Republican National Convention 2024 as it happened: Trump running mate J.D. Vance accepts nomination

Foreign policy hawks are out in force for the third day of the Republican Convention, under the day’s theme: “Make America Strong Again”.

Thank you for joining me, Chris Zappone, and Sherryn Groch for the live coverage of the third day of the Republican National Convention.

A quick recap of the day’s events:

• J.D. Vance accepts the nomination for vice president on the Republican ticket.
• President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID.
• Biden says he’d reconsider running if a “medical condition” emerged.

Please join us tomorrow for day four of the convention – when Donald Trump will officially accept the Republican nomination.

Donald Trump embraces his family as day three of the RNC wraps up.Credit: AP

An analysis of the rally grounds in Butler, Pennsylvania suggests that two Secret Service counter-sniper teams in charge of Donald Trump’s security may have initially been hindered in their ability to see the shooter as he crawled up the roof.

Days after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, questions still swirl over how the Secret Service allowed the gunman to get so close to the ex-president.

Read the full story here.

Hundreds of people gathered to remember the former fire chief shot and killed at a weekend rally for former president Donald Trump, and were urged to seek unity and healing in the rural area of Pennsylvania shaken by the violence perpetrated by a local 20-year-old man.

Outside Lernersville Speedway in Sarvar, Pennsylvania, where the vigil was being held for Corey Comperatore, a sign read: “Rest in Peace Corey, Thank You For Your Service”, with the logo of his fire company.

Mourners attend a candlelight vigil for Corey Comperatore at the Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pennsylvania.Credit: AP

On the rural road to the auto racing track – lined with cornfields, churches and industrial plants – a sign outside a local credit union reads: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Comperatore family.”

Comperatore, 50, had worked as a project and tooling engineer, was an army reservist and spent many years as a volunteer firefighter after serving as chief, according to his obituary.

Flowers and a tribute to fallen firefighter Corey Comperatore at the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company on Monday.Credit: AP

He died Saturday during a gunman’s attempt to kill Trump at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Comperatore spent the final moments of his life shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire, officials said.

AP

US senators were told in the all-member briefing today that Thomas Matthew Crooks wrote on a gaming platform called Steam that “July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds”, Fox News has reported.

Thomas Matthew Crooks as a student, in a 2021 photo provided by Bethel Park School District.Credit: AP

Investigators reviewing the laptop found a few searches in July of: Trump, Biden, when is the DNC convention, and July 13 Trump rally.

“Investigators have found no evidence of a particular ideology, which the FBI believes is notable, and nobody in interviews reported Crooks discussing politics,” wrote Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich.

Vance drew upon his bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy to talk about growing up in a faded Ohio town. He credited his success to his grandmother, who he refers to as “Mamaw”.

He recounted how she was “tough as nails”. Vance recalled that he was spending too much time hanging out with a local kid who dealt drugs, prompting his grandmother to say she’d run the boy over with her car if Vance didn’t stop.

Beverly Vance, mother of Republican vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance.Credit: AP

“She said: ‘J.D., no one will ever find out about it,’” Vance recalled.

The crowd roared and began chanting: “Mamaw! Mamaw!”

He then singled out his mother, Beverly, in attendance, “who struggled with money and addiction but never gave up. And I am proud to say that tonight my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober.”

Vance lays out a sceptical view of trade and foreign wars.

The 39-year-old paints a picture of the class grievances that Trump articulated in 2016, helping him get elected. Inflation. Jobs. Housing. Immigration.

Then he goes on the attack: “Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington as long as I’ve been alive,” Vance says.

Rapturous crowds welcome J.D. Vance to the stage.Credit: AP

“For half a century, he’s been a champion of every single policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”

In contrast, Vance said, Trump in four years was able to reverse all those negative trends.

“Just imagine what he’s going to do when we give him four more years,” Vance said, sparking chants of “four more years”.

With a kiss to his wife, vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance walks out to the sound of Merle Haggard’s America First which has played several times during the convention.

Bowing his head and waving to the crowd, the 39-year-old Ohio senator, elected just 20 months ago, says, “Wow, wow!” as the crowd briefly chants “J.D., J.D.”

“My name is J.D. Vance, from the great state of Ohio.”

Republican vice presidential candidate Senator J.D. Vance arrives on stage.Credit: AP

To the chat of O-HIO, he says: “We gotta chill with the Ohio love, we have to win Michigan too.”

“Never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I’d be standing here tonight,” he says, making a direct appeal to the rust belt voters who helped drive Trump’s 2016 victory, making clear he understood their anger and frustration.

“In small towns like mine in Ohio, or next door in Pennsylvania, or in Michigan, in states all across our country, jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war,” he says.

The headline speaker tonight is J.D. Vance, the vice presidential nominee.

But first, his partner Usha talks warmly of her husband and her own background, coming from an Indian family from San Diego.

Usha Vance introduces her husband.Credit: AP

You may have seen pictures of people wearing bandages in sympathy with Donald Trump, whose ear was wounded during the assassination attempt on Saturday.

Here is a gallery of the sites from the convention.

Donald Trump’s son revisits the assassination attempt at the weekend and pays tribute to the fallen firefighter Corey Comperatore.

His father showed “for all the world” that “the next American president has the heart of a lion”, Donald Trump Jr said.

“When he stood up with blood on his face and the flag at his back, the world saw a spirit that could never be broken,” Trump Jr said. “And that is the true spirit of America. America knows what it’s like to be down. We know what it’s like to be confused and afraid.”

Donald Trump Jr and his daughter Kai Madison.Credit: AP

Trump Jr concluded by referencing his father again on Saturday. “He may have moved to the ground but he stood back up,” he said. “He raised his fist in the air and what did he say?” The crowd echoed back: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

The younger Trump references the now-iconic pictures of his father with blood on his face during the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. It shows that Donald Trump has the “heart of a lion”, Donald Jr says.

He also introduces his own daughter Kai Madison, who tells a rapt audience that her grandfather plays golf with her, and likes to talk about the game too.

with AP