2024 Election live updates: JD Vance, Trump’s VP pick, to speak at RNC day 3

Former White House official Peter Navarro was released Wednesday from prison and was expected to speak just hours later at the Republican National Convention, according to a person familiar with the schedule who spoke on condition of anonymity before its official release.

Navarro was released from custody after completing his four-month sentence for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Navarro will be heading straight to Milwaukee to speak at the third night of the Republican National Convention.

He is scheduled to speak in the 6 p.m. hour.

After three days, an enigmatic portrait emerged of the 20-year-old man who came close to killing former President Donald Trump with a high-velocity bullet: He was an intelligent loner with few friends, an apparently thin social media footprint and no hints of strong political beliefs that would suggest a motive for an attempted assassination.

Even after the FBI cracked into Thomas Matthew Crooks’ cellphone, scoured his computer, home and car, and interviewed more than 100 people, the mystery of why he opened fire on Trump’s rally Saturday, a bullet grazing the GOP nominee’s ear, remained as elusive as the moment it happened.

▶ Read more about the investigation

Vice President Kamala Harris is criticizing Republican Donald Trump’s new running mate ahead of the speech he’s making Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention.

In a video released by President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, Harris dismissed the choice of Ohio Sen. JD Vance as Trump looking “for someone he knew would be a rubber stamp for his extreme agenda.”

“Make no mistake: JD Vance will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country,” Harris says in the 45-second video.

Trump and other top Republicans have recently intensified their criticism of Harris. That comes amid speculation she could replace Biden at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket if he were to heed intensifying calls for him to leave the race.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, the first House Democrat to publicly call on President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, says the Democratic National Committee should not “fast-forward” the nominating process for his reelection bid.

Doggett said in a statement Wednesday that plans for a quick nomination — which the DNC is considering with a virtual roll call before the August convention — would jeopardize their chances of winning. He called instead for an open process to select a new Democratic presidential nominee.

“Fast-forwarding the nomination process is no way to convince the many unconvinced voters in the growing number of battleground states,” he said. “The risk of Trump tyranny is so great that we must put forward our strongest nominee.”

“Short-circuiting the normal Convention process jeopardizes the White House, Senate and House,” he added.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general says it’s investigating the U.S. Secret Service’s handling of security for former President Donald Trump on the day a gunman tried to assassinate him at a Pennsylvania rally.

The agency says in a brief notice on its website the objective is to evaluate the Secret Service’s “process for securing former President Trump’s July 13, 2024 campaign event.”

▶ Read more about the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation

After Donald Trump triumphantly entered the hall on the second night of the Republican National Convention, the program turned to one of his signature issues: illegal immigration. An ominous video of chaos at the U.S.-Mexico border led into to a speech by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who declared, “We are facing an invasion on our southern border.”

▶ Here’s a look at some of the claims made Tuesday

The mayor of Milwaukee says former President Donald Trump called him Tuesday, and the two had “a pleasant conversation.”

“Mr. Trump had positive things to say about his experience so far here in Milwaukee,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said at an early-morning briefing. “He shared his gratitude for the security and for law enforcement preparations.”

The mayor said he wished Trump a speedy recovery during the phone call, which Johnson said lasted two to three minutes.

Milwaukee’s mayor says he was saddened by the death of a man shot by a group of bicycle police from Columbus, Ohio, who were in town to help with convention security.

The officers were briefing each other on the day’s activities Tuesday when they witnessed a man with two knives lunge at an unarmed man, Mayor Cavalier Johnson said at an early-morning briefing.

Police body camera footage of the encounter was released Tuesday.

“The information we have leaves a clear impression that these Columbus officers, they saved the life of an unarmed man from death or perhaps serious injury,” Johnson said.

The shooting occurred about three-quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometers) from the convention arena, near a park where demonstrators have been protesting this week.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Donald Trump ’s running mate JD Vance will introduce himself to a national audience Wednesday as he addresses the Republican National Convention.

The Ohio senator’s headlining address will be his first speech as the Republican vice-presidential nominee. He’s a relative political unknown who rapidly morphed in recent years from a severe critic of Trump to an aggressive defender.

Vance, 39, is positioned to become the next potential leader of the former president’s political movement, which has reshaped the Republican Party and busted many longtime political norms. The first millennial to join a major party ticket, he joins the race when questions about the age of the men at the top of the tickets — 78-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President Joe Biden — have been high on the list of voters’ concerns.

▶ Read more about JD Vance’s expected appearance

The presidential race was top of mind for everyone in Milwaukee. But Republicans also want to flip the Senate, and they highlighted seven of their candidates hoping to nab seats from Democrats.

Only one of them was greeted with significant applause. That was Kari Lake of Arizona, a strong Trump supporter who became a conservative celebrity when she denied that Trump had lost his 2020 race or that she’d been defeated in her bid for governor.

All the Senate hopefuls had a common approach — slam Biden for his stewardship of the country and then link their opponent to the president.

Overall, the Senate candidates didn’t sketch out much of an individual agenda, instead hoping to tie their races to the presidential one. With most Senate elections going to the winner of the state’s presidential election, and Republicans bullish on Trump’s odds, it’s not an unreasonable calculation.

Democrats are trying to offer political counterprogramming to the RNC, announcing $15 million to fund campaign operations in seven key swing states — even as some in the party have urged President Joe Biden to bow out of November’s election.

The Democratic National Committee announced Tuesday that it is investing $15 million in state parties, meant to help them open more field offices and bolster staffing. The funding will let them add to the 217 existing coordinated campaign offices working jointly for Biden’s reelection bid and state parties that already employ 1,100-plus staffers in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the DNC said.

The investments will pump nearly $3 million into Wisconsin; nearly $2 million each into Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada; almost $1.5 million in Arizona; more than $1.2 million in North Carolina; and more than $1 million in Georgia.

Usha Chilukuri Vance, wife of JD Vance, is a Yale law graduate and attorney.

She stood next to her husband on Monday as he was named the Republican vice presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention.

The 38-year-old Chilukuri Vance was raised in San Diego, by Indian immigrants. Her mother is a biologist and provost at the University of California at San Diego; her father is an engineer, according to JD Vance’s campaign.

She received an undergraduate degree at Yale University and a master of philosophy at the University of Cambridge through the Gates Cambridge scholarship.

▶ Read more about Usha Vance

Trump and Vance were expected to appear in the hall each night of the convention. Vance is slated to speak Wednesday and Trump will speak Thursday.

Trump, who has long decried rivals with harsh language and talked about prosecuting opponents if he wins a second term, seemed poised to deliver a more toned-down speech. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said in an Axios interview outside the RNC that he spent three or four hours going through his father’s convention speech with him, “trying to de-escalate some of that rhetoric.”

But there were also hints in Tuesday’s programming of some of Trump’s old grievances, including several references to Trump’s disproven theories of election fraud. One of the primetime speakers, Madeline Brame, railed against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted Trump for illegally orchestrating a hush money scheme to influence the 2016 election. That made Trump the first former president convicted of a felony crime.

Brame accused Bragg of having mishandled the cases against the people accused of killing her son. Of Trump, she said, “He’s been a victim of the same corrupt system that I have been and my family has been.”

Trump’s survival of an attempted assassination Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania was on the minds of many inside the hall. One of the delegates in the crowd could be seen with a folded white piece of paper over his ear — an apparent tribute to the bandage Trump wore when he entered the hall Monday to a roaring crowd.

He was wearing it again when he arrived Tuesday night, appearing even earlier than he did the night before. Trump entered a few minutes after his newly chosen running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

Many of the speakers so far have referenced the assassination attempt on Trump’s life at a Saturday rally, and that’s something we can expect to hear more of as speeches go on.

With Trump’s primary rivals speaking, Day 2 at the RNC was an occasion for the GOP to demonstrate its unity, a sharp contrast to the Democratic party’s mounting concerns over the viability of Biden.

▶ Read the AP’s takeaways from night 2

The theme of Tuesday’s RNC festivities was “Make America Safe Once Again,” which offered a central message of restoring “law and order,” standing up for law enforcement and ending a “senseless crime spree.”

That sentiment apparently does not extend to Trump or the long list of his associates and allies who have been indicted, imprisoned and — in some cases — pardoned by Trump.

Trump himself was convicted in May of 34 felonies related to a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor, becoming the first former president to be convicted of a crime.

Then there’s the web of people indicted in Trump’s scheme to overturn the 2020 election, which Trump falsely insisted was stolen, a claim rejected in more than 60 court cases and by his own attorney general.

Like Trump, Hunter Biden, the president’s son, was recently convicted of a crime. Also like Trump, he is free while he decides whether to appeal the case ahead of his sentencing date.

Two nights into the Republican National Convention, the message has been relatively light on policy specifics even as GOP leaders, Party Chairman Michael Whatley included, insisted that Donald Trump and his party should use the gathering in Milwaukee to explain what a second Trump presidency would mean.

Instead, delegates have approved a shorter-than-usual platform that skirts many details. Speaker after speaker has opted for sweeping promises that Trump would improve the economy, make routine goods more affordable, secure the U.S.-Mexico border and end international conflicts — or at least remove the U.S. from those hotspots. And there’s been plenty of blame on President Joe Biden.

Certainly, conventions — for Democrats and Republicans — are often more about cheerleading, grand claims and attacks on the opposition. But it’s a notable trend given how insistent Republican leaders have been that Trump, who has never won the national popular vote and like Biden maintains high disapproval ratings, needs to broaden his appeal going into the fall.

Chairman Whatley banged his gavel to close the night.

“Thank you for being an amazing grandfather. Thank you for never giving up on me and thank you for never giving up on our country,” Lara Trump said.

Trump, the final keynote speaker of the night, wrapped shortly after.

Lara Trump, co-chaired the Republican National Committee and Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, spoke about the moments after the shooting happened on Saturday and how she had to turn off the TV so that the former president’s grandchildren did not have to watch the scenes playing out on TV.

“Last Saturday reminded us that we Americans must remember that there is more that unites us than divides us,” she said, adding that she’s aware that Trump’s rhetoric doesn’t always sit well with all Americans.

“Now you don’t have to admit that you like everything that he tweets, but Americans were better off when he was in office,” Lara Trump said.

She’s also sought to paint a more intimate side of Trump by saying his grandkids showed him drawings moments before he came down at Trump Tower to address the public after being convicted in the hush money case.

Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon turned Trump cabinet secretary, lamented the forces he sees arrayed against his former boss. But he says Trump emerges stronger from whatever he faces.

“First they tried to ruin his reputation, and he’s more popular now than ever,” Carson said. “And then they tried to bankrupt him, and he’s got more money now than he had before. And then they tried to put him in prison and he’s freer.”

He got a rousing ovation with his next line: “And then last weekend they tried to kill him,” Carson said. “And there he is, over there, alive and well.”

As so many other speakers have done at the convention, Carson attributed Trump’s survival to divine intervention.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio argued that Republicans must remain unapologetic about Trump’s “America First” agenda, even as critics cast it as isolationist and anti-immigrant.

Rubio sought to put a softer face on Republicans’ rhetoric and positioning on immigration. He avoided specific policy details but waxed eloquent about the makeup of the nation — finding a way to praise Trump’s running mate in the process as he talked of a citizenry made up of refugees, descendants of enslaved persons and immigrants simply seeking better opportunities.

“Americans are people as diverse as humanity itself. But out of many, we are one,” Rubio said. “Because as the life story of our next vice president, JD Vance, reminds us, we are all descendants of ordinary people who achieve extraordinary things.”

But as he offered that sweeping definition of what it means to be American, Rubio emphasized: “Putting Americans first must be what this election is all about.”

Trump’s former press secretary described the former president as someone who supported her when Democrats and the media criticized her. The Arkansas governor said that Republicans could not get Trump back into the White House “fast enough.”

“Not even an assassin’s bullet could stop him … God himself intervened because we are one nation under God and he is certainly not finished with President Trump,” Sanders said.

Trump’s two chief rivals for the Republican presidential nominations endorsed him in speeches at the RNC. MSNBC determined that its viewers didn’t really want to hear Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis.

The network, which appeals to liberal viewers, showed a portion of Haley’s speech as part of its convention coverage, then cut away to a Rachel Maddow commentary. She discussed Haley’s past criticisms of Trump and compared her to a paddle ball that “keeps coming back for another whack.”

Maddow brought journalist Tim Alberta in for an interview, where they discussed how Haley had criticized Trump during the campaign. Alberta said some of Haley’s former supporters were disappointed in how she had set aside principles in order to back Trump.

MSNBC cameras showed DeSantis speaking to the convention, but the network did not play audio of the speech.

In general, the network has been commenting upon, rather than showing, what is going on at the convention. CNN and Fox News Channel have been showing more of the actual speeches.

Madeline Brame, whose veteran son was stabbed to death in Harlem in 2018, brought the crowd’s focus Tuesday night to one of right’s biggest boogeymen: New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Brame has publicly criticized Bragg for being soft on crime, including in the case of her son’s alleged killer. The crowd responded with roaring applause as Bragg is one of the officials involved in Trump’s various legal battles. “They betrayed us and stab us in the back,” Brame said about Democrats. “Trump was right when he said they’re after us, he’s just standing in the way.”

As part of the convention’s ‘Make America Safe Again’ session, family members of those who have lost loved ones to fentanyl overdose appeared back-to-back on the RNC stage to make the forceful and at time emotional case for why Trump would fix the epidemic.

Michael Morin, the brother of a woman who was killed by a man who was allegedly in the country illegally, said that Trump would take more action on the drug crisis than Biden and Harris have in the past three and a half years. Another speaker, Anne Funder, lost her 15-year-old son Austin to an overdose two years ago. As she got choked up on stage, the crowd began to chat “Joe must go!” to which she responded, “Yes, he must.”

Tom King, a Pennsylvania delegate from Butler, Pennsylvania, said he spoke to Trump at the rally 10 minutes before the shooting erupted on Saturday. He says he sat about 20 feet in front of Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief who was killed.

“It was a great day to see the president,” said King, who is general counsel for the Pennsylvania Republican Party. “He was in a great mood. He was energetic, but he was very serious about what we need to do in Pennsylvania to win the election.” When an AP reporter asked him to specify what he said needed to be done in Pennsylvania, King said, “I won’t say what he said.”

“We pledged to do everything we could to help him,” he said. “He’s a great guy.”

Jeff Haste, a Pennsylvania delegate from Dauphin County, said he thought it was unfair for people to arrive in the country illegally when others have had to follow the law to come to the country.

“My whole issue is illegal immigration. I am all for legal immigration. In fact, I have family members who have immigrated from other countries.”

“We are just tired of line jumpers,” Haste said. “Folks are coming over here illegally, not going through the process of doing it the right way.”

During the session’s prime hours, senators, representatives and other dignitaries paid their respects to the former president. Several got to sit and chat with Trump, former Cabinet member Ben Carson and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders among them.

Notably, several visitors shook hands with Vance but did not linger with the 39-year-old vice presidential nominee.

The second night of the Republican National Convention has centered on issues of crime and immigration, with many speakers echoing unfounded claims that Democrats intentionally want to replace Americans through illegal immigration, a claim that has moved from the fringes of political conversation to a consistent fear among the GOP base.

“We stand for strong borders and believe that our nation must have a shared civic culture and we oppose any immigration that stands apart or in contrast to our American values,” Gov. DeSantis said during his speech.

“We are facing an invasion on our southern border. Not figuratively, a literal invasion,” Sen. Cruz contended during his remarks. “Every day Americans are dying. Murdered, assaulted, raped by illegal immigrants that the Democrats have released,” he continued.

And Rep. Steve Scalise, the GOP House majority leader, said that “Biden and Harris want illegals to vote now that they’ve opened up the border.”

Tonight is the first time Florida Gov. DeSantis has spoken publicly in support of Trump following the GOP primary.

But he spent most of his speech criticizing Democrats’ policies on immigration, education and gender identity. DeSantis said the country needs to vote out President Biden saying he has failed as a leader. “I am alarmed that the current president of the United States lacks the capability to discharge the duties of his office,” he said.

“Donald Trump stands in their way and he stands up for America. Donald Trump has been demonized. He’s been sued. He’s been prosecuted and he nearly lost his life,” he said. “We cannot let him down.”

Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin said Tuesday that he was the victim of “political violence” after an altercation with an activist.

Van Orden posted on X that he was ‘assaulted’ while standing in line at a Milwaukee hotel by what appeared to be a member of what he called “the pro-Hamas group CODEPINK.”

CODEPINK describes itself as a feminist organization working to end U.S. warfare and imperialism. It posted a video claiming that Van Orden shoved one of its members as the group was trying to get into a Republican luncheon.

The Milwaukee Police Department said in a statement that a 24-year-old woman was arrested in the same block as the hotel for battering a victim around 11:07 a.m. Tuesday. The statement said the victim sustained minor injuries and refused medical attention at the scene. The statement did not identify the woman or the victim.

“This appears to be an incident of political violence and I will never tolerate this,” Van Orden said in his post. “Regardless of the severity of the violence, political violence is political violence.” He called for people “who choose the path of political violence” to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

“Nothing will change until these people are held accountable,” he said.

Van Orden, a first-term representative, has a history of public conflicts. He cursed at high school-aged Senate pages during a late-night tour of the U.S. Capitol in 2023 and threatened a staffer at a Wisconsin library in 2021 over a gay pride display.

Nikki Haley may not have noticed but there was an unusual distraction toward the end of her RNC speech.

Some people in the Fox News television broadcast suite were tossing souvenir footballs to convention attendees in the seats below them. Surrounding delegates and guests clapped and laughed even as Haley made her case for Trump and against Biden.

DeSantis says Biden “lacks the capability to discharge the duties of his office” following the president’s poor performance in last month’s debate.

“We need a commander in chief who can lead 24 hours a day and seven days a week,” DeSantis said. He called Biden a “figurehead” who is “imposing a leftist agenda on the American people.”

Haley says it’s not enough for the GOP to be united. “We must also expand the party. We are so much better when we are bigger,” Haley said.

Joking that she happens to know “a few people” who don’t agree with Trump and his campaign, Haley tried to appeal to the millions of Republicans who wanted her, not Trump, as the GOP nominee for president.

“My message to them is simple: You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him,” Haley said.

Trump’s last rival standing for the GOP nomination made clear where she stands now.

“Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” former South Carolina governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said.

Her words were greeted with an uproar of applause, a stark contrast to moments earlier when she took the stage to a mix of cheers and boos.

Explaining Trump’s “gracious invitation” that she speak, she said, “I haven’t always agreed with Trump but we agree more often than we disagree.”

Cruz referred to four cases of three women and a girl who have been killed in California, Maryland, Texas and Georgia in cases where the suspects arrested had been in the country illegally. In one of the cases, a Mexican man who had been deported five times was acquitted of murder in the 2015 shooting death of 32-year-old Kate Steinle after acknowledging the gun had fired accidentally when he found it wrapped in a T-shirt under a bench on a San Francisco pier, where she was walking with her father. Seven years later he pleaded guilty to federal gun charges.

Milwaukee Police say charges are pending against a 21-year-old man who was arrested Monday for carrying a concealed AK-47 in his backpack just blocks from the Fiserv Forum.

U.S. Capitol Police initially spotted the man around 1 p.m. “looking suspicious, wearing a ski mask and a large tactical backpack in the street,” according to a statement from Milwaukee police.

Capitol police stopped the man and determined he was carrying a firearm in his backpack without a concealed carry permit, Milwaukee police said. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The Milwaukee County district attorney’s office was reviewing for filing of possible charges, Milwaukee police said. The attempted assassination attempt on former President Trump has lead to increased security at the RNC.

Sen. Ted Cruz started his speech by saying “God Bless Donald J. Trump” and then went on to talk about his assassination attempt at a rally on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“Let me start by giving thanks to God almighty for protecting Donald Trump and for turning his head on Saturday as the shot was fired.”

The last time Cruz spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2016, he was booed while battling Trump for the GOP nomination for president. Since then, the two men have had a contentious and publicly tense relationship, exchanging personal insults. But Cruz’s appearance depicts an effort by Republicans to show a united front after Saturday’s rally shooting.

The Republican presidential nominee has made another grand entrance for the prime time hours at the Republican National Convention.

Trump was introduced to roaring delegates who had just spent a few minutes dancing to the Village People’s “YMCA” along with a video montage of Trump dancing at his rallies.

Trump then walked in wearing a bandage over his right ear like he had the day before.

Surrounded by security, the candidate hugged the wall as he walked toward the family box, occasionally pumping his fist and applauding.

Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, entered the GOP convention to Merle Haggard’s “America First.”

After walking across the floor with his family, he climbed into a box near the stage featuring VIPs including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin and members of the Trump family.

While traveling in Las Vegas, President Biden sat for an interview with BET, and was asked about potentially waning enthusiasm for his reelection among Black Americans.

Biden responded that such voters should turn out for him “because they know where my heart is. They know where my head is.”

He added that many Americans, especially young voters, weren’t watching the election closely until recently and “we’re just getting down to gametime now.”

Biden has done a series of TV interviews lately, hoping to reassure some Democrats who have called for him to leave the presidential race after his shaky debate performance last month.