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Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer reportedly told President Biden in a ‘blunt one-on-one conversation’ Saturday it would be best if he ‘bowed out of the race,’ according to an ABC report on X.

‘Chuck Schumer had a blunt one-on-one conversation with Biden Saturday afternoon in Rehoboth. Schumer forcefully made the case that it would be best if Biden bowed out of the race,’  ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl wrote. ‘Schumer’s office wouldn’t comment on the specifics of the conversation, telling me only, ‘Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus.’’

The Senate majority leader’s office issued a similar response obtained by Fox News Digital on Wednesday, but waved off ABC’s report.

‘Unless ABC’s source is Senator Chuck Schumer or President Joe Biden the reporting is idle speculation,’ a spokesperson for Sen. Schumer said. ‘Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday.’

The news comes as the New York Democrat pushed for the Democratic National Convention’s delay as questions persist about President Biden’s 2024 candidacy due to concerns over his mental acuity, according to multiple sources.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital in a statement after publication that Biden ‘told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families.’

Schumer spoke with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and both men agreed to urge the DNC to delay a virtual roll call planned for this month to officially nominate Biden, three sources told Fox News Digital.

It was revealed Wednesday that the DNC was delaying its nomination plans to August after significant pushback from party members toward an initial plan to nominate Biden later this month.

‘We have confirmed with the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic National Convention that no virtual voting will begin before August 1,’ wrote DNC Rules Committee co-chairs Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and veteran Democratic Party official Leah Daughtry in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital. 

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., became the 20th congressional Democrat to call on Biden to step aside on Wednesday. ‘I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,’ Schiff said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

His call came one day after a report claimed he told donors ‘I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose.’

President Biden has become more receptive to leaving the race, moving from arguing that Vice President Kamala Harris can’t win to asking advisers if the vice president can win, according to a report from CNN.

Meanwhile, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Wednesday evening that Biden had contracted COVID-19. The COVID diagnosis follows remarks from a day earlier in which Biden said a medical condition could lead to him dropping out of the race.

‘If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, the doctors came and said you’ve got this problem, that problem,’ Biden told BET’s Ed Gordon . ‘But I made a serious mistake in the whole debate and, look, when I originally ran, you might remember it, I said I was gonna be a transitional candidate. I thought that I would be able to move from this, to pass it on to somebody else. But I didn’t anticipate things getting so, so, so divided.’

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser, Adam Shaw and Julia Johnson contributed to this report.

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When a 20-year-old shooter managed to lie-in-wait for Trump at his July 13th rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, injuring the now GOP nominee for president, killing one rally goer and seriously injuring two others, many suggested that it was ‘inevitable.’ 

Why? 

As I describe in my new book, ‘Fear Itself: Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda,’ the left’s reliance on fear, threats, and intimidation is not a sloppy result of out-of-control politicians and legacy media—it is an ancient technique meant to control society at-large. 

In our most immediate and urgent context, the constant stream of demonizing and apocalyptic rhetoric from legacy media and many national Democratic leaders, including President Biden himself, insisting Trump threatened our very way of life, was a danger to democracy, and an evil combo of Hitler and Mussolini led to the inevitable—an attempt on the former, and possible future, president’s life.

On June 28, one day after his disastrous debate performance against Trump, generating universal shock about Biden’s mental health, the X (formerly Twitter) account belonging to Joe Biden posted, ‘Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat to everything America stands for.’ 

That’s a frightening allegation. It racked up 13.3 million views. How long can that sort of apocalyptic rhetoric go on before some disturbed individual decides to take a shot? 

Just 15 days later is when the carnage unfolded in Butler when a bullet miraculously missing the center of Trump’s head by centimeters, striking him on the side at his ear instead.

Despite the confusion and chaos revealed at the heart of the Joe Biden White House since he took office and talk of ‘toning down’ the rhetoric in the aftermath of the assassination attempt, we know from past experience there will be no abandoning the use of fear and envy by the Democratic Party and Biden himself to distract and control. There was a brief pause, but already they’re back at casting Trump as a man bent on destroying the country. 

Just a few days after the assassination attempt, in a speech at the NAACP convention in Las Vegas, Biden even appeared to mock Trump being knocked out of his shoes when the Secret Service rushed to protect him. 

‘The 81-year-old president made the odd and seemingly ad-libbed musing during an economy-focused speech. ‘Trump says he doesn’t believe climate change is real. Maybe he should step out here in Vegas where it’s 120 degrees in his bare feet,’ Biden said before chuckling at his own remark. ‘I don’t want to get going here,’ he added,’ reported the NY Post. 

The Post’s article added, ‘The gaffe-prone incumbent spoke when it was nearly 110 degrees in Las Vegas. He appeared to stick closely to a speech loaded into teleprompters on either side of his lectern — but looked straight ahead as he dared the Republican presidential nominee to lose his shoes in Sin City, indicating the line may not have been prepared by his speechwriters.’

The use of liquid fear as a campaign (and governance) strategy is relied upon because it has worked. 

The left and their handmaidens in the Democratic Party, have so far been successful and implementing a strategy of fear and mass anxiety to frighten people into giving up their power and even acting in their own worst interest. 

This is nothing new, it is an ancient technique, and is being applied every day by the left in this country in an effort to have us retreat from political and social participation.

It started with Trump in 2016 by painting him as a stooge for Russia. That’s a frightening thing to allege. Even after being exposed as a vile hoax, and prior to Saturday’s assassination attempt, they were back at it for 2024. On July 9th it was widely reported that ‘Russia Seeks to Boost Trump in 2024 Election, US Intelligence Officials Say.’ 

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

And who can forget this gem from December 2023, ‘Humans may be fueling global warming by breathing: new study.’ Because convincing us our very existence is the problem impacts our self-esteem and confidence, making us more vulnerable to messages of fear and dread. Trump is the threat to the USA, and we are a threat to the planet itself!

The headlines comparing Trump to Hitler were also being recycled at warp speed. After all, Hitler is one of human history’s most murderous and terrifying individuals, and if your goal is to frighten people into silent compliance throwing Hitler into the mix is to be expected.

Democrat bullies want to frighten us (and even more so their own base) into cowering in the corner, allowing them to restructure our society and dictate a new

set of core beliefs they order us to embrace… or else. 

They even demand we change how we speak and write language so they can change the way we think. Whether it be war, a crime epidemic, a plague, civil strife, economic chaos, mental health crises, drug abuse, food and energy scarcity, or the always reliable ‘climate change emergency,’ the system of government, media, big business, and education will be constantly at work to keep you feeling afraid, unsure, exhausted, and living paycheck to paycheck.

If they can keep you in an unthinking fear loop, they can stop you from questioning or confronting them about the damage they heap onto society. 

There is one necessary component for the left’s agenda to be successful—the annihilation of the ordinary person’s personal courage—the trait required to withstand danger and fear. 

When courage is lost, with it goes the willingness to confront the powerful and malevolent.

The answer to our dilemma starts with understanding that while fear itself is natural as a transitory warning, weaponizing fear is an unnatural construct creating chronic fear as a constantly used tool to specifically keep us from inquiring or questioning, and even pushing others over the edge into violence.

As the rules dictated by progressives become more absurd, and the dangers associated with challenging the status quo become existential, the left anticipates the average person will naturally retreat. 

We are being encouraged to surrender not just from public life, but from caring about the country and what our survival means for the world. Killing our minds is the only way their backward and deadly progressivism can survive.

I can tell you the victory of the radical left and the triumph of fear over reason, group entitlements over individual rights, and lies over truth are not inevitable. 

We can fight and win the battle for America’s future if we understand the challenges we face and how to overcome them, not with unbridled emotion but with logic and reason. Recognizing that what we’re facing is not natural and can be defeated is vital, allowing us to rely on our personal courage to sweep aside the carefully constructed but false curtain of lies and fear relied on by the establishment and Marxist left. 

This is a unique time in history, and it’s our time to send an undeniable message that our values will prevail over fear and loathing.

Portions of this article are adapted from the author’s forthcoming book ‘Fear Itself.’

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MILWAUKEE – Republicans at the RNC in Milwaukee spoke to Fox News Digital about what they hope and expect to hear from former President Trump when he delivers his first speech since a failed attempt on his life at his last rally. 

We’re at an amazing turning point, an inflection point in America,’ Ohio’s Republican Attorney General Dave Yost told Fox News Digital.

‘President Trump, rising off the ground after that awful evil attempt on his life showed strength of character and determination and heart that America has been hungry for and I think this showcase allows him to get past the legacy media filter and to address the American people at a moment when they’re looking for a message of strength and stability and hope and I think he’s going to be able to bring that. This is his moment.’

Political consultant and Trump surrogate Mehek Cook told Fox News Digital she expects a message of ‘unity’ from the former president.

‘I believe he started that movement as voters continued to abandon Joe Biden in droves. Black voters, Hispanic, even the youth in swing states are now for President Trump but I think Saturday changed everything,’ Cooke said.

An assassination attempt on President Trump truly proved that the American spirit was attacked and when he got up and yelled fight, fight, fight without a prompter, that was his first inclination to tell the American people that he’s okay and that he’s standing with them. It showed hope in America.’

Cooke continued, ‘It showed that he’s truly a beacon of light. I believe that he’s going to stand on stage and talk about unifying America. It’s not about just unifying Republicans. It’s independents. It’s Democrats. It’s you. It’s me. It’s the everyday average American voter and I think that this pick with JD Vance is truly a generational shift and a change. It’s not about the next four years. It’s a legacy. It’s 12 years to undo what Joe Biden has done to this great country. So it’s unity 2024 all the way for President Trump.’

There are people who are going to be tuning into President Trump’s speech who haven’t yet made their mind up, who the next president of the United States should be and that is an opportunity to tell these voters where you stand on issues that matter most to them,’ Former GOP Congressman Lee Zeldin told Fox News Digital.

President Trump has an opportunity to outline not just what was great about his first term in office, his successes when he did in this job for a term, but his positive, uplifting vision for America, if he has the opportunity to serve as the 47th president.’

Trump will close out the 2024 GOP convention on Thursday night with his first speech since a 20-year-old gunman tried to assassinate him in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday. 

Trump told the Washington Examiner after nearly losing his life that he rewrote the speech he intended to give. 

‘The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,’ Trump told the outlet. ‘Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches. Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.’

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‘He’s kind.’

Wait. What? Senator JD Vance is ‘kind?’

That is what my guest—podcaster and one of the most influential Republican women in America, Mary Katharine Ham—told me about Vance Wednesday morning. (Her podcast, co-hosted with Vic Matus, ‘Getting Hammered’ is a joy to listen to.)

I first interviewed Senator Vance in 2016 when his book ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ debuted. It is a fabulous book and still a riveting read. Vance was not then in politics. He was a Yale Law grad making his way in Silicon Valley. The story hit close to the hearts of anyone from the abandoned steel and car towns of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

What Mary Katharine revealed to me is not something a radio host could learn over the score of interviews I conducted with Vance over the years since 2016 or during the debate I moderated with him and five other GOP Senate candidates in 2022. I have never spent time with Vance off a real or virtual stage, so I had no idea what he’s like in non-public settings. 

I asked Mary Katharine to stay an extra segment to explain the ‘He’s kind’ observation. I am a big believer in people from across the political spectrum who act with respect towards everyone regardless of their politics, who display gratitude when no one is looking, who are, indeed, ‘kind.’ Cruelty repels me, even when the objects of cruelty more or less deserve it. This is a product of Catholic education, I am sure, and of the attempt to internalize the wisdom of C.S. Lewis:

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

If you have read Vance’s book, you know he knows Lewis’ statement  to be true. Strangers helped Vance often on his journey: The police of Middleton, Ohio; USMC gunny sergeants; Yale Law professors and Silicon Valley giants.  And the marks they have left on him—this kindness that Mary Katharine references, the level-headed manner of his very normal, civil responses to arguments and even deep disagreements I have observed on air and on stage—this is a powerful super-power for politicians who do not assume the role of ‘nice guy’ but who actually live it out. 

Harry Truman famously observed that if you want a friend in Washington, D.C., buy a dog. Even more rare than friends inside the Beltway’s ruling class are genuinely grateful people. Gratitude is an expression of virtue deeply embedded. It often manifests in civility and certainly does so in expressions of kindness. That J.D. Vance has this quality of kindness within his character is a very good thing for the GOP to advertise.

Our country is much blessed, but many within it are suffering greatly. Politics and social media have turned many formerly kind and generous people into permanently argumentative partisans. That Vance suffered in his early years cannot be argued. Suffering changes people, usually for the good. This makes Vance a wonderful emissary from the GOP to those communities and especially those families who are suffering. Pray that the campaign’s managers deploy that secret weapon. Genuine compassion is a powerfully attractive thing.

Hugh Hewitt is host of ‘The Hugh Hewitt Show,’ heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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MILWAUKEE – Five days after surviving an assassination attempt, former President Trump on Thursday will formally accept the GOP presidential nomination during the culminating moment of the 2024 Republican National Convention.

The shooting, at Trump’s rally Saturday in western Pennsylvania where one spectator was killed, along with the gunman, instantly impacted the tone and message of the convention, and altered the former president’s address.

The Trump campaign has said this week that the former president – following his brush with death – will use his speech to call for unity in the face of tragedy instead of criticizing his political adversaries.

Trump, in an interview Sunday with the Washington Examiner, said ‘honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.’

‘It is a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance,’ he emphasized.

And in an email to supporters on the eve of his address, Trump said ‘I will lay out my vision to UNITE OUR COUNTRY AND MAKE IT GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!’

The push for party unity was on display during the first three days of the convention, with former GOP presidential rivals Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – who battled Trump in a contentious primary season – delivered speeches from the podium in support of the former president.

Republicans are using the convention as a venue to reunite the party and energize delegates and activists ahead of the final stretch of the campaign in Trump’s 2024 election rematch with President Biden.

‘This is obviously an opportunity to bring the country together,’ Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita said earlier this week. ‘But let’s not forget we’re in the middle of a campaign, and we have to win that campaign.’

Trump is also expected to hit a major theme of his 2024 campaign – strength – and contrast it with what he argues is Biden’s weakness.

Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller, in an interview on Fox News’ ‘Jesse Watters Primetime,’ spotlighted the ‘strength and resilience from President Trump, especially only a few days after the assassination attempt.’

Miller also noted that the ‘tone’ and ‘approach’ of the former president’s speech ‘is going to be notably different.’ 

‘President Trump has spent much of the last several days dictating what he wants that speech to look like in real terms, saying ‘I want to say this and I want to go into the following,’’ Miller noted.

The Biden campaign isn’t buying the Republicans’ unity message.

Biden principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters this week that Trump and Republicans ‘will always choose big, greedy, anti-union extremists over the working men and women of America.’

Trump’s address to the roughly 2,400 delegates and thousands of other attendees packed inside Milwaukee’s Fiserv Arena, and the millions of Americans watching the GOP convention, also comes less than two months since he was convicted of 34 felony counts in the first criminal trial of a former or current president in the nation’s history.

But weeks later, Biden severely stumbled with a disastrous debate performance against Trump, which has led to a rising chorus of calls from within the Democratic Party for the president to end his 2024 re-election bid and bow out of the race.

And now, in the wake of this past weekend’s assassination attempt, the presidential rematch has been further altered.

On the eve of the convention’s final day, Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, acknowledged that ‘as we meet tonight, we cannot forget that this evening could have been much different. Instead of a day of celebration, this could have been a day of heartache and mourning.’

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– President Biden’s re-election campaign is pushing back against a slew of reports in the past 24 hours that the president has become more receptive in the last couple of days to hearing arguments about why he should drop his 2024 re-election run.

‘Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not at the top of the ticket. He is and will be the Democratic nominee,’ Biden principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters at a news conference Thursday morning near the site of the Republican National Convention.

Fulks emphasized that ‘the president has said it several times. He’s staying in this race’ and ‘we look forward to him accepting the delegates in Chicago and continuing with this race to talk about what’s at stake.’

Following his disastrous debate performance last month in his face-to-face showdown with former President Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, the 81-year-old Biden has been facing questions about whether he has the physical and mental capabilities to serve another four years in the most demanding job in the world.

And politically, Biden’s been pushing back against a rising chorus of calls to end his campaign from elected Democrats, who are deeply concerned about the possibility of the party not only losing the White House but both houses of Congress in the fall election.

Reports over the past 24 hours indicated that top Democrats – including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – have had frank conversations with Biden about the president ending his campaign.

Asked a second time at the news conference if Biden may consider stepping aside, Fulks responded that the president ‘is not wavering on anything. The president has made his decision. I don’t want to be rude, but I do not know how many more times we can answer that. Joe Biden has said he is running for president of the United States. Our campaign is moving forward.’

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House Republican leaders are calling for accountability after the failed assassination attempt against former President Trump on Saturday.

‘I think there are so many questions that need to be answered, and I don’t know who is to blame. I don’t know what the breakdowns are, I clearly know there were breakdowns. But let’s find out who’s responsible and then people need to be held accountable,’ House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital.

National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chair Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said the shooting was likely the result of a ‘major security breakdown.’

‘One of my initial reactions as I was watching this unfold on television was anger – how could this happen? How can a person with a gun get to a rooftop that overlooks the stage that close to the former president?’ Hudson told Fox News Digital.

‘I’m no security expert…but I do have some familiarity with rifles and scopes. And that was a very close distance. And the fact that rooftop was available for that shooter, I just can’t understand. So you know, I want to hear what happened.’

A 20-year-old gunman opened fire on Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania from a nearby roof over the weekend, killing one attendee and critically injuring two others. Trump was shot in the ear before he ducked behind the podium and pulled off the stage by his Secret Service detail.

But the situation has led to lawmakers questioning how the gunman could get so close to a heavily secured area, despite people seeing him climb up onto the building he fired from. There were also heavily armed police inside that building, according to reports.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., both called on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign.

Emmer and Hudson would not go that far, telling Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention (RNC) that they wanted to see what details could be uncovered before making their judgment.

FBI Director Christopher Wray held member-wide briefings with both the House and Senate on Wednesday to discuss lawmakers’ questions and concerns.

A source familiar with the House’s call said it lasted roughly 45 minutes, and that lawmakers found Wray and Cheatle’s answers unsatisfying. 

The source said Johnson would set up a classified briefing for lawmakers next week when the House is back in session.

Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI and Secret Service for comment but not hear back by time of publication.

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MILWAUKEE – GOP Congressman Darrell Issa previewed what he expects to see in the foreign policy speeches on Wednesday night at the GOP convention and outlined what he believes a second Trump term will mean for the world. 

When I think about Trump foreign policy, Russia didn’t gain an inch during his tenure, having taken Crimea under his predecessor, Obama,’ Issa, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday before Republicans took the stage in Milwaukee to talk foreign policy.

I think about the fact that China did not aggressively go after Taiwan the way they are today, or the Philippines, where they’re literally stealing fish out of the water by force. I think of the fact that the Houthis and Iran were not active and literally interrupting global trade. All of these things happened in the last three and a half years under a weak Biden administration, and they won’t, didn’t and won’t happen under a Trump administration.’

‘Make America Strong Once Again’ is the theme of the third day of the convention, where speakers will outline Trump’s foreign policy agenda and argue against Biden’s record.

‘Under Joe Biden, the weakest commander in chief in our country’s history, America has become a global laughingstock,’ the RNC said in a press release.

‘From our dumpster fire of a southern border to the botched Afghanistan withdrawal to the Hamas-Israeli war to enabling the Iranian terrorist regime, Biden has repeatedly made the wrong move on the world stage. Under President Trump’s vision, America will once again be strong and secure and put an end to the Biden-Harris administration’s weakness. President Donald J. Trump will secure our borders, curb Chinese and Iranian threats, and restore America’s rightful standing on the world stage.’

The night of foreign policy speeches comes shortly after it was reported that Iran has been plotting to assassinate Trump, which Issa also connected to Biden’s foreign policy.

‘Under President Trump, Iran was exporting less than 200,000 barrels of oil a day,’ Issa said. ‘They’re exporting more than 2 million barrels a day. For that much money, of course, they would plot to kill the incoming president.’

Issa told Fox News Digital that one of the key aspects of foreign policy that Republicans need to explain is the importance of showing ‘strength’ to other nations.

The world is a dangerous place when America is weak and doesn’t lead, and the world can be a safe and stable place when America is strong and can lead others to have strength,’ Issa said. 

‘President Trump issued a mandate to NATO to get up to their 2% and they were a little bit complacent. They’re not complacent anymore because they know he was right. They know his policies were right before and his policies will be right in the next four years.’

Biden has often leaned on his foreign policy record in recent weeks as he faces calls from within his own party to drop out of the presidential race, as recent Fox News polling shows Trump has a 10-point lead on foreign policy with voters.

Speakers set to hit the stage on Wednesday before vice presidential nominee JD Vance include: Medal of Honor recipient Staff Sgt. David Bellavia, Rep. Michael Waltz, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former acting Director of the United States National Intelligence Ric Grenell, Gold Star family members Alicia Lopez and Herman Lopez and Cheryl Jules and Christy Shamblin, and Donald Trump Jr.

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MILWAUKEE – GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance says his mission as he delivers his acceptance speech on day three of the Republican National Convention is simple.

Vance, the 39-year-old senator from Ohio whom former President Trump named as his running mate at the beginning of the week, on Wednesday night will address the roughly 2,400 delegates and thousands of other attendees packed inside Milwaukee’s Fiserv Arena, and the millions of Americans watching the GOP convention from home.

‘We’re gonna get out there and try to fire up the crowd tonight,’ Vance said at a financial event hours before his prime time address at the convention.

The senator added that he would ‘make the case, a very easy case to make, but an important case to make, that we have got to re-elect President Donald J. Trump to the White House.’

And he joked, ‘I’m very excited about this evening, and I don’t plan to screw it up. But if I do, it’s too late. He [Trump] made the pick, right. It’s official now.’

Trump, in making his greatly anticipated and high-stakes running mate announcement as the GOP convention kicked off in swing-state Wisconsin’s largest city, will now share the ticket with one of his top supporters in the Senate, a one-time Trump critic who has transformed into a leading America First ally.

The former president and Vance teamed up on Monday and Tuesday nights in the Trump family box above the floor of the GOP convention.

Vance, a former venture capitalist and the author of the bestselling memoir ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ before running for elective office, on Wednesday night will appear on the podium to tell his story.

A source in Vance’s political orbit told Fox News to ‘expect the speech to focus heavily on his bio and incredible life story and how that ties into the America First agenda.’

Another source with knowledge of the speech told Fox News it will ‘connect his life experiences to the Trump policies. Folding in his firsthand experience of a tough upbringing that shaped his views on a lot of the biggest issues he is passionate about.’

The source said those issues include trade, immigration, ending endless wars, fentanyl and drugs, and how inflation hurts the poor the most.

That story began with Vance growing up in a working-class family in a small city in southwestern Ohio. His parents divorced when he was young, and as his mother struggled for years with drug and alcohol abuse, Vance was raised in part by his maternal grandparents.

After high school graduation, Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in Iraq. He later graduated from Ohio State University and then earned a law degree at Yale.

Vance, who lives in Cincinnati, moved to San Francisco after law school and worked as a principal in a venture capital firm owned by billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who later became a major financial supporter of Vance’s successful 2022 campaign for the Senate.

Before running for Senate, Vance grabbed national attention after ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ – which tells his story of growing up in a struggling steel mill city and his roots in Appalachian Kentucky – became a New York Times bestseller and was made into a Netflix film. The story spotlighted the values of many working-class Americans who became supporters of Trump’s policies.

Vance was a vocal critic of Trump when the former president first ran for the White House in the 2016 cycle. 

However, Vance eventually supported Trump, praising the former president’s tenure in the White House, and in a Fox News interview in 2021, he apologized for his earlier criticism of Trump.

Trump’s endorsement of Vance days before the 2022 GOP Senate primary boosted him to victory in a crowded, competitive and combustible race.

‘I think the American people are going to love to hear JD’s story of overcoming adversity as a young man, becoming a Marine and serving his country in uniform in Iraq, and going on to becoming a business leader, and now a successful elected leader as well,’ fellow veteran and fellow Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas told Fox News on Tuesday.

Democrats, in a taste of things to come, on Monday wasted no time in criticizing Vance.

President Biden told reporters that Vance was ‘a clone of Trump on the issues.’ 

Vice President Harris, in a campaign video released on Wednesday, charged that ‘Vance will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country.’

And the president’s campaign argued that Vance was selected because he would ‘do what [former Vice President] Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people.’

Fox News’ Alexis McAdams contributed to this report

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Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance will ‘run circles’ around Vice President Kamala Harris in a debate, Alabama Sen. Katie Britt told Fox News Digital in an interview at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Britt, a rising star in the GOP who delivered the official Republican rebuttal to President Biden’s State of the Union address earlier this year, praised Vance ahead of his highly anticipated convention speech Wednesday night and predicted Americans would ‘love’ him the moment they get to know him.

‘I am excited to watch him debate Kamala Harris because it will not even be a contest. With all due respect to the vice president, our next vice president of the United States, JD Vance, is going to run circles around her. No doubt,’ Britt said.

‘I am honored not only to call JD a colleague, but to call him a friend … The best part about it is we’ve gotten to know each other as people, and when the American people get to know JD Vance, they are going to love everything about him.’

Britt later said Vance’s life story of pulling himself up by his bootstraps and pushing through ‘unimaginable’ circumstances was part of why he is ‘uniquely suited to push forward President Trump’s agenda of secure borders, safe streets, stable prices, and really showing strength across the globe.’

She described the feeling of seeing Trump enter the convention hall on Monday to stand alongside Vance for the first time since his attempted assassination over the weekend as ‘electric.’

‘It was amazing. I mean, you could feel the energy,’ Britt said. ‘Watching him walk in to ‘God Bless America,’ there was a peace and a hope and a resiliency that not only came from him, but I think radiated across the entire arena.’

Harris called Vance to congratulate him after Trump announced him as his running mate and expressed hope they could meet at a vice presidential debate proposed by CBS News to be held at a later date.

Trump previously accepted a vice presidential debate on behalf of his future running mate to be hosted on Fox News. However, the Biden campaign has only been willing to do the debate on CBS. 

No vice presidential debate has been confirmed yet, but Biden and Trump agreed to two presidential debates. The first was hosted by CNN on June 27 and the second will be hosted by ABC News on Sept. 10.

Fox News’ Julia Johnson contributed to this report.

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