RNC 2024 Day 1 live updates: Trump VP pick Vance appears on convention floor

(MILWAUKEE) — The Republican National Convention is set to kick off in Milwaukee on Monday — just two days after Donald Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday evening.

Despite the shooting, the gathering of more than 50,000 attendees, including an expected 2,400 Republican delegates, is slated to maintain its original programming as a time to bring the party together — but now newly energized by Trump’s amazing survival and raised-fist show of defiance.

Here’s how the news is developing:

1st session of the day concludes
The first session of the day has concluded. The proceedings will re-start at approximately 6:45 p.m. ET, according to RNC Chair Michael Whatley.

-ABC News’ Jacob Steinberg

Moment for victims of Trump rally shooting
Connecticut RNC committeewoman Leora Levy, delivering the benediction, began with a call to prayer for the victims in the attempted assassination at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“We pray for Corey Comperatore and family. May his memory always be a blessing,” Levy said. “We pray for the two patriotic Americans who were wounded and for their speedy, complete recovery.”

-ABC News’ Tommy Barone

Trump-Vance ticket announced
House Speaker Mike Johnson has formally announced Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance as the Republican Party’s 2024 ticket to a big round of applause in the convention hall.

-ABC News’ Jacob Steinberg

Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno takes next step to further Vance nomination
Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno made a procedural motion to further Vance’s nomination.

“I know firsthand that my dear friend J.D. is a selfless and brilliant fighter,” Moreno said. “He is a patriot who loves America. He loves Ohio, he loves his family. He’s a great father. He’s a great man, and that’s what we need in this nation today.”

-ABC News’ Tommy Barone

Ohio lieutenant governor takes stage to nominate Vance
Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted took to the stage to formally nominate his home-state senator for vice president.

“Are we ready, are we ready to nominate the vice president?” Husted said, addressing the Ohio delegation.

Chants of “J.D.” broke out near the Ohio delegation section.

Husted said Vance is the “embodiment of the American dream.”

-ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler

JD Vance enters convention floor, stops for selfies
J.D. Vance has been introduced to a big round of applause, with people in the arena rising to their feet.

He stopped for selfies upon entering the convention floor to the Merle Haggard song “America First” with his wife, Usha Vance, by his side.

-ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler

JD Vance got a 20-minute heads-up on VP pick: Source
Trump called JD Vance with the news that he was selecting the senator as his running mate roughly 20 minutes before announcing it on Truth Social, a source familiar with the call told ABC News.

-ABC News’ Rachel Scott

Roll call results in
House Speaker Mike Johnson has announced that Trump has received 2,387 delegate votes — a unanimous result for the former president — following the conclusion of the convention roll call.

-ABC News’ Jacob Steinberg

McConnell booed as he awarded Kentucky’s delegates to Trump
When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Kentucky would award its delegates to the former president, the tone in the convention center changed from its celebratory mood.

McConnell was joined by his wife, Elaine Chao, Trump’s former transportation secretary who resigned in the wake of Jan. 6, 2021.

The reception to McConnell’s delegate announcement was in marked contrast to the cheers of Trump allies as the party introduced a new-look platform and nominated a man McConnell said had morally failed the nation and invited the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, is stepping down from his position this fall.

‘Fight, fight, fight!,’ delegates chant
Chants of “fight” popped up during the roll call — a nod to Trump, who could be seen mouthing “fight” and pumping his fist as he was taken off the stage following Saturday’s assassination attempt.

Following Delaware’s pledging of their votes to Trump, members of its delegation raised their fists in the air and chanted “fight, fight, fight!”

Wyoming delegates have done the same.

Idaho Republican Party chairwoman Dorothy Moon, while announcing delegates for Trump, led delegates in chanting “fight, fight, fight!”

-ABC News’ Jacob Steinberg and Tommy Barone

Trump clears threshold to lock in nomination
Trump has officially cleared the numerical threshold at which he has locked in the nomination, with a pause in the roll call for celebration.

Florida, his adoptive home state, put him over the edge as his son, Eric Trump, announced the delegates.

-ABC News’ Tommy Barone

Donald Trump Jr. encouraged Vance choice, calls him the ‘American dream’
Donald Trump Jr. played a key role in his father picking Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate.

Sources tell ABC News the former president’s son “led a strong push” for him behind the scenes and that Trump made his decision in the last few hours.

Trump Jr. told ABC’s Rachel Scott on the RNC convention floor he was “incredibly excited.”

“J.D’s become a really good friend … his story is an incredible one, the American dream.”

“I know the man, I know the character,” Trump Jr. said of his friend, J.D. Vance.

-ABC’s John Santucci and Rachel Scott

Roll call vote underway
The roll call vote to select Trump as the nominee is in progress, after the former president was formally nominated by Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufman and Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald.

“We want to remind all our delegates, alternates and guests that maintaining order during the roll call is extremely important,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.

In his speech, Kaufman said that over the next four days, they will hear about Trump’s “broad and inspiring vision for our country.”

“This is not a program just for Republicans, but one for all Americans,” he said.

In his speech, McDonald played up Trump’s support for eliminating taxes on tips — a policy that plays well in the service-industry-dependent swing state of Nevada.

“In Nevada, a state that is resilient on service industry. President Trump has proposed to eliminate taxes on tips on day one,” McDonald said. “Unlike the Biden-Harris administration and the Democrats that increased taxes on tips.”

As Iowa cast its votes, Iowa GOP chair Kaufman gave a shoutout to basketball star Caitlin Clark, while Sen. Mike Lee of Utah shouted out JD Vance — Trump’s just-revealed VP pick — as he announced the state’s delegates for Trump.

-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim

Trump announces Vance as his running mate
Trump announced Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance will be his running mate, writing on Truth Social that the Ohio Republican is “the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States.”

The decision caps off months of speculation and sees Trump elevate a 39-year-old first-term senator whose roughly year and a half tenure in the Senate has seen him emerge as a staunch ideological ally of the former president.

GOP party platform passes
The Republicans have passed their party platform, despite dissent from the evangelical wing over softened language on abortion that better matches Trump’s current posture. A fair amount of “nayes” were heard in the convention hall, but not enough for the vote to fail.

Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., told delegates that the “platform was personally approved by President Donald J. Trump.”

“It’s a different kind of platform,” said platform co-chair Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., as she presented the platform for a vote.

“It is not a laundry list of special interests’ wishes, but a succinct, clear agenda and a promise to the American people.”

Before the overwhelming voice vote in Milwaukee, the platform had passed 84-14 by the platform committee.

-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd, Tommy Barone and Jacob Steinberg

Burgum told he is not Trump’s running mate
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has been told he is not Trump’s running mate pick, three sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.

Trump’s pick is expected to be announced at some point Monday.

-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Rick Klein, Katherine Faulders
 

RNC officially underway
The Republican National Convention is underway. A live rendition of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” filled the convention center in Milwaukee. Groups of delegate were seen before and during these opening ceremonies pumping their fists and chanting “fight, fight, fight,” taking up former President Trump’s gesture after the shooting at his rally as a symbol for the party’s nominating convention.

Crowds continued the chant during “God Bless the USA” ahead of a vote on the party’s platform.

RNC co-chair Michael Whatley gaveled the convention to order and asked for a moment of silence to honor the shooting.

As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was announced as an honorary co-chair, audible boos were heard from the crowd. The Senate leader, who will step down from his perch atop the GOP conference, has had a frosty relationship with the former president since Jan. 6, 2021.
-ABC News’ Jay O’Brien

Burgum told he is not Trump’s running mate
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has been told he is not Trump’s running mate pick, three sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.

Trump’s pick is expected to be announced at some point Monday.

-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Rick Klein, Katherine Faulders

Rubio told he is not Trump’s running mate
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has been told he is not former President Donald Trump’s running mate pick, five sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.

Trump’s pick is expected to be announced at some point Monday.

-ABC News’ John Santucci, Katherine Faulders, Rachel Scott, Rick Klein

Trump has made his VP selection
Trump has selected his running mate, a senior campaign official told ABC News.

-ABC News’ John Santucci

Trump has made his VP selection
Trump has selected his running mate, a senior campaign official told ABC News.

-ABC News’ John Santucci

Vivek Ramaswamy recounts ‘anger’ after Trump shooting, calls for unity
Vivek Ramaswamy, speaking with reporters after his speech at the Heritage Policy Fest, joined Trump in stressing unity after the shooting at the former president’s Pennsylvania rally.

ABC News asked Ramaswamy for his response to Republicans like J.D. Vance going after Democrats and President Joe Biden in the wake of the attempted assassination attempt.

“Look, I think that there is a lot of understandable anger. I was … my first reaction was anger,” Ramaswamy said. “And the reason my first reaction was anger was that the only thing more tragic than what happened on Saturday is that if we’re being really honest with ourselves, all of us, it wasn’t totally a shock, actually. And that, that is maddening. And that … makes me angry as a citizen of the United States of America. But the question is, how do we channel that anger?”

Ramaswamy said Republicans have a “second chance that Lincoln didn’t have: to unite a country that this time didn’t have to fight a civil war, but avoids one.”

“If that bullet hit Donald Trump, we’d be in a very different place now,” he said. “And the fact that we’ve been given that chance, I think it’s our responsibility to step up and seize it not by compromising on our principles, but by actually reviving the principles that unite all of us. And by seeing the enemy as the ideology that we’re up against, rather than our fellow neighbors as our enemy combatants, and that’s what I call on not only the Republican Party but every American to do in the wake of what happened on Saturday.”

-ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler

Pre-planned group of 1,700 National Guardsmen and other troops supporting RNC security
As part of a plan that predates the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, roughly 1,700 National Guardsmen and several active-duty troops will assist other agencies with security at the Republican National Convention, according to Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh.

“In regards to the Republican National Convention, approximately 1,700 National Guard and a small number of active-duty personnel will be providing support to civil authorities from July 13 through 19. These personnel are supporting the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and Milwaukee Metro Police Department for 24/7 operations,” Singh said.

Singh emphasized that this support was pre-planned, and not related to the shooting at Trump’s rally over the weekend, nor was the force augmented as a result.

-Matt Seyler

Trump says he will announce VP pick today
Former President Donald Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday morning that he will announce his pick for vice president on Monday.

The decision will come after months of speculation about who his running mate will be.

There will be a roll call vote on the presidential ticket, which includes the vice president, on Monday at the RNC.

Trump in Milwaukee as RNC set to begin
The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump has thoroughly altered the stakes and tone of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which kicks off Monday, just two days after a shooter opened fire at the former president’s Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, grazing Trump’s ear and leading to a spectator’s death.

Trump arrived in Milwaukee Sunday afternoon, ahead of the RNC’s start on Monday.

In a social media post Sunday, Trump indicated that he was going to delay his trip, but decided he wouldn’t allow a “shooter” to change his scheduled plans to head to the RNC.

U.S. Secret Service and other officials said Sunday there are no plans to expand the security perimeter and that there are no known threats. Ahead of the shooting at his rally, the GOP convention was gearing up to be an extravagant event centered around symbolic, Trump-era Republican ideas and party unity, sealed on Thursday with the third nomination of the former president.

-ABC’s Brittany Shepherd, Kelsey Walsh and Isabella Murray

Trump says he’s scratching planned speech to stress unity instead
As the Republican National Convention begins, the atmosphere will feel entirely different following former President Donald Trump’s attempted assassination.

A day after being grazed by a bullet, Trump indicated he plans to take advantage of the moment and deliver a message of unity.

The former president said he is scratching his original convention speech from rallying his base against President Joe Biden to now attempting to draw the country together, according to an interview he did with the Washington Examiner conducted as he boarded his flight to Milwaukee Sunday evening.

During the first official session, delegates — nearly 2,400 from across the nation — must approve the committee platform and formally designate a presidential ticket. The ticket will include Trump’s vice president who he has yet to name.
The evening session’s theme is “Make America Wealthy Again.” Speeches will include issues focused on beating inflation, rising costs and creating more jobs.

-ABC’s Kelsey Walsh