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

Frederica Freyberg:
You’re watching Republican National Convention coverage from Milwaukee. I’m Frederica Freyberg. We’ll stay with News Hour coverage, but we want to check in now with Here & Now’s senior political reporter Zac Schultz, who comes to us from Milwaukee. Hi, Zac. Since we last spoke, former President Trump appeared before delegates and announced his VP pick of JD Vance. What is the Wisconsin GOP reaction?

Zac Schultz:
Well, the talk this morning at the delegate breakfast for the Wisconsinites was just how amazing the scene was to be in the Fiserv last night on the floor when they saw on the big board Donald Trump in the hallway, that he was gonna come out, that he walked through. They talked about the emotion in the room. I mean, that’s something for these delegates who were this attracted to this party and this event that’s something that’s gonna stick with them for quite a long time. As for JD Vance, they were enthusiastic, but that’s what you would expect. I don’t think they know a lot about him other than what they’ve heard. He hasn’t met with them. He hasn’t spoken, so that’s still yet to come as he makes his big speech Wednesday.

Frederica Freyberg:
Specific to Milwaukee, there had been reports of venues not being booked out for the convention. Has that turned around?

Zac Schultz:
Well, they’re hoping it will. We’ve definitely heard that there have been a lot of places that have been empty, a lot of the bars. The Public Market hasn’t had very much business a lot of photos of empty places. But they wanted the Republicans want to point out that convention delegates were busy all day yesterday. They had an afternoon session, they had an evening session, and Stephanie Soucek, who is from the Door County Republicans, said that she and others plan to hope to be able to get out the rest of the week, that they have more opportunities. Here’s what she said this morning.

Stephanie Soucek:
We’re looking forward to some more flexibility in the next few days to go out and support different businesses, and, you know, just be part of the community and get out to different places we couldn’t yesterday.

Frederica Freyberg:
So we have been interested in security around the convention, and there was a shooting just outside the perimeter today.

Zac Schultz:
That’s right. We’ve only got a few details at this point, not much confirmed. We know it involved an out-of-state police, law enforcement. There’s quite a few from other states that have come in. It was to the west of the area. It was actually across Highway 43. So although it was only a few blocks away from Fiserv, it wasn’t in the area surrounding it, where some of the protests were the other day. So we’ll get a lot more information, but we should note tonight’s theme is Make America Safe Once Again.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right, Zac Schultz, thanks very much. We look forward to talking with you again tomorrow night. We will be here at the same time tomorrow with latest updates from day three of the RNC in Milwaukee, and on Friday, join Here & Now at 7:00 for a special one-hour program on the convention and what’s ahead for Wisconsin.