RNC 2024 Day 4 updates: Trump pitches unity, but revives old grievances

Vice presidential nominee JD Vance addressed the nation from the RNC on Wednesday night -- a sight that made his longtime friend Cullen Tiernan proud.

"I always knew that he was smart enough to do whatever he wanted. We've always been attracted to public service, so I really wasn't surprised," Tiernan, a friend of Vance's for more than two decades, told ABC News of his bid to join forces with Trump.

He says he isn't surprised that his friend is making history as the first post-9/11 veteran on a major party's presidential ticket -- something Tiernan said he believes will serve Vance well as VP if the Trump/Vance ticket is elected.

"Having a veteran voice like that, somebody who understands what it's like to be an enlisted Marine kind of goes back to his whole 'Hillbilly Elegy' in his story," Tiernan said, referring to Vance's best-selling memoir. "I think that's going to be really powerful."

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-ABC News' Beatrice Peterson

Speakers at the Republican National Convention this week have faulted the Biden administration for putting the nation at risk from threats that include criminals, illicit drugs -- and high prices.

Some economists who spoke to ABC News took issue with the blame placed on President Joe Biden as an overstatement of his role in the price spike.

"There's a long list of reasons for the high inflation. At the top of the list is the pandemic and the Russian war," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told ABC News.

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-ABC News' Max Zahn

Speaking at the Faith and Freedom breakfast Thursday morning, vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance shared his faith journey with the attendees, saying his faith was "shallow" when he was a child and evolved into more over time.

"I was raised, as I mentioned last night, by my mamaw who, despite the fact that she loved the F word, was a woman a very deep Christian faith. And you know, she was in some ways what you might call 'unchurched,'" Vance said.

"We went to church maybe once or twice a month, sometimes less, sometimes more. But she read the Bible every single day. She prayed every single day. She loved to watch Billy Graham whenever he was on the TV and that was really my introduction to the Christian faith," Vance continued.

When Vance went on to higher education, he began calling himself an atheist. However, Vance said he decided to learn more about his Christian faith when he met his wife at Yale Law School, who does not share his faith.

"But to me, what really brought me back to Christ was finding a wife and falling in love and thinking about my thinking about what was required of me as a husband and as a father," Vance said.

"And the more that I thought about those deeper questions, the more that I thought that there was wisdom in the Christian faith that I had completely discarded and completely ignored but was most relevant to the questions that were presented in my life as a husband and father."

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie

Netflix's movie "Hillbilly Elegy," based on Sen. JD Vance's memoir, continues to climb the charts following Vance being named Donald Trump's running mate.

It's now ranked No. 2 on Netflix. On Wednesday, it was ranked No. 4; on Tuesday, it was ranked No. 6.

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie