former president Donald Trump is officially the Republican pick for president after accepting the nomination last night at the Republican National Convention and for the first time he publicly addressed the failed assassination attempt on his life at a rally last weekend saying quote I'm not supposed to be here the former president says he rewrote the speech after his life was threatened and began his remarks with a softer tone urging unity and saying he would be a president for all of America but in an dress that lasted more than an hour and a half the former president then turned to familiar themes and insults against his political Rivals Republicans showed strong backing for Trump this week that deeply contrasted with the divisions in the Democratic party over whether to back President Joe Biden for a second term though not all GOP delegates from New Jersey voted in favor of Donald Trump this week at the convention New Jersey Republican state committee chair Bob Hugin Bob Hugin has been in Milwaukee for the convention all week and joins me now all right chairman thanks for joining me great to be with you all right so former president Trump said he wanted to deliver a message about Unity but he also fell back on divisive rhetoric and misinformation what did you take away from his speech last night I took away from him a continuation of what we saw the entire week and it was Unity I mean obviously you know when you have the economy that we have the inflation we have and both my sons are in the Marine Corps and what happened in Afghanistan was a terrible uh terrible thing for America foreign policy-wise and the lives of the people who were killed so there were lots of things that I think the president had to make sure the American public are aware of how bad the circumstances are with our reputation among our allies the war in Israel the war and Ukraine and and inflation and issues that we're facing as a society and so I I think it was a week of unity i' I've been to many conventions and all Democrat Republican all want to put a a nice picture of unity out there for people to see on television and usually they do a pretty good job of it but underneath it there's an undercurrent of friction Etc I have to tell you whether it was the Butler Pennsylvania inci incident or the fact that things are really so bad and after the debate that President Biden Illustrated that he really is in tough shape um the the party is incredibly unified there was no disagreement no friction we want to win in November because we need to turn this country around you know Trump's address came less than a week after a failed assassination attempt on the former president do you think that event has changed the presidential race um you know we still have a long way to go a lot of things are going to happen in the future I I think everything impacts how we think about things how people think about things I do have to tell you uh I I don't know the H how it happened Etc but it is a miracle that the guy is alive the fact that he turned his head just that little bit to look at that screen about the the invasion of the at the border and you know an M16 or AR-15 is like a Lethal Weapon It's the most amazing hunting rifle or most amazing military rifle when it's a military version of it the fact that he's alive is a miracle so I think a lot of things are going to happen I think he did he's definitely demonstrated his resilience in the fact that he wasn't going to let people know that that he was afraid I guess that people thought he was had been killed and he want to let him know that he was there and he was going to keep fighting for the American people but it it's going to have an impact on the election but it's a election still a long way off and we a lot of things will happen we don't even know who he's going to run against yet I mean everything I hear is that President Biden is going to drop out on Sunday and they're they're trying to figure out how they do it how they manage it so it's a it's not a pretty situation on the other side so uh we'll see well you spoke about unity and we have heard a lot this week about how the party is strongly in support of the former president right but New Jersey's Republican delegation is not unified behind Trump you voted for him I have to tell you the the the the delegation was could not have been more supportive of President Trump and vice president uh candidate uh JD Vance uh there is there is no controversy in New Jersey about the benefit of President Tri uh Trump versus President Biden we need a change in the administration in Washington this country is headed in the wrong direction and we need a return to policies that are going to have economic growth but reestablish the strength of our middle class bring Pride back to America have a foreign policy that we can be proud of again Bob Hugin chairman of the New Jersey Republican state committee thank you for joining me thank you for having me [Music]