The Republican National Convention lacked the sophisticated production value of the Democratic convention. Instead, it featured a series of speakers communicating directly with their audience. Often with passion. And sometimes, even to the verge of tears.
Donald Trump Jr. became emotional assailing Democrats who “want to bully us into submission” while offering up an image of his father’s Democratic opponent Joe Biden as the “Loch Ness monster” of Washington, D.C.
“If they get their way, it will no longer be the ‘silent majority,’ it will be the silenced majority,” he said.
Bone cancer survivor Natalie Harp billed herself as a “formerly forgotten American from California” whose access to experimental treatment under President Trump’s “Right to Try” legislation saved her life. Diagnosed five years ago, Harp charged that by contrast, Democrats gave her “the right-to-die” as she awaited regulatory approval for a new drug. To Democrats, she said, healthcare as “a human right” meant “marijuana, opioids, and the right-to-die with ‘dignity’ — a politically correct way of saying ‘give up,’ at best, and, at worst, assisted suicide.”
Harp, an advisory board member for Trump 2020, praised Trump for his sacrifice in becoming president.
Cuban-born Maximo Alvarez was moved to tears in his remarks recounting his deep love for America, as he recalled his family’s story fleeing communist Cuba for America, and before that, to Cuba from Spain. He spoke how amid Democrat’s political rhetoric and protests in Seattle, Chicago and Portland, he sees threats to freedom, “echoes of a former life,” and “shadows I thought I had outrun.”
“I said this before,” Alvarez continued. “If I gave away everything that I have today, it would not equal 1% of what I was given when I came to this great country of ours: the gift of freedom. Right now, it is up to us to decide our fate. Freedom over oppression.”
Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley detailed her family’s immigrant roots, drawing on her experience as “a brown girl in a black-and-white world” to rebut claims of America’s intrinsic racism. She spoke of the mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, North Carolina, where nine black congregants were killed by a white supremacist, at one point seeming to gulp back tears.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” she said, of the “riots” and “rage” spurred by protests that erupted after the death of George Floyd this summer. “It wasn’t like this in South Carolina five years ago.”
“Our state came face-to-face with evil,” she said. Instead of turning against one another, “we made the hard choices needed to heal — and removed a divisive symbol, peacefully and respectfully … Even our worst day, we are blessed to live in America,” she said.
Trump campaign adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle gave a six-minute address to the auditorium that was part rousing motivational speech and part fearsome warning of what to expect under a Democratic administration.
“President Trump believes in you,” said Guilfoyle, his chief fundraiser. “He emancipates and lifts you up to live your American dream. You are capable. You are qualified. You are powerful, and you have the ability to choose your life and determine your destiny.”
She continued: “Don’t let the Democrats take you for granted. Don’t let them step on you. Don’t let them destroy your families, your lives, and your future. Don’t let them kill future generations because they told you and brainwashed you and fed you lies that you weren’t good enough.”
