On day two of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in the United States, several key themes emerged.
Unifying the party, law enforcement, immigration and making peace with former foes came high on the party’s agenda in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and former Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina were all present.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate for a third time, once again sported a bandage on his ear after being injured during Saturday’s assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He waved, exchanged handshakes and thanked delegates as they erupted into applause at his appearance.
Here are some key takeaways from the day:
Haley and DeSantis endorse Trump
Despite criticising Trump in the past and running against him for the party’s presidential nomination this year, DeSantis and Haley publicly endorsed Trump.
Haley, who stepped down from the race in March, was greeted with a mix of cheers and boos as she took to the stage.
Despite her previous criticism of Trump as “too old” and her concerns about his capacity for leadership when faced with 91 criminal charges, her endorsement of Trump is now firm. “You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him,” said Haley, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump presidency.
DeSantis, who dropped out of the presidential race in January, gave a fiery opening speech to an uproarious crowd.
“Let’s send [President] Joe Biden back to his basement, and let’s send Donald Trump back to the White House,” he said.
DeSantis added: “Biden is just a figurehead. He’s a tool for imposing a leftist agenda on the American people.”
Control of borders tops the agenda
Cruz peppered his speech with stories of undocumented immigrants who were criminal suspects as the party seeks to tighten up US borders.
Cruz, who ran against Trump in 2016 and described him as “a pathological liar”, seemed to be working hard to show he had settled his differences with Trump.
He opened his speech by praising the former president, using religious overtones and “God bless Donald J Trump!” for surviving the assassination attempt.
On immigration and border control, he said: “I worked hand in hand with President Trump to secure our border, and we achieved the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years.”
However, some fact checkers have taken issue with some of the claims Republican speakers have made about the Democrats’ immigration policies.
Kari Lake, a TV presenter-turned-candidate, claimed that Ruben Gallego, a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives from Arizona and her prospective rival in November’s US Senate race, voted last week to permit undocumented immigrants to “illegally participate in the upcoming election by casting a ballot”.
On July 10, the US House approved a bill stating that individuals must provide evidence of US citizenship to be eligible to vote in federal elections. Gallego, like most Democrats, voted against the bill.
It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote. But Gallego said in a statement: “This bill isn’t about that, it’s about making it harder for Arizonans to vote, including married women, service members, Native Arizonans, seniors, and people with disabilities. This extreme bill’s only purpose is to disenfranchise tens of thousands of Arizonans, and I will not vote to take away the rights of Arizonans to stop something that is already illegal.”
Ramaswamy, who also dropped out of the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in January, kept up the theme of strong borders: “If you want to seal the border, vote Trump. If you want to restore law and order in this country, vote Trump. If you want to reignite the economy in this country, vote Trump.”
He further stated: “Our message to every legal immigrant in this country is this: You’re like my parents. You deserve the opportunity to secure a better life for your children in America. But our message to illegal immigrants is also this: We will return you to your country of origin, not because you’re all bad people, but because you broke the law and the United States of America was founded on the rule of law.”
Getting tough on crime
A speech by Anne Fundner, a mother whose her son died of a fentanyl overdose in 2022, received a standing ovation and brought many delegates to tears.
Funder criticised Biden’s border policy, which she said led to her son’s death.
“I hold Joe Biden, [Vice President] Kamala Harris, the border czar – what a joke – and [California Governor] Gavin Newsom and every Democrat who supports open borders responsible for the death of my son,” she said.
The accusation that Democrats are “soft on crime” was made repeatedly throughout the day.
Madeline Brame, whose son was killed in a stabbing in Harlem in 2018, directed her ire towards New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat. She accused Bragg, who successfully prosecuted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, of having a lenient stance on crime.
Rubio, who ran against Trump for the Republican nomination in 2016, continued the praise of Trump while also calling for a tougher stance on crime:
“It is time to put our country and our people first again, and if we do it together, we will make our people wealthy again. If we do it together, we will make our country safe again. Together we will make Donald Trump our president again, and together we will make America great again.”
Lara Tump closes the night
Lara Trump, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee and the former president’s daughter-in-law, was the final speaker of the night and discussed the aftermath of the shooting that occurred on Saturday.
“Last Saturday reminded us that we Americans must remember that there is more that unites us than divides us,” she said.
Of her father-in-law, she said: “Now you don’t have to admit that you like everything that he tweets, but Americans were better off when he was in office.”
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