while the nation is reeling after the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump at his rally outside of Pittsburgh on Saturday last night President Biden made a special address to the nation denouncing political violence of any kind and calling for Unity and for all of us to take stock on where we are as a nation and to lower the temperature of our politics now the attempted assassination has raised many safety concerns like how the shooter had access to an elevated position so close to the former president but it also calls into question in the tone and the tenor of today's overly charged political climate and the impact this moment could have on each of the candidates all of this as the Republican National Convention kicks off today in Milwaukee with Trump toning down his remarks and making the announcement that JD Vance will be his vice presidential running mate so lots to talk about and I have here with me the New Jersey Democratic State committee chair Leroy Jones and state Senator Joe Pennacchio Joe Pennacchio great to have you gentlemen both with us uh Senator Pono I'm going to start with you we know that Trump has been rewriting his speech for the RNC how have the events from this past weekend impacted and and perhaps even reshaped the messaging at the RNC this week I would hope that that REM messaging is direct directed towards public policy certainly there are enough issues that are out there without having to get into all this personal stuff and we can see what happens when you get into the personal stuff some people both take it personally and sometimes bad things happen or is that to say then that you think that the former president has been too focused on personal matters uh personal attacks I I think all sides and this includes the Biden campaign and the Trump campaign have been too F focused on uh individuals and the personalities involved as opposed to getting right into the heart of what people really care about which it those public policy issues and you believe that's what we'll see and hear in the coming days we would hope so I mean you just mentioned that President Trump has basically Rewritten starting to rewrite his script for the acceptance and it's going to be a little bit different than the one that he had planned on which I think is a good thing chairman Jones uh We've up until this weekend we've seen this fevered pitch since the the debate uh calls for President Biden to step aside has and he addressed the nation last night calling for everyone to to cool down has this weekend shifted the focus completely away from that for Democrats and perhaps even secured the president's position as the candidate well I hope so um you know and uh you know this this past weekend uh you know has uh you know been a wakeup call for us all you know on both sides of the aisle Joe mentioned that uh you know the rhetoric uh you know that you know has been spewed and it's and it's not one uh particular party it's both parties uh you know we have to begin to dial it back uh you know when uh you know folks uh you know have language that you know becomes explosive uh you know and you know they begin to impact uh you know others you know that caused them to to you know to move in uh you know just very tragic ways and you know uh we lost uh you know one person uh you know two people were injured uh you know former president uh Donald Trump was injured and uh you know that uh you know this is America and you know we have to uh you know have a a level of discourse that's respectable uh that deals with the issues that uh you know Joe just mentioned uh you know public policy uh you know what we you know what we all can do on either side to make uh you know America uh you know the dominant uh you know country uh you know in the world and uh you know and I think uh you know we've we've gotten Lessons Learned unfortunately from uh you know from tragedy uh you know and uh you know an incident that uh you know was Way Beyond uh you know what uh you know what we like to see in terms of Civility I hear you both saying the same thing and it's interesting we're seeing this kind of moment I'd say of folks coming together this morning we saw uh two candidates for Governor here in New Jersey on either side uh Democrat Steve Sweeney Republican John bramnick putting out a joint statement calling for Unity and yet we're also hearing some of the Rumblings of uh blame as people accusing President Biden of the shooting saying that it was language used in his speech caused this we're also seeing president former president Trump uh put out a statement on Truth social that already is using some of that language that we're so used to seeing from him so Senator is this a very short-lived moment of unity in this really charged political climate I I would hope not I would hope this is the beginning of a process where both sides can come together and again let's focus in on the issues that are important to the American people God knows there are quite a few that we differ on as far as the approach that we have to take in order to solving those issues so if we all just come together and just work on that I think the American public in the long run would benefit chairman we're seeing uh some folks calling Trump a national hero after Saturday calling him a martyr others saying this all but guaranteed his win the president now President Biden has had to switch his campaign strategy he's pulled back ads from the air um he made the address last night how does he now shift his strategy so that he can attempt to win this race I don't think the campaign strategy changes I think uh you know the focus uh you know becomes a pause on you know how we uh communicate going forward uh Abraham Lincoln uh you know the night that he was uh assassinated had a scripture written into his jacket and that scripture was one country one destiny that should be you know our mission uh you know across uh all political respectrum and civility should be always the order of the day all right well I appreciate you both coming on having a civil conversation this is the kind of discourse that I think you're both talking about thank you much thank you guys thanks Joe good seeing you you too Leroy take care