WSJ What’s News - How Trump Shooting Stands to Upend White House Race

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

A.M. Edition for July 15th. Leaders in the U.S. call for unity after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. WSJ national political reporter Vivian Salama discusses how this historic event will affect this year’s presidential election, and what to expect from this week’s Republican National Convention. Plus, Google closes in on a deal to buy cybersecurity startup Wiz. And, China’s economy slows sharply. Kate Bullivant hosts.  Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Need a great reason to get up in the morning? Well, what about two? Right now, get a small, organic Fairtrade coffee and a tasty bacon and egger breakfast sandwich for only $5 at A&W's in Ontario. With America still reeling from the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, we unpack how it could change the race for the White House. Everybody believes that unity is what is needed in this moment. Whether or not it's reflected in their rhetoric remains to be seen, but there certainly has been a lot of public sentiment that would suggest that we are heading in a direction of slightly more civility in these final months of the campaign. Plus, Google closes in on a big-ticket purchase,

and China's economy posts fresh signs of weakness. It's Monday, July 15th. I'm Kate Bullivan for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for Luke Vargas. And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. The top headlines and business stories moving your world today. Authorities are still piecing together the details around the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump that rocked the nation on Saturday. A 20-year-old suspect has been identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks.

According to federal authorities, he acted alone and investigators are still trying to determine his motive and ideology. Voting records show he was a registered Republican. According to people familiar with the investigation, the gun used by the shooter, an AR-15 rifle, had been purchased by the suspect's father. The fact that Donald Trump came so close to being assassinated this weekend presents the Secret Service with its biggest crisis in decades. It's also certain to alter the contours of an electoral campaign where even small shifts could prove decisive. And here to unpack that is journal national political reporter Vivian Salama. Vivian, the attempted assassination

of Trump this weekend came as a huge shock for the nation, but it also marks an escalation of violent rhetoric we've been seeing in politics lately. How did we get here? So this, without doubt, has been one of the most contentious campaigns and rhetoric has been really building up and fueling on both sides in a way that has really raised the temperature. Donald Trump is notorious for his attacks on opponents. He uses name calling. And obviously, after the January 6th Capitol riots here in the United States, he was associated with that. He's even been charged with his role in potentially inciting that violence. And so a lot of people on the left in particular have believed that he has in large part been responsible for fueling some of that hatred. and especially in recent months with his

conviction, with the federal charges against him at large. And Donald Trump himself has used that rhetoric in his rallies and in his social media postings, where he constantly says, they're attacking me because they're trying to get to you. I'm just standing in their way, but they're trying to get to you. As someone who regularly goes to Trump rallies because I cover his campaign, you see it in the crowds that show up. They're angry. They're angry at the media, but they're also very angry at the left and believe that there is some sort of plot against them. And so there has been sort of a return effect of that with Democrats. There has been anger. A lot of talk about Trump being an insider of violence and saying that he's dangerous for

democracy and things like that. In general, however, we do not see some of the intensified rhetoric that you tend to see here, largely because it's driven by Donald Trump himself. you tend to see here largely because it's driven by Donald Trump himself. And Joe Biden, while he has definitely ramped up his attacks against Trump in recent weeks, and he has talked about the need to hone in on Trump and attack Trump for his political record, he tends to avoid some of that really incendiary language that some people use. And so that's sort of where we stood. language that some people use. And so that's sort of where we stood. President Biden on Saturday, taking the initiative to reach out and call President Trump himself. A person who was briefed on that phone call described it to me very simply as short and respectful. And that was really the sign that both sides really saw this as a moment where politics aside, they needed to come together

and acknowledge that when violence happens, when people are shot and remember an individual at the rally was killed, two others are in critical condition. So it was not just Trump himself that was hit. They recognize that it's gone too far. Right. And we saw that reflected in reactions to the attack from across the board. Trump has called for unity and so has the president who addressed the nation last night. We can't allow this violence to be normalized. You know, the political record in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that. It's time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that.

Vivian, how do we expect leaders on either side to change their tone since this attack? It really remains to be seen. Party leaders have been calling for unity. You're seeing it across the board. One of the big announcements that we learned is that Nikki Haley, Trump's opponent in the Republican primaries who was not invited, nor was she scheduled to speak at the RNC this week, she's now going to be speaking at the RNC because everybody believes that unity is what is needed in this moment. A lot of people just woke up on Sunday and said, you know, that's not what the United States is about. And so there's a recognition across the board, whether or not it's reflected in their rhetoric remains to be seen.

But there certainly has been a lot of public sentiment that would suggest that we are heading in a direction of slightly more civility in these final months of the campaign. And before this attack happened, Trump was leading Biden in a WSJ poll that was after the presidential debate. How is this latest development likely to play into the race for the White House? It is a really good question for us now. Even though they're in a dead heat nationally, former President Trump had a lead in the battleground states. And what we have seen after the attack is this remarkable push by Republicans to sort of take the dramatic photographs that emerged

from the shooting with Trump defiantly throwing his fist in the air and blood streaming down his face. And they've turned it into this iconic symbol of the right. It really is so hard to tell how people will react and what will essentially motivate them to go out to the polls come November. But a lot of analysts I've spoken to said this will probably unite Republicans to drive them to go to the polling stations in November. Democrats do not have that impetus at this point. And so we shall see what happens. As this weekend's events unfolded, Vivian, you were traveling to Wisconsin, where you'll be covering the Republican National Convention. Trump yesterday confirmed that he plans to address the nation there this week.

But what can we expect the mood to be like as events get underway later? One of the really remarkable things in the days leading up to the Republican National Convention is it was actually expected to be a pretty business as usual convention in the sense that the Democratic Party has been reeling for several weeks now about President Biden's cognitive health, whether or not he should step down and hand the top of the ticket over to someone else. The Republican National Convention, by contrast, was expected to be pretty calm, relatively speaking. Now, everyone is a little bit shell-shocked here, but also very impassioned, very inspired by what they say is former President Trump's heroic

survival. The enthusiasm level is just going to be on the next level because as of Saturday, it really wasn't clear whether or not he'd even make it to the convention, let alone attend in person to accept the Republican nomination for president. And so it's really going to be an interesting moment and certainly one where all of this talk of unity that we've seen on social media over the weekend, it's really going to play out in real time over the course of the week. That was Journal national politics reporter Vivian Salama. Vivian, thanks for your time. Thanks very much.

And we'll be covering the Republican National Convention from the ground this week. Our colleagues are there in Milwaukee and will have their first dispatch for you in this evening's What's News podcast. So tune in later today for more. Coming up, Google is close to making its biggest acquisition ever, and weight loss drugs have a new holy grail. Those stories and more after the break. AI may be the most important new computer technology ever, but AI needs a lot of processing speed, and that gets expensive fast. Upgrade to the next generation of the cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI.

OCI is the single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. Do more and spend less, like Uber, 8x8, and Databricks Mosaic. Take a free test drive of OCI at oracle.com slash wallstreet. oracle.com slash wallstreet. China's economy is losing steam. That's according to the latest figures from the country's National Bureau of Statistics, which showed gross domestic product growing by 4.7% in the second quarter, weaker than the previous quarter's rate of 5.3% and below the 5% figure that economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had been expecting. The reading puts pressure on the government to take more aggressive measures to prop up the economy. China's Communist Party leadership is gathering in Beijing this week

to discuss long-range reforms, but many economists say the world's second-largest economy needs more help in the immediate term. We are exclusively reporting that Alphabet is in advanced talks to buy cybersecurity startup Wiz for around $23 billion. The takeover would mark the largest acquisition to date for Google's parent. According to people close to the deal, it could come together soon, assuming the talks don't fall apart. Alphabet is eyeing Wiz at a time of increased antitrust scrutiny on tech giants. It's also playing catch-up in the area of cloud computing, something this deal could help with. Wiz raised $1 billion earlier this year at a valuation of $12 billion. Weight loss drugs, including Ozempic and Zetbound, have become wildly popular in the US, ringing up more than a million

prescriptions a week. But many health plans have shied away from covering these treatments, and their high price tag has put them out of reach for many people. That's why Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are now testing their drugs for a range of other diseases, betting that insurers will be more inclined to cover them for other uses. Journal reporter Peter Loftus has more. One way they're doing that is by running clinical trials of these same drugs and they're testing them in additional conditions such as reducing the risk of heart attacks and stroke in people that have cardiovascular disease or alleviating sleep apnea. And there's

other uses that are being tested as well, such as Alzheimer's disease and heart failure and liver disease. Now, the potential impact on insurance coverage from these trials is that if they're proven, it kind of raises the ante on the insurers. So we're talking the drug companies could stand to earn billions more in sales by demonstrating that there's additional benefits for these drugs beyond weight loss, which in turn could increase the insurance coverage for these drugs. And let's take a look at what's happening in markets. US stock futures are pointing to a higher open after the Trump assassination attempt. Shares in the former president's social media company,

which trades under the ticker DJT, are soaring in off-hours trading. And while investors continue to monitor the potential implications of this weekend's shooting, earnings season is also heating up. This week, we'll get results from banks including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, plus other big names such as Netflix and Johnson & Johnson. And that's What's News for Monday morning. Today's show was produced by Daniel Bark. Our supervising producer was Christina Rocker.

And I'm Kate Bullivant for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for Luke Vargas. We'll be back tonight with a new show. And until then, thanks for listening.