Trump accepts Republican nomination from White House

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump skewered former Vice President Joe Biden during a Republican National Convention speech delivered from the White House on Thursday evening as he framed the election as a stark choice between “protecting law-abiding Americans or giving free rein to anarchists, agitators, and criminals who threaten our citizens.”

The venue infuriated Democrats and the beltway establishment figures who objected to Trump’s use of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as a cynical partisan prop but also showed a candidate unafraid to do battle in the world as Trump’s Democratic rival has been cloistered in Delaware.

“Gathered here at our beautiful and majestic White House — known all over the world as the People’s House — we cannot help but marvel at the miracle that is our great American story,” Trump said early in his acceptance speech as sirens, random noises, chants and blaring horns could be heard in the background.

“LOUDER, everyone!” tweeted Josh Richman, communications director for Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., with a reference to Democrats’ objections that the White House venue violated the Hatch Act. “It’s the people’s White House, not a backdrop for partisan campaigning.”

At the end of Trump’s remarks, fireworks lit up the sky around the Washington Monument.

Response from Titus

“It seemed as if most of the people who praised Donald Trump at the Republican convention are either related to him, employed by him, or both. They have to keep changing their line of attack on Joe Biden because nothing is sticking,” Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., responded in a statement to the Review-Journal, who panned Trump’s remarks as “one of the most low-energy speeches of his presidency.”

Some 1,500 supporters sat in the South Lawn in white chairs about a foot or two apart that faced two giant TV screens flanking a row of American flags. During a warm evening with a light breeze, few attendees wore masks.

“In Las Vegas, people are acutely feeling the effects of this public health and economic crisis and yet Republicans spent most of the week in denial. President Trump continued to downplay the pandemic, but the size of the crowd at the White House tonight was roughly equivalent to the number of people who died of COVID-19 today,” Titus said.

On the screens were a series of speakers who talked about race relations and urban riots and the importance of second chances.

Former New York mayor and Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani warned, “Don’t let Democrats do to America what they did to New York.”

Daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump introduced her father from the South Lawn as a man who “called out the Washington’s hypocrisy and they hate him for it.” Trump and first lady Melania Trump emerged from the Truman balcony as Trump stepped up to the podium.

For four nights, the convention had hammered a consistent message: Trump will tackle the pandemic while working to revive the economy. Unlike most politicians, he delivers on his promises. He is a fighter who doesn’t quit, and he offers more for Black voters and other minorities than the Democratic ticket.

Trump, Pence attack

For his part, Trump said of the Democratic nominee’s plan for the coronavirus, “Joe Biden’s plan is not a solution to the virus but rather a surrender.” Trump frequently called out Biden by name, but he did not utter the name of Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.

During a press call, Trump-Pence communications director Tim Murtaugh said that a main effort was to “change the media’s perception” of “who a Trump supporter is, what a Trump supporter believes, where they come from and how they are hopeful for the future of the country.”

On Wednesday night during his acceptance speech in Baltimore, Vice President Mike Pence warned, “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”

On that same evening, riots erupted in American cities as activists protested the Kenosha, Wisconsin, police shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, in the back as officers tried to arrest him. Blake’s father has said that his son was left paralyzed from the waist down.

A 17-year-old was arrested in connection with the Tuesday shooting deaths of two people during a night of violent protest in Kenosha despite a 7 p.m. curfew.

“Did Mike Pence forget Donald Trump is president?” Biden asked in a statement sent before the fourth night, themed “Land of Greatness,” began.

“These are not images from some imagined ‘Joe Biden’s America’ in the future,” Biden added. “These are images from Donald Trump’s America today. The violence we’re witnessing is happening under Donald Trump. Not me. It’s getting worse, and we know why. Donald Trump refuses to even acknowledge there is a racial justice problem in America.”

Fundraiser, FEMA visit

During the day, Trump attended a campaign fundraiser at the Trump International Hotel expected to haul in some $10 million, then stopped by FEMA headquarters for a briefing on Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm that surged late Wednesday into southwestern Louisiana.

Biden counterprogramming

In a strategic act of counterprogramming, the Biden campaign released a two-minute spot to air on ABC, CBS and Fox News ahead of the convention broadcast and over the weekend in battleground states, including Nevada.

“When Joe Biden is president, America is just going to have to keep up. We won’t have to wait to deal with COVID-19, he’s already got a plan. Won’t have to wait for a president on the side of working families,” said the narrator along with footage of Biden hustling on the campaign trail.

Even as Trump reached out to GOP voters, many Republicans in the party establishment announced their support for Biden. More than 100 former staffers of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and 34 alumni of the unsuccessful 2012 presidential bid of Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, released statements in which they endorsed Biden.

Also, former George W. Bush Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez released a statement signed by 42 other Bush veterans that argued, “We need Joe Biden to restore character, integrity and decency to the White House.” The letter that did not mention Trump by name.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien reiterated his belief that Nevada is in play during a Tuesday interview with Politico.

Nevada was represented by Pastor Norma Urrabazo of the International Church of Las Vegas, who opened Tuesday night’s festivities with a prayer. Also, the campaign aired footage of Trump in the White House signing a full pardon for Jon Ponder, a former bank robber who started the faith-based Hope for Prisoners program, as fellow Las Vegan Richard Beasley looked on.

UFC president Dana White was the fourth Las Vegan to appear on the convention roster Thursday night.

Conspicuously absent were elected Republican officials as social distancing measures limited who could attend Thursday’s acceptance speech.

Rep. Mark Amodei, the lone Republican in the Nevada delegation and chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign in the state, was in Nevada. But last fall, after Amodei said he was a “big fan of oversight” ahead of House impeachment hearings, the Trump campaign failed to name Amodei as chairman of the 2020 Nevada team, despite his protestations that he did not support impeaching Trump.

Representing Nevada as guests in the South Lawn to observe Trump’s acceptance speech were Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael J. McDonald and former Nevada Attorney General and Nevada Trump Campaign co-chair Adam Laxalt, who replaced Amodei as co-chairman of Trump’s Nevada effort.

Laxalt recalled the sad story of Ann Dorn, whose husband, David Dorn, a former police officer, was shot during a night of rioting, and the story of Stacia Brightmon, who went from homelessness to homeownership thanks to Ivanka Trump’s Find Something New jobs program. “I strongly believe Nevada saw a different face of President Trump and the Republican party tonight, a face that is going to win Nevada,” he told the Review-Journal.

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.