Houston Chronicle

Trump ‘will not stop fighting for you’

DAY TWO: First lady steps back into spotlight to argue for a second term

- By Steve Peoples, Michelle L. Price and Darlene Superville

WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump cast her husband as the best hope for America and Americans in a Rose Garden address Tuesday night as President Donald Trump turned to family, farmers and the trappings of the presidency to boost his reelection chances on the second night of the scaleddown Republican National Convention.

The president pardoned a reformed felon, used the White House grounds to elevate his wife’s keynote address, and oversaw a naturaliza­tion ceremony for

several immigrants in the midst of the prime-time program. The welcoming tone was at odds with some of his own policies, which are aimed at reducing both legal and illegal immigratio­n.

“In my husband, you have a president who will not stop fighting for you and your families,” said Mrs. Trump, an immigrant herself. “He will not give up.”

Mrs. Trump and two of his five children led a diverse collection of supporters, including a convicted bank robber, calling for Trump’s re-election on a night that featured a distinctly more positive tone than the night before.

The first-term president is laboring to improve his standing in a 2020 presidenti­al race he’s losing. Most polls report that Democratic rival Joe Biden has a significan­t advantage in terms of raw support; the former vice president also leads on character issues such as trustworth­iness and likability.

In one of the few emotional moments of the night, Trump showed a video of himself signing a pardon for Jon Ponder, a man from Nevada who has founded an organizati­on that helps prisoners reintegrat­e into society.

“We live in a nation of second chances,” Ponder said, standing alongside Trump.

Tuesday’s 2½-hour lineup also featured a Maine lobsterman, a Wisconsin farmer and a Native American leader.

Social conservati­ves were represente­d by an anti-abortion activist and Billy Graham’s granddaugh­ter. The convention also featured a Kentucky high school student whose interactio­n last year with Native Americans became a flashpoint in the nation’s culture wars.

With Election Day just 10 weeks off and early voting beginning much sooner, Trump is under increasing pressure to reshape the contours of the campaign. But as he struggles to contain the pandemic and the related economic devastatio­n, Republican­s have yet to identify a consistent political message arguing for his re-election.

There was little mention of the pandemic through the first hour of the program, although it remains a dominant issue for voters this fall.

The COVID-19 death toll surged past 178,000 on Tuesday, by far the highest in the world, and there’s no sign of slowing. The nation’s unemployme­nt rate still exceeds 10 percent, which is higher than it ever was during the Great Recession. And more than 100,000 businesses are feared closed forever.

At the same time, the White

House seems to have abandoned efforts to negotiate another federal rescue package with Congress.

Convention organizers had promised an uplifting and hopeful message the night before as the convention began, but that was undermined by dark and ominous warnings from the president and his allies about the country’s future if he should lose in November.

Tuesday night, there were fierce attacks on Biden throughout, although the lineup generally maintained a more positive tone.

There were also barrier-breakers featured such as Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the first African American to hold statewide office in Kentucky,

and Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, first Latina to hold that office in her state.

And the convention lineup featured a Democrat for the second night: Robert Vlaisavlje­vich, the mayor of Eveleth, Minn., praised Trump’s support for his state’s mining industry in particular.

“President Trump is fighting for all of us. He delivered the best economy in our history and he will do it again,” Vlaisavlje­vich said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was addressing the convention and nation during an official overseas trip in Israel.

Pompeo’s taped appearance breaks with decades of tradition of secretarie­s of state avoiding the appearance of involving themselves in domestic politics.

That his video was filmed in Jerusalem, where he was on an official foreign trip, has raised additional questions of propriety.

Overall, there were more than a dozen speakers planned for the evening’s prime-time program, most of them appearing in prerecorde­d video or inside a largely empty Washington auditorium. But there was one intended star.

“Tonight is the first lady’s night,” said campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh.

Out of the public view for much of the year, Melania Trump was stepping into the spotlight to argue for a second term for her husband — while trying to avoid the missteps that marred her introducti­on to the nation four years ago.

At her 2016 convention speech, she included passages similar to what former first lady Michelle Obama had said in her first convention speech. A speechwrit­er for the Trump Organizati­on later took the blame.

Only the second foreign-born first lady in U.S. history, Melania Trump, 50, is a native of Slovenia, a former communist country in eastern Europe. She became Trump’s third wife in 2005 and gave birth to their now 14-yearold son, Barron, in 2006 — the year she became a naturalize­d U.S. citizen.

The first lady spoke from the renovated Rose Garden, despite questions about using the White House for a political convention. She addressed an in-person group of around 50 people, including her husband.

 ?? Evan Vucci / Associated Press ?? First lady Melania Trump used her address to cast her husband as a fighter for the underdog.
Evan Vucci / Associated Press First lady Melania Trump used her address to cast her husband as a fighter for the underdog.
 ?? Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images ?? President Donald Trump, with Vice President Mike Pence, arrives at the renovated Rose Garden to listen to the first lady’s speech.
Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images President Donald Trump, with Vice President Mike Pence, arrives at the renovated Rose Garden to listen to the first lady’s speech.
 ?? Associated Press ?? Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks from Jerusalem during the second night of the Republican National Convention.
Associated Press Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks from Jerusalem during the second night of the Republican National Convention.
 ?? Susan Walsh / Associated Press ?? Tiffany was one of Trump’s five children calling for her father’s re-election.
Susan Walsh / Associated Press Tiffany was one of Trump’s five children calling for her father’s re-election.

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