt Biden-Harris regime that has broken this country, that has ruined its reputation in the world and, most importantly, has made a basic middle-class life less affordable for our citizens.”

Gary Leffler, a Trump superfan from West Des Moines, Iowa, said he thinks Trump's choice of Vance for VP shows the former president is thinking about the long term.

"He’s a lame-duck president," said Leffler, 63, about Trump's term limits should he win the election. "So I really viewed his pick for a vice president as really critical as to the future.” 

Leffler, an alternate delegate for Iowa who drives his star-spangled tractor to Trump events throughout the Hawkeye state, said Trump picking Vance could extend the MAGA movement for more than a decade.

"Picking a younger guy, all of a sudden, he turns his presidency from a four-year term to potentially a 12-year term,” said Leffler, giddy with the pick. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke and both agreed to make the push to delay the DNC virtual roll call, two sources familiar with the decision tell NBC News.

One source said that Jeffries spoke to the DNC and passed along concerns that members wanted to see the virtual roll-call vote delayed.

Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., told NBC News that he believes Menendez should resign.

"Senator Menendez had his day in court and was found guilty by a jury. Given the verdict and the responsibility we have as elected officials to lead by example, I believe the senator should resign," he said.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is among the ranks of congressional Democrats who pushed for the Democratic National Committee to delay plans for the early confirmation of Biden as the party’s presidential nominee through a "virtual roll call," a source familiar with the matter told NBC News.  

Schumer’s support of the delay comes one day after NBC News obtained a draft letter signed by more than 20 House Democrats who urged the DNC to wait until the August convention to confirm Biden as the party nominee, arguing the committee’s plan to hold a "virtual roll call" would prematurely squash the party debate over whether Biden should remain at the top of the ticket.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the co-chair of the Democratic National Convention’s Rules Committee, told reporters on Wednesday that virtual voting would not start until after Aug. 1 and will need to be concluded by Aug. 7 to avoid potential legal issues under an Ohio law that set that date as the deadline for candidates’ names to be submitted for the November ballot.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., on Wednesday called on Biden to drop out of the presidential race.

“A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November," Schiff wrote in a statement.

Schiff gave the Biden campaign a heads up before publicly calling on him to drop out, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Read the full story here.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and other top Republicans are calling for the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle days after a gunman tried to assassinate Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.

“I’m going to call for resignation …” Johnson, R-La., said during an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “Look, I think it’s inexcusable. … Her explanation to the media that there was a slant on the roof, so there was safety concern — it doesn’t wash. And I think she’s shown what her priorities are.”

Read the full story here.

A spokesperson for Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., who was leading an effort to prevent the Democratic National Committee from nominating Biden ahead of the August convention, said a draft letter to House Democrats on that effort will no longer be sent.

The decision comes after a separate letter went out to DNC members this morning saying Democrats would nominate Biden in a virtual roll-call vote in early August, not in the coming days as was feared by the House Democrats involved with the letter. Those Democrats said they were concerned that such a move to accelerate the nomination would shut down the debate over whether Biden should drop his re-election bid.

Democrats had said they need to take the early vote to avoid any legal issues related to the prospect of missing Ohio's ballot deadline.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., co-chair of Biden’s re-election campaign, said the president isn’t backing down amid calls from some Democrats to step aside after his poor debate performance last month.

“The president is doing what everyone called on him to do in the days after the debate several weeks ago — he’s campaigning and he’s leading,” Coons said when asked by MSNBC host Jose Diaz-Balart whether Biden’s patience is waning amid calls to drop out of the presidential race.

Pressed on what he would say to Democrats who believe Biden's ticket might not be the most winning one, Coons said he understands the “widespread concern” among some of his colleagues and others, including Rep. Adam Schiff, who is running for Senate in California, but noted there are several months to go before November.

“I don’t know of any candidate for president in modern history who, because the polls are moving one way or the other by a few points, abandoned their campaign for the presidency in July,” he said. “I do know that President Biden has heard from lots of folks like congressman Schiff, and many others in my party, and their concerns.”

Democrats plan to formally renominate President Joe Biden in a virtual roll call vote during the first week of August, before the party’s national convention, despite protests from some Democrats who want more time for the party to consider alternative nominees.

The plan was formally announced in a letter to Democratic National Committee members sent this morning, after weeks of internal struggle about whether to stick with Biden after a weak debate performance.

Parties typically nominate their presidential standard bearers during live roll call votes at their national conventions, which are often a highlight of the events. But Democrats have been planning for the unusual virtual roll call prior to the convention to avoid potential litigation in Ohio, they say.

The Biden campaign continued its daily RNC press conference today, this time focusing on what it characterized as efforts by Trump, Vance and the Republican Party to restrict abortion nationwide.

 The focus on abortion underscored how the campaign plans to target Vance now that he has been selected as Trump’s running mate, with speakers throughout the presser homing in on past comments by Vance regarding the procedure.

 “JD Vance is an anti-choice politician whose views on reproductive freedom and women’s rights would take us back decades," said Quentin Fulks, Biden's principal deputy campaign manager. "He supports a nationwide ban on abortion and criticizes exceptions for rape, incest survivors, saying two wrongs don’t make a right. In fact, he called rape and incest inconvenient and he wants women to stay in the violent marriages."

Fulks was joined by Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz, Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, and Amanda Zurawski, an abortion rights activist who says she was personally affected by Texas’ abortion restrictions.

Trump will be surrounded by his most valued set of advisers and surrogates — members of his own family — when he formally accepts the presidential nomination here tomorrow, less than a week after having survived an assassination attempt.

The roles of those relatives have shifted over Trump’s nine years in the political arena, with more recent changes reflecting a tighter adherence to the political, policy and personality preferences of his Make America Great Again base.

Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner — criticized as symbols of nepotism run amok by the left and by Trump loyalists as too close to the establishment when they served as White House advisers — have kept their distance publicly since his 2020 defeat. Former first lady Melania Trump has been all but absent from her husband’s third campaign for the Oval Office.

Read the full story here.

Days after the attempted assassination of Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last weekend, Reps. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., are circulating a new bipartisan letter calling for “peace and civility in our nation’s politics.”

“We have the ability to lead by example and show people we can disagree without dehumanizing each other,” they wrote in a letter obtained first by NBC News. “Considering the current political division in our nation, we understand that this may be easier said than done. There is a system of hatred and grifting that has infused itself into our politics. We see it on TV and social media daily, making this task challenging. We must find ways to find commonality with each other.”

Peter Navarro, a former adviser to Trump who was convicted of contempt of Congress last year, was released from prison in Miami today, according to the Federal Correctional Institution of Miami.

Navarro is scheduled to speak at the RNC tonight. A post on his account on X this morning said, "Today, July 17, Peter Navarro is going to be released from federal prison. The best is yet to come!"

Below are many of the speakers scheduled to deliver remarks at the Republican National Convention today, which will focus on foreign policy, energy security and Chinese economic threats.

Trump’s running mate

• Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance

Trump family members

• Donald Trump Jr. and his daughter, Kai Trump
• Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancee, who worked for the former president’s 2020 re-election campaign

In a new video, Vice President Kamala Harris decried Trump's vice presidential pick Vance as the former president’s “rubber stamp.”

Harris criticized Vance’s voting record, warned that he would implement Project 2025 — a blueprint for a second Trump term proposed by the Heritage Foundation that Trump has sought to distance himself from — and past comments saying he wouldn’t have immediately certified Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

“Donald Trump has picked his new running mate: JD Vance. Trump looked for someone he knew would be a rubber stamp for his extreme agenda,” Harris says in the video. “Make no mistake: JD Vance will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country. And unlike Mike Pence, Vance said he would have carried out Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election.”

Ahead of Vance’s speech tonight, multiple sources familiar with the remarks tell us to expect him to heavily lean into his biography and what the campaign sees as a powerful story — a turbulent upbringing, raised in poverty.

It’s a biography that may be familiar to readers of his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” but likely less so to the broader American audience watching in prime time.

Vance is expected to connect that life experience to Trump policies, sharing how his life story connects to issues in the campaign, such as trade, inflation’s impact, immigration and the fentanyl crisis. He’ll also emphasize his military background; he’s the first post-9/11 veteran to run on a major party ticket, and the first veteran at all on a major party ticket since the late Sen. John McCain ran for president in 2008.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said Trump called him yesterday to thank him for the security measures implemented around the city during the Republican National Convention this week.

“Yesterday afternoon, the Republican presidential nominee gave me a call. Mr. Trump had positive things to say about his experience so far here in Milwaukee,” Johnson said at a press conference this morning. “He shared his gratitude for the security and for law enforcement preparations.”

“I did appreciate the call from Mr. Trump and I again wished him a speedy recovery from his recent injuries,” he added.

Republicans spent the second night of the convention contrasting legal immigrants who followed U.S. laws to enter the country and “illegal” immigrants.

Numerous speakers drew on the evening’s “Make America Safe Once Again” theme by attacking those who have crossed the border illegally, in many instances calling them dangerous people — a major GOP campaign message and one that Trump repeatedly promotes. They also held up their own family experiences as models that other immigrants should emulate.

Read the full story here.

In a new mobile billboard that will circle the convention today, Democrats plan to attack Trump and Vance on abortion.

The billboard will highlight Trump's statements claiming responsibility for overturning Roe v. Wade and calling Vance "an anti-abortion extremist." It will also direct viewers to a website that further describes Trump's and Vance's previous views on abortion, saying, "J.D. Vance’s agenda is far-right extremism."

A video playing on the mobile billboard will end with the statement "Trump-Vance, MAGA extremists hellbent on banning abortion and punishing women."

Trump welcomed vanquished rivals at his convention here yesterday, keeping watch as, one by one, they stuck to a carefully stage-managed script of party unity.

There was Nikki Haley, who took more than two months to endorse him after she ended her White House bid, speaking to “those who have some doubts” about Trump. There was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Trump ally-turned-challenger, unleashing a robust attack on Biden.

And there was Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who eight years ago in Cleveland urged conventiongoers to “vote your conscience,” thanking “God Almighty” for “turning [Trump’s] head on Saturday as the shot was fired” in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Read the full story here.