Politics

(MILWAUKEE) — Former President Donald Trump toggled between somber messages of harmony and his favorite red meat rhetoric in a lengthy and charged speech accepting the GOP presidential nomination.

Trump, just days removed from surviving an assassination attempt at a Saturday rally, had forecasted a unifying, and largely delivered at the beginning, reliving details of the shooting that had some audience members in tears. As the speech went on, however, the former president switched back to the GOP’s regularly scheduled programming, veering into unscripted tangents on everything from immigration to foreign policy, occasionally swiping at Democrats by name.

“The first half was perhaps one of the best speeches I have heard in a long time, really driven by emotion and brought a lot of people in. The second half was a rally speech that so many people love,” one GOP strategist said. “It was really two separate speeches in one.”

Trump appeared subdued at the start of the speech Thursday, pushing the country to turn the page on divisions that have ravaged the nation’s politics.

“The discord and division in our society must be healed, we must heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart,” he told an emotional crowd.

He then recounted the details of the shooting, when a shooter grazed his right ear, injured two others and killed one rallygoer at his Pennsylvania rally. Trump said it would be the only time he would discuss the specifics of the assassination attempt because “it’s actually too painful to tell.”

“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” he told an emotional crowd. “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.”

Trump also announced that $6.3 million had been raised to help the families of those killed and wounded in attack.

“Despite such a heinous attack, we unite this evening more determined than ever,” Trump declared.

The opening had less of the trappings of a classic, raucous Trump rally, though that was to be expected, given the subject matter.

Quickly, however, the speech reverted back to more typical rhetoric.

Despite his team advertising beforehand that he wouldn’t mention President Joe Biden by name, Trump shouted him out, dubbing him one of the worst presidents in American history.

“If you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States, think of it, the 10 worst, added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done. Only going to use the term once, Biden. I’m not going to use the name anymore, just one time. The damage that he’s done to this country is unthinkable,” Trump said to a crowd that was visibly getting more amped up.

He went on to mention “crazy Nancy Pelosi” and downplayed the current administration’s ability to tackle the nation’s problems — though he said they were capable to fixing elections, reviving unfounded conspiracies about election fraud.

“We’re dealing with very tough, very fierce people, they’re fierce people. And we don’t have fierce people, we have people that are a lot less than fierce, except when it comes to cheating on elections and a couple of other things, then they’re fierce,” he said, mentioning another topic that was not thought to be on the agenda for Thursday night.

The rest of the speech ping-ponged between the two trends.

Trump adlibbed extensively on immigration, repeating warnings that the country was facing an “invasion” at the Southern border and vowing to “drill, baby, drill” for oil and natural gas on his first day in office.

Toward the end of the remarks, he again sprinkled in messages of unity.

“So, tonight, whether you’ve supported me in the past or not, I hope you will support me in the future, because I will bring back the American Dream,” he said. “Love, it’s about love.”

Taken together, the speech left the impression less of a candidate fundamentally changed by Saturday’s tragic events as much as one recognizing its historicity, while still eager to energize his most fervent supporters.

“He’s playing the greatest hits from 2016 — Trump has not changed, he has not moderated, he has gotten worse,” one Biden adviser said. “And he is making no appeal to moderates.”

Republicans, meanwhile, praised the speech, saying it marked a blend that could be featured in future stump speeches.

“I thought it was a good blend,” said Marc Lotter, an official on Trump’s 2020 campaign. “I think it’s one of the reasons why people like him, because he’s not just reading off the teleprompter, the perfectly prepared, well- crafted, poll-tested talking points. He’s adding that context, that commentary.”

Other Republicans swatted away Democratic criticism that the speech was more of the same old, same old from Trump.

“He united the party and country,” said another former Trump campaign official. “Same old led to one of the largest economic expansion in generations. Same old led to zero wars. Same old rebuilt the military.”

Still, some Republicans were seeking more of an emphasis on unity — and that dishing out red meat offered Democrats a chance to swing back at him and go on offense right as they’re convulsing over Biden’s place atop the 2024 ticket.

“Tone was what I expected, typically for these speeches he’s much more on teleprompter, some of his riffs were too long,” one former senior Trump administration official said. “Overall, it doesn’t change anything, but they missed an opportunity to put this out of reach.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MILWAUKEE) — After formally accepting the Republican nomination, former President Donald Trump recounted surviving Saturday’s assassination attempt.

With a bandage covering his right ear, Trump addressed the crowd at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, saying it would be the only time he would share what happened at the rally.

“You’ll never hear it from me a second time because it’s too painful to tell.”

During the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a gunman opened fire from a nearby roof, striking Trump in the ear, killing a rallygoer, Corey Comperatore, and wounding two others. Before Trump was hit, he had turned his head to the right to look at a screen and hit with a glancing blow.

“The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together,” Trump said.

“Behind me and to the right was a large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings under my leadership,” he recounted. “In order to see the chart, I started to turn to my right, and was ready to begin a further turn, which I’m lucky I didn’t, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me, really hard, on my right ear.”

“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet,'” the former president said.

Secret Service agents swarmed Trump as he ducked behind the podium, with blood dripping down the side of his face, “Bullets were continuing to fly.”

“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump repeatedly told the crowd, to which they responded, “Yes you are!”

“Thank you. But I’m not. And I’ll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God.”

Police are investigating the incident as an assassination attempt and potential act of domestic terrorism. The motive is unknown, but officials said that the shooter searched for images of both President Trump and President Biden as well as dates for the Butler rally and the Democratic National Convention.

The shooter was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Trump held a moment of silence for Comperatore, a former fire chief who died when he “dove on his family” to protect them during the rally, his wife said.

Making his first public remarks since the shooting, Trump expressed his “gratitude to the American people for your outpouring of love and support following the assassination attempt.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is still experiencing mild upper respiratory symptoms and continues to take Paxlovid, after testing positive for COVID-19 this week, according to the president’s physician.

Biden doesn’t have a fever and his symptoms remain mild, Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a statement Thursday.

Biden, 81, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, following his first event in Las Vegas, the White House said.

UnidosUS CEO Janet Murguía had also announced the diagnosis from the podium where the president was set to speak at the organization’s conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

“He is vaccinated and boosted and he is experiencing mild symptoms,” the White House said in a statement Wednesday night. “He will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.”

First lady Jill Biden is in Rehoboth, Delaware, as well, as the president self-isolates following his COVID diagnosis. Jill Biden was already in Rehoboth prior to the president’s diagnosis, her office said on Thursday. No additional family is in Rehoboth, according to her office.

When asked if she has been tested for COVID or was showing any symptoms, her office said, “She is tested as determined appropriate by her doctor — she is not symptomatic and up to date with her vaccines.”

President Biden is being “kept up to speed” on national security matters while he isolates, national security communications adviser John Kirby told reporters Thursday afternoon.

“I think we can all understand that while he’s certainly focused on getting better, as anybody who’s had COVID would want to do, he is — he’s being kept up to speed as appropriate, by his leadership team, and certainly that includes on the national security front,” Kirby said in an audio-only gaggle.

Kirby didn’t have any specific briefings to speak to, but said that the president is being “kept updated and up to speed as he normally would.”

The White House said it will provide regular updates on the president’s status “as he continues to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation.”

The White House had shared a note Wednesday from Biden’s doctor, who said the president had upper respiratory symptoms — including a running nose and cough — and “general malaise” Wednesday afternoon.

“He felt OK for his first event of the day, but given that he was not feeling better, point of care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive for the COVID-19 virus,” his doctor said, according to the White House.

The president gave a thumbs-up to reporters as he prepared to depart Las Vegas on Wednesday when asked how he was feeling and responded, “Good. I feel good,” according to the pool.

He was seen maskless boarding Air Force One in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon to head to Rehoboth.

Biden also shared his COVID-19 diagnosis on X later Wednesday night, writing, “I am feeling good and thank everyone for the well wishes.”

“I will be isolating as I recover, and during this time I will continue to work to get the job done for the American people,” he said.

Biden previously tested positive for COVID-19 in 2022 and took Paxlovid then, the White House said at the time.

The president was slated to deliver remarks Wednesday afternoon at the annual conference for UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, when Murguía announced from the stage that he would no longer be able to appear.

“Regrettably, I was just on the phone with President Biden and he shared his deep disappointment at not being able to join us this afternoon,” Murguía told the crowd. “The president has been at many events as we all know, and he just tested positive for COVID. So, of course, we understand that he needs to take the precautions that have been recommended, and he did not obviously want to put anybody at risk.”

“He said to tell my folks that you’re not going to get rid of him that quickly,” Murguía continued. “We’re going to have a chance to hear from him in the future directly. He’s just really sorry he couldn’t be with us.”

ABC News’ Mary K. Bruce, Molly Nagle and Justin Ryan Gomez contributed to this report.

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(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — Virginia Breedlove, a guest at the Republican National Convention, teared up recounting the moment she witnessed Donald Trump enter the Fiserv Forum just 48 hours after being shot.

“I was holding it together,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “But when he turned his head and I saw the bandage on his ear, I just — I lost it, because that’s a physical scar that he has.”

“But he has many years of other scars of attack from Americans that don’t want him in office,” she continued. “But he’s done everything he said he would do. He’s done everything and he’s helped keep our country safe.”

This week, thousands of Trump’s biggest supporters are gathered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to see him accept the party’s nomination for president.

In their eyes, Trump hasn’t done — and likely can’t do — any wrong.

Heading into the convention, an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found 59% of Americans said he was rightfully convicted of 34 felonies in his New York hush money trial and many fewer, 38%, accepted Trump’s claim that the convictions were unjust.

But two dozen RNC attendees who spoke with ABC News Digital, including delegates and guests, said Trump being found guilty of 34 felony counts gave them no reservations about backing him this election cycle. Many said their support has only grown, waving off entirely the criminal cases (totaling 88 counts) against the former president.

“Do the two words ‘weaponized DOJ’ ring a bell?” said one Illinois delegate.

“We have 54 in our delegation, and we have T-shirts that we’re all going to be wearing that’s like, ‘The year of the felon.’ We’re good. We’re voting for the felon,” said Barbara Jernigan, an alternate delegate from Missouri.

“No pause about him at all,” said Francine Gargano, a delegate from New Jersey. “Not at all. Not even a little bit. I mean, I wish I could say even a tiny bit, but no. Every day, I think we love him more and more and more.”

Others blamed a “kangaroo court” or said that the guilty verdict by a jury of Trump’s peers was “engineered.”

Just one person said Trump being a convicted felon concerned him “a little bit.”

“Everyone makes mistakes,” said Jim Walsh, an alternate delegate from Connecticut. “I personally feel some of it is a little bit trumped up. I think he’ll be okay. You prefer that none of that did happen, but it did. So, you just got to hopefully go with it.”

If this week here has shown one thing, it’s that Trump’s grip on the party is more ironclad than ever before.

His bitter rivals in the Republican primary all spoke on stage and offered their support. Even Nikki Haley, who once said there was “no way” the American people would vote for a convicted felon, gave her “strong endorsement.” JD Vance — previously a so-called “Never Trumper” — is now his running mate.

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(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — Freshman Sen. JD Vance stepped onto the national stage at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night to deliver the evening’s closing address, letting America get to know the man former President Donald Trump has selected as his vice presidential running mate.

It’s a sight that makes his longtime friend Cullen Tiernan proud.

“I always knew that he was smart enough to do whatever he wanted. We’ve always been attracted to public service, so I really wasn’t surprised,” Tiernan, a friend of Vance’s for more than two decades, told ABC News of his bid to join forces with Trump.

Over the years, Tiernan has had a front-row seat to many of Vance’s biggest personal and career milestones, from his wedding to his wife Usha, to his swearing-in as a freshman senator. He says he isn’t surprised that his friend is making history as the first post-9/11 veteran on a major party’s presidential ticket — something Tiernan believes will serve Vance well as VP if the Trump/Vance ticket is elected.

“Having a veteran voice like that, somebody who understands what it’s like to be an enlisted Marine kind of goes back to his whole ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ in his story,” Tiernan said, referring to Vance’s best-selling memoir, which was turned into a film by director Ron Howard. “I think that’s going to be really powerful.”

Tiernan and Vance’s bond began in 2004 when both men were in Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Maryland, both training to become public affairs correspondents in the Marines. The day after they finished training, they were sent to the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, North Carolina. The two wandered the base together, getting lost but building a budding friendship.

Tiernan remembers watching Vance taking classes for Ohio State while in the barracks, juggling life as a college student and as a Marine. The pair would work together over three years, and their friendship would later be cemented on the battlefields of Iraq.

Tiernan would keep Vance’s family updated while Vance went outside the wire in Iraq. When the pair returned to America, Tiernan spent the Fourth of July weekend with Vance’s family in Ohio and attended an Ohio State football game.

Vance, if elected in November, would also make history by becoming the first Marine as vice president. Tiernan believes that his friend could convince other left-leaning voters like himself to consider the joint ticket of Trump-Vance in November, especially among military families and working-class voters.

Tiernan, a labor leader in New Hampshire, noted the keynote speech by Teamster’s President Sean O’Brien on the first night of the GOP was a good-faith effort to include labor in political discussions. The speech was the first time a Teamsters leader had spoken at the Republican National Convention. Although the union announced it would not be endorsing a presidential candidate in 2024, he believes Vance will continue the outreach to working-class voters in this election.

“In the world of labor politics, I kind of recognize that if you want to accomplish things for working people, it has to be a bipartisan solution for most of the problems and things that we want to improve in people’s lives,” the New Hampshire labor leader said.

“The good faith effort of including the Teamsters and labor more and more in the conversation and trying to really have a majority of people in Congress who are going to work for working people is my hope, that that’s the direction that they’re headed in, and then they can bring a lot of people with them.”

Tiernan describes his friend as quick-witted, funny, and personable. They would watch “Anchorman” together and the TV series “Arrested Development.”

Tiernan says Vance would remain personable despite the difficult challenges of serving in a war zone. The Ohio Senator is the first veteran on a presidential ticket since the late Senator John McCain’s White House bid in 2008. He believes the experiences in Iraq “will serve him well, as he is on the campaign trail and whatever else happens next to him.”

After Vance’s swearing-in ceremony for the Senate, Tiernan, who had spent the day with his friend in Washington, noticed that Vance surrounded himself with old friends from Ohio. Vance told his closest allies that they “were going to help him remember who he is and not to let it get to his head and to stay grounded,” Tiernan told ABC News.

“To be a beat away from the White House is another thing, and it’s not going to be easy to stay grounded, but I think he’s capable of doing it,” Tiernan added.

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(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — The fourth and final day of the Republican National Convention is a buildup to tonight’s highly anticipated prime-time address from Donald Trump.

It will be the former president’s first public speech since he narrowly escaped an attempt on his life Saturday at his rally in Pennsylvania.

He has said the attack changed his thinking about what he would say and now plans to stress “unity” in his speech.

Vance shares faith journey at Faith and Freedom breakfast

Speaking at the Faith and Freedom breakfast Thursday morning, vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance shared his faith journey with the attendees, saying his faith was “shallow” when he was a child and evolved into more over time.

“I was raised, as I mentioned last night, by my mamaw who, despite the fact that she loved the F word, was a woman a very deep Christian faith. And you know, she was in some ways what you might call ‘unchurched,'” Vance said.

“We went to church maybe once or twice a month, sometimes less, sometimes more. But she read the Bible every single day. She prayed every single day. She loved to watch Billy Graham whenever he was on the TV and that was really my introduction to the Christian faith,” Vance continued.

When Vance went on to higher education, he began calling himself an atheist. However, Vance said he decided to learn more about his Christian faith when he met his wife at Yale Law School, who does not share his faith.

“But to me, what really brought me back to Christ was finding a wife and falling in love and thinking about my thinking about what was required of me as a husband and as a father,” Vance said.

“And the more that I thought about those deeper questions, the more that I thought that there was wisdom in the Christian faith that I had completely discarded and completely ignored but was most relevant to the questions that were presented in my life as a husband and father.”

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

‘Hillbilly Elegy’ continues to climb Netflix’s charts

Netflix’s movie “Hillbilly Elegy,” based on Sen. JD Vance’s memoir, continues to climb the charts following Vance being named Donald Trump’s running mate.

It’s now ranked No. 2 on Netflix. On Wednesday, it was ranked No. 4; on Tuesday, it was ranked No. 6.

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

In RNC keynote, Trump says he’ll stress ‘unity’ after assassination attempt

Trump will formally accept the GOP presidential nomination Thursday night and deliver his first speech since Saturday’s assassination attempt, capping off an ebullient Republican convention at a time of heightened political uncertainty — and now he says he will push for a more unifying message.

Such a tone would mark a departure both for Trump individually and for American politics writ large, though operatives and conventiongoers alike predicted a more subdued speech focused on uniting the country, with the nation captivated by news of the attempt on the former president’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“I think he’s a changed man. Anytime you come within millimeters of your life, that has an effect,” said Bryan Lanza, a former Trump campaign official who remains in touch with his current team. “I think, from his standpoint, he doesn’t want to be a divisive figure. He wants to be a unifying figure at a time that the country is desperately seeking unity and needs unity.”

-ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler and Tal Axelrod

Trump, joined by family at RNC, to deliver speech tonight

On Day 4 of the Republican National Convention, former first lady Melania Trump is scheduled to arrive at the arena around the 8 p.m. CT/9 p.m. ET hour, publicly joining Trump on a major campaign event for the first time this election cycle. Other members of the Trump family are also expected to attend RNC events this evening.

Trump is scheduled to take the stage at 9:02 p.m. CT/10:02 p.m. ET, the first time we’ll be seeing him speak publicly after his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.

Thursday’s theme is “Make America Great Once Again” and will feature speakers including Trump’s son, Eric Trump; Montana Sen. Steve Daines; former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and UFC President Dana White.

-ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh.

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(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — Former President Donald Trump will formally accept the GOP presidential nomination Thursday night and deliver his first speech since Saturday’s assassination attempt, capping off an ebullient Republican convention at a time of heightened political uncertainty.

Trump will give the keynote remarks at a time when he is pushing for a more unifying message after last weekend’s shooting and as he rides political tailwinds into the summer and fall, fueled in part by President Joe Biden’s calamitous June debate and subsequent Democratic angst.

Such a tone would mark a departure both for Trump individually and for American politics writ large, though operatives and conventiongoers alike predicted a more subdued speech focused on uniting the country, with the nation captivated by news of the attempt on the former president’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“I think he’s a changed man. Anytime you come within millimeters of your life, that has an effect. I think, from his standpoint, he doesn’t want to be a divisive figure. He wants to be a unifying figure at a time that the country is desperately seeking unity and needs unity,” said Bryan Lanza, a former Trump campaign official who remains in touch with his current team.

“It’s just not a moment for him, and it’s just not a moment for the Republican Party. It’s a moment for the country,” he added. “We experienced a shock. We could literally be at a funeral today.”

Trump said he revised his remarks after Saturday’s shooting, saying it initially was set to be a “humdinger” but that now it will be “more of a unity speech.”

In an era when few thinks punch through the political noise, particularly in a race between a current and former president with virtually universal name recognition, the speech marks a rare moment where Trump can hold the stage at a pivot point in the race, even as it’s unclear precisely how much the election’s dynamics have changed.

“When you’re at this level, there’s just certain speeches that the world stops and listens to, and your nominating speech is one,” said veteran GOP strategist Chip Saltsman.

“Unity” has been the buzz word since Saturday, with leaders of both parties lamenting the violence and urging renewed civility in the country’s politics.

However, such a tone could also help Trump politically, operatives predicted.

While in office, Trump bled support from centrist, suburban voters — enough to cost him reelection in 2020. Their defection was widely attributed more to tone than to policy disagreements, and now, with polls showing Biden with hefty disapproval ratings, a more leveled approach from Trump could help win some voters back to his side, including by detailing the immediate aftermath of the shooting, strategists said.

“How do you get the Republicans that don’t particularly like you? How do you get the true undecideds and independents? And how do you get the Democrats that aren’t happy with Joe Biden? Obviously, those are typically issue-type conversations, but I think in this case he can do it with his emotion,” Saltsman said.

To be certain, Trump is still widely anticipated to go after Biden’s record, prosecuting the kind of contrast on policies that he’s been putting forth since the election began.

“I expect to hear about Afghanistan withdrawal and the economy and the border and these big picture issues that have formed around this campaign,” said one former senior Trump administration official. “A lot of the things that I think he covers on a regular basis in his rallies, but it’ll be more surgical, if Trump’s capable of surgical.”

“I do think you’ll see him add Kamala in a good amount to the Biden criticisms. I think that news today makes it clear that they’re still pushing on that, and President Trump’s pretty keen to this as an option for them,” the person added, referencing growing chatter around Democrats’ calls for Biden to drop out of the race.

And it’s still unclear precisely how long the veneer of unity can last. Politics has morphed into a blood sport in the U.S., and those working for both candidates may be more willing to push the envelope when going after their opponents.

“I’ll be honest, it’s not gonna be the tone you hear from the rest of us, we’re seasoned operatives. We fight, and that’s how you gain position is by fighting,” Lanza said.

Interviews with conventiongoers showed an appetite for both unity and Trump’s typical punchiness.

“Peace and unity because it’s a very divided country right now,” Awet Gebremariam, a delegate from California, said when asked what she wants to hear from Trump. “He almost lost his life. And I think he’s very subdued and he’s very reserved and he’s very grounded now. And I think he’s going to give a great, great speech, maybe very different from the speeches before he used to give before.”

Others, like Daniel Bobay, an alternate delegate from Texas, wanted more of a mix, arguing that “you can fight nicely.”

“I’m hoping,” Elizabeth Hines-Ferrick, a delegate from Massachusetts said, when asked if she wanted the rhetoric toned down. “But at least I still expect him to be a fighter, because he speaks straight from the heart.”

Politically, Democrats concede a more unifying tone from Trump could make it harder to knock him as a threat to democracy, especially after the shooting, even if they’re skeptical he can keep it up long after the GOP convention.

“I think there’s an initial concern that if Trump can play this the right way that he can look like a unifier and get outside of his brand,” one battleground Democratic strategist said. “But then also at the same time, I would tell you that no one has any confidence that he can continue to play the straight man.”

As far as Thursday goes, however, Trump is virtually guaranteed a hero’s welcome, no matter what he says.

“I think it’s gonna be pretty epic,” the former senior administration official said. “Everyone in that hall loves the man, and him speaking to them for the first time since Saturday is going to have a pretty raucous atmosphere. I imagine it’s gonna be emotional. You’re gonna see delegates teary-eyed and hooting and hollering.”

ABC News’ Jonathan Karl contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — In the tumultuous weeks since President Joe Biden’s faltering debate performance, the 81-year-old commander-in-chief has resisted calls from within his own party to end his reelection campaign, often relying on assurances from his medical staff to rebuff those who question his fitness for office.

This week, in an interview with BET, Biden suggested for the first time that he would consider dropping out of the presidential race if there was “some medical condition that emerged … if the doctors came to me, said, ‘You got this problem and that problem.'”

The person who would carry that heavy burden is a media-shy physician who Biden warmly refers to as “Doc”: the 58-year-old head of the White House medical unit, Dr. Kevin O’Connor.

A retired Army surgeon who served tours with special operations forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, O’Connor has spent more than a decade caring for Biden. One former White House aide described the osteopath as being “like family” to the Bidens.

And now, with the aging president’s health front and center in the 2024 race — and with him facing a second COVID-19 diagnosis since taking office — O’Connor seems poised to remain in the spotlight.

In nearly a dozen interviews, current and former colleagues praised O’Connor as a top-tier clinician and an “honest doctor” whose deep bond with his high-profile patient makes him uniquely qualified to deliver unwelcome prognoses, if warranted.

“If [O’Connor] felt there was a problem for the country, he would tell the president and he would tell the American people,” said Retired Army Colonel Dr. John Holcomb, a longtime friend. “That would be a hard decision. But it would be the right thing to do, and [O’Connor] would do it.”

But as the president’s public gaffes continue, a chorus of critics, allies and medical professionals have questioned his mental acuity — and his medical staff’s reluctance to divulge more information about his health.

Dr. Lawrence Mohr, the White House physician to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, told ABC News that based on what he has seen publicly, “I don’t think there’s any question that the president should undergo a test of cognitive function, and he should do it very quickly.”

House Republicans have also suggested that O’Connor’s “connections with the Biden family” compromise his ability to “provide accurate and independent reviews of the president’s fitness to serve.”

O’Connor did not respond to a request to be interviewed. But several people close to him said he has grown irritated in recent weeks amid scrutiny of his clinical decisions and character. One person who recently spoke with O’Connor said the newfound attention is “bugging him.”

O’Connor rarely makes public appearances, preferring instead to communicate news about the president’s health in written statements. But in a podcast interview earlier this year, the physician described himself as “apolitical.”

“We don’t serve the president; we serve the presidency. That is sacrosanct,” he said on the podcast WarDocs. “We’re not here for a man, we’re here for the office … [President Biden] knows that. He wants it that way.”

Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, described O’Connor as “a world class medical professional” whose “unique expertise is sought across the medical community, in which he is respected for his candor, attention to detail, and work ethic.”

‘Brotherly trust’

A New Jersey-bred high school wrestler, O’Connor served for 22 years in the Army, where he cut his teeth jumping out of airplanes with the 82nd Airborne Division and later as a medic with special operations units. He was “one of the very first Americans to go into Afghanistan” during the early days of the War on Terror, according to Dr. Frank Butler, a retired Navy surgeon.

As he rose through the ranks, O’Connor played a “pioneering role” in overhauling the U.S. military’s battlefield trauma care, known as the Tactical Combat Casualty Care, and was an early advocate of the use of ketamine to treat severe depression in servicemembers and veterans, Butler said.

In 2006, during his time as a hospital administrator at Fort Carson in Colorado, O’Connor was asked to consult about a patient suffering from back pain. The patient, O’Connor later learned, was President George W. Bush — and his treatment set the course for a career pivot to the White House.

“I beat him up pretty good,” O’Connor recalled in the podcast interview, regarding his treatment of Bush’s back issue. After that initial treatment, “[Bush] started calling me ‘bone-crusher’ … and over the course of time that morphed into ‘bone-cracker'” and later, simply to “‘cracker,’ which was unfortunate,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor joined the White House medical unit full-time later that year. When the Obama administration swept into office in 2009, O’Connor said he “fell into” the role of primary physician for then-Vice President Biden.

The two men grew close when Biden asked O’Connor to consult on end-of-life care for his mother, who passed away in 2010. Their bond deepened, friends said, when Biden’s son Beau Biden was later diagnosed with cancer.

Through those trying moments, the two men forged a “brotherly trust” that remains in place today, according to a current administration official who worked for Biden during the Obama administration.

In an October 2016 email inviting several members of the Biden family to a party Biden hosted for O’Connor’s retirement from the Army, O’Connor wrote that “a retirement ceremony really has little to do with the retiree — it’s for their family.”

“I can never imagine a day when any of you call and I don’t pick up the phone with a smile,” he wrote, before signing the message, “Love, Kevin.”

After Biden left office in 2017, O’Connor remained his physician — the only difference being “that [Biden] got a bill and he drove himself [to appointments],” O’Connor said on the WarDocs podcast.

O’Connor also continued to treat and provide consultations for members of Biden’s family, including his son, Hunter Biden, and Hunter Biden’s daughters, according to emails leaked online from Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive.

When Biden was elected president in 2020, O’Connor was summoned back to the White House as the physician to the oldest president in American history. In the intervening years, O’Connor has penned extensive annual reports on the president’s health — most recently in February, when he declared that Biden “continues to be fit for duty.”

But many Americans disagree. In last week’s ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, Trump leads Biden by 30 percentage points, 44% to 14%, in being seen as having the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively as president.

Even so, O’Connor has committed to being forthright with the president about any troubling medical observations.

“You’ve got to tell them what they need to hear,” O’Connor said on the WarDocs podcast in January. “We don’t candy-coat things in medicine.”

‘I would love to live in anonymity’

Despite his high-profile role, O’Connor has made a concerted effort to stay under the radar. Where past White House physicians have, under certain circumstances, taken questions from the media, O’Connor said on the WarDocs podcast that he laments “the press stuff.”

“I like to not deal with that more than I have to,” he said. “I’m very thorough and very honest and very forthcoming in writing every time [Biden has] been sick … but still they want more.”

Republicans in Congress have suggested that O’Connor’s close ties with Biden might undermine his objectivity in delivering updates on the president’s health. In a letter to O’Connor last week, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer highlighted O’Connor’s apparent involvement with James Biden, the president’s brother, in an ill-fated business endeavor dating back to 2017.

James Biden, in an interview with committee investigators earlier this year, said O’Connor introduced him to a group of individuals with expertise in providing PTSD care to servicemembers as part of his role in Americore, a hospital system looking to expand access to healthcare access in rural areas.

“The Oversight Committee is concerned your medical assessments have been influenced by your private business endeavors with the Biden family,” Comer wrote in the letter.

Paul Fishman, an attorney for James Biden, acknowledged in a statement that “Jim sought his advice on best practices” — but insisted that “O’Connor was not in business with Jim” and that O’Connor was not paid for brokering the meeting.

Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson, called Comer’s overture “absolutely ridiculous and insulting.”

Republicans’ scrutiny of O’Connor and the broader discourse about Biden’s mental health has drawn the behind-the-scenes West Wing fixture into the open, despite his protestations.

“My goal right now in this job is [that] I hope nobody has any memory of me whatsoever,” he said on the WarDocs podcast in January. “I would love to live in anonymity.”

But few people have more access to the president, and fewer still have the training to evaluate his fitness for duty — a point O’Connor himself has acknowledged as a crucial part of his role. His office sits on the ground floor of the executive residence, directly across from the president’s personal elevator.

“[The president] literally has to pass me at least twice a day, usually more than that, to and from his way to the Oval Office,” he told a group of medical students earlier this year. “I have always viewed the most important part of my day as, ‘Good morning, Mr. President.'”

Experts point out that O’Connor is limited in what he can say publicly about Biden’s health. The same doctor-patient confidentiality that applies to every American, through the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, also applies to the president.

“It’s not the doctor’s responsibility — or even the doctor’s authority — to make statements about the medical conditions about the president,” said Dr. Mohr, the former physician to Reagan and George H.W. Bush. “That’s the president’s responsibility.”

“It’s never the doctor’s prerogative to make statements without the president’s permission,” Mohr said.

Dr. Philip Volpe, a retired major general and O’Connor’s longtime mentor, told ABC News that he shared this advice with the president’s physician last week: “Be a good doc, do the right thing, and tell the truth.”

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(MILWAUKEE, W.I. ) — Speakers at the Republican National Convention this week have faulted the Biden administration for putting the nation at risk from threats that include criminals, illicit drugs — and high prices.

“American families have been crushed by inflation,” Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers told the audience in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, described the “silent creep of inflation unleashed by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”

Some economists who spoke to ABC News took issue with the blame placed on President Joe Biden as an overstatement of his role in the price spike. Instead, they said, the bout of rapidly rising prices emerged from a supply shortage imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Pandemic-era spending measures enacted by former President Donald Trump and Biden also contributed to the price spike, the economists added, but they differed on the share of responsibility that should be apportioned to each of the major party candidates.

“There’s a long list of reasons for the high inflation. At the top of the list is the pandemic and the Russian war,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told ABC News.

Some of the inflation owes to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan signed by Biden in 2021, Zandi said. But, he added, “It’s at the bottom of the list.”

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Price increases have slowed significantly from a peak of more than 9% in June 2022, though inflation remains a percentage point higher than the Fed’s target rate of 2%. Even after that progress made in the inflation fight, cumulative price increases during the Biden administration continue to take a toll on consumers, especially the rise in costs for essential goods like food and gas.

Like so many economic problems, inflation emerged due to an imbalance between supply and demand.

Hundreds of millions across the globe facing lockdowns replaced restaurant expenditures with online orders of couches and exercise bikes. But the demand for goods and labor far outpaced supply, as COVID-related bottlenecks slowed delivery times and infection fears kept workers on the sidelines.

“The most important factor for inflation is the recovery from the pandemic,” Jeffrey Frankel, an economist at Harvard University, told ABC News. “The process of coming back took longer than expected, in particular the supply constraints.”

To supercharge the recovery, Trump and Biden enacted economic stimulus meant to support people who’d lost their jobs or faced other financial hardship. That stimulus helped bring about a speedy economic recovery from the March 2020 downturn, triggering a surge in demand and a blitz of hiring.

With too many dollars chasing too few goods, prices skyrocketed.

“Both Trump and Biden contributed to the fiscal stimulus that fed into the inflation,” George Selgin, senior fellow and director emeritus of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the libertarian Cato Institute, told ABC News.

Jason Furman, a professor at Harvard University and former economic adviser to President Barack Obama, estimated that Biden’s American Rescue Plan added between 1 percentage point and 4 percentage points to the inflation rate in 2021, Roll Call reported. Michael Strain, of the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, estimated that the legislation added 3 percentage points to inflation.

“It was irresponsible to do stimulus when the economy was well on its way to recovery,” Peter Morici, a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland’s School of Business told ABC News, faulting Biden’s stimulus more than Trump’s because Biden’s measure came when the economy was already heating up.

“Blame is falling where it’s due,” Morici added. “Biden does bear responsibility for the endurance of Covid inflation.”

Zandi, of Moody’s Analytics, disagreed. The measure did little to raise prices but helped sustain the strong job gains and robust economic performance that followed, he said. As far as inflation goes, Zandi added, “The American Rescue Plan is a sideshow.”

Some economists who spoke to ABC News noted that price increases bedeviled countries across the globe, some of which have suffered much worse inflation than the U.S. In Argentina, inflation has surged to more than 270%; in Turkey, it exceeded 75%.

“It’s important to realize that the bout of inflation is worldwide,” Frankel said.

While Biden should avoid wholesale blame for inflation, he should also command only partial credit for its reduction, economists said. The significant slowdown of inflation over the past two years owes in large part to an aggressive series of interest rate hikes at the Federal Reserve.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell was appointed by Trump to head the central bank in 2018. Despite a tradition of independence at the Fed, Trump pressured Powell to lower interest rates the following year. Biden, for his part, has largely refrained from commenting on the actions of the Fed.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden said in an interview airing on Wednesday that, should his doctors tell him he had a “medical condition,” he would consider leaving office and turning over power to Vice President Kamala Harris in a second term.

It is his latest explanation of what might cause him to step aside as a growing number of Democrats pressured him to do so.

“If there had [muffled] some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if the doctors, came to me, said, ‘you got this problem and that problem.’ But I made a serious mistake in the whole debate, ” he told BET’s Ed Gordon n a preview clip of the interview set to air at 10 p.m. ET

The interview was done before the White House announced late Wednesday that Biden had tested positive for COVID-19, saying that his symptoms were mild.

Biden has now given several shifting reasons about what might make him decide to step aside.

He told ABC News in a July 5 interview after his poor debate performance debate that only the “Lord Almighty” might get him to drop out of the presidential race.

When ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked, “If you can be convinced that you cannot defeat Donald Trump, will you stand down?” Biden answered, “Well, it depends on .. on if the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that, I might do that.”

In a news conference a week ago, he said he would stay in the race unless his aides told him he had no chance to win a second term.

“No, unless they came back and said, ‘There’s no way you can win.’ “No one is saying that. No poll says that,” Biden told reporters.

Also in the BET interview, Biden said, “When I originally ran, I said I was gonna be a transitional candidate, and I thought that I’d be able to move from this just pass it on to someone else. But I didn’t anticipate things getting so, so, so divided and quite frankly, and I think the only thing age brings a little bit of wisdom,” he said. “And I think I’ve demonstrated that I know how to get things done for the country, in spite of the fact that we [were] told we couldn’t get it done. But there’s more to do, and I’m reluctant to walk away from that.”

On Tuesday, he wholeheartedly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as not only a “great vice president” but so great that “she could be president of the United States,” he said while addressing the NAACP national convention in Las Vegas.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated, after the full interview aired, to reflect that Biden said he would consider stepping aside from a second term if he had a “medical condition.”

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