Donald Trump’s former rivals for the US Republican presidential nomination, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, gave their full support to his candidacy at the party convention, in a show of unity days after the former president survived an assassination attempt.
Haley, who described Trump as unfit for office during his campaign, urged his supporters to vote for him over Democratic President Joe Biden “for the good of our nation.”
“You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him,” said Haley, a former UN ambassador and former governor of South Carolina, after taking the stage to a mix of applause and boos.
“I will start by making one thing very clear. Donald Trump has my strong support, period”, declared the former candidate.
If we have four more years of Biden or a single day of Harris. Our country will be much worse. For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump.
Nikki Haley
“I’m here tonight because we have a country to save. And a unified Republican Party is essential to saving it.”
DeSantis, the conservative governor of Florida whose campaign failed earlier this year, received a warm welcome from the crowd as he attacked Biden, 81, as too old for the job.
While the governor spent the GOP primary trying to make his case against another Trump presidency, on stage he urged Americans to support the former president.
Repeating one of his signature popular speech lines, “We’re going to send Joe Biden back to his basement,” DeSantis added, “And we’re going to send Donald Trump back to the White House.”
Donald Trump, he was demonized. He was sued. He was sued. And he almost lost his life. We can’t let him down, and we can’t let America down.
Ron DeSantis
Although DeSantis frequently criticized Trump for failing to complete the border wall, DeSantis said, “Our border was more secure under the Trump administration.”
With his right ear bandaged after Saturday’s assassination attempt, Trump cheered from his box in the arena, where he sat next to his running mate, Senator JD Vance.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders praised Trump, declaring that “not even an assassin’s bullet could stop him.”
During his speech, Huckabee Sanders repeatedly claimed that divine intervention saved Trump from an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“God spared President Trump from that killer because God is not done with him yet,” said the former White House press secretary.
Vice running mate Vance, himself a former fierce Trump critic turned staunch supporter, will headline the third night of the convention this Wednesday (17).
Vance will accept his nomination and speak at the convention this Wednesday night. His speech will focus heavily on his personal life story, a source with direct knowledge of his comments told CNN.
Undercurrents are already circulating that Vance is seen as the torchbearer of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement.
The show of harmony was intended to contrast with Democrats, who have spent weeks mired in internal tensions over whether Biden should abandon his re-election bid following his poor performance in the June 27 debate – aired by CNN – against Trump, 78 years old.
Many of the evening’s speeches in Milwaukee — centered on the theme of law and order — were infused with Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, with speakers angrily denouncing Biden’s southern border policies.
Kari Lake and Bernie Moreno, who are running in key U.S. Senate races in Arizona and Ohio, respectively, and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, called the influx of migrants an “invasion.”
While border crossings reached record levels during Biden’s tenure, arrests fell sharply in June after the president implemented a sweeping asylum ban.
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Donald Trump was applauded during the second night of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday (16). Credit:
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On Monday night, Trump also attended the Republican rally at the Fiserv Forum arena in Wisconsin. Credit: Reuters
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Trump is expected to formally accept the party’s nomination in a speech on Thursday (July 18) Credit: Reuters
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Trump was in the box, alongside Republican Party representatives Elise Stefanik, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump’s son Eric Trump and Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, among others. Credit: Reuters
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Accompanied by at least seven Secret Service agents, the Republican candidate took his place alongside his running mate, J.D. Credit: Reuters
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The former president’s appearance on Monday (15) marked the first time he was seen following the assassination attempt on him at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday (13). Credit: Reuters
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The former president and his newly appointed vice president are expected to appear together nightly at the Republican National Convention, a source familiar with their plans told CNN. Credit: Reuters
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Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, was also present at the convention on Tuesday night (16). Credit: Reuters
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Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, was also present at the convention on Tuesday night (16). Credit: Reuters
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Trump arrived at the Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee moments before his former presidential rivals, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, gave their speeches. Credit: Reuters
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Trump will face Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 election. Credit: Reuters
Anne Fundner, a mother whose teenage son died of a fentanyl overdose, said she held Democrats accountable.
The family of Rachel Morin, a Maryland woman who authorities say was raped and killed by a Salvadoran immigrant who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally several times, also blamed Biden’s policies.
Trump highlighted Morin’s murder on the campaign trail, where he frequently demonizes migrants as violent criminals. Studies show that immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans.
Trump has vowed to launch the largest deportation effort in US history.
Some of the heated attacks contradicted the message of national unity that Trump had promised to deliver following the attempt on his life at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
But Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee, ended the night with a change of tone, saying Americans should remember that “there are more things that unite us than divide us.”
Yet in the wake of the shooting, voters’ fears about the deeply polarized nation ahead of the Nov. 5 election appear to have only increased.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on Monday and Tuesday found that 80% of voters — including similar shares of Republicans and Democrats — agreed that “the country is spiraling out of control.”
Authorities have not yet identified a motive for the shooting. The 20-year-old shooter was killed at the scene by the US Secret Service.
In his first campaign speech since the assassination attempt, Biden told black voters in Las Vegas on Tuesday that he was “completely interested” in re-election, again ignoring calls from some Democrats for him to resign.
The four-day convention will culminate with Trump’s prime-time speech this Thursday, when he will formally accept the party’s nomination to face Biden in a 2020 rematch.
On Monday night, Trump also attended the Republican rally at the Fiserv Forum arena in Wisconsin. The former president’s appearance marked the first time he was seen following the assassination attempt on him at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday (13).
On the first day of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump was announced as the presidential candidate and Ohio Senator JD Vance was announced as his running mate.
The former president and his newly appointed vice president are expected to appear together nightly at the Republican National Convention, a source familiar with their plans told CNN.
Trump is expected to speak on Thursday (18) and accept his nomination as the party’s presidential candidate.
Donald Trump. Jr said his father “softened” the comments in his speech after the weekend’s attempted murder.
Trump and Vance will also hold a rally in Michigan, a swing state, on Saturday (20).
(With input from Kit Maher of CNN; and Joseph Ax, Tom Rowe and Jose Pablo Diaz of Reuters)
