Haley says Trump ‘has my strong endorsement, period’Nikki Haley and Donald Trump were rivals during the Republican primaries. But after dropping out of the race, Haley would go on to say she would vote for him, though didn’t quite say she endorsed him.
“I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” Haley said.
Haley was greeted by boos as well as cheers as she took to the stage in Milwaukee.
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After her son was murdered in New York City, Madeline Brame told the convention that the killers “were facing justice, but that changed when district attorney Alvin Bragg was elected”.
The crowd let out perhaps its biggest unified boo of the night at the mention of Bragg’s name. He spearheaded the prosecution of Donald Trump on business charges, which resulted in the former president’s conviction on 34 felonies in late May.
The convention is now hearing from what it describes as “everyday Americans” who are victims of tragedies that they blame on the Biden administration.
Anne Fundner described how her 15-year-old son Weston was killed by a fentanyl overdose.
“His whole future, everything we ever wanted for him was ripped away in an instant. And Joe Biden does nothing. I hold Joe Biden, Kamala Harris the border czar, what a joke, and Gavin Newsom and every Democrat who supports open borders responsible for the death of my son,” Fundner said. The crowd stood up to applause, including Donald Trump and JD Vance in the VIP section.
“For that alone, they should be voted out of office,” Fundner said, as the crowd chanted, “Joe must go!”
In response to Nikki Haley’s endorsement of Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris campaign issued a statement reminding everybody of the times the former United Nations ambassador criticized her one-time boss.
“Ambassador Haley said it best herself: someone who doesn’t respect our military, doesn’t know right from wrong, and ‘surrounds himself in chaos’ can’t be president,” said Austin Weatherford, the campaign’s national Republican engagement director.
He continued:
That’s why millions of Republicans cast their votes in protest of Donald Trump and his attacks on our institutions, our nation’s allies, and civility. Those millions of voters across the country deserve a president who shares their commitment to bipartisanship, to America’s standing on the global stage, and who respects our nation’s brave men and women in uniform. There’s a home for every single one of these voters in the coalition President Biden is building of patriotic Americans who will always put country over party.
Haley’s attacks on Trump were particularly fierce as her presidential campaign neared its end:
Snap analysis: Haley goes for unity but DeSantis’s combative speech is a hit with delegates
Joan E Greve
The contrast between Nikki Haley’s and Ron DeSantis’s convention speeches encapsulated their very different (although both unsuccessful) strategies to prevent Donald Trump from winning the Republican nomination.
Haley based her presidential campaign on the premise that America needed a “new generation” of leaders, as both Trump and Joe Biden are unpopular with a majority of Americans. Haley’s criticism seems prescient now, as the “double haters” who dislike Trump and Biden may determine the outcome of the election in November.
Emphasizing the importance of unity, Haley told convention attendees: “We must not only be a unified party. We must also expand our party.”
The practical argument was met with somewhat tepid applause from the convention audience, who represent the Republican base that rejected Haley as their presidential nominee.
When DeSantis stepped up to the mic after Haley, he was met with a noticeably louder round of applause, and his cutting insults of Biden roused the crowd. “America cannot afford four more years of a Weekend at Bernie’s presidency,” DeSantis said to loud applause.
DeSantis went on to detail a rightwing policy wishlist, including severe restrictions on immigration and the destruction of the “administrative state”. Even though DeSantis’s Trump-like appeal was not enough to win him the Republican nomination, his hard-right talking points triggered a much more boisterous response from the delegates than Haley’s talk of unity and party outreach.
But Republicans will need to both energize their base and sway independent voters to win in November.
Ron DeSantis’s rise coincided with a fall in the fortunes of Democrats in Florida, which was once considered a swing state.
As he wrapped up his speech, DeSantis said re-electing Donald Trump would make the same thing happen in states nationwide.
“For decades, my home state saw elections determined by razor-thin margins. Today, due to bold leadership, the Democratic party lies in ruins. The left is in retreat. Freedom reigns supreme. The woke mind virus is dead and Florida is a solid Republican state,” DeSantis said.
“Now, electing Donald Trump gives us the chance to do this all across America, and we have a responsibility to step up and make it happen.”
Like many speakers have done at the Republican convention, Ron DeSantis called for stricter controls on who can vote.
“We believe that you must be a citizen in order to vote, and that photo ID should be required before casting a ballot,” the Florida governor said.
Joe Biden tangled with Ron DeSantis after the Florida governor arranged for people who had crossed the border to be flown to the wealthy Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts two years ago.
“Let’s be honest here, Biden is just a figurehead. He’s a tool for imposing a leftist agenda on the American people. They support open borders, allowing millions and millions of illegal aliens to pour into our country and to burden our communities, but just don’t send any to Martha’s Vineyard. Then they get really upset,” DeSantis said.
Once again, the crowd leapt to its feet at that line.
“Let’s send Joe Biden back to his basement, and let’s send Donald Trump back to the White House,” said Ron DeSantis, who is drawing strong applause from the crowd for his lines.
The crowd was brought to its feet when DeSantis, in an attack on Biden’s age, referenced the 1989 comedy Weekend at Bernie’s, about a hapless duo’s struggles to convince people that their deceased boss is still alive.
“Our enemies do not confine their designs to between 10am and 4pm … we need a commander-in-chief who can lead 24 hours a day and seven days a week. America cannot afford four more years of a Weekend at Bernie’s presidency,” DeSantis said.
Ron DeSantis addresses Republican conventionFlorida governor Ron DeSantis, who also challenged Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, is now addressing the convention.
He was greeted with loud applause.
The GOP is clearly hedging its bets against the possibility that Joe Biden will drop out of the race, and that the Democrats will nominate Kamala Harris in his stead.
Several speakers, Nikki Haley included, along with videos played during the convention have referenced Harris’s involvement in immigration policy, which is an issue of importance for voters that Republicans have vowed to improve.
“Look at the border … it’s the single biggest threat Americans face under Joe Biden. Migrants are coming into our country by the thousands every day. We have no idea who they are, where they end up, or what they plan to do. And let me remind you, Kamala had one job, one job, and that was to fix the border. Now imagine her in charge of the entire country,” Haley said.
Haley argues that, based on Joe Biden’s debate performance, the Democrat is unlikely to last another four years if re-elected, meaning Kamala Harris would eventually take over.
“After seeing the debate, everyone knows it’s true. If we have four more years of Biden or a single day of Harris, our country will be badly worse off. For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump,” she said.
She then directed her remarks at voters who might not be on board with Trump’s policies, alluding to herself as being among that group:
Take it from me. I haven’t always agreed with President Trump, but we agree more often than we disagree. We agree on keeping America strong. We agree on keeping America safe and we agree that Democrats have moved so far to the left that they’re putting our freedoms in danger.
I’m here tonight because we have a country to save, and a unified Republican party is essential for saving her.
Haley says Trump ‘has my strong endorsement, period’Nikki Haley and Donald Trump were rivals during the Republican primaries. But after dropping out of the race, Haley would go on to say she would vote for him, though didn’t quite say she endorsed him.
“I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” Haley said.
Haley was greeted by boos as well as cheers as she took to the stage in Milwaukee.
Nikki Haley to address Republican conventionNikki Haley, Donald Trump’s former United Nations ambassador who tried and failed to challenge him for the Republican presidential nomination this year, has just taken the stage at the convention.
“My fellow Republicans, President Trump asked me to speak to this convention in the name of unity,” she began.
Joan E Greve
The campaign of Democrat Ruben Gallego, who is running against Kari Lake for Arizona’s senate seat, denounced her false claim that he voted to allow undocumented immigrants to cast ballots in the upcoming election.
That vote never happened, and as a reminder, it is already illegal for those who are not citizens to participate in federal elections. One Brennan Center study found just 30 instances of suspected non-citizen voting out of 23.5m votes cast in the 2016 general election.
Hannah Goss, a spokesperson for Gallegos, said in a statement: “Kari Lake stood on stage and proved to everyone that she will say anything to get power – including lie to Arizonans to distract from her dangerous plan to ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest.”
The theme of the Republican convention tonight is “Make America Safe Again”, and Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, repeated throughout his remarks stories of people killed by undocumented immigrants.
Left unsaid was the substantial evidence showing that undocumented people are less likely to commit crimes than US citizens.
“Today, as a result of Joe Biden’s presidency, your family is less safe. Your children are less safe. The country is less safe. But here’s the good news, we can fix it, and when Donald Trump is president, we will fix it,” Cruz said.
Biden says only a ‘medical condition’ would get him to exit presidential race
Adam Gabbatt
Joe Biden said in an interview with Black Entertainment Television (BET) that only a “medical condition” would cause him to drop out of the presidential race.
According to excerpts of the interview published by CBS News, which has yet to air, Biden was adamant he will be the Democratic candidate in November. Asked what it would take for him to drop out, Biden said: “If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if the doctors came to me and said you’ve got this problem, that problem.
“But I made a serious mistake in the whole debate and, look, when I originally ran, you might remember it, I said I was gonna be a transitional candidate. I thought that I would be able to move from this, to pass it on to somebody else. But I didn’t anticipate things getting so, so, so divided.”
Biden added:
Quite frankly, I think the only thing age brings is a little bit of wisdom. And I think I’ve demonstrated that I know how to get things done for the country, in spite of the fact we were told we couldn’t get it done. But there’s more to do, and I’m reluctant to walk away from that.
The full BET interview will air on Wednesday.
After Donald Trump took his seat, a video played accusing Joe Biden of undermining border security, and allowing dangerous people into the country.
“President Trump had our borders secure, our families safe, and he’ll do it again,” the voiceover said.
Then, Texas senator Ted Cruz came on stage and declared: “God bless Donald J Trump!”
Trump arrives on Republican convention floorDonald Trump has returned to the floor of the Republican national convention.
Still wearing a bandage on his right ear, Trump walked out of a tunnel leading to the Fiserv Forum’s backstage, pumping his fist and clapping his hands. All eyes in the crowd were on him as he climbed the steps to the VIP section, where he pointed at the crowd and shook hands with officials awaiting his arrival.
He is now standing next to JD Vance in the VIP section.
Adam Gabbatt
Following his address to the NAACP, Joe Biden spoke at an economic summit in Las Vegas later on Tuesday evening, razzing Trump over the former president’s beliefs on climate change, and promising to take on corporate greed.
Speaking at the summit, Biden touted his administration’s plan to build 2m new homes, and talked about infrastructure projects, including the under-construction Las Vegas-to-Los Angeles train line.
Biden, who appeared more energetic than he has recently, contrasted his efforts with Trump’s: “Remember how Trump promised infrastructure week? Every week for four years? He didn’t build a damn thing!”
Biden warned that Trump would “terminate” the Affordable Care Act, which aims to provide affordable health insurance to those otherwise without it, before telling the crowd that he was “taking the biggest action ever on climate”, while “Trump says he doesn’t believe climate change is real”.
“Maybe he should step out here in Vegas where it’s 120 degrees!” Biden quipped.
The appearance in Las Vegas followed an address to the NAACP earlier on Tuesday, where Biden said it was “time to outlaw” the AR-15 rifle – the assault weapon that has been used in multiple mass shootings, including the assassination attempt on Saturday.