President’s vision at center of convention
WASHINGTON — Republicans will aim to recast the story of Donald Trump’s presidency as they hold their national convention, featuring speakers drawn from everyday life as well as cable news and the White House while drawing a stark contrast with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Trump is looking to shift his campaign away from being a referendum on a presidency ravaged by a pandemic and economic collapse and toward a choice between vastly different visions of America’s future.
Reshaping the national conversation around the race has taken on greater urgency for Trump, who trails in public and private surveys as the coronavirus continues to ravage the nation’s economy and his reelection chances.
The four-day event is said to be themed “Honoring the Great American Story.”
The convention will feature prominently a number of well-known Trump supporters, including members of the Trump family, but also those whom the GOP say are members of the “silent majority” of Americans who have been aided by Trump’s policies. Some have been
“silenced” by a “cancel culture” pushed by Democrats, the campaign officials said.
Trump himself was expected to appear each night in the key 10 p.m. Eastern hour, planners said.
Plans for the GOP event have rapidly come together over the last six weeks, since it became apparent to the party that Trump could not hold an in-person convention at his backup site of Jacksonville, Fla. Trump was forced to move most of the convention out of Charlotte, N.C., the original host city, because of restrictive state coronavirus precautions.
Republicans — and
Trump himself — closely watched last week’s Democratic convention for cues on what worked and what didn’t in the virtual format, hoping that will provide an advantage in putting together their week of events.
One major difference, Republicans said, will be the emphasis on live rather than taped events — and holding events with crowds to the greatest extent practicable.
Trump repeatedly criticized Democrats’ reliance on pretaped videos, rather than live addresses, saying Tuesday, “Live, by the way, is always much more exciting.”