'Here & Now' from the 2024 RNC in Milwaukee: Day One

Frederica Freyberg:
You’re watching Republican National Convention coverage from Milwaukee. I’m Frederica Freyberg. We will stay with News Hour coverage, but we want to check in now with Here & Now senior political reporter Zac Schultz, who comes to us from Milwaukee. Hi, Zac. So, day one of the Republican convention there in Milwaukee certainly takes on heightened security concerns. Has that been in evidence?

Zac Schultz:
Yeah, we saw that already yesterday. I went to a prayer vigil that was, kind of spontaneously popped up in response to the shooting of Donald Trump last Saturday and I spoke to some people who said they were not concerned at all. They were absolutely happy and thought that Milwaukee would be very safe to be in because of that, because they knew that the Secret Service and the amount of police here would be in a large presence, but on the other side, there are some people that I know that were planning to come to Milwaukee that scrapped those plans over the weekend, because of that. They just didn’t feel it was worth the risk or that their people would feel safe and secure being here in the city.

Frederica Freyberg:
So, the Wisconsin delegation, of course, proceeded as planned and you heard from some important players today, among them, to kick things off, including state Republican Party Chair Brian Schimming.

Brian Schimming:
Well, I get a lot of questions about the security situation in Milwaukee, because of what happened. Milwaukee, Wisconsin right now is the safest place on the face of the planet.

Frederica Freyberg:
Well, that is reassuring to be sure. We do know that there were planned protests today, Monday. What can you tell us about those and how those went down?

Zac Schultz:
Well, there were a lot of protestors here representing all different walks of life and all different feelings on what issues they were protesting Republicans in the RNC about and there were some pretty loud counter protestors of them, those that were strong anti-abortion advocates with megaphones shouting them down. There was heavy police presence around them, but nothing got violent, and as far as we know, there were no arrests related to any of those protests.

Frederica Freyberg:
Because it really does sound as though people have tried to kind of deal with the assassination attempt and lower the rhetoric.

Zac Schultz:
Absolutely. The word here in Milwaukee is unity. That’s what all the delegates and all the Republicans are preaching. They want to bring the Republican Party together and they’re trying to put out this message that they will take this moment and move forward to unify both their party and the country and we will see if that happens and whether that happens in words and deeds will only be tested down the line, but that is definitely the message today.

Frederica Freyberg:
Indeed. Thank you, Zac. We look forward to talking with you tomorrow night. We will be here at the same time tomorrow with latest updates from day two of the RNC in Milwaukee. On Friday, join Here & Now at 7:00 for full coverage of the convention and what it means for Wisconsin.