RNC updates: Dave McCormick praises Trump’s ‘remarkable strength’ at Butler rally; Secret Service director offers new details of shooting

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, the South Jersey former Democrat who switched parties in 2020 to side with then-President Donald Trump, addressed the Republican National Convention and recalled his disillusionment with the Democratic Party.

"I am a proud Republican, but I haven't always been a Republican," Van Drew said. 

Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick on Tuesday night addressed the Republican National Convention and recalled sitting in the front row at Donald Trump's rally Saturday in Butler, Pa., when the former president was targeted in an attempted assassination.

McCormick, who is running to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, described his own biography — military veteran, businessman — and why he and Trump were better than Casey and President Joe Biden.

Officials say police officers shot and killed a person in Milwaukee on Tuesday about five blocks outside of the Republican National Convention’s outer security perimeter.

The Columbus, Ohio, Fraternal Order of Police issued a statement saying members of the Columbus department were involved in the shooting. Officers from multiple jurisdictions are in Milwaukee providing additional security for the convention.

 The refrain at Tuesday’s Pennsylvania delegate’s breakfast was divine intervention.

“It’s a profound thing, to have been ordained by God to lead the greatest nation in the history of the world for a second time,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) told Pennsylvania delegates in a hotel conference room on the morning of the Republican National Convention’s second day.

Suspected shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks often spent time alone in high school by choice, and wasn't bullied by other students, his former guidance counselor told the New York Times.

“This kid was not a monster,” said Jim Knapp, who worked at Bethel Park High School for 30 years before retiring in 2022, the Times reports. "This kid was not a bad kid. Something snapped. Something evil in the world happened."

A threat from Iran prompted the U.S. Secret Service to boost protection around Donald Trump before Saturday's attempted assassination of the former president, though it appears unrelated to the rally attack, according to two U.S. officials.

Upon learning of the threat, the Biden administration reached out to senior officials at the Secret Service to make them aware, the officials said, adding it was shared with the lead agent on Trump's protection detail and the Trump campaign. That prompted the agency to surge resources and assets. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.

Lara Trump, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee and former President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, tops the speaker tonight for the second night of the Republican National Convention.

Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick, who was at the rally in Butler, Pa. Saturday where Trump was shot, is slated to speak tonight in the 7 p.m. Eastern hour, according to a campaign source.

Pennsylvania state lawmakers, including state auditor candidate Malcolm Kenyatta, gathered at President Joe Biden’s Brewerytown campaign office, Tuesday, to highlight concerns about Project 2025 and a second term for former President Donald Trump.

The press conference gave a window into how Democrats will approach political rhetoric in the wake of the assassination attempt against Trump. While each speaker Tuesday condemned political violence they also did not hold back warnings of danger if Trump were to win a second term.

A surviving victim injured in Saturday's shooting is out of a medically induced coma and has been placed in stable condition, ABC News reports.

David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pa., was shot in the chest and liver, the Marine Corps League of Pennsylvania told ABC. Dutch, a former Marine, serves as a commandant for the organization's Westmoreland Detachment 1416, the MCL said in a statement posted to social media.

The director of the Secret Service shed more light on the shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, telling ABC News Monday night that reports that the shooter had been noticed by people in the area and local authorities before climbing on the roof where he took the shots took place in a “very short period of time.”

“Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult,” Kim Cheatle said during an interview Monday with ABC News.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is addressing the RNC Tuesday, spoke to Pennsylvania delegates at their breakfast this morning.

Johnson shared results of a New York Times/Siena College poll that showed former President Donald Trump up three points in Pennsylvania.

Lara Trump, cochair of the RNC and former President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, stopped at the Pennsylvania delegation breakfast Tuesday morning, her first visit to a state delegation.

“If you did not watch what happened. on Saturday and fully believe in the miracles that God can perform and that he is real, nothing will convince you,” she said, referencing the Saturday shooting. “But they are and he is and God bless Donald J. Trump.”

Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick is expected to address the RNC on Tuesday night, the second day of convention programming.

Several Pennsylvania delegates with knowledge of the Republican Senate candidates plan said they were expecting him this evening, though the RNC has not released a speaker's list.

Nikki Haley, Trump’s former primary rival, was a last-minute addition to the schedule.

The former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor waited two months after dropping out in March to say she would vote for him. Then last week, she announced she would instruct her convention delegates to vote for Trump but wasn’t planning to attend the convention.

President Joe Biden will speak at the NAACP convention in Las Vegas Tuesday, aiming to showcase his administration’s support for Black voters who are a tentpole of the Democratic coalition and of his personal political support.

He’ll also participate in an interview with BET. And Wednesday, he’ll address UnidosUS, looking to bolster his appeal to Latino voters, another crucial Democratic-leaning bloc.

Donald Trump was formally nominated as his party’s presidential candidate as Republicans kicked off their national convention Monday under heightened security concerns and an ongoing investigation into the attempt on his life during a weekend campaign rally in Western Pennsylvania.

The former president pledged resilience in his first media interviews following the attempted assassination Saturday at a fairgrounds in Butler, Pa. He said his brush with death had prompted him to “throw out” the speech that he’d planned to deliver to party delegates at the Milwaukee convention later this week.

While political conventions have largely grown into television events designed to promote political parties and their leaders, the business of the convention includes formally nominating the primary winner — in this case, former President Donald Trump — as the party’s official presidential nominee. That roll call vote took place in Milwaukee on Monday.

Another important function that usually takes place is formalizing a party platform. That platform, the party's first since 2016, was approved Monday and its priorities include closing the U.S.-Mexico border for migrants and mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

The first night of the Republican National Convention kept its official focus on the economy Monday even after Saturday’s shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania in which former President Donald Trump was injured.

Speakers argued that Trump would fix inflation and bring back prosperity simply by returning to the White House as president. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin lamented, “Tonight, America, the land of opportunity, just doesn’t feel like that anymore.”