As the roll call vote to nominate Donald Trump as the Republican candidate began, the seats of the Virginia delegation were empty as a statement against the actions of the party leaders on the first day.
Advertisement
That was followed by a speech by Trump’s wife Melania that was well received but quickly was beset by claims that it was plagiarized from by one given by Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan officially announced Trump’s nomination after a state-by-state vote.
“It is my honor to [put] Donald Trump over the top in the delegate count with 89 delegates”.
“I’ll never forget it”, Trump said via a video feed from New York City.
His words were greeted with thunderous applause from convention delegates at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
Republicans, meeting for the second of four days this week, were due also to place in nomination Indiana Governor Mike Pence, Mr Trump’s choice for vice presidential running mate.
The campaign said Monday night’s speech was written by a “team of writers” who had spoken with Melania Trump about her life experiences and included fragments that reflected her thinking. “Together, most importantly, we are going to make America great again … and we will win in November”.
“I watched the president and sometimes the words are OK”, Trump told Fox News after Obama condemned the recent “cowardly and reprehensible” attacks on law enforcement.
But Carly Roman, a student from NY, said that clearly there is some overlap in the language of the two speeches.
NY delegate Brent Bogardus says the flap over Melania Trump’s speech is a lot of media nonsense.
“I imagine there’s people who shouldn’t have done that or who should have cleaned it up better”, Trump Jr. said.
Tiffany, who just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania a few months ago, said she loves introducing her father to her friends, especially those who have preconceived notions of him.
The usually orderly process was thrown into chaos on Monday afternoon when a vote on the rules governing the binding of delegates was objected to by anti-Trump forces.
Advertisement
For the most part, protests were few and far between, and largely kept under control, during the roll call for the nomination Tuesday evening.
