Melania Trump’s night: GOP convention stars first lady
Democrats used their nominating convention last week to highlight several prominent Republicans who plan to cross party lines and vote for Joe Biden. On Monday, Republicans offered a counter: Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones.
Jones, a Black lawyer from suburban Atlanta, used a highprofile speaking spot on the first night of the Republican National Convention to praise President Donald Trump, saying he had delivered on promises, and to tear into Democrats, saying they had taken advantage of Black voters.
“Why is a lifelong Democrat speaking at the Republican National Convention? That’s a fair question. And here’s your answer: The Democratic Party does not want Black people to leave the mental plantation they’ve had us on for decades,” Jones said.
Trump has put an emphasis on winning more support from Black voters after getting just 6%, in 2016, according to a Pew Research analysis of people who participated in its polls and were confirmed to have voted. Polls show a close race in Georgia, where Democrats lean heavily on support from Black voters, adding to the pressure on Trump to peel voters away.
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Georgia State Rep. Vernon Jones speaks during the first night of the Republican National Convention.
First Lady Melania Trump visits an exhibit of art by young Americans in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment which afforded the vote to women, at the White House on Monday.
The people closest to President Donald Trump — his family — are starring on the second night of the Republican National Convention as the GOP works to reintroduce the president to American voters in the midst of the campaign and pandemic.
First lady Melania Trump is delivering Tuesday evening’s keynote address before a small audience at the White House, while the president’s daughter Tiffany and son Eric will be featured, too. As on the night before, Trump himself is expected to play “a significant role” in the prime-time programming, a campaign spokesman said.
The focus on Trump’s family comes as the first-term president labors to improve his standing in a 2020 presidential race he is currently 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.
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 reelection.
Trump’s political future may depend on
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his ability to convince voters that America is on the right track, even as the coronavirus death toll exceeds 177,000 and pandemicrelated job losses reach into the millions.
In a show of compassion, before Tuesday’s program began Trump pardoned bank robber Jon Ponder, a Black man who has founded an organization that helps prisoners reintegrate into society.
“We live in a nation of second chances,” Ponder said, standing alongside Trump in a video posted by the White House.
Convention organizers had promised an uplifting and hopeful message the night before as the convention began, but that was overshadowed by dark and ominous warnings from the president and his allies about the country’s future if he should lose in November.
Early estimates suggest that fewer voters are watching Trump’s nominating convention than the Democrats’ affair last week.
The featured final hour of Trump’s opening night was seen by 15.8 million people across the top six television networks, according to the Nielsen company. That’s down from the 18.7 million who watched Biden’s first night.
Tuesday’s program is designed around the theme of “Land of Opportunity.”
Beyond the president’s family, the speakers include the mother of a police officer killed by an immigrant in the country illegally, a former Planned Parenthood official who became an anti-abortion activist, and a Kentucky high school student whose interaction last year with a Native American man became a flashpoint in the nation’s culture wars.
President Donald Trump made a dizzying array of misleading claims about voting fraud and health care as fellow Republicans opened their convention with speeches distorting the agenda of his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
Trump falsely asserted that he was the one who ensured that people with preexisting medical problems will be covered by health insurance; actually that was Democratic President Barack Obama. Several speakers accused Biden of proposing to defund police, ban fracking, take over health care and open borders — none of that true.
A look at statements Monday at the Republican National Convention:
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HEALTH CARE
TRUMP: “We protected your preexisting conditions. Very strongly protected preexisting ... and you don’t hear that.”
THE FACTS: You don’t hear it because it’s not true.
People with preexisting medical problems have health insurance protections because of Obama’s health care law, which Trump is trying to dismantle.
One of Trump’s alternatives to Obama’s law — short-term health insurance, already in place — doesn’t have to cover preexisting conditions. Another alternative is association health plans, which are oriented to small businesses and sole proprietors and do cover preexisting conditions.
Neither of the two alternatives appears to have made much difference in the market.
Meanwhile, Trump’s administration is pressing the Supreme Court for full repeal of the Obama-era law, including provisions that protect people with preexisting conditions from health insurance discrimination.