Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley made her highly anticipated appearance at the Republican Convention, taking the stage to a mixture of cheers and boos from those in attendance.

Haley, who was former President Donald Trump’s fiercest primary rival, gave the former president her ‘strong endorsement’ during the appearance in Milwaukee, ending months of speculation on if she would throw her weight behind her former rival.

But the initial reaction to Haley’s arrival stood in stark contrast to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump’s chief primary rival during the 2016 campaign, who received a standing ovation from those in the crowd, including Trump themselves.

Nevertheless, Haley tried to send a message of unity, acknowledging that not everyone has to agree with Trump 100% to support him in this year’s election.

‘You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him,’ Haley said. ‘Take it from me. I haven’t always agreed with President Trump. But we agree more often than we disagree.’

Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations before running against him, was not always a sure bet to speak at the convention. However, after a failed assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally Saturday, a message of unifying behind the former president soon spread across the Republican Party.

The former South Carolina governor was followed on stage by another former Trump primary rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who continued to preach the message of unity during his remarks.

‘My fellow Republicans, let’s send Joe Biden back to his basement and let’s send Donald Trump back to the White House. Life was more affordable when Donald Trump was president,’ DeSantis said. ‘Our border was safer under the Trump administration, and our country was respected when Donald Trump was our commander in chief.’

President Biden once again called to ‘lower the temperature’ in American politics following the assassination attempt on former President Trump before repeatedly attacking Trump in his remarks.

Biden made the comments during a speech Tuesday in Las Vegas at the 115th NAACP National Convention. 

‘Just a few days after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, we’re grateful he’s not seriously injured. We continue to pray for him and his family,’ Biden said. ‘It’s time for an important conversation in this country. It’s gotten too heated.’

He referenced his Oval Office speech, saying it’s time to lower the temperature and condemn violence in any form. 

‘We have to say with one voice that violence is not the answer. That’s what we should rally around as a nation. That’s the unity I’m talking about. Few organizations know that better than the NAACP,’ Biden continued.

Plenty of digs at Trump followed.

‘Just because we should lower the temperature, doesn’t mean we should stop telling the truth,’ Biden said.

He then talked about ‘why Donald Trump’s presidency was hell for Black America,’ mentioning tax cuts for the wealthy and exploding federal debt. 

‘What in the hell is the matter with this man? I’m serious. Go figure,’ Biden said of Trump after ticking through some policy points.

Biden mocked Trump’s focus on growing ‘Black jobs.’ He claimed Trump is ‘lying like hell’ about Black unemployment records.

He then brought up Trump’s ‘black jobs’ line: ‘Folks I know what a black job is. It’s the vice president of the United States.’ The crowd then applauded and many stood up. 

‘It’s because of you that I’m president and Kamala Harris is vice president. By the way, she’s not only a great vice president. She can be President of the United States,’ Biden said.

Biden also talked about standing up against all violence – violence against presidential candidates in Pennsylvania, violence against George Floyd, violence against election workers, and he continued on. 

He talked about the weapon used against Trump, an AR-15 rifle, saying it’s time to outlaw them. ‘I did it once, I will do it again.’

Fox News’ Nick Rojas contributed to this report.

Milwaukee, Wis.— Donald Trump Jr. does not want a role in his father’s administration if the former president is re-elected in November, but he does want ‘veto power over the RINOs’ – an acronym to describe establishment-leaning ‘Republicans in name only’ – and to be able to ‘stop the bad guys’ from getting into positions of power, he told Fox News Digital.

Trump Jr. said he is also excited that Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance, his father’s newly named running mate, potentially can ‘keep this movement going for generations to come.’

Trump Jr. spoke exclusively with Fox News Digital on Tuesday afternoon. Trump’s eldest son is set to appear on ‘Hannity’ on Tuesday night. 

Trump Jr. championed Vance on his father’s ticket because Vance is ‘an incredible America First patriot.’ 

‘I think he is someone who truly believes in that mission — he is not a Washington D.C. neocon warmonger, and I think that is so critical,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘I love having a young, articulate, energetic guy as someone who can help also keep this movement going for generations to come — I think that is so fundamental and so important.’ 

Trump Jr. said he trusts Vance as ‘a business guy, a politician, and as someone who is probably one of the most articulate fighters against the insanity over on the other side.’ 

‘He does a better job in hostile media territory than most of our best guys do,’ he said. ‘I think it is just so critical for the movement going forward and I think he’s going to do a great job as vice president.’ 

Trump Jr. did not have a formal role in his father’s first administration, unlike his sister, Ivanka Trump, who served as a senior adviser.

When asked if he plans to have a role in a potential second Trump administration, Trump told Fox News Digital: ‘No.’ 

‘I don’t want a role in an administration — I don’t want to do that,’ he said. ‘The only role I want is to put our people in other positions of power. I just want to stop the bad guys from ever getting in those positions of power. That’s the only thing I want.’ 

He added: ‘I want to veto the RINOs. I want to have a veto power over the RINOs. That’s all I’m asking for.’ 

Trump Jr. said he is ‘excited’ for a potential second Trump administration. 

‘I’m excited to this. This time, we go in, we actually know what we’re doing. We know who the snakes are. We know how to deal with the bad guys,’ he said. ‘I think we can get up and running so quickly, and I think everyone else understands that too — which is why, I think, they have so aggressively tried prosecuting my father and going after him and attacking him and trying to bankrupt him. And if that doesn’t work, they try to jail him.’ 

When asked about the dismissal of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s classified records case against President Trump; the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity — which was a positive for the former president; the delay in his sentencing in New York v. Trump; and the pause in the Georgia election case, Trump Jr. told Fox News Digital: ‘We can’t stop winning.’ 

He said he thinks Democrats ‘fear’ Trump’s knowledge of Washington and experience from his first term. 

‘They fear that he comes in with knowledge and that experience, and that he can be an even more effective leader than he was the first time around — and I thought he was pretty darn effective,’ he said. 

When asked to reflect on the assassination attempt against his father at a rally in Butler, Pa. on Saturday, Trump Jr. said his father ‘is doing great.’ 

‘He’s vibrant, obviously a very heavy and somber moment, but when I walk around the floor here, I see unity like I’ve never seen before,’ he said. ‘I see great people that understand the gravity of the situation, but also understand what’s going on and what’s happening in our country and they are really ready to be involved and to bring that back.’ 

MILWAUKEE — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise plans to use his Republican National Convention speech Tuesday night to talk about the ‘warm and compassionate person Donald Trump is’ while reflecting on his own near-death experience at the hands of a would-be assassin in 2017, Fox News Digital has learned.

The Louisiana Republican sat down for an interview with Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, just hours before he is set to address the convention.

Scalise recalled his immediate reaction to learning of the assassination attempt on former President Trump on Saturday night at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

‘I didn’t know how badly President Trump was hit, you know, and you saw him go down, and even when he got up, you just don’t know,’ Scalise said. ‘I know what I went through, and when you’re hit, your body just kind of shuts down, so you don’t even know how bad you are, and your body kind of tricks you to hold you together, so you can be in a lot worse shape.’

‘I was really worried about him until I heard later that he actually went to the hospital and got checked out and was OK,’ Scalise said. 

But the assassination attempt brought back a lot of ’emotions’ for Scalise, who was shot at a congressional baseball practice in 2017. 

‘You saw the raw video footage with the audio of the ‘pop, pop’ of the shots, and they sounded eerily similar to what I experienced, and the term ‘shooter down’ was the same thing they said on the ball field that day, so, you know, a lot of similarities,’ Scalise told Fox News Digital.

‘But luckily for both of us, I think God was on the ball field – God had divine providence, Scalise said. ‘That tilt of the head is all it took to save President Trump’s life. But we all know how close he came.’ 

Scalise added, ‘Thank God he is still with us because our country needs him and our country did not need something devastating like that.’

Scalise said the shooting ‘reminds us how fragile life can be and how important it is that protections are in place.’

‘You can never let your guard down,’ he said.

After Scalise was shot by a gunman in 2017 at the congressional baseball practice, he spent three and a half months in the hospital. Scalise went into a coma and was ‘fighting for his life.’

‘That was a lot of introspection for me of what is important in life, and I think you’re already seeing that from President Trump,’ Scalise said. ‘You’ve seen a different tone from him in the last couple of days. I think he realizes that he was within an inch of his life and realizes how precious life can be.’

Scalise said he thinks Americans who ‘may have written him off look at him completely different now.’ 

‘And I hope they do, because I know President Trump personally. He came to the hospital the night I was shot and for weeks would call my wife just to check in on her and see how the kids were doing,’ he said. ‘He is a caring, caring person, and the media does not portray him that way, yet he has so much compassion. He was wonderful to me and wonderful to my family at our lowest point.’

Scalise said his story about Trump’s compassion is one that ‘is repeated.’

‘You hear that kind of story from other people who know President Trump and know the kind of person he is,’ Scalise said. ‘I hope more people get to see that side of him, because too often the caricature that is played by the folks that hate him, it is just sad to see how evil some of the hatred against him is, and I’ve called for that to stop.’

Scalise said comparisons to ‘Hitler’ and dark rhetoric about the president is ‘foolishness and lies.’ 

‘It’s not just elected officials – late-night talk show hosts spend their whole monologue just trashing Donald Trump, and it just takes one unhinged person to act on it,’ Scalise said. ‘Everybody who has said those kinds of things needs to look in the mirror. The personal attacks on him have been so relentless for years, unlike anything any other elected official has seen.’

Scalise added, ‘And it needs to stop.’

Scalise is set to address that in his RNC Convention speech Tuesday night.

‘You know, when I wrote the speech a few weeks ago, I wanted to focus on the contrast of policy – talk about border policy, energy security, the economic health of our country and how to get our country moving again and back on track; I’m still going to do that,’ Scalise said. ‘But we are blessed that President Trump is OK, and I want to talk about the kind of person he is. I just want to add a little bit of color in there to give people the reminder of the kind of warm and compassionate person that Donald Trump is.’

He added, ‘That story doesn’t get told enough.’

Meanwhile, Scalise said President Biden’s words about the attempt on Trump’s life ‘ring hollow when they’re not followed by actions.’

‘If you want to be a leader, you know, and President Trump’s a leader. President Biden’s the leader of the free world, but you’ve got to lead by example,’ Scalise said. ‘You can’t say you want to be a unifier and then go and say you want to put your opponent in the crosshairs.’

Scalise said Biden should ‘own up to it,’ referring to those comments and to rhetoric about Trump.

‘At some point, just look in the mirror and say, ‘You know what, I shouldn’t have said that, and I’m going to stop saying it, even more importantly,” Scalise said. ‘And I still haven’t heard that from President Biden.’ 

Scalise said it seems like Biden wants to ‘have the opportunity to take the cheap shots’ when he instead should focus on policy differences.

‘It starts at the top. You want to be a unifier? Start unifying and disavow the things that not just other people did, disavow the things you’ve done and stop doing those things,’ Scalise said. ‘And I still don’t see that tone change yet. We’re going to be watching closely, but President Biden needs to start at the top with himself.’

Scalise also said the House of Representatives will investigate the security failures at Trump’s rally that led to the assassination attempt. 

‘We need to start getting answers, and I’ve been incredibly disappointed from the lack of candor I’ve seen from the head of the Secret Service,’ Scalise said, adding that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has been ‘avoiding any communication with the public for days.’

‘When you even heard local law enforcement giving press conferences, you heard nothing from the head of the Secret Service. Lately, she’s been trying to blame other people. She recently said that it was the slope of the building that created too many challenges to put people up there. Well, a 20-year-old kid was able to climb up there and maneuver it just fine,’ Scalise said. ‘Those are excuses that ring hollow.’

Scalise said House lawmakers are questioning Cheatle’s ability to do her job and suggesting that there is someone ‘more fit to be the head of the Secret Service.’

‘They’ve got an incredibly important job. I don’t care what their party affiliation is. I want somebody competent to do the job,’ Scalise said. ‘And if they’re not, you need to hold people accountable and move on and get somebody who’s capable of doing it.’

Scalise said the House will hold hearings focused on ‘getting serious answers about what really happened.’ 

‘How could a 20-year-old kid get 140 feet (sic) away from the president of the United States, the former president of the United States, who’s a leading candidate for president, by the way, for this November? I mean, this is inexcusable, and it happened on her watch,’ he said.

Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance spoke with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday afternoon in what was the pair’s first conversation since Vance was named former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Vance and Harris had a ‘brief and respectful’ conversation, a source with knowledge of the call said.

Vance and Harris both said they look forward to debating, the source said, adding that no specifics were discussed. 

Harris left a voicemail for Vance after Trump announced him as his VP pick on Monday afternoon. 

Vance called Harris back on Tuesday afternoon. 

Harris previously had committed to a debate hosted by CBS News against Trump’s running mate – who at that point had not been named – for either July 23 or Aug. 13. It is unclear when Vance and Harris will debate. 

Trump announced that Vance was his pick for the ticket on Monday afternoon, just before Trump was formally nominated as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee at the RNC Convention in Milwaukee. 

‘After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,’ Trump announced on his Truth Social platform.

Trump emphasized that Vance will be on the campaign trail and ‘will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond….’

‘As Vice President, JD will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our troops, and will do everything he can to help me Make America Great Again,’ Trump said. 

Vance grew 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 his high school graduation, Vance enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in the Iraq War. He later graduated from Ohio State University and earned a law degree at Yale University.

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 during 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 nomination race.

‘Look, I was wrong about Donald Trump. I didn’t think he was going to be a good president,’ Vance told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview last month. ‘He was a great president, and it’s one of the reasons why I’m working so hard to make sure he gets a second term.’

In the Senate, Vance has been one of the most vocal supporters of Trump’s America First agenda and has been a vocal opponent of U.S. aid to Ukraine.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. 

The Department of Homeland Security has received intelligence from a human source on an Iranian plot to assassinate former President Trump, Fox News has been told by two federal law enforcement sources. 

The development level of the plot is unclear. CNN first reported that there has been an increase in Secret Service protection for Trump in recent weeks because of this intelligence. DHS and Secret Service have increasingly been concerned about Trump holding outdoor events, Fox News is told. 

The Iranian plot is reportedly not connected in any way at this point to the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania carried out by Thomas Crooks.

The agencies have expressed concerns to Trump’s campaign about the Iranian plot. Since the killing of Iranian leader Qasem Soleimani in January 2020, Trump has been an increased target, but this specific threat has developed over the past few days.

This is a breaking news report. Check back for details.

President Biden defied his critics and claimed during an interview on Monday that he is in great form and doesn’t need any help with his speeches – not from notes or a teleprompter.

‘I’m on the horse,’ Biden angrily insisted when NBC’s Lester Holt asked if Biden would look to ‘get back on the horse’ ahead of a second debate with Donald Trump in September. ‘I’ve done 22 major events and thousands of people. Overwhelming crowds. A lot happening. I’m on the horse.’ 

‘What I’m doing is going out and demonstrating to the American people that I have command of all my faculties, that I don’t need notes, I don’t need teleprompters,’ Biden continued. ‘I can go out and answer any questions at all, and I stood there when NATO was in town, stood there for an hour and answered questions.’ 

Biden remains under pressure from many within his party to step aside and allow another candidate to face Trump in November following what most have labeled a disastrous presidential debate last month. 

Many found Biden’s performance during the debate indicative of a man who, in the next four years, might struggle as age catches up with him: A voter from Georgia told CNN’s John King that she didn’t ‘feel comfortable with Biden’s age’ or with ‘Trump’s mouth.’ 

Holt confronted Biden with these concerns, asking if Biden worried that he might suffer ‘another performance … on that level?’ 

Biden dismissed the concern, saying in a mumbled whisper, ‘I don’t plan on having another performance on that level.’ 

The candidates are next scheduled to debate in September, and Biden affirmed he would participate, but he refused to be drawn on seeking another debate in the meantime, dodging the suggestion that Trump offered a third debate as a chance for Biden to ‘redeem’ himself. 

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has privately encouraged lawmakers to continue pressuring Biden to reconsider his bid for re-election even as she publicly backs him to beat Trump, according to The Hill.

The party remains at odds about whether they can convince Biden to step down from the ticket, but some have admitted that those efforts must take a ‘back seat’ following the attempt on Trump’s life, arguing that the party needed to focus on security and unifying language as the country tries to make sense of what happened.