CBS Evening News Highlights Disunity On Display During Republican National Convention

NY Times' Mark Leibovich: “I Don't Think There's Any Question This Is Not A Unified Party”

From the July 18 edition of CBS Evening News:

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NORAH O'DONNELL (HOST): We heard last night on 60 Minutes, Donald Trump say that his choice of Mike Pence as the VP had unified that party. Did we see that today here?

PEGGY NOONAN: Oh my goodness, I do not think we did ... Things occasionally rhetorically, in terms of the speeches, had been a little bit grim. There was a sense of people being besieged and awfully angry about it. There was a lot a boos, and a lot of no’s, and such. But, to your question, I think the party, the Republican Party, has had about eight or ten weeks to get used to the idea that it has a nominee, and to unify around him. I think it became clear today in the fights, and voice votes, that that has not happened, that it did not happen.

SCOTT PELLEY (HOST): Jamelle Bouie, one of the things that I noticed today is that, it is just the first day, but the hall has been about half empty all day long. Of course, we know that neither of the presidents Bush have decided to come. Other notables -- John McCain, Lindsay Graham -- are missing as well. Is the party uniting around Donald Trump?

JAMELLE BOUIE: It doesn't appear. A poll recently came out, yesterday I think, NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, which found out 67 percent of the Republicans were unhappy with their nominee. Just 38 percent were happy with it. And, while I think most Republicans will end up voting for Donald Trump in November, it is very clear to me looking at the numbers, looking at this seemingly sparsely attended convention, looking just at the lack of party stars at this convention -- not just former presidential candidates or former presidents -- but a whole sort of constellation of governors, and senators, and people who you would expect to see at a convention like this. The fact that these people are absent from it, the fact that so many Republicans say they are unhappy, strongly suggests that what we are looking at is a Republican Party that is fundamentally divided over the question of Donald Trump.

O'DONNELL: And on that note, Jamelle and Mark, we notice now there are still speakers going on and pretty much a bunch of people have already left. The program is not over. I mean, this is a former general -- Michael Flynn -- who is speaking right now raising questions about the national security credentials of Hillary Clinton. Mark, talk about that, we're going to hear more from Trump family members than we are going to hear from sitting U.S. senators.

MARK LEIBOVICH: Yeah, I don't think there's any question this is not a unified party. Certainly nothing today would lead one to think that that has happened, at all. I think what's interesting is that Donald Trump doesn't seem to care, and I think a lot of the other people don't seem to care. There is a sense of almost dispassionate division here. And, it's almost as if Donald Trump is trying to start his own, you know, quasi-independent party and let the RNC sort of run it and pay for it.

Previously:

Tom Brokaw: Trump Promotes A “Pretty Divisive Message,” “There Was No Attempt To Really Pull The Country Together”

NBC's Nicolle Wallace: Republican National Convention's First Night “Was About Fear” And “Anxiety”

Fox Host To Newt Gingrich: How Does “Anti-Gay Marriage” Platform Unify Party If It Leaves Out LGBT?