Politics
Joe Walsh and Corey Brooks on the Republican Party After the RNC
Former President Donald Trump and his newly minted running mate Sen. J.D. Vance are back on the campaign trail after last week's Republican National Convention.
The week in Milwaukee aimed to rally the party through speeches from political leaders, celebrities and so-called “everyday Americans.”
The week also saw a focus on messages about public safety, inflation and immigration.
The Rev. Corey Brooks of Project HOOD was in Milwaukee to deliver the closing prayer on the second night of the RNC. He’s best known in Chicago for camping out on a rooftop for almost a year in 2012 to raise funds to build a new community center in Woodlawn.
Brooks, a Republican, said the convention sent the right message.
“From the beginning, all the way to the end, we were very clear on our stance of wanting to bring back safety to America,” he said. “I also think we talked a lot about the economy, which is so important … and we spoke to those issues, directly to the American issues that people are concerned about and that’s where we have to keep the messaging. We can’t get off on race, we can’t get off on gender, we have to keep the messaging very clear about American citizens.”
Republicans also called for unity in light of the assassination attempt on the former president at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania just days before the start of the convention.
Former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh was also in Milwaukee for a separate event — a group of anti-Trump Republicans known as “Principals First” gathered to speak out against the Trump campaign.
An outspoken “Never Trumper,” he said that while the Republican party is unified behind Trump, the same can’t be said about the country as a whole.
“It’s Trump’s party, and it’s very unified,” said Walsh. “But let’s be clear about something — nobody has spread more hate and division in this country the past eight years than Donald Trump has, and he’s not going to change… Trump appeals to the worst in us and that works with some people. But I’m hoping that, and I believe that, Kamala Harris will appeal to the best enough in us. And I think more Americans want that.”
