Trump arrives for JD Vance speech; Biden has Covid

Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance will tell RNC delegates that Trump sacrificed a private business life to “endure abuse, slander and persecution” — as well as a would-be assassin — for the good of the United States.

“For the last eight years, President Trump has given everything he has to fight for the people of our country. He didn’t need politics, but the country needed him,” Vance will say, according to excerpts of his prepared speech.

The speech notes that Trump rose to his feet after gunman Thomas Crooks fired bullets at him and a crowd at a Pennsylvania campaign rally, when Trump pumped his fist at the crowd.

“Even in his most perilous moment, we were on his mind. His instinct was for us,” Vance will say. “To call us to something higher. To something greater. To once again be citizens who ask what our country needs of us.”

– Dan Mangan

Harvard graduate Shabbos Kestenbaum, who is currently suing his alma mater, blasted Ivy League culture and Democrats, his former party, for becoming what he called “ideologically poisoned.”

“Let’s elect a president who recognizes that although Harvard and the Ivy Leagues have long abandoned the United States of America, the Jewish people never will.”

As the Gaza war polarized the U.S. in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, colleges campuses became the site of intense political division and hot-tempered protests, many of which attacked President Biden for providing military support to Israel.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Some family members of service members killed in the 2021 U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan condemned Biden, saying the president has never said the 13 service members’ names out loud.

“There has been a deafening silence from the Biden and Harris administration,” Alicia Lopez, mother of Corporal Hunter Lopez, said.

“Despite our pleas for answers and accountability, they have pushed us away and tried to silence us,” Lopez said. “The Biden administration has not owned up to the bad decisions. They have not been transparent about their failures.”

Each year since the 2021 attack at the Abbey Gate base at the Kabul Airport, Biden has issued statements commemorating the lives of the 13 service members killed and listing their names and ranks.

He has not, however, read a list of the 13 names out loud, a White House spokesman told NBC News.

– Josephine Rozzelle

A White House spokesman bluntly responded to reports that Biden has heard from the Democratic leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives that is risking the party’s electoral chances in November if he remains the nominee.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, have met with Biden and shared how their respective caucuses feel.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates in a statement said, “The President told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families.”

– Dan Mangan

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Trump campaign adviser who is now engaged to his son, Donald Trump Jr., delivered her speech at a notably higher volume than the previous speakers.

“We are closer to World War III than any time in my life,” Guilfoyle roared.

“We are done being told by the radical left to sit down shut up and obey,” she said. “The Democratic vision for America is governed by fear, hatred and political oppression.”

— Rebecca Picciotto

Longtime Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway praised what she described as Trump’s history of elevating women in his business and political empires, recounting an all-female White House meeting.

“One morning I was in an early senior staff meeting in the White House. And as I glanced around the table, something caught my eye,” Conway said. “In that meeting, where Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mercedes Schlapp, Brooke Rollins, Ivanka Trump and me.”

“I soon realized that among us, we have 19 children at the time, ages two through 16,” she said. “Show me a C-suite in America where five working moms of 19 young children could have the highest rank in the company and work alongside the president.”

– Josephine Rozzelle

Trump just arrived at the RNC site for the third straight night, still wearing a white bandage on his right ear, which he says was hit by a bullet from a would-be assassin on Saturday.

– Dan Mangan

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, whom Trump had considered as a running mate, told the RNC that “Biden is acting like a dictator” with his electrical vehicle mandates and other policies.

“He’s using mandates to shut down reliable base load electricity,” Burgum said. “That’s why your electric bills have soared upwards as our nation’s electric grid reliability spirals.”

“Four more years of Joe will usher an era of Biden brownouts and blackouts,” the governor said.

– Dan Mangan

Sarah Philips, a petroleum engineer, said that while “President Trump is high energy, and supports energy, Biden is low energy and is against energy.”

This is not entirely accurate, however. Biden has overseen an explosion in domestic energy production during his presidency. In 2023, the United States produced more crude oil than any country in history, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

– Josephine Rozzelle

Trent Conaway, the Republican mayor of East Palestine, Ohio, slammed President Biden for his administration’s response to the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment.

“When the train derailed, spilling flames and toxic chemicals to our town, [we] faced a disaster unlike we’ve ever seen,” Conaway said. “And in the chaos, we witnessed a clear contrast between leadership and incompetence.”

The mayor criticized Biden for only visiting East Palestine over a year after the disaster, which infused the surrounding community with toxins in the water and air, making some residents ill.

“I know a thing or two about train wrecks now, and let me tell you, that’s what the Biden administration has been,” Conaway jeered.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blasted Biden over his immigration policy, saying “Joe Biden deserted his duty on his first day in office.”

“He gutted President Trump’s policies, and the result has been catastrophic. Under Joe Biden, illegal immigration has skyrocketed under his watch,” said Abbott, whose state shares a long border with Mexico.”

“Biden has welcomed into our country rapists, murderers, even terrorists, and the price that we have paid has been deadly,” the governor said.

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), a veteran who lost both of his legs while service in Afghanistan, slammed Biden on the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members.

“With his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden delivered what President Trump rightly called ‘the most embarrassing day in American history,'” Mast said. “And what’s worse is that Joe Biden doesn’t even remember that it cost the lives of 13 American heroes.”

This is not accurate. In addition to honoring their sacrifice shortly after the withdrawal, Biden has honored the 13 service members who were killed every year since then on the anniversary of their deaths.

“Today, I am praying for the families of those 13 fallen warriors, who lost a piece of their soul one year ago. Our nation can never repay such incredible sacrifice—but we will never fail to honor our sacred obligation to the families and survivors they left behind,” Biden said on August 26, 2022.

One year later, Biden said, “We will forever honor the memory of the 13 service members who were stolen far too soon from their families, loved ones, and brothers- and sisters-in-arms, while performing a noble mission on behalf of our nation.”

– Josephine Rozzelle

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said he could also be sick after spending time with President Biden, nodding to the fact that the president’s Covid diagnosis came after several days of unmasked public events where he was in close proximity with people.

In response to the Biden campaign’s social media post writing, “I’m sick,” Ford replied, “I might be, too,” punctuating the message with an emoji of a man shrugging.

“Good seeing you today anyway, @POTUS,” Ford added, including a selfie of him and Biden, both unmasked within inches of each other.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Former Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro bragged of walking out of federal prison “this morning” as he warned his Republicans that “if they can come for me, if they can come for Donald Trump, be careful. They will come for you!”

“If we don’t control our government, their government will control us,” said Navarro, who completed a four-month jail term in Miami on Wednesday for contempt of Congress.

“If we don’t control all three branches of our government, legislative, executive and judicial, their government will put some of us, like me and Steve Bannon, in prison. And control the rest of us.”

Navarro, like his fellow former Trump aide Bannon, was locked up for flouting congressional subpoenas demanding documents and testimony related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.

– Dan Mangan

The Biden campaign cryptically posted “I’m sick” on social media before following up three minutes later with another post slamming Elon Musk and “his rich buddies.”

Taken together, the posts read: “I’m sick…of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election.”

Musk officially endorsed Donald Trump on Saturday, hours after his attempted assassination at the Pennsylvania rally shooting that killed one attendee and critically injured two others.

Biden’s follow-up post ended by asking for campaign donations: “If you agree, pitch in here.”

The campaign’s social media stunt came shortly after the White House confirmed that Biden had tested positive for Covid while in Las Vegas.

Earlier, Biden posted a more earnest response to his Covid diagnosis on his official White House account.

“I am feeling good and thank everyone for the well wishes,” he wrote. “I will be isolating as I recover, and during this time I will continue to work to get the job done for the American people.”

— Rebecca Picciotto

Rep. Ronny Jackson, who previously served as the White House’s head doctor, told the RNC that Trump “literally took a bullet for our country.”

“President Trump and I have been through a lot together over the years,” said Jackson, who represents a Texas district. “But I have never, ever been prouder of his leadership than I was last Saturday.”

Jackson has said he examined Trump after an attempted assassination of the former president on Saturday, and that the “bullet took a little bit off the top of his ear in an area that, just by nature, bleeds like crazy.”

Jackson, whose nomination as Trump’s secretary of Veteran’s Affairs was scuttled due to allegations about his professional conduct, contrasted Trump with Biden, calling the current president “someone who can barely shuffle to a podium.”

Jackson said earlier this week that his nephew’s neck was grazed by a bullet during the shooting at Trump’s rally.

– Dan Mangan

On Day 3 of the RNC Convention, several attendees are donning bandages on their ears in solidarity with former President Donald Trump, days after his ear was grazed in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, PA.

— Adam Jeffery

Following his conviction on federal corruption charges, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has informed allies that he plans to resign from Congress, two sources told NBC.

A New York jury on Tuesday found Menendez guilty on 16 federal charges related to accepting bribes in return for taking actions to benefit the governments of Qatar and Egypt.

Dozens of senators, including Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have called for Menendez to resign following the conviction.

– Josephine Rozzelle

President Biden has tested positive for Covid, the White House said in a statement.

“He is vaccinated and boosted and he is experiencing mild symptoms,” the statement from Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “He will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.”

The White House statement also included a note from the President’s doctor.

“He felt okay for his first event of the day, but given that he was not feeling better, point of care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive for the COVID-19 virus,” the doctor said.

“His symptoms remain mild, his respiratory rate is normal at 16, his temperature is normal at 97.8 and his pulse oximetry is normal at 97%,” the physician said, adding that Biden has already received his first dose of Paxlovid.

Biden was set to speak at the UnidosUS Annual Conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon, but UnidosUS President Janet Murguía took the stage shortly after 3:00 p.m. PT to announce that Biden would not be speaking.

“Regrettably, I was just on the phone with President Biden,” Murgia said to the audience. “And he shared his deep disappointment at not being able to join us this afternoon. The President has been at many events as we all know. And he just tested positive for COVID.”

– Josephine Rozzelle

The Trump campaign said Wednesday it will not agree to a Vice-Presidential debate before the Democratic National Convention, pointing to the calls for President Joe Biden to drop out of the race as its reason.

“We don’t know who the Democrat nominee for Vice President is going to be, so we can’t lock in a date before their convention,” Trump campaign aide Brian Hughes said in a statement. “To do so would be unfair to Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, or whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate.”

Biden has insisted that he does not plan to drop out of the race.

In an interview on Newsmax Tuesday night, Trump’s running mate JD Vance indicated that he’d be willing to a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, who previously agreed to an invitation from CBS to debate on July 23 or Aug. 13.

“We want to debate Vice President Harris because it’s important for the American people to see the contrast,” he said.

– Josephine Rozzelle

President Joe Biden said he might reconsider whether to stay in the race against GOP nominee Donald Trump if his doctors told him that he was suffering from a “medical condition.”

“Is there anything that you would look to you, personally…to say, ‘if I see that, I will reevaluate?'” BET host Ed Gordon asked Biden in an interview set to air in full on Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET.

“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, ‘you got this problem, that problem,'” Biden replied, according to a video clip shared ahead of the broadcast.

Biden, 81, has resolutely rejected calls from within his own party to withdraw from the race after his abysmal performance in last month’s presidential debate.

— Kevin Breuninger

Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat heavily favored to win a U.S. Senate seat in November, called on Biden to exit the presidential race and let the party nominate another candidate.

Schiff said had “serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.”

“While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” Schiff said.

– Dan Mangan

Vice President Kamala Harris made her first on-camera public comment about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at his Pennsylvania rally where one crowd member was killed and two others were critically injured.

Harris opened her remarks at a Michigan abortion rights panel by sending her condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore, the former Pennsylvania firefighter who was killed. She also said she was “thankful” that Trump was not more seriously hurt at the Saturday shooting.

“Violence is never acceptable,” Harris said. “One of the questions we now confront is about the way we should engage with one another in this campaign.”

Harris then dovetailed her message of sympathy into political talking points, making the case for hers and President Biden’s reelection.

“Just as we must reject political violence, we must also embrace a robust discussion about what is at stake in this election,” she said. “One of the ideas and one of the principles that is at stake in this election is the issue of reproductive freedom, and that is why I am here today.”

— Rebecca Picciotto

Roughly two-thirds of Democrats think President Biden should bow out of the presidential race and let someone else take the top of the ticket, according to new polling from the past several days.

A new AP/NORC poll published Wednesday found that 65% of Democrats believe Biden should step aside. From July 11 to July 15, the poll surveyed 1,253 adults. It had a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percentage points.

That result aligned with a similar finding from an NBC News poll released Sunday, which showed that 62% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning registered voters also thought Biden should drop out. The poll surveyed 800 registered voters from July 7 to July 9. It had a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.

Biden has repeatedly rejected polling data that has shown drop-out pressure escalating in the weeks since his debate flop against Donald Trump. Rather, he maintains that the media and political pundits has been disproportionately covering his political vulnerabilities rather than Trump’s.

As of Wednesday, at least 20 Democratic lawmakers had publicly called on Biden to drop out of the race, including most recently California Rep. Adam Schiff.

The Democratic rifts present a split screen with day three of the Republican National Convention where the GOP has vigorously rallied around the Trump-Vance ticket, especially in the wake of the Pennsylvania rally shooting where the former president came within an inch of a deadly bullet.

— Rebecca Picciotto

The Democratic National Committee pledged that its virtual roll call process to designate President Biden the party’s official presidential nominee will not start before Aug. 1, according to a letter to delegates obtained by NBC News.

The virtual roll call process could have begun as soon as next week, which some Biden allies were pushing for. But other Democrats wanted the DNC to delay its early voting process to give the party time to lock down a new nominee as concerns mount about Biden’s age.

“Our goal is not to fast-track,” wrote Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Bishop Leah Daughtry, co-chairs of the DNC’s rules committee. “None of this will be rushed.”

The DNC’s letter eased some concerns on Capitol Hill.

Shortly after the letter was released, House Democrats called off their own effort to collect signatures on a drafted letter that would have called on the DNC to hold the nomination process in person at the Democratic convention, as is typical.

“We’re glad to see that the pressure worked, and the DNC will not be moving forward with the rushed process, so we won’t be sending a letter at this time,” a spokesperson for California Rep. Jared Huffman, one of the Democratic lawmakers leading the push, told CNBC.

Though the DNC promised that the virtual voting process will not kick off before August, Walz and Daughtry noted, it will be finished before the Democratic convention starts on Aug. 19.

Read the full story here.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Former Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro is scheduled to speak in Milwaukee just hours after he completed a four-month jail sentence in Miami.

A federal jury convicted Navarro in September on two counts of contempt of Congress for his refusal to comply with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected Navarro’s requests to get out of jail early while he appealed his sentence.

— Kevin Breuninger