President Trump’s eldest son took centre stage at the launch of the Republican Party convention as he branded his father’s White House rival “the Loch Ness monster of the swamp”.
Donald Trump Jr attacked Joe Biden for his more than 40 years of public service in Washington, first as a senator and then as vice-president under Barack Obama.
“Joe Biden is basically the Loch Ness monster of the swamp,” he ranted. “For the past half-century, he’s been lurking around in there. He sticks his head up every now and then to run for president, then he disappears and doesn’t do much in between.”
Despite promising an upbeat conference against a backdrop of divisions over race and the pandemic, Republicans instead painted a dystopian picture of socialist chaos if Mr Trump is not re-elected in November.
Like the other speakers at the launch of the four-night event, Donald Jr, 42, played down the impact of the pandemic that has killed more than 180,000 people in the US, praising the President’s handling of the crisis and blaming China.
He said a Democrat win in November would destroy America’s economy. “Biden’s radical Left-wing policies would stop our economic recovery cold. He’s already talking about shutting the country down again. It’s madness,” he added.
“They put political correctness ahead of the safety and security of the American people,” he said of the Democrats. “Anarchists have been flooding our streets, and Democrat mayors are ordering the police to stand down.”
The President — who is lagging behind his rival in the polls — launched the convention with warnings that America would face a nightmare future under Mr Biden.
Mr Trump, breaking with tradition to be ever-present at the event rather than waiting for his big speech on the final night on Thursday, warned that the American dream would be dead if he is beaten.
Read More
After being formally nominated as the party’s presidential candidate, he repeated his unsubstantiated campaign claim that the Democrats would try to “steal” the election by rigging the number of postal votes.
Mr Trump also taunted critics worried he will try to do away with laws preventing more than two terms in office by telling supporters in Charlotte, North Carolina: “If you really want to drive them crazy, chant for ‘12 more years’.”
As the speeches were delivered, Democrats were busy pointing out America’s growing pandemic death toll and called on voters to remove the President from office.
The party tweeted: “Trump’s chaotic convention highlights the failed leadership of the GOP [Grand Old Party] in the White House and the Senate. They oversaw a failed pandemic response and sat on their hands as families cried out for relief.”
Republicans are making much of the decision to hold a partly “live” convention the week after Democrats stuck to a virtual format.
It will be a family affair with First Lady Melania giving the keynote speech tonight and the President’s son and daughter, Eric and Tiffany, also appearing. Ivanka Trump will introduce her father on Thursday.