MILWAUKEE – As the Republican National Convention takes place this week, the focus is on messaging: Communicating to the party faithful in attendance as well as to Americans watching from home what the GOP stands for and plans to do if Republicans gain power in November.
So I thought it would make sense to chat with Dana Perino, who knows something about communication.
Perino served as press secretary for former President George W. Bush, and she is a featured personality on Fox News. She serves as co-anchor of“America’s Newsroom” as well as a co-host of “The Five,” a top-rated cable news show that attracts an average 3 million viewers a day.
Perino is spending the week broadcasting live from the RNC.
I spoke with Perino on Friday, but we caught up again briefly Monday following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday.
We talked about what Trump’s main task is this week as he accepts his party’s nomination for president. And we also touched on the turmoil in the Democratic Party over whether President Joe Biden should stay in the race.
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All eyes will be on Trump at the convention, which runs through Thursday night when the former president will formally accept the nomination.
“The convention was always going to be highly watched and scrutinized,and now it will be that but with a president ripping up his prepared remarks and rewriting his speech to be one stressing uniting the nation,” Perino told me.
“He has the moral high ground,” she added. “It’s his to keep if he wants to, and all indications are that he does. He also has an even more united and enthusiastic Republican Party behind him. That is powerful.”
Perino said Trump’s main task this week is to “reset the narrative” and talk about what he wants to do in a second term. Part of what that second term would look like was revealed Monday when Trump announced Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.
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Speaking invitations to former primary rivals Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (Haley’s invite wasn’t announced until Sunday, however) appear to show Trump working to bring the party together. His near-death experience might have encouraged him to make amends.
Biden's struggles are helping Trump
The RNC comes amid weeks of very public failures for Biden, starting most noticeably with his debate against Trump in late June. Since then, Biden has tried to do a reset of his own, but to little avail.
Ahead of the president’s “big boy” press conference last week, Perino had cautioned him against doing it because of how much was riding on one event. While it certainly wasn’t a stellar performance, Biden did just well enough to quell the fervor of calls for him to step down.
This in turn helps Trump.
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“That’s the best of both worlds for Trump because he wants Biden to run and Biden is still weak,” Perino said. “And it’s the worst of all worlds for Democrats, because instead of having some definitive answer, they made up this idea that if he does well in the press conference, everything is fine.”
“So now they’re in purgatory,” she continued, “where you have more Democrats who are saying, ‘I think he should step down from the ticket,’ because they see the writing on the wall.”
Perino pointed to the very real possibility that if Biden stays on the ticket, it could harm down-ballot Democrats in states around the country and put Democratic control of the House and Senate in jeopardy.
“They’re like, ‘Wow, we are going to lose everything,’ ” she said.
Now, it’s up to Trump to show what kind of leader he plans to be. And his speech Thursday will set the tone leading up to November.
“I think that as a leader he can say ‘follow me,’ and if he stresses his desire to focus on turning the country around on the issues most people care about – inflation, immigration, crime – then he’ll be well on his way to running away with this election,” Perino said. “The Biden campaign absolutely cannot keep up now, and Trump is about to put on the speed.”
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques
