Many across Texas are still processing the potential implications of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. In the hours since Saturday afternoon, we’ve been hearing many Texas lawmakers and politicians weigh in on the moment.
Matthew Choi, Washington correspondent for the Texas Tribune, joined Texas Standard with more reactions and an assessment on the mood at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he is reporting from. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: What’s the mood like in Milwaukee? Have you had a chance to get a sense of that?
Matthew Choi: I mean, first of all, there’s great amount of shock after the after the shooting. I think this really was just, like, an unprecedented disruption of the just the tenor of American politics.
It remains to be seen if that becomes a unifying event. It seems to be a unifying event within the Republican Party that, as you know, like in Texas, has been pretty disparate over the past couple of years. See folks rallying behind President Trump.
But what remains to be seen is whether or not this becomes a point of vitriol against Democrats. There’ve already been accusations against President Biden that he, with all this talk about President Trump being a threat to democracy, incited violence.
When you characterize that unifying event to the Republican Party, I think there have been a lot of hopes that perhaps this would be a unifying event across parties. Do you have a sense that there will be a higher degree of security at this event as a result of what happened in Pennsylvania?
Most likely. I mean, President Biden did call for review of the security provisions within the RNC. And we’re also seeing heightened security back in Washington as well.
You wrote about the reactions of Texas lawmakers to this shooting over the weekend, and we spoke with Sid Miller earlier in the program. He was at the event in Pennsylvania. Who else are you hearing from and what are you hearing?
I mean, the immediate reaction from everybody was just sort of support for the former president. But a couple of folks have also been kind of using this as almost a political cudgel against President Biden. Congressman Keith Self accused President Biden of of instigating this during a bit of a parallel with Democratic accusations against President Trump for inciting the violence on Jan. 6.
Where do you think this is headed? You know, there are several ways to look at this. One way is to look at this in the context of a political election season. Another is to think about whether or not this is a kind of fulcrum for American politics and the tone of our politics more broadly.
Given your experience, what you know about how Washington works and the political mindset, where do you suspect this takes us?
Well, I mean, there’s always the potential of it being a unifying moment. But, I mean, we’ve already seen a lot of frustration from the Democratic camp of these kind of accusations from Republicans drawing this parallel with Jan. 6, which they find to be utterly, patently absurd.
So, you know, one can always hope that this becomes a unifying event, but past precedent kind of would suggest it would go otherwise.
Well, the Biden campaign has made the threat to democracy – as they see it, posed by the Trump campaign and by the candidate himself – a centerpiece of its message. And yet, on Sunday evening, President Biden seemed to take a step back and say “we need to reduce the rhetoric on all sides.” We need to think of ourselves first and foremost as Americans, as neighbors. And casting this event and casting political division as a threat to democracy unto itself. Did he strike the right tone?
I mean, I think that was the certainly most presidential tone. And, you know, [politically] profiting off of something like this absolutely would have just fed more into the division that President Biden initially ran back in 2022 to mend.
So yeah, I mean, I think that certainly stuck to his base message.
Matthew, in terms of the start of the Republican convention, is everything still go for everything to begin as originally planned, or have there been changes?
It appears that everything is still on schedule. You know, President Trump is still going to receive the nomination. He’s going to reveal his vice presidential pick. So far, the schedule seems to be all go.
