Trump speech strengthens bond with supporters

TRUMP SPEECH STRENGTHENS BOND WITH SUPPORTERS. If you listen to some cable news analysts or read the political conversation on social media, the most notable thing about former President Donald Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention Thursday night was its length. And yes, at 93 minutes, it was too long. But for the Republicans listening to the speech in the hall and for millions watching on TV, here was the most notable thing about Trump's speech: the fact that it happened at all.

When they saw Trump take the stage in the Fiserv Forum, Republicans saw a leader who was almost assassinated by a gunman five days earlier. They shuddered to think what would have happened had Trump been killed by the sniper's bullet at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday night. The party and the nation would have been in a perilous place. As it was, they were deeply disturbed by what had happened and enormously relieved to see Trump at the convention, delivering a speech of any length.

Before the speech, I talked to perhaps 15 delegates, alternate delegates, guests, and other political types as they headed toward their seats. I asked them a simple question: What effect has the Trump assassination attempt had on the convention? Here are some of their responses:

"It was very traumatic. But I think it brought all the Trump fans together — we're like a love fest now."

"It humanized him. He's always been this very strong leader. It made us realize he is susceptible to danger."

"First, it made me very angry. The left has just done everything they can to get rid of him. But I saw the picture [of Trump raising his fist after being shot] and said, that's a warrior, somebody we need to lead the country."

"I just doubled down on support."

"I could tell the minute I walked into [the convention] that the whole mood was energized."

"It created an additional level of fervor. People realized how close we came to losing him."

"The amount of support has risen dramatically."

"We're all grateful he's alive. There hasn't been any anger in the party — there's been a resolve to double down and triple down on support. I'm really proud of our party this week."

The day after the assassination attempt, Trump told me he threw away the speech he had prepared for the convention. "I basically had a speech that was an unbelievable rip-roarer," he said. "It was brutal — really good, really tough. [Last night] I threw it out. I think it would be very bad if I got up and started going wild about how horrible everybody is, and how corrupt and crooked, even if it's true. Had this not happened, we had a speech that was pretty well set that was extremely tough. Now, we have a speech that is more unifying.”

Was Trump successful? Certainly the first part of the speech, likely the part seen by the most viewers, presented a different Trump than millions of people are familiar with. His tone was subdued as he recounted the assassination attempt. If viewers were expecting bombast from Trump, they got something different. Was that a good thing? We'll have to see. It takes days for the public's reaction to a big event like this to fully form. Perhaps they liked the new, quieter Trump. Or maybe they just thought he seemed tired.

In any event, as the speech went on, Trump gradually became more of his old self. The speech began to resemble the speeches he gives at rallies, which can run to an hour and a half. But he still used some form of the word "unite" or "unify" five times, as in this expression of the new theme:

We are Americans. Ambition is our heritage. Greatness is our birthright. But as long as our energies are spent fighting each other, our destiny will remain out of reach. And that's not acceptable. We must instead take that energy and use it to realize our country's true potential — and write our own thrilling chapter to the American story. We can do it together. We will unite. We are going to come together, and success will bring us together."

That paragraph was a distillation of what Trump was talking about after the assassination attempt. There are all sorts of reasons Trump might fail to achieve that, but at least he set it out as a goal.

Observers of all political persuasions have noted that this Republican convention ran particularly well. It was well thought-out, well organized, and well executed. The party and the Trump campaign deserve a lot of credit for making that happen. But there was more to it than that. Go back and look at the quotes above. The assassination attempt had an effect on this convention, and that effect was to bring the delegates closer together, to unify them, and to make them happy — happy that Trump was alive and in their midst.

Of course, there was snark from the usual suspects in the commentariat. But there was something going on in plain sight at the Fiserv Forum. You could see it and you could feel it. Watching events, CNN commentator Van Jones, a longtime liberal activist, urged his fellow panelists to watch closely. "The last time I was in a convention that felt like this was Obama in 2008," Jones said. "There's something happening."