Republican National Convention 2024 LIVE updates: Trump running mate J.D. Vance speaks, Joe Biden tests positive for COVID

Former president Donald Trump has popped by for a quick walk-through of the stage, still with a bandaged ear.

He’s not set to speak to the convention until tomorrow, but the stage was lit to look like the White House.

Meanwhile his son, Donald Trump Jr seemed to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election, something his father has continually denied without evidence.

Trump Jr. told a crowd outside the convention centre that “the last election was essentially lost” by about 40,000 votes across key states, as he spoke of the party’s 2024 election prospects.

On day one of the convention (Monday US time), Trump emerged to cheers, his ear bandaged after surviving an assassination attempt just days earlier.

He was officially nominated as his party’s candidate for the US election in November, and named 39-year-old Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate, ending weeks of tense speculation.

Former Trump rivals and critics, from Vance to former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have now thrown their support behind Trump as the convention rolls on.

His former press secretary, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said God had spared Trump from the assassin’s bullet.

Today, on day three, it’s all about “Make America Strong Again”, with a line-up of national security and foreign policy hawks due to speak, along with Vance. It’s a big moment for Vance, who has so far declined to commit to an early debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, citing uncertainty over the Democratic ticket.

Inside the Republican convention, it’s a loud whirl of Trump merch, banners, and of course, armed Secret Service agents, following the attempt on Trump’s life on the weekend.

President Joe Biden says the only thing that would make him reconsider his re-election bid would be if a doctor found he had a serious medical condition, as he continues to fight off calls from Democrats to step aside.

In an interview with Ed Gordon of BET News airing Wednesday (US time), Biden was asked what would make him drop out of the race and why he decided not to be a transitional candidate, as he’d originally committed to be in 2020.

“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody – if the doctors came to me and said you’ve got this problem, that problem. But I made a serious mistake in the whole debate.”

The 81-year-old president has been under pressure to prove his fitness for office, following a disastrous debate performance against Trump and recent gaffes.

Biden says his doctors have found no issues with his health other than those already disclosed to the public, and the White House says the president has undergone three neurological tests since taking office, though Biden has shrugged off recent calls to take more.

Russia seems pleased with Trump’s new running mate.

At the United Nations Security Council overnight, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that J.D. Vance “stands for peace, for cessation of aid. We can only welcome this because, in fact, it is necessary to stop pumping Ukraine with weapons, and the war will end”.

Vance has been a vocal critic of US aid to Ukraine, which is critical to holding off Russia’s invasion, calling on Ukraine to negotiate with Russia.

While Lavrov said Russia is prepared to “work with any American leader elected” – as long as they are ready for “equitable, mutually respectful dialogue” – he stressed that Russia’s communication with the White House was better under Trump.

Russian President Vladimir Putin himself has publicly backed Biden, saying his country would prefer to see “the more experienced” and predictable Biden return to office than Trump. But those comments have raised eyebrows, given what US intelligence found of the Kremlin’s previous efforts to help Trump win office.

Meanwhile, Republican senator Markwayne Mullin, who backs Ukraine aid, said Vance still has “the ability to change” his mind on Ukraine. “He’s a smart guy … he will adapt to his new role and be the leader that he needs to be,” Mullins said.

J.D. Vance once called Trump a conman, unfit for office and “America’s Hitler”. Now he’s the running mate of a former president famously prickly of criticism.

Vance, a one-time lawyer and venture capitalist served in the US Marines as a combat correspondent and rose to prominence in 2016 when his best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy explored growing up poor in rural America.

When Trump won the presidency that same year, Vance became a vocal never-Trumper.

But, after years on the conservative media circuit, the 39-year-old Senator has “changed his mind” and emerged as one of Trump’s staunchest backers – and attack dogs.

He’s a conservative populist, wanting tougher abortion laws and aid stopped to Ukraine in its battle to beat back Russia’s invasion. He’s downplayed the attack on the US Capitol and threats to Democrats and then vice president Mike Pence, declaring that, unlike Pence, he would have listened to Trump and refused to certify the the 2020 election results.

As the new heir apparent to Trumpism, Vance helps bring in wealthy Silicon Valley donors and is seen as a well-honed debater, ready to defend Trump but unlikely to rein him in in office.

President Joe Biden has called Vance a “clone” of Trump.

When Vance takes to the stage, he’s likely to introduce his wife Usha (the daughter of Indian immigrants and another former Trump critic), as well as their three children.

The assassination attempt on Donald Trump has paused but not eliminated the calls for Joe Biden to step aside, four months before the presidential election.

US Representative Adam Schiff, a prominent California Democrat who is running for Senate, is the latest to call for the president to withdraw from the presidential election. Schiff says he believes it is time for Biden to “pass the torch”.

Schiff said Wednesday that Biden has been “one of the most consequential presidents” but that the nation is at a crossroads, and a second Trump presidency would undermine US democracy.

“While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” Schiff said in a statement. “And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.”

Schiff, who is running for Senate this year, is a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who led the first House impeachment against Trump in 2019.

AP

Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro was released from a Florida prison on Wednesday and is expected to speak hours later at the Republican National Convention.

Navarro, who was a Trump trade adviser, was released from custody after completing a four-month sentence for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Navarro will head straight to Milwaukee to speak on the third night of the RNC.

He is set to speak today, according to a person familiar with the schedule, who spoke on the condition of anonymity before the schedule’s official release.

AP

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics, and the Republican National Convention, led by the newly nominated presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance. I’m Sherryn Groch and I’ll be taking you through all the key moments and developments.

Every day of this four-day convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has a theme and today it’s “Make America Strong Again”, shifting to issues of national security and foreign policy, including US rivals Russia and China, as well as Israel’s war in Gaza.

And Senator Vance will be in the spotlight with a prime-time address to the convention (Wednesday night US time) as he accepts his party’s nomination as VP.

Strap in!