MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Rina Shah also followed the convention over the past two nights. She is a Republican strategist with experience as a GOP congressional aide. She's with us now. Good morning, Rina.
RINA SHAH: Hi. Good morning.
MARTIN: So much of what we heard last night especially seemed like speeches looking ahead to the next presidential election instead of midterms, where a lot of Republican congressional seats are on the line. Did you hear themes last night that might support Republicans this November?
SHAH: Well, the biggest takeaway for me last night was the Vice President Vance. And to my ears, last night was not really a midterm speech from him. It was the vice president introducing himself as the guy who can hold the coalition together after President Trump. And his most important line - well, the most important line of the night wasn't the applause line. It was, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. To me, that's the vice president talking to his own restless base.
MARTIN: So let me just play a little bit more from him. At one point, he said he wanted to speak directly to voters who are still making up their minds. So let's play that.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JD VANCE: Don't give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there.
MARTIN: Who is that directed toward?
SHAH: Yeah, that speech was interesting overall. I mean, he spent about 40 minutes on family, birthright and turnout and almost none on the thing that voters are arguing about at the kitchen table, the war and the cost of it. And we have to remember, though, the family piece is JD Vance's lane. Traditional marriage, a newborn he's got. Find someone worth building a life with, he says. That's Vance, to me, trying to sound like a dad, not a movement enforcer. And that's not an accident.
When the vice president skips the hardest item on the board, I think, he's telling us the party thinks that that issue is a turnout risk, not a rallying cry. But to really address that line about really who to hate and who's not to hate, I really will say, it's hard to get in this vice president's head. He seems to behave very differently at times. This is the thing I think that most stood out to me and that he ducked. It was Iran. He didn't say the word. When, again, the vice president of a wartime administration won't name the war, that's very telling. Voters notice absences.
MARTIN: So he did, speaking of which, I mean, he mentioned inflation, which he, like the president, wants to attribute to President Biden. He promoted the administration's policies to end taxes on tips, Social Security, overnight. Didn't talk about gas prices.
SHAH: Right.
MARTIN: I mean, did - so, which is related to Iran, of course.
SHAH: Yes.
MARTIN: So did he say anything about the issue that voters keep telling us that they are most concerned about, which is the cost of living?
SHAH: Well, here's the problem for Republicans. A convention can fire up the faithful, and midterms are won by people who are tired, skeptical and shopping for competence. That's true of every midterms almost. But here's the thing for JD Vance. You know, he can call the other party the party of hatred, which is fine for that arena in Dallas this week. But independents hear that and they think, OK, now tell me about prices, schools and whether me and my kids and my family are safer.
And then also, I think he also did something quite funny there. He said, don't hand the country to crazy people over a policy disagreement. I think that was him actually trying to make a unity pitch. But the translation of that also is, stay home, and you lose the House. That is the real message I think he was trying to deliver. But I'd be remiss here if I didn't talk about Democrats for just a moment.
MARTIN: OK.
SHAH: I think Democrats should not get cocky here. If Republicans can make November a referendum on disorder instead of a referendum on the last 18 months, they still have a bit of a path. I heard the vice president trying to draw that frame.
MARTIN: I see what you're saying. Change the subject from affordability to the question of, who do you really want to run the country? But he didn't mention those $5,000 checks for American adults if Republicans win. Very briefly, Rina, do people believe that that's a real thing or not?
SHAH: Yeah, look, the faithful hear, we won, you get paid. That's classic Trump, make the election feel like a transaction with a prize. Very interesting.
MARTIN: OK. That's political strategist Rina Shah. She's a Republican. Thanks so much.
SHAH: Thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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