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Frank Bruni, Michelle Cottle, David French and Patrick Healy

By Frank Bruni, Michelle Cottle, David French and Patrick Healy

Mr. Bruni is a contributing Opinion writer. Ms. Cottle writes about national politics for Opinion and is a host of the podcast “Matter of Opinion.” Mr. French is an Opinion columnist. Mr. Healy is the deputy Opinion editor.

Patrick Healy: Frank, Michelle, David, the Republican convention is opening on Monday night just 48 hours after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. How do you think the shooting will shape or change the convention, and Trump?

David French: The key change will be in the intensity of the gathering. Expect to see an immense amount of anger and pride. Republicans are rightly proud of Trump’s immediate response to the shooting. His presence of mind to raise his fist to the crowd to signal that he was very much alive and defiant was an impressive act of leadership. And we should all feel angry when someone tries to assassinate a former president and current candidate. We also know, however, that anger can be dangerous, and we’re already seeing conspiracies emerging, including claims that Joe Biden is responsible for the assassination attempt. Our great national challenge will be responding to that anger, to keep it from spiraling out of control. The key player here will be Trump, of course, and his nomination speech may well be the most-watched address in a generation. He has a historic opportunity to rise to the moment — or pull us deeper into darkness.

Frank Bruni: I expect we will see the image of a bloody Trump with his fist raised over and over again, but, also, Republicans will use the convention stage and convention speeches to make the case that the violence at the Trump rally is the doing of Democrats and the left. The shooting is intensifying an ongoing debate about which party is most responsible for the degraded nature of our civic life, and Republicans will be arguing their side of it in Milwaukee from Monday through Thursday.

Patrick: How far do you think Republicans will take it, Frank?

Frank: Well, not long after the end of the gunfire, Trump allies — Elon Musk prominently among them — began raising questions about the Secret Service’s commitment to Trump. I’m watching to see how much further Republican politicians themselves push that kind of thinking and accusation.

Michelle Cottle: I’m guessing the convention organizers find a way to add in an extra dash of: We told you the haters were out to get him. But nothing can bring him down. The myth of Trump has always been wrapped up in his assertions of victimhood and political persecution. This horrific episode fits with and will likely fuel his conception of himself as a man of destiny, a fearless warrior staring down the haters. Trump believes this. Even as he was being whisked off the stage, he was giving that hang-tough fist salute to the crowd. The guy lives for the fight.

Patrick: We’ve all been at G.O.P. conventions before — Frank, Michelle and I as journalists, and David as a convention delegate for Mitt Romney in 2012. How would you describe the Republican conventions you attended in the era before Donald Trump?

Frank Bruni: Civilized. Well, not Clint Eastwood at the Mitt Romney convention in 2012; that moment sort of presaged the loopiness to come. But the 2000 convention at which George W. Bush was nominated, the convention after that, and the 2008 convention with John McCain and Sarah Palin — remember her?! — they had normal rhythms, normal points of suspense, a cast of predictable characters.

Michelle Cottle: I’d say weird but predictable: boring speeches, boozy parties, schmoozing. Like a big reunion for political types.

David French: I first started paying attention to Republican conventions in 1984, when I was a teenage Reagan conservative, and it was clear to even the young me that Republican candidates were trying to inspire — they were reaching for messages of patriotic confidence and individual empowerment. That’s one reason Patrick Buchanan’s 1992 “culture war” speech felt jarring, even in the moment. It was so incongruous with George H.W. Bush’s message in 1988, the call for a “kinder and gentler nation.” But the G.O.P. is a much more Buchananite party now.

Healy: How would you describe what G.O.P. conventions are like in the era of Trump — 2016, 2020, this week?

Cottle: Like a Festivus service — much airing of grievances — attended by folks who wish they were at a pro wrestling match. A blend of dark, apocalyptic rhetoric mixed with the party-like atmosphere you typically get at these gatherings of the........

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