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This week, Donald Trump turned the Republican National Convention into part rock concert, part tent revival,

and a total display of dominance over the party. And that extends to the selection of his

vice presidential nominee, a choice that was a topic of a ton of speculation the last few months.

So after flirting with some former rivals, Doug Bergum, Marco Rubio, Trump selected Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate,

in a way kind of anointing him, a future heir to the MAGA movement.

I'm Audie Cornish. This is the assignment. We are here at the CNN Politico Grill.

And we're talking with Meredith McGrath. She's a national correspondent for Politico.

She just announced her new book. It's called Trump in Exile. Meredith, welcome to the grill.

Thanks for having me. Our hangout this week. Yes. All right. So I want to talk to you because you have

been following Trump, how things

changed, so to speak, after his assassination attempt. Like, heading into that weekend in Pennsylvania,

what's the vibe? What's the tone of the campaign? Heading into that weekend, you know,

we're coming off the debate with President Biden.

They've seen very good polling.

They're feeling very confident about where they stand in some of these battleground states.

...