SAUNDERS: Is it the 2024 Republican National Convention … or Woodstock?

MILWAUKEE

The Republican National Convention has turned into a Kumbaya moment for the press corps and Team Trump.

Donald Trump certainly has moderated his tone. I hear that Saturday’s brush with death has changed him. Maybe all will be as it was come Thursday night, but for now the pugilist has hung up his gloves.

Republicans here are in an upbeat mood. Convention goers tell me they know Trump will win in November. They never doubted it. They were sure of it before Saturday’s failed assassination attempt. And they are sure now.

I’m not saying it’s a complete love-fest here, but after the horrific shooting that killed 50-year-old volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore and seriously wounded two other Pennsylvanians, convention goers and the media are on their best behavior.

Of course, there are exceptions — Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake, for example, slammed “the fake news media” from the podium.

But when attendees see a press pass, their faces don’t become hostile or even overtly annoyed. And they’ll share their thoughts, if not on the record.

Penny Nance, president of the conservative Concerned Women for America, tells me it’s not just Republicans who have changed, it’s the media as well. “It went from ‘How can I get a soundbite to make you look bad’ to ‘What do you want to say?’”

On Sunday, The New York Times ran a headline that said, “An Assassination Attempt that Seems Likely to Tear America Further Apart.” Oops.

I covered Donald Trump’s one term in the White House and I remember tension — at times, downright malevolence — between the White House press team and the White House press corps. That first year especially, America was watching the press briefings every day. Including Trump. Tempers flared. Questions went unanswered. Those who shouted questions at the press secretary were hailed as heroes.

So I’m a happy camper today, even if I have a pet peeve about conventions. To wit: there are always people in the room who act as if these confabs are beneath them. They’re here, and still they sneer.

Count me out of that crew. I love these things. They’re democracy in action. They are the coming together of citizens who are looking to the future.

Sure, the speakers talk too long. That is more than made up for by the frequent sightings of big names in politics. I just saw Karl Rove on an escalator carrying a tote bag. Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro headed here after he was released from prison because he had served his four-month term for defying a congressional subpoena.

Social media influencer Amber Rose was here, too— not that I’d ever heard of her before she addressed the convention. Who’d have expected that a model/rapper with tattoos on her forehead could tell a GOP convention that they are “my people. This is where I belong.”

You see things at conventions for yourself — the excitement of Sarah Palin’s third-night speech in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2008, and the lack of enthusiasm for Democratic nominee John Kerry four years earlier.

To my mind, the moment when Sen. John McCain chose Palin to be his running mate was the instant the news cycle turned into an ever-churning monster that does not stop. As I write this, I learn that President Joe Biden has COVID. Again.

It turns out the excitement for Palin didn’t lead to victory, because conventions are just one side of the argument. They’re followed by something less choreographed and much more volatile: the election.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.