Trump Shooting Changes The Script

MILWAUKEE — The image of a bloodied Donald J. Trump defiantly pumping his fist after Saturday’s assassination attempt is certain to loom large over the Republican National Convention that opens here Monday.

As the GOP prepares to formally nominate Trump for president for the third time on a roll call vote Monday afternoon, the party and Trump are trying to calibrate how to appropriately exploit a breathtaking brush with death.

“That may be the best political poster ever,” said Ben Proto, the Connecticut Republican chairman and leader of a 100-person delegation with 28 delegates, 25 alternates and 47 guests.

On Sunday, as the delegation traveled by two motor coaches to a lakefront cocktail reception sponsored by the Mohegan Tribe, the Trump campaign sent a fundraising email blast of the image under the words, ​“NEVER SURRENDER.”

Delegates spoke somberly about the attack that left Trump bloody from a grazing wound to his right ear and one rally attendee dead, and more than one expressed gratitude at the bipartisan urging to dial back over-the-top rhetoric endemic to a rematch of two men who clearly detest one another.

“I think both the president and former president put it beautifully — we need to be unified and unified on the common ground of obviously this is not how you settle disputes,” said Rosa Rebimbas, a delegate from Naugatuck.

“I’m hoping some good can come out of this — toning down the rhetoric,” said Annalisa Stravato, a delegate from Wilton recently elected to the Republican National Committee. ​“I think we all can agree what happened was tragic.”

It was the message Biden delivered twice on Sunday from the White House, first in comments in the Roosevelt Room and then in brief remarks televised live from the Oval Office.

“Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy,” Biden said. ​“It’s part of human nature. But politics must never be a literal battlefield and, God forbid, a killing field.”

Biden also acknowledge the practicalities of what modern political conventions are about — drawing sharp and hopefully memorable contrasts with an opponent.

“The Republican convention will start tomorrow. I have no doubt they’ll criticize my record and offer their own vision for this country,” Biden said. ​“I’ll be traveling this week making the case for our record and our vision.”

Since Biden’s poor performance at the June 27 debate, Trump had largely yielded the stage to the president, choosing not to distract press and public from the drama of a Democratic Party openly debating their nominee’s fitness to continue the campaign.

But surviving an assassination attempt turns the spotlight back on Trump precisely at the moment he will become the GOP nominee, teeing up what will be a dramatic entrance by Trump, whenever the candidate and his campaign chooses to make it.

“They’ve made that abundantly clear to us — this is a TV show,” said Proto, who is attending his seventh presidential nominating convention. ​“It’s designed to deliver a four-day message. It’s designed to create content. It’s designed to fire up the base and fire up the volunteers and fire up those of us who kind of do this for a living.”

“I think a hell of lot more people are going to tune in,” said John Frey, a long-time Republican National Committee member from Ridgefield.

Frey spoke sitting outside the Harbor Club, a bistro overlooking Lake Michigan where the Mohegans hosted a welcoming reception. Delegates mingled, sampling crab cakes, salmon tacos and other passed appetizers.

Proto told the delegates they are participating in history, and they should take care to enjoy their experience and follow his two guidelines: ​“We have fun, and we be safe.”

Proto reminded them to be in their seats at the Fiserv Forum, a gleaming glass and steel arena that is home to the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, by midday to vote on accepting a platform — then the roll call for Trump.

If anyone approaches them seeking their support for a dissenting minority report on the platform, Proto urged them to notify him and reject any efforts to undermine the party’s new statement of principles.

For the first time since 1984, the GOP platform does not call for a national ban on abortion, instead saying abortion regulation and restrictions are a matter for the states. The change was sought by the Trump campaign.

Michael Steele, the former Republican national chairman, current political commentator and long-time critic of Trump, told an MSNBC audience Saturday that the softened language on abortion is window dressing.

“Don’t get punked, y’all,” Steele said. ​“You know they want a national ban.”

But unhappy abortion opponents made themselves known in Milwaukee as the Connecticut delegates left their semi-private cocktail party for the Red, White & Brew Party — a welcome for the entire convention.

Abortion protesters, some using bullhorns, accused the GOP of betrayal. One young man chanted, ​“GOP, shame on you, you support abortion, too.”

The delegates ignored them.

Lisa Hagen contributed to this story from Washington, D.C.