Republicans’ dark warnings if Trump loses

REPUBLICANS opened Monday night’s primetime convention with dark warnings about America’s future if President Donald Trump does not win a second term. A school teacher warned that conservative values were under attack from labour unions and a business owner claimed businesses in America were facing unwarranted pandemic shutdowns and riotous mobs.

Meanwhile, House representative Matt Gaetz likened the prospect of Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s election to a horror movie.

He said: “They’ll disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home, and invite MS-13 to live next door.”

Trump, who was not scheduled to deliver his keynote convention address until later in the week, made multiple public appearances throughout the first day of the four-day convention.

And while the evening programming of the convention was carefully scripted, Trump was not.

“The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election,” Trump told hundreds of Republican delegates gathered in North Carolina.

The GOP convention marks a crucial moment for Trump, a first-term Republican president tasked with reshaping a campaign he is losing by all accounts, at least for now.

The evening program highlighted the tension within Trump’s Republican Party.

His harsh attacks against Democrats who are trying to expand mail voting and demonstrators protesting deaths in police custody, for example, often delight his die-hard loyalists.

Yet the party pointed to a somewhat more diverse convention lineup with a more inclusive message designed to expand Trump’s political coalition beyond his white, working-class base.