Trump secures votes for renomination as president

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U.S. President, Donald J Trump
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With cheers of “four more years” and several standing ovations, Republicans here nominated President Trump for a second term with unanimous support. The president crossed the delegate threshold when the roll call got to New York.

“We have crime ravaging our streets,” New York Republican Party chairman Nick Langworthy said as the state delivered its 94 delegates. “That is what America will see if a Biden-Harris regime runs our country.”

Unlike the Democrats’ virtual showcase last week, Republicans held their roll call in person.

“Only President Trump will eliminate the coronavirus and rebuild the economy,” North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley said at the start of the roll call.

Some delegation leaders loaded their remarks with praise for the president and criticism of the Democratic ticket. Arkansas’s delegation added that in 2016, Trump had defeated “former resident Crooked Hillary,” Alabama’s delegation touted that its voters had the “highest approval of President Trump” of any state, and Arizona’s delegation praised the “miles and miles and miles of big, beautiful wall” built by the president.

“He isn’t defunding the police; he is defending the police,” said Florida GOP chairman Joe Gruters, introduced as the party leader in Trump’s adopted home state. “Americans want an operator at the other end of that 911 call.”

Other delegations talked up their history, or the job growth they’d seen before the pandemic, confidently talking about how the president would restore it. David Bossie, a presidential ally and RNC committeeman from Maryland, described the state as “home to the Underground Railroad,” while MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, leading Minnesota’s delegation, said that “disastrous Democratic leadership” had been exposed by this summer’s unrest. The pandemic was sometimes shorthanded as the “China plague” and “Wuhan virus,” and other Republicans often got praise from the floor.

“They have completely transformed our judicial system,” said Kentucky RNC committee member KC Crosbie, touting both Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Just imagine what they can do in another term.”

The roll call, which typically occurs on the Tuesday of a four-day convention week, had been moved up to keep some party business in Charlotte before prime-time RNC programming anchored in Washington. Delegates paused midway through to hear from Vice President Pence, who hinted that the president would stop by before his speech in western North Carolina this afternoon. (Washington Post)

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