Just a few days ago, in the run-up to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, members of the Massachusetts delegation who spoke with GBH News struck an upbeat, almost ebullient note. They were bullish about Donald Trump’s prospects in the presidential race, especially amid the ongoing Democratic debate over whether his opponent, President Joe Biden, should end his campaign. They thought the GOP was poised to hold the U.S. House and recapture the Senate. And they were envisioning possible Republican gains at the Massachusetts State House, where the party currently holds just 4 of 40 state Senate seats and 25 of 160 House seats.
But now, after Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the collective mood of the Massachusetts delegation has changed.
“Yesterday morning, a few of us who arrived early went over to the venue to pick up our credentials and passes for the delegates for the week ahead,” said Mass. GOP chair Amy Carnevale. “There was a sense of excitement, enthusiasm and just kind of joy.”
Then came the attempt on Trump’s life.
“Last night there was frankly shock, at first, and then concern for the seriousness of the moment, knowing that a presidential candidate was close to being assassinated on the eve of the nomination,” Carnevale said. “It’s a serious moment in history, for what that means for our democracy and our political system, and the tone and tenor of the convention has certainly shifted.”
Interviews with Carnevale and other delegation members suggest that, while optimism about Republicans’ electoral prospects abides, any sense of celebratory exuberance has faded away.
Janet Fogarty of Weymouth, the Republican National Committeewoman from Massachusetts, said the state delegation held an impromptu prayer service in its hotel lobby after news broke of the attempt on Trump’s life.
The mood at the time was “very somber,” Fogarty said. But now, she suggested, another shift is discernible.
“The first reaction, of course, is the shock and grief about it happening — how could it come to this?” Fogarty said. “And then the aftermath after you go through the grief process is really asking questions and … being angry about what happened. And it shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t happen to us, it shouldn’t happen to the Democrat side, it shouldn’t happen in this country.”
Like some other Republicans, Fogarty suggested that President Biden — who recently told campaign donors it was “time to put Trump in the bullseye” — bears a measure of responsibility for Saturday’s attack.
“The language of late has become — you know, some people might construe [it] as violent,” Fogarty said. “I mean you can’t say something like your opponent, 'you gotta put a bullseye on them.’ It’s just not right to say something like that.”
Another delegate, John Hasenjaeger of Walpole, also pointed an accusatory finger at Democratic campaign rhetoric.
“They have a way of twisting and encouraging and inflaming these type of criticisms, to a point where … I think people do get a little crazy about it,” Hasenjaeger said. “‘Trump’s going to put people in jail’ and all of it. I’m sure that stirs up extremists.”
Biden condemned the attack on Trump and all political violence in remarks Saturday night. He has also denounced political violence previously, including in a January speech marking the fourth anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, which occurred after Trump rallied supporters and urged them to “fight like hell” to prevent certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Ron Kaufman, a Republican National Committeeman from Massachusetts and the general chair of the convention, suggested that the media’s coverage of the presidential contest may also have played a role.
“Some of the networks have been vilifying President Trump — ‘There’s a guy who’s going to destroy the democracy and destroy the country as we know it,’ — in violent terms, pretty much. That doesn’t help matters,” Kaufman said. “I hope that everybody, left, right, media, calms down and … stops the vitriol that could cause these kinds of terrible happenings.”
Other Massachusetts delegates were more cautious about apportioning blame for Saturday’s attack.
“I’m going to wait until the investigation is complete before I start pointing fingers, to be fair to everyone,” said Dr. Elizabeth Hinds-Ferrick, a delegate from Dorchester.
Carnevale, the party chair, said Sunday that she hadn’t yet heard conversations among RNC participants about the potential electoral implications of the attempt on Trump’s life. But Hinds-Ferrick told GBH News she thought it would intensify support for Trump among people who’ve already backed him.
“Once it settled in, I was horrified,” she said, referring to Saturday’s attack. “But now … I don’t think it’s going to change anything we’re about to do at the convention. It’s just going to make us more energized.”
Delegate Julie Hall of Attleboro, a retired Air Force colonel and former GOP congressional candidate, had a similar prediction.
“I think there’s going to be a lot more rallying around Donald Trump,” Hall said, adding that she felt “even more optimistic” than she had prior to the attack.
“People love a hero,” Hall said. “And you know, people are going to disagree with [me] using that word. But the way he left that place in Pennsylvania, he looked like a hero.”
Kaufman, the RNC committeeman, said he doesn’t expect Saturday’s attack will play a decisive role in November’s election. But he remains confident about his preferred candidate’s chances.
“Americans will decide which of these two men can better handle our country in dangerous times,” he said. “And I think it’s going to be clear it’s Donald Trump.”
