As dawn breaks on Lara Trump’s Republican National Convention, not every GOP lawmaker is feeling entirely confident in Donald Trump’s ability not to alienate voters.
Before the assassination attempt against Trump Saturday, Raw Story asked several Republican lawmakers what they were hoping to get from the convention this week. In many ways, their milquetoast answers stood in sharp contrast to the chaotic candidate they’ve come to back.
“Stability. Simple message. Lack of drama,” Representative Don Bacon told Raw Story.
“You know, people want stability. They’re tired of chaos and the loud noises on both sides. So if our side and President Trump can communicate stability and a moderating theme, that’s what we want. Let these other guys blow it.”
“I always try to recommend it, at the least in our area in Omaha, the Midwest—we’re called ‘Nebraska nice’ for a reason,” said Bacon. “I just say in our district, people want governance, conservative governance but decency. And that’s what we want to communicate.”
The Nebraska Republican is staring down what could turn out to be an especially narrow presidential election in his state, which has only five electoral college votes to give, and three of which are distributed based on how the congressional districts vote. As a result, a step toward the middle appears to have been on his mind.
In February, Bacon co-sponsored a nonbinding resolution expressing support for IVF and commending the work of fertility specialists. While the measure itself did absolutely nothing to actually protect the right to fertility treatments, it was an attempt to signal to voters a Republican shift to the middle, or at least an ability to listen to their more centrist constituents.
Apparently, Bacon has been singing his tune about “stability” for a while.
“I remember saying that during his administration, and [Trump’s] chief of staff told me to shut up,” Bacon told Raw Story, clarifying that he was not referring to Mark Meadows.
“The more we can communicate civility and no chaos, the better,” said Bacon. “Americans are tired. We’re tired of all that noise out there.”
Representative Nancy Mace also urged Trump to make an appeal to the middle.
“I think I’ve been pretty vocal about going after independent voters, suburban women, and I’ve tried to be a really strong voice for the party, but he’s doing a remarkable job on his own,” Mace gushed to Raw Story. “He put IVF and birth control and contraception into the Republican Party platform for the first time ever in history.”
Mace was the main sponsor of the do-nothing IVF resolution earlier this year.
And Marco Rubio, a contender for Trump’s vice presidential nomination, ran a hard defense for the former president, claiming he was not at all “dysfunctional,” unlike his opponents. Trump, he said, “comes from a background in real estate and business, and it’s just a different language. And so it may seem alien to people around here, but I watched firsthand how it works, certainly, on the world stage.”
It’s unclear how the weekend’s events will affect Trump’s performance at the RNC, but it’s worth noting that in the past, Trump’s language seemed to be less entrepreneurial and more racist and violent.
Trump said Sunday that his speech, which he is scheduled to deliver Thursday, has been completely rewritten in the wake of Saturday’s shooting, which left one attendee dead and two others injured.
“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” Trump told the Washington Examiner.
Even as Trump turns to unity, one thing is for sure: Drama is definitely still on the schedule.
