From the Ohio Senate to a bid for the White
House,
former President Donald Trump secures the Republican nomination for president
and selects Ohio Senator JD Vance as potential
VP. The headlines are coming and coming fast today,
folks. Good afternoon and welcome to Fox 8 News at
4.
I'm Gabe Spiegel. And I'm Tracy Mccool.
Yes, a very busy Newsday.
It has been a staggering weekend in American politics.
The country still reeling from the assassination attempt on former
President Trump Saturday and the Republican National Convention getting underway
today with a big impact right here in Ohio.
We have it all covered for you.
But we begin with the RNC.
We're expected to see President Trump for the first time
since Saturday night.
FOX 8's Joe Toohey joins us now live with all
of it.
We're just talking. It hasn't been two full days since
the assassination of 10.
This is crazy. So much happening in the political world
right now.
And all eyes are on Milwaukee.
You know, every four years,
this more traditional type of political drama plays out.
The Veep stakes Who will be the running mate?
We now know Ohio is at the heart of it
all.
Freshman Senator JD Vance has officially been named as Donald
Trump's running mate.
As we said throughout the day today,
names of potential contenders seem to be checked off the
list as folks like North Dakota's Doug Burgum,
Florida's Marco Rubio and others were reportedly told they were
not the pick until the news came around 3:00 PM
this afternoon.
In a post on Truth Social,
former President Trump saying after lengthy deliberations and thought and
considering the tremendous talents of many others,
I have decided that the best person or the person
best suited to assume the position of vice president in
the United States is Senator JD Vance in the great
state of Ohio. Trump added later that quote.
During the campaign, Vance will be strongly focused on the
people he fought so brilliantly for the American workers and
farmers in Pennsylvania,
Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and far beyond.
Now we are expected to see Vance on stage at
the RNC in just a little bit here around at
4:37 this afternoon. And his selection is Trump's running mate,
completing a years long transition for Vance.
He was once an outspoken critic of Donald Trump,
publicly attacking him in 2016.
He said he was wrong then and is now one
of Trump's strongest defenders.
ICE interviewed and moderated 2 debates with Vance on his
road to the Senate.
Here's a look at our new VP nominee in his
own words on some of the biggest issues facing the
country.
He's been a Republican rising star since catapulting to the
US Senate in
2022. And under two years Southwest Ohio's JD Vance has
become one of Donald Trump's strongest and most vocal allies
there,
even traveling to New York during Trump's criminal trial to
show his support.
Does any reasonable, sensible person believe anything that Michael Cohen
says?
I don't think that they should.
And I actually think that his testimony is going to
hurt with any reasonable juror.
And hopefully we have a few of those once famous
for being a strong anti Trump voice,
now selected to be his number two.
I asked him about the change during his Senate run
two years ago.
In the past you've said,
quote, I'm a never Trump guy.
Quote, my God, what an idiot.
And quote, God wants better of us all statements you
have either said or tweeted about Donald Trump at some
point.
Yeah. Look, I mean, all of us say stupid things.
And I happen to say stupid things very publicly.
You know, I, I've been very public about the fact
that I voted for the president in 2020,
that I was wrong about the president
back in 2015, 2016, and that he's been the greatest
president of my lifetime for the very simple reason.
There are many, but one very important reason is that
he revealed the corruption in Washington,
DC. I mean, who would have believed five years ago,
six years ago, that the FBI would actually investigate illegally,
get an illegal wiretap on a sitting U.S.
presidential candidate? We saw that Trump revealed it.
He was a great president.
And I think at the end of the day,
one of the things this race presents is an opportunity.
Who actually agrees with Trump on the core issues of
trade,
of immigration, Who's willing to fight for an America first
foreign policy?
I think that's clearly me on policy.
Vance holds strong opinions on abortion,
the economy and immigration, one of the top issues for
Republicans this cycle
and tying the southern border to his time growing up.
The illegal immigration problem, I know very personally,
I've been affected by it very personally.
My mom struggled with addiction for a big chunk of
my early childhood.
And I'm very proud to say,
by the way, she's been clean and sober for seven
years.
I'm sure she's watching right now.
I love you, mom. But one of the great blessings
for our family is that we got a second chance
with mom.
We got that seven years clean and sober because the
poison that's being that was coming into the country,
thank God 15 years ago was not nearly as dangerous
as the poison that's coming into the country today.
The other big election fight,
abortion and reproductive health. Yes,
I'm pro-life, but I'm not going to throw young women
to the wolves.
I'm not going to say,
OK, yeah, I'm pro-life. But you get no supports,
you get no healthcare, you get no options.
I think we have to do all those things to
ensure that the pro-life position is fully lived.
I I believe in exceptions for life of the mother.
I believe in exceptions where you have these incredibly difficult
medical circumstances on the economy.
Vance is described as a populist.
He blames deflation on the Biden administration,
supports the use of tariffs on certain foreign goods and
says the nation needs tax cuts and energy deregulation.
I think that people deserve certain things.
Ohioans deserve certain things from their federal leadership.
They deserve to go to the grocery store and be
able to afford food without it breaking the bank.
Elites in this country have gotten rich by plundering the
greatest country in the world and accumulating more power for
themselves.
And if normal people dare complain about it,
they call us racist, they call us.
Xenophobic, they call us bad people.
We need to stop it.
We need people with courage to go to Washington to
actually fight for our values.
We need people who actually raise families here,
who've built businesses here. I'm doing both of those things
right now in the state of Ohio.
And look what I want.
It's really simple. I want to grow up in a
country where my young sons are encouraged to become virtuous
men.
That cannot happen if the radical left takes control.
We've got to fight back for the sake of our
kids.
Now, Vance's meteoric rise continues.
Officially, Donald Trump's running mate with their eyes on taking
back the White House.