Tim Kaine, D-Va., a rumored front-runner for the second spot on the ticket. But like many other Republicans, Shipley said his vote in November’s general election will be less an endorsement of Trump than “an alternative to HRC (Clinton) and standard politicians”.
Advertisement
Trump, smiles as he takes the stage at the Republican National Convention.
It was an altogether smoother – and scripted – chapter in a footloose convention shocked a night earlier by Ted Cruz’s prime-time speech, a pointed non-endorsement of the nominee by the Texas senator who finished second in the race and came to Cleveland harboring grievances – and future presidential ambitions.
As the crowd chanted: “Lock her up” for her handling of U.S. foreign policy, Trump waved them off and said: “Let’s defeat her in November”.
In an appeal to Americans shaken by violence at home and around the world, Trump promised that under his presidency, “safety will be restored”. What difference does it make.
Another original Cruz backer, Becky Hall of Duluth, is rallying behind Trump now. Apparently the words of first lady Michelle Obama have inspired Melania Trump. “And he’s been very loyal, and he’s been on CNN and he’s been fighting for me”.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus spoke at the event, applauded traditional Republican values and called for party unity by saying “let’s stand united as Republicans, let’s get to work to expand our Republican majorities”.
On Thursday night, Trump gave a loud, boisterous, bleak speech in which he gladly accepted the Republican Party’s nomination of him for president. The speech was strikingly dark for a celebratory event and nearly entirely lacking in policy details. In his over an hour long speech, the NY billionaire spoke about Clinton’s legacy of “death, destruction, terrorism and weakness” as the secretary of state and highlighted perceived failings of President Barack Obama’s administration. Between defining chants of “U-S-A” and “Trump, Trump, Trump” the mogul-turned-TV-star-turned-politico cast himself as the “law and order candidate” and vowed to champion “people who work hard but no longer have a voice”. She later visited the site of the rampage that killed 49 people, placing a bouquet of white flowers at the site next to a candle and a framed picture of a cross. “And what does the Democratic Party establishment offer?”
Next, Trump praised the reporting of the National Enquirer, which had written a piece suggested that Cruz’s father had been photographed with Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy’s assassin. Numerous young voters who animated the Sanders campaign (and who delivered resounding victories in the last two elections for President Barack Obama) view her as a leader of yesterday and an avatar of the status quo. “We must abandon the failed policy of nation building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria”, the prepared remarks read. During their convention, Republicans were relentless and often raw in demonizing Clinton.
As for the party’s elites, they drifted out of Cleveland on an undercurrent of missed opportunity, convinced that because of Trump, the White House is a fat, juicy plum that will remain out of their reach.
Of the FBI investigation that concluded earlier this month which found Clinton was “extremely careless” but not criminally negligent, Trump said investigators were “saving her [from] facing justice for her awful, bad crimes”.
Trump also launched a series of attacks on his Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton, accusing her of keeping “our rigged system in place” and leaving “death, destruction and weakness” as her legacy.
Now it’s on to Philadelphia for the Democrats.
Advertisement
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, shown with Hillary Clinton in 2015, is also a rumored candidate for the vice presidential nomination.
