Republican National Convention 2024 as it happened: Former Trump rival gives presidential nominee her ‘strong endorsement’; J.D. Vance named as running mate

Good afternoon and thank you for reading our live coverage of US politics, including the second night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

• A series of former Trump rivals and critics, including former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, threw their weight behind Donald Trump at the Republican jamboree. Haley said a vote for Democratic President Joe Biden was “a vote for president Kamala Harris”.
• There were frequent references to the attempt on Trump’s life on Saturday at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders – a former White House press secretary – described Trump’s near-miss as evidence of divine intervention. “God spared Donald Trump from that assassin because God is not finished with him yet,” she said.
• Conservative media titan Rupert Murdoch, who retired last year as chair of Fox Corporation and executive chairman of News Corp, has made an appearance among the party faithful.
• Speakers portrayed the Biden administration as “soft on crime” and claimed Trump would have tougher border control and law and order policies.

• Biden took the stage at a National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) conference in Las Vegas. He outlined part of his re-election platform including expanding access to prescription medication, cutting housing and childcare costs and banning assault rifles.

This is Michaela Whitbourn signing off on the blog for today.

Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, wife of his son Eric, told the Republican National Convention that she had prepared a very different speech before the attempt on Trump’s life on Saturday.

Nothing could have prepared the family for the moment “someone tried to kill a person you love”, the Republican National Committee co-chair said. “Millimetres separated him from life and certain death.”

Republican National Committee Co-chair Lara Trump speaks during the Republican National Convention.Credit: AP

“Last Saturday was a jarring reminder … there is more that unites us than divides us. We all want this country to be great.”

She said that “with every bone in my body I can tell you” that all Trump wants to do is “make America great again for all of us”.

“He is a lion, he is bold, he is strong, he is fearless, and he is exactly what this country needs right now,” Lara Trump said.

She said she had “seen this man dragged through hell and back … and yet, he has never backed down”, prompting chants of “We love Trump.”

Trump “hoisted his fist in the air” after the failed assassination attempt, in a “signal to the world that no matter what America will always prevail”, she said.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio quipped, “don’t say Polo!” as the crowd chanted “Marco! Marco!” at the Republican National Convention.

Rubio said of the crowd that “these are the Americans who wear the red hats” and wait for hours “under a blazing sun” to hear Trump speak.

Senator Marco Rubio at the Republican National Convention.Credit: AP

“There is absolutely nothing dangerous or anything divisive about putting Americans first,” he said, to chants of “USA! USA!”

He said the life story of Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance reminded them that “we are all descendants of ordinary people who achieved extraordinary things”.

“Putting Americans first must be what this election is about,” Rubio said.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders – a former White House press secretary – got some political mileage out of the attempt on Donald Trump’s life on Saturday and declared: “Not even an assassin’s bullet could stop him.”

Huckabee said she had “always been proud to stand with president Trump” and had never been more proud.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks during the Republican National Convention.Credit: AP

Trump was “the leader our country needs” and “we can’t get him back in the White House fast enough”, she said.

“God spared Donald Trump from that assassin because God is not finished with him yet, and he most certainly is not finished with America yet either.”

A key theme at tonight’s Republican National Convention speeches – and in elections across the world – is law and order.

Democratic President Joe Biden and his team have been styled as “soft on crime” and weak on border control.

The Republican Party has called a series of families of victims of crime to speak at the convention.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and President Joe Biden in the White House in Washington earlier this month.Credit: Bloomberg

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, also a former Trump rival, told the Republican National Convention that Trump had been demonised, sued and prosecuted.

“We cannot let him down, and we cannot let America down.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks during the Republican National Convention.Credit: AP

In a common theme running through the second night of the four-day convention, DeSantis said the Republican Party supported strong borders.

“Let’s win in November,” he said to cheers.

Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, a former Republican presidential candidate who quit the contest with Donald Trump in March, has explicitly endorsed a Trump presidency.

Haley, a former ambassador to the UN, was once a staunch critic of Trump.

Nikki Haley speaks during the Republican National Convention.Credit: AP

Haley told the National Republican Convention that “president Trump asked me to speak … in the name of unity” and “it was a gracious invitation” she was “happy to accept”.

“Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” she said.

She said that a vote for Joe Biden was “a vote for president Kamala Harris”, his running mate.

“After seeing the debate, everyone knows it’s true.”

“For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump. Take it from me, I haven’t always agreed with president Trump, but we agree more often than we disagree.”

Haley said the Republican Party “must not only be a unified party”, but it must expand.

Donald Trump, who will formally accept the nomination on Thursday (Friday AEST) as the Republican presidential candidate for the November 5 election, was greeted with cheers when he arrived at the Republican National Convention.

He entered the convention to the strains of The Romantics’ 1979 hit What I Like About You.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance.Credit: AP

Republican Senator Ted Cruz appeared on stage and declared: “God bless Donald J. Trump.”

He thanked God for protecting Trump during the assassination attempt against him on Saturday and “turning his head … as the shot was fired”.

“Never before has an election mattered so much,” Cruz said.

Cruz repeated the misleading claim that “we are facing an invasion on our southern border” and singled out crimes committed by illegal immigrants.

The speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson of the state of Louisiana, told the Republican National Convention that this election offered “two completely different visions of who we are as Americans”.

He said the Republican Party represented the “seven core principles of American conservatism”, including individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law and fiscal responsibility.

Mike Johnson during the Republican National Convention.Credit: AP

He claimed the “radical woke progressive left” had “disdain” for those principles, and wanted to “remould us into some kind of … Marxist socialist utopia”.

“We’re here to say: not on our watch,” Johnson said.