Most of us are familiar with the 13 days of October. It references the 13 days that America and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war over the USSR placing military installations on the island nation of Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of Florida.
Other than both World Wars, the 13 days of October 1962 were among the most consequential of the last century. The USSR was a literal existential threat to American soil and our response could have led to a nuclear holocaust. Thankfully, the strength and character of our nation and the bold leadership of President John F. Kennedy prevented such a disaster.
The ten days of July 2024 were also consequential. Not in the same way that the days of October 1962 were, but they will certainly be looked at by future historians as a time that also shaped our nation’s future. July 13-23, 2024 was one of the most fascinating times of our political history.
I was in a bar in Chicago on the late afternoon of July 13, 2024. I was there with my wife Dee Dee, my brother Jim and my sister-in-law Jane. We were headed to Milwaukee the next day to get set up to broadcast from the Republican National Convention being held there the following week.
My brother Jim and I have loved pizza since we were boys. Luckily, our wives also love pizza. We love very good deep-dish pizza and had always wanted an authentic one from Chicago. The young lady at our hotel said you must go to Giordano’s, they simply have the best.
The place was packed. I found four seats at the bar and we sat with a few drinks. As we are watching the Cubs game, my phone rings. It is my buddy Dov Sacks from Maine.
“They shot him,” Sacks said in an upset voice. “Shot who?” I replied. “They shot Trump. I was watching the rally live and they shot him. I thought he was dead. As the shots rang out, he went to the ground and Secret Service Agents piled on top of him, protecting his life. I thought he was dead,” continued Sacks.
“As the Secret Service gave the clear, Trump got up and shook his fist, yelling “fight, fight fight,” continued Sacks. To be honest, I thought he was giving me a metaphor, although I could not process what it would be.
As we closed the phone call, Sacks said, “It looks like he is gonna be okay. I just thought you should know.” As I hung up the phone, I went silent. I was trying to process what he was saying. As I shared the news with my family at the bar, I still could not quite believe it, but I wasn’t sure why. Trump is under constant threat for his safety and the safety of his family. Why was I surprised?
Life in America has changed. There is an element of our society that has no boundaries, no decorum, no decency. They believe violence is the answer because they are too lazy to do the work of real change in our country.
They are too lazy to understand that real, sustainable change in our nation does not come at the end of a gun barrel, but through hard-work and changes the hearts and minds of men and women. These people have been fed a line of bullshit for most of their lives, by people who are driven by destruction, indecency and evil. These people prey on the vulnerable because they are hurting and their minds have been corrupted. They become easy to manipulate because they believe in nothing.
This is precisely what has changed in our country. We used to view the vulnerable as people we needed to rescue from their misery. Now, propagandists prey upon them to do their dirty work.
The above statement is not a new phenomenon. It is merely much more prevalent than in the past. It is the reason we see political violence like the assassination attempt on President Trump. It is the reason our cities are ripped apart with riots, burned out buildings and the death of our citizens (while people like Michelle Obama were telling us the riots were peaceful – she is also a part of our national issue). It is the reason we saw PRO-HAMAS rioters in Washington DC defacing our national monuments, assaulting our law enforcement members and disrupting official congressional business at our Capitol. (I wonder if they will be punished as the J6ers were punished – oh, we know that answer – they have already been released with charges dropped. PATHETIC!!)
Thankfully, President Trump survived and the conspiracies began. Among the worst was FBI Director Christopher Wray, a disgraceful man in a long line of disgraceful men who have served as the head of the FBI, going back to J. Edgar Hoover. Wray said in a Congressional hearing testimony that he was not sure if Trump had been hit by a bullet, or shrapnel. This launched an entire range of conspiracy theories by some of America’s disgusting media that Trump may not have even been shot or that he staged this for campaign reasons. Joy Reid, one of the most dishonest people that walks the face of our earth, yet makes 8 million dollars a year to lie on television, was one of the biggest voices of conspiracy.
Finally, after several days, the FBI did acknowledge that Trump had been shot by a bullet. I don’t understand why we cannot find a decent man or woman to run the FBI. Our FBI agents deserve better leadership and a more principled, decent person at the helm of this agency. Trump should fire Wray, immediately after being sworn in on January 20, 2025.
Sunday morning, my family arrived in Milwaukee and we began to set-up our broadcast booth. Security was much tighter than it had been in Cleveland Ohio at the 2016 Republican National Convention, as would be expected after the Presidential assassination attempt the previous day.
Throughout the next week, with every guest we interviewed, every delegate we encountered and every average citizen we met when outside of the perimeter of the convention, fear was not an emotion we met. Everyone had a sense of resolve. Everyone felt a sense of unity and camaraderie. Fear was not present in Milwaukee Wisconsin during the week of July 15-18.
On Monday evening, two days after an assassin tried to take his life, Donald Trump confidently and triumphantly walked onto the stage at the RNC. His presence sent a signal that he was fine and our nation would be as well. His presence gave the convention goers strength, but also a resolve to see this through to its logical, victorious conclusion. The ground rumbled and the air roared as the convention let President Trump know how much they loved and supported him. It was an amazing moment in American political history.
Throughout the week, I had the privilege to interview some of the movers-and-shakers of our political and business leadership in this country. Although the interviews will soon be on our station’s website, wlobradio.com, we have included a few in our magazine this month for you to enjoy.
It was an incredible week in Milwaukee to demonstrate our national resolve and our intention to solve some of the most pressing problems our nation faces when President Trump is sworn-in again. Although I had been reluctant to go as things are so busy in Maine, I am glad we made the trip. I want to give FOX News a big thank you for being our host at the convention. Their team was superb and we could not have done this without them.
On Thursday night, at the conclusion of the convention, President Trump gave a wonderful speech. You could tell his tone had changed, as you might expect from a man who came within a half inch of losing his life. He recanted his experience in Butler Pennsylvania and what went through his mind as shots rang out. He said he would speak of this once and not again.
Trump talked about healing the deep division in our country. He said violence has no place in our political system. He talked about his ideas for leading our nation forward starting in 2025.
He closed by calling on all like-minded people to stand up, stand resolved and let’s win in 2025 so American can begin to rebuild. In one of his most important moments, Trump acknowledged that he was in the arena that night only by the grace of God. It was an inspiring moment.
As the conventioneers left the arena that evening, there was a hope and optimism I have not felt since Reagan’s re-election in 1984. Leaving Milwaukee the next day to head back to Maine, I told my wife, Dee Dee, that I have not had this sense of optimism for our country, since the year she and I had met … 1984.
On June 28, 2024, former President Trump and current President Biden met in a historic debate. At first blush, it was historic because of how early in the year it was. No debate had taken place this early since the modern debates began with Kennedy and Nixon in 1960. It was also the first meeting of a current and former President with both seeking the office since Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland in 1892.
What we did not know on June 28th was this. The debate exposed the tremendous mental decline of Joe Biden to the American people. For those who follow politics closely, Biden’s decline was evident. During the debate between Trump and Biden, the American people were shocked by what they saw from Joe Biden. Ultimately, the debate was not something Joe Biden could recover from and he ended his re-election bid on July 21st.
Quickly, Democrats around the country coalesced around Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris, who ran for President in 2020 and dropped out before the Iowa caucus, before voting even began, was anointed as the chosen one.
Ironically, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Democratic hierarchy had warned that Donald Trump would destroy democracy and that they must stop him. Not only did Democratic leadership force Joe Biden from the race, disenfranchising millions of Democratic voters simply because leadership determined he could not win, they handed the nomination to Vice President without a vote being cast, about as undemocratic as could be. I have long said, whatever a progressive Democrat accuses you of, they are already doing.
In a weird twist of fate, on Friday, July 19, 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris was the lowest rated Vice President in modern American political history. Yet, suddenly, on Monday, July 22nd, just three days later, Democratic leaders and America’s propaganda agents, the American media, wanted the American people to believe VP Harris was the new savior of the country.
With her word salads, nonsensical approach to complex issues and the incessant giggle fest she has whenever she takes the big stage, it is unlikely Americans will fall for this scam in November.
Despite much of our media seeking to scrub truths about Harris, at the behest of Democratic leaders, including Harris herself, the truth does not change. I have played the audio several times on my show of President Biden in March of 2021 tasking Vice President Harris with being in charge of our nation’s southern border. Harris graciously and was honored to assume the responsibility. For some reason, our nation’s media has decided that Harris being responsible for our southern border is now some rightwing conspiracy and they deny it happened. So bizarre it makes you wonder if these people are real, or merely AI creations.
In 2019, Govtrack named then Senator Harris the most liberal Senator in America, even more so than Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Now that she is the presumed nominee of the un-Democratic Party, Govtrack has scrubbed any mention of this rating of then Senator Harris’ voting record. Again, are these real people, or merely AI creations?
These ten days of July 2024 are among the most consequential and impactful as any ten days in American political history. They have revealed the resilience and resolve of a wounded Donald Trump. They have demonstrated what we all knew, that Joe Biden’s mental decline was so dramatic, that he could not run for a second term as President and should have the humility to resign now because he is simply not capable of doing the job.
These ten days showed just how un-Democratic the Democratic Party really is. They pushed aside a sitting President because they decided he could not win again, thereby disenfranchising millions of Democratic voters. Once again, this has exposed the Democratic Party as a desperate entity, capable of anything to try to win an election and hold power.
More importantly, these ten days of July showed clearly how amazing our country really is and how wonderful our people are. Even though the Democratic leadership staged a coup against President Biden, our country continued to function and move forward.
Even though the leading candidate for President this November, Donald Trump, was shot and almost killed, our country continued to function and move forward.
America is an amazing nation. Our Constitution is a document of limitation on the powers of our government. The very nature of our Constitution prevents a leader from becoming a dictator. Our people saw all of this and they answered with resolve and a renewed effort to make our nation strong, safe, prosperous and great again.
May God continue to bless our country. May our people become engaged in our process, as never before and may Donald John Trump be re-elected in a landslide victory this November.
May God bless you all.
(I predict 40 states will go for Trump on November 5, 2024.)
Ray Richardson, host of The Ray Richardson Show on WLOB Radio and the It Might Just Be Me Podcast, author of five books and columnist. Ray lives with his wife of 39 years, Dee Dee, in Westbrook Maine. They have four grown children and four grandchildren.
Ray@WLOBRadio.com
207-409-6172
