An assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

Democrats choose nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Plus I-LEARN scores and more.

From the television studios at WFYI.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending July 19th, 2024.

Indiana Week in Review is made possible by the supporters of Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

This week, Indiana leaders shared thoughts and prayers after a shooting at former President Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania on social media.

U.S.

Senator Mike Braun and Congressman Jim Banks sent prayers to Trump and his family.

U.S.

Senator Todd Young said violence is never the answer.

Indiana Democrats were in the middle of their state convention when news of the shooting first came in.

Gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick says there is no room for violence in political discourse.

There's just other ways to handle disagreement.

And it's not through violence.

Governor Eric Holcomb says the shooting should prompt an examination of everyone and how we engage with politics.

There's also a better way to solve problems than some of the heated, personalized rhetoric that's meant to tear apart or tear down.

We need to be measuring how we're building up.

One person died and another two were injured by the shooting.

In addition to former President Trump.

What does the assassination attempt mean for the presidential race?

It's the first question for our Indiana Week in Review panel.

Democrat Ann DeLaney Republican Chris Mitchem.

Jon Schwantes, host of Indiana Lawmakers.

And Niki Kelly, editor in chief of the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

I'm Indiana Public Broadcasting statehouse bureau chief Brandon Smith Ann DeLaney.

First, it should go without saying, but let's say it that political violence is never acceptable.

Moving beyond that, though, politically speaking, what does this do to the presidential race?

Well, I mean, first, obviously they had a huge breach in security here that has to be fixed.

And whatever the problem was, they've got to address it and they've got to provide more protection.

But I frankly think that this story is going to be eclipsed by what President Biden does.

And so I don't see it as having the same kind of long term effect.

I do think that, you know, the FBI director has been warning about domestic terrorism for years.

And this is just another example of it, when when you have the kind of rhetoric that we have had where you start saying that the Proud Boys shouldn't, you know, be on hand there and, and that the people storming the U.S. Capital are tourists.

And you have all that kind of hate rhetoric, which, frankly, is the platform of the of the MAGA movement and Donald Trump, they can't tone down that rhetoric.

I mean, they said they were going to yesterday or during their convention, they were going to unify.

They can't I mean, their entire reason for being is hate.

They hate gays.

They hate Democrats, they hate immigrants.

It is the rhetoric, again, of the 1920s and the Ku Klux Klan.

And it is obvious.

So they're not going to tone it down.

They may they may try to, you know, script it for a day or two, but they'll revert back to form.

And when you have that kind of thing, when you're when your political opponents are not your political opponents.

But as one Republican spokesman said, they're demons.

You know, it justifies or attempts to justify violence against your opponents.

As long as that rhetoric is part of the Republican Party, which it apparently is now, because he has total control of that party.

I don't see that.

I don't see it dampening down.

Is this a moment?

You know, Governor Holcomb talked about this when I talked to him earlier this week, and he was asked about the shooting, and he said it should prompt a moment of self-reflection for everyone involved in the political process and how we talk about ourselves and each other.

Do you think that's going to happen at this point?

Certainly.

I think for a short time period, you know, and just the whole idea of this political discord being kind of at a heightened level, I mean, I certainly think it comes from both sides as well.

Whenever you are literally asking or answering a question point blank, is Donald Trump going to destroy democracy?

And you say, yes, or he's the biggest threat or he has to be shot, has to be stopped, like, come on.

Yeah, we can have that discourse about, you know, how many executive orders he's going to use.

People have to use that, that quote that he had.

But I mean, regarding the political discourse as a whole, I would hope, at least in the short term, maybe at the two conventions, you would see, a more unifying message, which I do think you saw at the Republican National Convention.

I mean, the energy in there, you know, people were saying hasn't been, you know, as unifying of that since, you know, decades ago.

And, regarding, I mean, the political impact of this, I, I do think it will benefit Trump just period.

But I don't think it will benefit Trump as much as some Republicans may want it to, because this campaign, you have seen 2 or 3 just tremendous events, right?

You've had a former president being criminally indicted.

You had the current president maybe having the worst debate performance in American history.

And that has move both numbers so minuscule.

So while I do think that the assassination attempt is the most significant out of all of those, you know, you know, the idea of a huge, you know, Trump Republican victory, you know, a landslide, as some are predicting.

I don't think that's quite as accurate.

What does it say about the state of our presidential politics that one of the candidates having an assassination attempt made against them?

And I agree with Chris probably not having that much of an impact on the.

Balance of that.

Right.

I think the reaction is another example of or more evidence of the fact that conventional wisdom is neither wise nor conventional anymore.

It's out the window.

Conventional wisdom may at rest in peace would have dictated that some candidate or former president who has survived a scare like this, which in many ways is an assault on our nation and our institutions, not just on an individual, would be a big boost.

I mean, look what it did for Ronald Reagan after his assassination attempt back in 1981.

I mean, he was flying high and that's that's the pattern one would expect.

But a lot of the national pollsters that looked at research and talked to people and voters across the country in the wake of, of this assassination attempt, said that they didn't see that there might have been a little movement.

But and I think that just shows you how baked in how polarized, it is.

Now, having said that, I think there was an opportunity for this to change the race in a dramatic way, not the shooting itself, but the reaction to it on the part of Donald Trump.

If, as some had suggested, he was going to do, he had really had a sort of epiphany about, the rhetoric getting out of hand and that we are all Americans and we should be more about what we can do together, collectively and advance the common cause versus disparage and denigrate.

Then I think he would have picked up some of that, that much sought after, independent, you know, bloc of voters.

He started down that path, didn't couldn't do it, couldn't finish on that path.

And I think so that I don't say squandered because you're not trying to make hay out of it.

A tragic event or nearly tragic event.

Oh, it was tragic.

Tragic?

Yes.

It was, but he could I think he could have changed the, of the trajectory of the race more dramatically than the event itself.

In terms, again, of the impact as we're starting to learn more from law enforcement about this shooter, it would appear that it wasn't necessarily partisan in nature, that he was searching Biden and Trump, the D.A., the Democratic National Convention.

And it just so happened that Donald Trump had an event 50 miles from where he lived.

Do details like that change anything, in how people are viewing this event?

I don't know, but I will say this.

The Secret Service really needs to start talking like it's been more than a week and they have put out hardly any real information.

We are living right now with unnamed sources and unconfirmed reports, and that is not helpful to a country.

So, you know, I really do think there needs to be some accountability there.

And it shouldn't take more than a week to figure out what was flubbed on that.

We have a ten minute period that we've managed to work out from when he was seen with a range finder, and they still let Trump go on that stage, and someone needs to be held accountable.

Yeah.

And to that point, we've now seen, an increasing number of Republican senators calling for, well, first of all, the head of the secret Service to, to be fired.

And then for more answers, certainly including, well, frankly.

Democrats senators should be doing that trick.

Yeah.

And it wouldn't it may not be the head of the Secret Service.

That's the problem.

It may be something somewhere down.

But if the.

If the buck stops.

That's right.

But I think we need to get to the root causes.

Why that was a violation that.

You know, and that they're putting we can maybe do this in a couple steps, but they've let this vacuum of information be taken up with completely.

and you.

You asked about the notion of whether the fact that this wasn't politically, clearly politically motivated would have an impact.

I don't think it does, because how many people actually listen to that fact because of that?

Because you already.

Have.

Well, you.

Already see on a lot of the know the social media channels that this was an Antifa activist who'd been arrested in protests in Seattle and in Portland.

Clearly not the case, but people can find the information they want to bolster their worldview.

It doesn't matter what the facts on both sides.

Yeah.

Democratic delegates selected Destiny Wells and Terry Goodin as the party's nominee for attorney general and lieutenant governor this week at the Indiana Democratic Party convention.

Wells is a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard and previously worked in the attorney General's office.

She says she wants to restore professionalism to an agency she argues has become hyper politicized under current Attorney General Todd Rokita.

Wells won the nomination over Beth White, a former county clerk and current head of the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking.

Wells says the convention vote was about moving into the future.

Folks saying, hey, look at some of these younger leaders.

Let's give them a chance.

And that's why we framed it as if not now than when.

Terry Goodin, a conservative Democrat, had caused some unease within the party when gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick named him as her pick for running mate at the state House.

Goodin had voted against gay marriage and abortion rights, but in the last few weeks, Goodin apologized for those votes.

And he says Saturday's convention results should assuage any concerns.

You know, I always myself and being a lifelong learner, and we've had those conversations.

And I think today's vote just reaffirmed folks confidence in my ability to do the good job.

Wells won with nearly 70% of the delegate vote, while Goodin secured nearly 80% over three other candidates.

Chris mentioned this is a little inside baseball, but I mean, if not on Indiana, we can review.

Where can you discuss such things?

Things like this.

How smart a political move was it for Senator J.D.

Ford, who first openly gay member of the Indiana General Assembly, who, right after Goodin was announced as McCormick's pick, came out and said, I don't know about this.

I might run for lieutenant governor myself.

J.D.

Ford was the one who nominated Goodin at the convention.

How smart is that?

I don't think it was smart.

I think it was necessary.

because if you don't have party unity against an already uphill battle.

You mean it might as well just save your money?

I mean, if you don't have the full backing of your own party, of your base going up against, you know, what is a pretty formidable Republican ticket?

I mean, I don't think you have to advance anymore.

And I think, you know, them rallying around Terry Goodin as well is also a good option just because, you know, the idea that he's going to alienate your base when your primary message, again, going back to our last topic is this ticket is a threat to democracy.

And they're going to, you know, ruin you.

So that says some things all that that's just the Republicans in general.

Apparently it is you.

So it's Trump who it is who runs a democracy.

And he said as much.

Right.

But I just just to finish the point, I think he's a good point or he's a good selection just to try to get that audience that you typically wouldn't.

I mean, as a Southern Democrat, as I call them, there's not really much many of them left.

But, I think he's a good option for them going forward.

it took to Chris's point with something like J.D.

Ford, and then it was, Senator Shelli Yoder, who's also, I would argue, the other most progressive member of the Democratic Senate caucus.

Right.

seconding the nomination, which is a formal role.

You get the conventions.

How how necessary was something like that?

I don't know that it was necessary, but it was smart.

It really was, because it convinced people that the discussions that that J.D.

had with Terry Goodin, bore fruit, that he was convinced that that, that, Terry Goodin evolved in his position on these issues, as many people have over the last 20 some odd years.

And I think that reassurance was what allowed J.D.

Ford to get up there and make the nomination and feel confident that that ticket's going to represent the values that he holds dear.

And I think that sends a very, very strong message to the party.

I want to talk a little about the AG's race Destiny Wells.

I mean, blew Beth White out of the water.

Does that, drive home?

What a wasted opportunity this was for Democrats to have to spend time and, more importantly, money on a contested convention battle before taking on Todd Rokita?

I think so, although I doubt there was a lot of money put toward that.

I mean, mostly when you're doing convention stuff, it's a few mailers and a lot of personal phone calls and sit down.

So I doubt that was a lot of money.

But, I think the the convention delegates were convinced that Destiny was, a credible, qualified, good candidate to run for that position.

She obviously has, you know, history in the office, which is helpful.

And so, luckily they all coalesced around her and we'll see if she can give Todd Rokita a run.

Jon, I agree with Niki's point.

I probably not a ton of money having to be spent on a convention race, but in this case is if the time lost that actually ends up mattering more because you've had, what, three, four or however many 3 or 4 months plus where you weren't able to focus on talking to the general electorate and had to focus on the Democratic base?

That's probably the most.

Unspoken speech.

Sure, but I mean, but it was time you couldn't fully devote to that, and.

I'm not sure, as a practical matter, people were really would have been paying attention.

not only because we're not to the traditional start of the, you know, the Labor Day kickoff of the fall campaign.

But just because there's so many other political matters at the national level and others that would have knocked any of those sorts of things.

Sure, there could have been more legwork, grassroots door to door, but of the kind of thing that would actually move numbers and move the needle in a big way, I just don't think there was enough oxygen in the proverbial room for that to happen.

All right, time now for viewer feedback.

Each week we posed an unscientific online poll question, and this week we're asking you again, who will win the race for Indiana governor?

Let's check in on that result for, you can vote a Republican, Mike Braun, Democrat Jennifer McCormick or Libertarian Donald Rainwater.

Last week, we asked you whether Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush should serve another five year term.

72% of you say yes, 28% say no.

If you'd like to take part in the poll.

Go to WFYI.org/IWIR and look for the poll.

Well, the percentage of Indiana students that are considered proficient in English language arts slightly increased last school year, according to the latest I-LEARN test scores.

However, fewer students passed the math portion of the exam.

Indiana Public Broadcasting's Kirsten Adair reports on this year's scores, released this week by the Indiana Department of Education.

The I-LEARN test measures students progress in multiple subjects from third to eighth grade.

Overall, 41% of students scored proficient in English language arts this year and 40.7% achieved proficiency in math.

Katie Jenner is the Indiana secretary of Education.

She says I learned scores from recent years reflect pandemic learning loss.

Our foot is on the gas pedal.

We have to keep after it.

and make sure our students have the solid foundations for the best opportunities ahead.

All grade levels except third and eighth grade saw modest gains in English language arts scores every grade level beside seventh grade, so a decrease in math scores.

The current pass rates for both sections remain lower than they were before the pandemic.

The idea is in the process of changing the I-LEARN to add learning checkpoints throughout the year before a smaller final test.

Jon Schwantes How troubling are these scores?

Like any set of numbers and statistics, you can basically read whatever you want into these and use them to make whatever argument you want.

There's so many crosscurrents.

Yes, it's good that the language arts and the English, proficiency levels are up.

But surprising, frankly, that math had been down.

That was an area that a category that had Hoosiers had shown progress on a fairly consistent basis.

So that's a mixed bag.

You could say, well, you know, how about, our neighboring states and when we do fair, you know, somewhat well, Illinois, when it looked at its comparable numbers, it was, you know, up in both categories.

so is that mean?

But they're below Indiana in terms of its overall proficiency.

So are we good?

Are we bad?

are we in the right direction or not?

I think you can truly read into it what you want in the in the final analysis, it seems to me, let's not lose sight of the fact that 40% of Hoosier students, give or take, are not proficient in the basic life skills they need to succeed in a 21st century economy.

And I'm not singling out Hoosiers.

This is pretty much the case across the country.

I mean, think of other you want to go to a hospital where 40% of the physicians are proficient or I mean, that's we I know we argue about a point up and a point down, and that's where how progress is aren't good.

But my goodness, the overall trend is pretty alarming.

And then obviously the General Assembly has been spending a lot of time and money, on trying to improve this.

And that work has just just started.

So we aren't seeing that in these numbers.

But I'm struck by the fact that they're still talking about how Covid is affecting this.

And I'm not going to say that's not true, but at what point do we stop using that almost as an excuse when we see these sorts of numbers?

Yeah.

I mean, when you look at the the charts, though, I mean, it's like, you know, before Covid we were up here and yes, we're, you know, then we dropped way down and we're making very incremental like inching along to improve, but we're nowhere near we were where we were before Covid.

yeah.

I mean, we can't use it forever.

I mean, it was one year, maybe a month and a half, you know, depending on where what school you were in, there were some different options.

I mean, at some point we need to have the larger discussion of what, what are we getting out of this test?

Like what's what's the point of it now?

We've no longer tied it to any sort of consequences or punishments or accountability.

Well, we're about to with the the stronger retention policy.

But that's still to come, I suppose.

I mean that's the I-READ, not the I-LEARN.

Oh that's true, that's so I mean, maybe we should be having a discussion about are we spending too much money to put on a test, like, what are we learning from it, I guess?

Yeah.

Well, we're learning that we're not doing well.

And our students aren't doing well enough.

But I guess you kind of already Knew that.

You're learning the 30%, 30% of the half a million students who took this exam, a proficient in both, 30%.

This is after 20 years of education reform.

All the money we've put in every idea almost every year, they had a different idea about what they were going to do.

And this is the result.

They've got to put the resources.

It's it.

It is only a year or a year and a half, but it's a crucial year or year and a half for a lot of children.

And if we don't put the resources in and frankly, much more demanding, well, if they're not passing, we shouldn't give it as an option to go to summer school.

We need to get them caught up for their due for a life of failure.

But, you know, the legislature has got to get over the fact we've got to make that up and they've got to put the resources in it, and they've got to stop reforming education that every time they do, where scores go.

Down, I don't I don't think you can say that.

There's been a lack of money put towards education in the state.

It's still more than half the budget.

And a lot of the federal money that came in since Covid was directed towards education, resources, especially learning loss.

Right.

But is this just one of those things that, I mean, I hate to say it's just going to take time to see these numbers improve, because how much more time do we need?

Yeah, I mean, I think regarding your point about the pre-pandemic levels, I think until you reach that pre-pandemic level, they're probably going to keep blaming it on Covid because you saw the direct drop.

To Niki's point, that was right on the pandemic.

So I think the argument of trying to get back to what we were before, you know, we completely uprooted the education system is is pretty valid.

And then we can kind of decide where we're going.

But I do think a valid argument against Republicans in previous sessions were, you know, they kept tweaking a lot of different stuff and not kind of letting things settle.

I think they noticed these numbers.

I don't think these numbers come as a surprise to anybody.

So I think they noticed these numbers in this past session.

I mean, they did a lot to try to, you know, really get to the heart of this issue, not only just science reading things like that, but they're even addressing things such as, you know, truancy and trying to get sure, you know, back.

In the classroom And making them go to summer school.

And, you know, when you put $1 billion into a leap district, that's probably not going to go anywhere.

We are not spending enough money on education.

We are just.

Not I like to to leave districts.

Is the new swine barn.

Yeah.

That's nice.

It's a little more expensive.

It's a little more expensive.

Indiana US Senate candidate Jim Banks used his primetime speech at the Republican National Convention this week.

The lavishly praised former President Donald Trump Bank spoke during an hour dedicated to Senate candidates and called Trump the greatest and strongest president of his lifetime.

We need President Trump back in the white House if we're going to make America great once again.

Banks touched on his own background.

Born in a trailer park, the son of a factory worker and a nursing home cook, he also briefly mentioned policy focusing on immigration and mass deportation.

If you came here illegally under Joe Biden, you're going back to where you came from under Donald Trump.

Thanks.

His opponents in the open U.S. Senate race are Democrat Valerie McCray and Libertarian Andrew Horning.

Niki Kelly how high can Banks star rise?

Yeah, I mean, I guess as high as Republicans want it.

I mean, you know, he he's a pretty good speaker.

He he doesn't, flub up a lot.

You know, I mean, he doesn't make an unforced errors.

Yeah.

you know, I thought the speech while short was fine.

maybe he should have focused a little more on himself rather than Trump.

But, you know, he's wanting to to get that praise in there.

he came out against Biden on a few things.

definitely Afghanistan and illegal immigration.

So, you know, I think he did I know if I, if I was going to rate it, I'd say maybe a B on that one.

He there's probably some room to improve.

I mean, Jim Banks has a story that should appeal to where Republicans are trying to go.

They're trying to to sort of make themselves the party of the working class.

You talk about Jim Banks.

The guy has the profile I mentioned in the film that he mentioned in the speech.

That is the sort of profile you want from a young Republican candidate.

Is that going to enable him to go high and fall?

I would think so.

I mean, it's a very marketable story.

it is the kind of story that people say, you know, I like that that that can happen in America.

If people put their their mind to something and work, you know, invest the sweat equity and can come out with as successful as he has military credentials, you know, has served in a lot of Biden has served in various sectors of government, can say he knows about state policy making, federal policy making, has a hand in foreign policy.

So, yeah, all the tools are there.

I do want to ask briefly about this.

the Indy star reported that he spoke at a morning get together this week at the RNC and said that top Republicans in Indiana who aren't supporting Donald Trump need to be held accountable, which would include US Senator Todd Young, who he hopes to be a governing partner with.

Is that going to be a, a lingering problem for Todd Young versus Jim Banks going forward?

I think so, I mean, Jim Banks hasn't made it a secret that he's a big fan of the Trump, and he's done the Trump and he's done he's done a lot of different things to kind of try to find a niche in politics where he could really, I think, uses qualities to exemplify his spot.

But, I mean, regarding internal Indiana politics, you know, I could see that kind of being, kind of like a sticking point, I think, between the two of them for sure, as they move forward.

But, I mean, when it comes to, you know, actually working together and kind of supporting Indiana, the party as a whole, you know, I don't think that would be a too much of an underlying issue.

I think it's going to be a problem.

I mean, obviously Todd Young is delivered for Indiana with that chip plant by itself would be something Jim Banks system.

Absolutely nothing except criticize Pence and Young because they weren't willing to kiss the ring of the liar in chief.

And I don't think that makes for a good working relationship going forward and want.

To we'll find out.

That's Indiana Week in review for this week.

Our panel is Democrat Ann DeLane Jon Morris of Indiana lawmakers and Niki Kelly of the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

You can find Indiana Week In Reviews podcast and episodes@WFYI.org slash we're or on the PBS app.

I'm Brandon Smith of Indiana Public Broadcasting.

Join us next time because a lot can happen.

In an Indiana Week.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review is a WFYI production in association with.

Indiana's public broadcasting stations.