Trump painted a dire state of affairs in the United States and the world – instability overseas and crumbling infrastructure at home – and blamed those problems on President Barack Obama and his former secretary of state, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Much of Ivanka Trump’s introduction sounded like it was straight out of a Hillary Clinton speech on women, family, and workplace issues.
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Clinton noted that convention speaker after convention speaker fixated on her, which she called “perversely flattering”. Ted Cruz who said it best in his convention speech on Wednesday night: “Vote your conscience”. “I never thought I’d say these words, but Ted Cruz was right!”
On Thursday, Johnson said the Cruz’s call for Americans to “vote your conscience” was essentially a call for them to support him. Vote for our future. “And those are all things that we don’t have a great sense about beyond platitudes about ‘making America great again'”. In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance agreement was crystal clear: “We defend each other”. She was surrounded on all sides by screaming supporters and eight massive flags were draped across the room. His speech outlined the policies he would pursue if he wins the presidency of the United States.
But hand it to Trump, or his team of speechwriters, his speech was full of solid, memorable, compelling lines.
“The biggest problems I had with it were there wasn’t any detail to some of his ideas or his plans”, said Laura Koerner, a delegate from Fair Oaks Ranch. “Now, just think about that for a minute, because it’s really important”.
“Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it“.
“That’s not a democracy, my friends”, Clinton said, with both amusement and condemnation in her tone.
“We are also going to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court who will uphold our laws and our Constitution”.
While the unorthodox Trump has succeeded in getting unprecedented media attention, helping propel him to the nomination, he has lagged behind in fundraising and in building the type of state-level infrastructure typically seen in other presidential campaigns.
“He doesn’t speak for immigrants, he only speaks against immigrants”, Clinton said. “I don’t think that’s liberal at all”, the 42-year-old said.
The crowd roared: “Hillary!”
Laying out his case against Clinton, he denounced nation-building policies that were actually put in place to some extent by George W. Bush, without mentioning by name the Republican president who launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities”.
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Earlier in the week, the convention was marred by allegations that Mr Trump’s wife, Melania, lifted sections of her speech from a similar one delivered by first lady Michelle Obama in 2008. The gap between him and Hillary Clinton has narrowed during this period, but only because her support declined in the wake of Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey’s criticism of the handling of her State Department emails. Clinton’s campaign is working hard to keep her VP choice a secret – she doesn’t want a leak.
