US Republican Party’s convention to start on Monday

NEW YORK, August 23 (APP): A national convention of US Republican Party is set to kick off on Monday, just days after former Vice President Joe Biden accepted the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, to officially nominate President Donald Trump as its candidate for the November elections.

The party has an important mission on hand: To convince voters pessimistic about the state of a country battered by the coronavirus pandemic, economic recession and racial upheaval that Trump deserves four more years at the helm.

Convention organizers say the president and his supporters will showcase optimism and inspire hope in a time of worldwide despair, with programming planned around themes of “promise,” “opportunity” and “greatness” for the United States in a second Trump term.

“The big contrast you’ll see between the Democrats’ doom-and-gloom, Donald Trump-obsessed convention will be a convention focused on real people, their stories, how the policies of the Trump administration have lifted their lives, and then an aspirational vision toward the next four years,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was quoted as saying by The Washington Post.

A small number of Republican leaders will be physically present in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Monday, but most of the convention will be virtual.

Originally, all four days of the convention were set to take place in Charlotte. But President Trump moved the majority of the convention events to Jacksonville, Florida, in June after a dispute with North Carolina’s governor about safety protocols related to the coronavirus. Then in July, following a significant spike in cases in Florida, Trump canceled the Jacksonville events.

Trump will now accept the nomination from the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday, though he is also expected to take part in all four nights of the convention, according to the programme.

Additional speakers will appear from various locations. According to the Trump campaign, the central convention location will be the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.

The main theme of the Republican convention is “Honouring the Great American Story.” Each night will feature remarks from political leaders as well as “everyday Americans whose stories are filled with hope and patriotism,” according to the Trump campaign.
The Republican National Convention, like its Democratic counterpart, is held each presidential election cycle and is where the party finalizes and presents its policy platforms going into the final stretch of the campaign. During the event, Republican delegates from across the country also pledge their votes for potential candidates based on the outcome of state primary elections.

This year, no more than 336 delegates – the 2016 convention had more than 2,400 – will gather in-person in Charlotte, North Carolina, to conduct the roll call vote and formally nominate Trump, who faced little opposition in the primary season.

Ahead of the convention, President Trump hit back at Democrats’ accusation of being a chaotic and dishonest leader, saying that Democrats — not he — would bring chaos to the United States if Biden wins the White House in November.

“If our opponents prevail no one will be safe in our country,” Trump told conservative activists in his first speech since the Democratic National Convention ended late on Thursday.

“I’m the only thing standing between the American dream and total anarchy, madness and chaos,” Trump asserted. In a preview of what Republicans will argue at their own convention next week, Trump hammered at the law-and-order theme he has embraced in response to anti-racism and police brutality protests in U.S. cities including Portland, Oregon.

He said police had been weakened in “Democrat-run” cities and cited a spike in murders in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York and Philadelphia. He urged Americans to turn back “radical left socialists and Marxists.” He called protesters in Portland “crazy.”

“So the future of our country and indeed our civilization is at stake on Nov. 3,” he said in the speech in Arlington, Virginia, to the 2020 Council for National Policy.
Biden and his running mate, U.S. Senator Kamala Devi Harris, accepted their party’s nomination at the four-day Democratic convention, where speaker after speaker characterized Trump’s four years in office as chaotic.

The convention, held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic, showcased scathing criticism of Trump’s character and his handling of the health crisis, in which more than 170,000 people in the United States have died.

Democrats sought to present a diverse, united front with the integrity and faith they said Trump lacks. Biden opened his acceptance speech on Thursday night by saying, “The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger. Too much fear. Too much division.”

In his speech on Friday, Trump called it “the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history.” He also suggested, without providing an explanation or evidence, that the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives could become president if the results of the Nov. 3 election were not clear by the end of the year.

“I don’t think you’ll know two weeks later. I don’t think you’ll know four weeks later,” he said. “There’s a theory that if you don’t have it by the end of the year, crazy Nancy Pelosi would become president,” he said.

Trump has sought to cast early doubt on the integrity of the election, and bringing up Pelosi, who is deeply unpopular with many Republicans, appeared aimed at motivating his base to vote.

Vice President Mike Pence, who gave a round of television interviews on Friday, outlined what he said would be the thrust of their four-day convention starting on Monday, appropriating a line from Biden’s speech that character, decency, science and democracy “are all on the ballot.”

“The economy is on the ballot. Law and order is on the ballot, and the American people know it,” Pence said. Pence deflected criticism over the coronavirus response.

“We lost 22 million jobs in the course of this coronavirus pandemic. But because of the solid foundation that President Trump poured of less taxes, less regulation, more American energy, more free and fair trade, we’ve seen 9 million Americans already go back to work,” Pence told CBS “This Morning.”

Biden’s vice presidential selection of Harris confirmed that the Democratic Party had been taken over by “the radical left,” Pence told Fox Business Network, describing her as a “California liberal.” Biden’s long tenure in politics, as a U.S. senator and two terms as President Barack Obama’s vice president, will count against him, Pence said.

“Joe Biden has been in Washington for 47 years and the speech he gave last night was just more of the same talk that we’ve heard from him and other liberal Democrat politicians for the decades,” he said. Trump echoed the critique in a campaign video on Twitter, saying: “After 47 years of failure, we’ve had more than enough.”

Among the speakers at the four-day convention will be First Lady Melania Trump and Trump’s adult children. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner may also speak. Ivanka Trump is expected to introduce her father.

Meanwhile, Trump released a campaign commercial aimed at winning support from the country’s Indian-American voters, after Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, picked Senator Kamala Devi Harris, a woman of South Asian descent as his vice presidential running mate. Mrs. Harris is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants. Her late mother was from India and her father is Jamaican.

Trump senior adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle posted the commercial on Twitter on Saturday and tweeted: “America enjoys a great relationship with India and our campaign enjoys great support from Indian-Americans.” The video features footage of Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi walking hand-in-hand and quick clips of each speaking.

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