STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now we heard the president will be speaking at the Pentagon today. Last night, President Trump closed out his midterm Republican convention, so-called, begging his supporters to vote in November.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You know what happens if you don't vote? You go to hell. You know that.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: OK? You go to hell. And I don't want that to happen to you, so please go and vote.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The question is, will they? And after two days of speeches, did Republicans sell anyone other than their die-hard supporters on keeping them in power for two more years?
INSKEEP: NPR senior political correspondent Tamara Keith is up early to tell us about this. Hi there, Tam.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: OK. So this was a big advertisement for the Republicans in the midterms. What was their pitch?
KEITH: Vice President JD Vance put it succinctly in his keynote speech last night. At one point, he alluded to the Iran war and conceded that people may not be happy with all of the administration's policies.
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JD VANCE: The contrast in this election, ladies and gentlemen - it's not about this or that policy. It's about the party of common sense beating the party of the crazies. Let's send these lunatics packing and govern our country for the future.
KEITH: That idea that it's common sense versus an extreme Democratic Party is the way Republicans are trying to make this election a choice rather than a referendum on an unpopular president. And you can see that in the way that they have used Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee, almost as a caricature of the far left run amok. So many of the speakers mentioned him, you could get the impression that half the lineup was running for the Senate in Michigan.
INSKEEP: And some people might be running for something beyond that, Tam. When you put Vice President Vance at a convention, it's not hard to imagine that he might hope to be speaking at a presidential nominating convention someday. Did you get any sense of a passing of the torch?
KEITH: Not really. Vice President Vance was definitely well received by the crowd, but not nearly as ecstatically as they responded to Trump. And earlier in the evening, I went around interviewing several attendees, asking them where the party goes from here. They had been thinking about it, and Meredith Smith (ph) said she wishes Trump would run again and that she could vote for him again.
MEREDITH SMITH: Trump is kind of a one-time thing. I mean, I really think God picked him personally for such a time as this.
KEITH: You know, like pretty much everyone I talked to, she mentioned Vance as the possible heir apparent. Her friend Sherri Hopson (ph) is also looking to the cabinet for what could come next.
SHERRI HOPSON: He's built this Republican Party, and the bench is deep. I have a lot of faith in JD Vance and Marco Rubio, and I really hope that they run as a ticket.
KEITH: And then she did the math and said, you know, they could hold office for the next 16 years.
INSKEEP: So what are you taking away from this convention?
KEITH: You know, the image I'm left with was the last one of the night. The upper deck of the arena was totally empty, thousands of empty seats, as red, white and blue and gold balloons dropped from the ceiling. And the president's favorite tenor sang "America The Beautiful" and "Phantom Of The Opera." And Trump was undoubtedly in his happy place, closing his eyes and swaying on stage. But it's not clear that his party is really in any better place than it was than when this started.
There will be more rallies in the fall, but in a way, this convention was Trump's last hurrah as a dominant political figure. And in a Fox News interview recorded earlier in the day, he even backpedaled a little about the stakes in these midterms. He said he wouldn't be campaigning as hard as he did for himself two years ago and even suggested that he could work with Democrats if they gained control of Congress.
INSKEEP: NPR's Tamara Keith. Thanks so much. Really appreciate it.
KEITH: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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