On Day 2 of the Republican National Convention, Scripps News spoke with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine about Republican Party unity, the day's theme of safety for America and about Donald Trump's selection of Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.
"We're very excited about it." DeWine said. "We're very proud of JD Vance. I think he just brings a lot to the ticket. Not only is he obviously a different generation than the president, but his life story is an amazing story. It's kind of the American story."
If Trump and Vance win the election, Gov. DeWine is responsible for appointing a replacement to serve the remainder of Vance's Senate term.
On the aftermath of the assassination attempt against Trump:
"I think that after this horrible tragedy that occurred the other night, I think President Trump — his reaction, what his comments were the next day — I think they were appropriate. I think frankly also President Biden's comments were appropriate. They both were saying the same thing for a few days, and that is 'Let's tone this thing down.'"
"I think it is important, and I've stressed this myself, let's try to pull people together and remind people that there are things we all agree on," Gov. DeWine said. "We care about our kids, we want our kids educated. We want freedom, we want the First Amendment protected, we want a strong national defense."
"We need to every once in a while stop the back-and-forth and say 'Yeah, that's true, but there's a lot of things we agree upon,'" he continued.
Gov. DeWine discussed the RNC's theme for the day, "Making America Safe Again." He focused on a bill that he wanted passed in his home state and universally across the country: "That is if somebody commits a crime, they're no longer allowed to have a gun."
"We need to make the penalties very difficult, very tough, very strong, so the judge can impose a really long sentence for someone who has already committed a crime, who has been told they can't have a gun, and yet continues to be in possession of that gun," DeWine said. "If we did that we would solve a lot of the problem — not all the problem — but certainly we would save a lot of lives if we could just do that small, small thing."
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On Haley and DeSantis speaking at the convention:
"I think the fact that President Trump reached out to two opponents in the campaign and asked them to come to the convention — they wouldn't be here if he didn't want them here. And for them to accept that, those are both good things. It shows that we are unified as a party. It doesn't mean that we agree on everything. We have two parties in this country, so both parties have to take in some different, diverse views," DeWine said.
"There's certain things that we're going to go back and forth on. But it is a unified party that is coming out of here. It's a party that is focused on what's going to happen in November, focused on winning," said DeWine.
