Watch the Digital Desk with political scientist Benjamin Melusky, Ph.D. in the video player.
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – On the final night of the Republican National Convention (RNC), Americans heard former President Donald Trump speak for the first time since the attempted assassination.
Political expert Ben Melusky, Ph.D. from Old Dominion University is sharing his analysis of the the RNC, Trump’s speech and calls for Biden to exit the race. He discussed the latest in political news at the Digital Desk. Watch the livestream in the video player on this page.
Leading up to Trump’s speech reports circulated that he was rewriting his speech and it would have a more unifying tone following the assassination attempt.
“I think for the first 20-25 minutes of his speech he did exactly what both his campaign and what kind of the rumors candied about we’re saying,” said Melusky. “We saw a much softer Trump. We saw one more introspective and reflective on the events of the weekend.”
Melusky said there were powerful moments, speaking to the victims of the events of Saturday.
“There’s going to be a picture that I think will go down in history of him going over to the firefighter’s uniform from the individual killed on Saturday and respecting it and giving it a kiss,” said Melusky.
After the recounting of last weekend, Melusky said there was a shift.
“I think we shifted back to more of a standard campaign Trump that we saw out on the campaign trail, maybe not always sticking to the script, ad-libbing,” said Melusky.
Melusky gave his analysis on the change in tone.
“I very much think that was purposeful and it very much reflect the tenor of the campaign going forward,” said Melusky.
Who was the speech geared towards? Melusky said it wasn’t so much focused on expansion of the electorate.
“I think this was very much more about reaching out to part of his base that might be the low propensity voters, the ones that might sit on the couch and might stay in on election day,” said Melusky.
Melusky said already there is a general look towards the electoral college and what votes you need to win the Presidential election.
“If you put this into context of where we are in the race, you look at pretty much any larger news network, large polling firms, there projecting out to 270, right, how many electoral votes you need to win the presidency,” said Melusky.
For Trump, who is ahead in the polls, in terms of what he needs to do, Melusky said he needs to get about 46-47% of the vote, especially when thinking of how third-party candidates will play in the upcoming election.
“That’s basically, bring out your base,” said Melusky.
This week, more senior Democratic leaders have called for Biden to exit the race. There have been conflicting reports about what will happen.
Melusky said there is a lot of smoke, and nothing definite. There have been various reports the past week of what might happen.
“I think Biden has to take a little bit of a step back and take everything in context,” said Melusky. “He’s looked at, at least some of the reporting we’ve heard, is that he’s looked at polling data and said, look, I’m still running neck and neck in some places, polling is just a snapshot of right now, things can get turned around really quickly.”
Following the Digital Desk with Melusky, Biden released a statement on Trump’s RNC speech and said “I look forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week”.
Earlier this week, Melusky joined the Digital Desk to discuss the assassination attempt and the start to the RNC. Watch the conversation in the video player below.
Poll data released just yesterday by Emerson College/ The Hill shared how Virginians feel about the country, the Commonwealth and the upcoming election. Click here to see more.
