The president, who praises himself as a master showman, objectively put one of the hottest, most boring congressional memories in recent memory on Wednesday. Forced to retire due to a pandemic, and hoping to sand the rough edges of its public image, the presidential team opted for red, recording speeches for a line of American flags that could work very well in politics, but completely in conflict with President like. The reputation of Donald Trump.
It also stood in stark contrast to the state of the country where an American city was locked up due to unrest following the shooting of a Black man by police, followed by the murder of two Protestants by an armed teenager – not to mention about a raging pandemic and a Category 4, near Category 5, hurricane near the Gulf Coast.
Wednesday night saw hardly any of that at the Republican National Convention. COVID-19 was once again barely discussed. The chaos and protests in Kenosha were briefly mentioned by Vice President Mike Pence. He spent an estimated 42 seconds delivering a nearly 40-minute speech to the hurricane, promising a kettle of relief, thoughts and prayers. And no one could have predicted exactly how the storm would affect Thursday’s speeches, of which Trump will be the leader.
Earlier in the day, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway appeared to open the door for Trump to post his address. But late Wednesday night, when Pence spoke, several Trump campaign aides and other officials told The Daily Beast that, despite the hurricane threat, President Trump would deliver his convention speech Thursday night as currently planned.
According to three people with knowledge of convention data, the relatively few reports of the virus and its persistent horrors have long been the plan. “Our convention is progressive. “People want to know what the country will look like after COVID,” said a source familiar with convention planning. “The president has shown that he can build an economy and he will do it again.”
Instead, the first part of the evening felt almost like an airy afternoon at a conference at the American Enterprise Institute. A good chunk of the night was dedicated to female speakers who – against the most available evidence – claimed that Trump was a champion of comprehensive health care and an advocate for women’s rights. Everything was severely shattered into subtle and open warnings that the problems of crime and violence that Trump himself had promised to solve would now be made even worse if Trump was not re-elected.
“Joe Biden says that America is systematically racist and that legal action in America is, and I quote, ‘an implicit prejudice’ against minorities,” Pence said during his speech Wednesday night. Asked if he would support funding for law enforcement, he replied, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ “Joe Biden would double down on the whole policy that leads to violence in the cities of America. The hard truth is that you will not be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”
The attack on Biden that he wants to defend the police has previously been attempted by Republicans, but a fact-checking by Politifact of an ad with the comment found that the video was incorrect and “edits Biden’s remark and takes it out of context.”
But the larger framework also raised questions that Trump might need to address as well. Especially why he is not to blame for the social unrest that his team is rejecting.
Four years ago, Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president with a promise that violence in the cities of America – which had been falling for years at the time – would be stampeded with him in office.
“I have a message for every last person who threatens the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: If I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order our country,” Trump said.
On Wednesday, the chaos that erupted in the wake of yet another police shooting led to the NBA stopping play-off games that night. And it also threatened to resound throughout the rest of the convention.
A graphic video on Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, showed Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man, running away from police officers and trying to get into a car before a law enforcement officer shot him in the back. When protests rocked the city, a white 17-year-old was arrested and charged with murder for killing two people on Tuesday night.
Just outside the White House were security personnel al tariede for what is expected to be a significant presence of Protestants demonstrating President’s Thursday night acceptance of the president delivered on the grounds of The People’s House.
But on Wednesday, enrolled in Fort McHenry, Pence, Trump and her guests seemed content to live in the America they were making at the time, smiling as maskless guests – presumably untested for COVID – shook hands and hugged them around . After all was over, Trump and Pence worked the touline, the latter offering an occasional fistbump to participants.
– With additional reporting by Pilar Melendez, William Bredderman and Grace Del Vecchio
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