SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Democratic National Convention here in Chicago notably featured a number of Republicans in high-profile speaking slots. NPR's Sarah McCammon has been following the outreach attempts of Democrats to get through to Republicans and independents. She joins us now at studios we're borrowing this week at WBEZ, our member station here. Sarah, good to be with you.
SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: Good to be here too. Hi, Scott.
SIMON: Republicans were front and center at the convention, which seems noteworthy. What stood out from their speeches?
MCCAMMON: Yeah, you know, their message was pretty simple. They portrayed former President Trump as a threat to democracy and tried to make the case to their fellow Republicans who were not in the convention hall to support Harris, even if they don't agree with her on everything.
So Stephanie Grisham was a former White House press secretary and an aide to then-First Lady Melania Trump. When Grisham spoke on Tuesday, she described herself as a former true believer and a close friend of the Trump family. But she said that what she saw when the cameras were off, as she put it, and ultimately, on January 6 changed that.
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STEPHANIE GRISHAM: Behind closed doors, Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them basement dwellers. On a hospital visit one time, when people were dying in the ICU, he was mad that the cameras were not watching him. He has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth.
MCCAMMON: Now, Grisham was one of several Republicans featured onstage at the convention, including former Congressman Adam Kinzinger and another former White House official, Olivia Troye. Troye said that as both a national security expert and as a Latina, she found working in the Trump White House terrifying. And from everyone, the overarching message to Republicans was that by voting for Harris and Walz, they'd be voting not primarily for a Democrat, but for democracy.
SIMON: Sarah, do we have any sense of how effective these arguments might be in reaching voters who consider themselves Republicans or conservative-leaning?
MCCAMMON: Well, throughout this campaign, we've been reporting on the fact that a lot of voters across the spectrum were not happy with their choices when that choice was Trump or President Biden. Harris' entry into the race, of course, has reshuffled the campaign, and Democrats hope to win over some of those undecideds or unhappy voters.
Probably the biggest name on the lineup this week was Oprah - Oprah Winfrey. She addressed the convention on Wednesday night, and Oprah made a big point of the fact that she is a registered independent, and she said she votes for her values.
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OPRAH WINFREY: So I'm calling on all you independents and all you undecideds.
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WINFREY: You know this is true. You know I'm telling you the truth, that values and character matter most of all.
MCCAMMON: And overall, the tone of this convention has really tacked to the center. There was a big emphasis on unity and freedom and the idea that you can have different beliefs in a democracy. Now, I've been covering efforts by Harris supporters to win over voters who've supported Trump in the past. And one thing I've heard is that while they'd like those voters to cast a ballot for Harris, there is value even in persuading them just not to vote for Trump again.
SIMON: What about what I'll now call Donald Trump's Republican Party? What has been the official reaction they've registered to the DNC?
MCCAMMON: So Republicans were holding daily briefings in Chicago to try to counter the DNC. Trump has been on the campaign trail, talking about some familiar themes like the border and immigration. And he's been trying to paint Harris as extreme, reaching all the way back to the Soviet era, using labels like Comrade Kamala. So it seems like Republicans are still trying to adjust their message to the new reality.
You know, just one example - Democrats have made abortion a big issue in this election. And in a post on Truth Social yesterday, Trump claimed that, quote, "my administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights." Of course, that could be a tough case for Trump to make when he has also bragged about being largely the reason that Roe v. Wade was overturned.
SIMON: Sarah, what's the possible effect of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announcing yesterday that he's kind of suspending his campaign and endorsing Donald Trump?
MCCAMMON: Right. So RFK Jr. made this unusual announcement that he's essentially pulling out of the race in battleground states and endorsing Trump. He will still be on the ballot in some states and wants his supporters to vote for him, but not in places where it could hurt Trump.
Now, the Trump and Harris campaigns have been disagreeing a bit about who this helps and who it hurts. Some polls suggest RFK being in the race might have hurt Trump slightly, so this may be good for Trump. But in reality, Scott, RFK Jr. had struggled to gain traction with this campaign and had been losing support in the polls, so this may not be a big group of people or a big impact.
SIMON: By the time he withdrew, or suspended, his campaign yesterday, he was down to single digits...
MCCAMMON: That's right.
SIMON: ...In those polls, as opposed to the almost 20% that he had.
MCCAMMON: At one point, right.
SIMON: Well, NPR's Sarah McCammon, thanks so much for speaking with us. Good to be here in WBEZ studios, isn't it?
MCCAMMON: Yeah, it is. Thanks so much, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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