i left the marines and i went to the ohio state university. i am sorry, michigan, i had to get it in there. >> let's go, blue. >> come on, we have had enough political violence. and after business school, i met my beautiful wife and i started to create jobs in the place i grew up in, and it taught me that there is so much talent and grit in the american heartland, and there is, but for these places to thrive, my friends, we need a leader who fights for people who built this country.

we need a leader who is not in pocket of big business, but answers to the working man, union and non-union alike. a leader who won't sell out to multinational company, but stand up for american companies and american industry. a leader who rejects joe biden and kamala harris' green new our great american factories, and we need president donald j. trump. some people tell me that i have lived american dream, and of course, they are right, and i'm so grateful for it. but the american dream that counted most was not starting a business or becoming a senator

or even being here with you fine people, even though it is pretty awesome, my most american dream was being a husband and a good dad, and being able to give -- [ applause ] -- i wanted to give my kids the things they did not have when i was growing up, and that is the accomplishment that i am proudest of. tonight, i am joined by my beautiful wife usha, an incredible lawyer and better mom, and our three beautiful kids ewan, who is 7, and vivek who is 4 and mirabel who is 2, and they are back at the hotel, and if they are watching, daddy loves you very much, but get your butts in bed, because it is 10:00. but my friends, things did not work out so well for a lot of

people i grew up with. because i will get a call and do you remember so and so, and then i will hear they died of an overdose. as usual, the ruling class wrote the checks and the working class like mine paid the price. so from iraq to afghanistan and from the recession to the open border and the stagnating wages and the people who have governed the country have fail and failed again and again. that is, of course, until a guy named donald j. trump came along. president trump represents america's last best hope to restore what if lost may never be found again, a country where a working class boy born far

from the halls of power can stand here on the stage hoping to become the next vice president of america. but, my fellow americans, here in this stage and watching at home, this moment is not about me, but it is about all of us and who we are fighting for. it is about the autoworker in michigan wondering why the out of touch politicians are destroying their jobs. it is about the factory worker in wisconsin who makes things with their hands and is proud of american craftsmanship. it is about the energy worker in

pennsylvania and ohio who does not understand why joe biden is willing the buy energy from ten pot dictators across the world when he could buy it from citizens right here in our own country. you guys are a great crowd.

wow. >> yes, we are. yes, we are. yes, we are. [ laughter ] >> and it is about our movement that is about single moms like mine who struggled with money and addiction but never gave up. i am proud to say that tonight, my mom is here, ten years clean and sober.

i love you, mom. [ applause ] >> j.d.'s mom, j.d.'s mom, j.d.'s mom -- >> and you know, mom, i was thinking, it will be ten years officially in january of 2025, and if president trump is okay with it, let's have the sell -- celebration in the white house.

and our movement, ladies and gentlemen, it is about grandparents all across this country who are living on social security and raising grandchildren that they did not expect to raise. and while we are on the topic of grandparents, let me tell you another mamaw story. my mamaw died shortly before i left for iraq in 1995, and let me tell you that before we left we found 19 loaded handguns. now, the thing is that they were stashed all over her house -- under the bed, in the closet and in the silverware drawer, and we wondered what was going on. it occurred to us that towards end of her life, mamaw could not get around too well, so this

frail old woman, no matter where she was, she was within arm's length, she could protect her family, and that is who we are fighting for, and that is the american spirit. now, joe biden has been a politician in washington for longer than i have been alive, 39 years old. kamala harris is not much further behind. for half a century, he has been the champion of every major policy initiative to make america weaker and poorer, and in four short years, donald trump reversed decades of

betrayals inflicted by joe biden and the rest of the corrupt washington insiders. he created greatest economy in history for workers. really was amazing. there is a chart that shows worker wages, and they stagnated for pretty much my entire life until president donald j. trump came along and the worker wages went through the roof. and just imagine what he is going to do when we give him

four more years. >> months ago, i heard some young family member observe that their parents' generation, the baby boomers could afford the buy a home when they first entered the workforce, but i don't know if this person observed if they could ever afford a home. this is the result of so many absurd failures in washington. i can tell you exactly how it happened. the wall street barons crashed the economy and american builders went out of business. as tradesmen scrambled for jobs, houses stopped being built, and the lack of good jobs of course led to stagnant wages and then the democrats flooded this country with millions of illegal aliens. so, citizens had to compete for

people who should not be here for precious housing. joe biden's housing crisis is really an affordability crisis and many of the people who i grew up with cannot afford the pay more for groceries, more for gas and more for rent, and this is exactly what joe biden's economy has given them. so prices soared, dreams were shatter and china and the cartel sent fentanyl across the border to add to the heartache, but ladies and gentlemen, that is not the end of our story. we have heard about villains and the victims and i have talked a lot about that, but let me tell you about the future.

president trump's vision is so simple and yet so powerful. we are done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to wall street. we will commit to the working man. we are done importing foreign labor and we will fight for american citizens and their good jobs and their good wages. we are done buying energy from countries that hate us. we will get it right here from american workers in pennsylvania, in ohio and across the country. we are done sacrifices supply chains to unlimited global trade and we will stamp more and more products with the beautiful

label "made in the usa." we will build factories to put people to work for products built by american workers. together, we will protect the wages of the american workers and stop the chinese communist party building their middle-class on the backs of the american citizens. together, we will make sure that the allies are sharing in the burden of world peace and no more free rides for the nations

that betray the generosity of the american taxpayer. together we will send our kids to war only when we must. but as president trump showed with the elimination of isis and so much more that when we punch, we are going to punch hard. and so, no matter the color of the skin, we will ensure that we will make america great again. you know, one of the things that you hear people say sometimes is that america is an idea, and to

be clear america was indeed founded on brilliant ideas like the rule of law and religious liberty and things written into the fabric of the constitution and our nation, but in america, it is not just an idea, it is a group of people with a shared history and a common future. it is in short a nation. now as part of the tradition that we welcome newcomers, but when we allow the newcomers into the american family, we allow them on our terms. that's the way we preserve the continuity of this project from 250 years past to hopefully 250 years in the future. and let me illustrate this with a story if i may, and i am of course married to the daughter

of southeast asian immigrants into this country, and beautiful people who have enriched this country in so many ways and of course, i am biased because i love my wife and her family and it is true. when i proposed to my wife, we were in law school and i say, honey, i come with $120,000 in school debt and a cemetery plot in southeastern kentucky. and i guess standing here tonight, it is getting weirder and weirder, honey, but that is what she was getting. now, the cemetery plot in southeastern, kentucky is near my country's ancestral home and we come from appalachian, and

michigan and wisconsin. now, that's kentucky coal country, and one of the ten poorest counties in the united states of america, and they are hard-working people, and the kind of people who give you the last thing on the table even if they have nothing else to eat. but they know in their bones, they know that this is their home, and it is going to be their children's home, and they would die fighting to protect it. that is the source of america's greatness. as the united states senator, i

get to represent millions of people from the great state of ohio and many similar stories and the great honor of my life n. that great cemetery there are people born around the civil war and if as i hope my wife and i are eventually laid to rest there and our kids follow us, there will be seven generations in that small cemetery plot in southwestern kentucky, and seven generations of people who have been born in country, and made things in this country, and they would fight and die for this country if they were asked to. now, that is not just an idea, my friends, that is not just a set of principle, even though the ideas and the principles are great, that is a homeland. that is our homeland.

people will not fight for abstractions, but they will fight for their home. and if this movement of ours is going to succeed, and if this country is going to thrive, our leaders have to remember that america is a nation, and its citizens deserve leaders who put its interests first. now, we won't agree on every issue of course, not even in this room, and we may disagree from time-to-time of how to reinvigorate american industry and american family, and that is fine, and in fact, it is more than fine, it is good, but never forget that the reason that the united american republican party exists and why we do this and why we care about those great ideas and the great history is that we want this nation to

thrive for centuries to come. now, eventually, in that mountain cemetery, my children will lay me to rest, and when they do, i would like them to know that thanks to the work of this republican party, the united states of america is as strong and as proud and as great as ever. that is who we serve, my friends. that is who we fight for, and the only thing that we need to do right now, the most important thing that we can do for those people, for that american nation that we all love is to re-elect donald j. trump president of the

united states. mr. president, i will never take for granted the trust you have put in me, and what an honor to achieve the extraordinary vision that you have put in me for the vision of this country and i pledge to every american, no matter the party, i will give you everything that i have to serve you and to make this country a place that no matter the dream that you have for yourself and your country will be possible again. and also, the people of michigan and ohio and every corner of the

nation, i promise you this, i am a vice president who will never forget where he came from. and every single day for the next four years when i walk into the white house to help president trump, i will be doing it for you, for your family and for your future and for this great country. thank you, and god bless this

great country. senator j.d. vance on the platform being greeted by members of his family after getting to know not only this crowd, but introducing himself to the rest of america who may be watching tonight. talking a lot about his personal roots and his personal story, mentioning in passing that they may not all agree in this room or in the party, but they share a common goal. >> and a moving moment when he introduced his mother beverly vance announcing she is ten years sober, and his memoir "hillbilly elegy" and raised by the mamaw and papa that he was

raised by with the humor that he is known for, and that is his wife usha who he met in law school. and hallie, you were watching the speech, and what are your thoughts? >> you saw him prosecute the case against president biden and to a degree against kamala harris here in a speech that had more, i think, prosecutorial lines and attack lines than we thought, and he touched on the biography and who he is, and obviously on stage with his mom and the moving moment, and he did not shy away on rhetoric of the immigration, and nods to party unity, and overall, the message was clear based on the states that he name dropped repeatedly and how many times were michigan mention and pennsylvania and wisconsin and the same kind of thing, and this is a big reason why that j.d. vance is on the ticket to help to boost the turnout on those states here, and he knows that. he is trying to relate his own

biography to those voters that the trump campaign wants to reach. >> kristen, what does he bring to table. >> well, he was talking to the communities and the campaign thinks that he is going to and he mentioned throughout, ohio, michigan and wisconsin and by the way, if the song sound familiar -- "don't stop thinking about tomorrow" that is the same song that we heard from the clintons, and hallie is right, he had the attack lines and the and we did not hear about abortion or retribution, and even though in this weekend of the wake of the assassination attempt, it was j.d. vance squarely blaming the democrats for the assassination attempt, and clearly an attempt to introduce himself and soften the language and remind the country that he was young, and one of the key line, joe biden has been

a politician in washington for longer than i have been alive, and 39 years old and half a century, he has been the champion of every policy initiative to make america weaker and poorer. expect to see it on the stump. >> and interesting rhetoric to have him with when i was in fourth grade, nafta was passed and when i was in high school, this or that was passed, and we go to tom llamas, and the crowd was with him and chanting every chance they got, and riling them up, and they received it well. >> yeah, you know, is a van -- savannah, ied to 10 or 12 delegates, and vivek ramaswamy

really riled up the crowd, but a lot of people said that they didn't know much about him, but they loved story about his mother, and she was emotional and he was clearly proud of her for overcoming addiction and the struggles, but at the end of the day, they felt like he could speak to everyday americans, and in politic, that is incredibly powerful. savannah. >> yes, and with a split screen image, we saw president biden arriving in delaware, and recovering from covid, and the drama surrounding around him, with adam schiff, the congressman calling for him to step aside, and also, meeting with the senate leader schumer and also rumbling from nancy

pelosi, and heaing a ground swell of other leaders to ask him to step aside. >> and there an argument of nbc news in the last 24 hours of how he is exasperated with the continued push and continued calls trickle out and then of course flood out from the democrats who want him to step off of the ticket here, and bringing baitk to the rnc and in your conversation with lara trump, they understand that this is the dynamic playing out in the party, and partly why there is such an effort to cast the gop as unified in contrast of the what is happening in the democratic party. the anxiety is high, and the signals coming out from the top democratic leaders and people who have known joe biden for decades and having the conversations and incredibly difficult and also significant given this moment. >> and having it becoming public is very calculated, and lester, you have just interviewed

president biden two days ago. >> and he said, 14 million people voting for him, and now, not taking into account 14 million may be thinking differently witnessing what they have seen. and for the democrats the clock may be ticking, and we don't know the actual number, but to watch and that rebut this is going to be a challenge not knowing who the nominee is going to be. >> and with all of that said, biden campaign and the sources continue to say that we believe that the polls are close, and donald trump is not running away with this far and wide at this point. >> all right. that concludes coverage for the nbc local station, but the coverage of the republican national convention continues with tom llamas and hallie jackson on our streaming network nbc news now. >> we will see you back here tomorrow night, the final night of the republican national convention. former president trump will speak, and we ll be here 9:00 wi