Donald Trump made his case to the American people Thursday night, but he has no case to make.
All he has left are prevarications, revisionist history, racism, fear mongering and false promises, so that’s what he presented to us during a disgraceful 70-minute acceptance speech that capped the fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention.
Speaking from the White House South Lawn, one final violation of the Hatch Act during a week full of them, Trump tried to obfuscate the fact that nearly four years under his leadership has led to a nation that is poorer, sicker and weaker. Millions are unemployed, more than 180,000 people are dead as a result of an uncontained virus and our international standing is in tatters.
Showing complete disregard for the COVID-19 crisis that he has mismanaged so spectacularly, the president gathered an unmasked crowd of approximately 1,500 people to give him the adulation he requires. Like at his reckless rallies in Oklahoma, Arizona and South Dakota, the spectators were crammed together in direct opposition to public-health recommendations.
In what very well could turn into a super-spreader event, like the one in Tulsa that likely killed one-time presidential candidate Herman Cain, Trump touted his administration’s handing of the coronavirus pandemic and promised a safe-and-effective vaccine by the end of the year. Nevermind that Trump has made a living off over-promising and under-delivering, and there are no guarantees such a vaccine will materialize.
Trump’s address completed a week filled with Republican lies, and Thursday’s undercard was no different.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- whose inaction on the HEROES Act has so far cost millions of out-of-work Americans $2,400 in unrealized unemployment benefits -- told us that Biden wants to limit how many hamburgers we can eat.
Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani described Democrats as “pro-criminal” and appealed to Trump to make America safe again, as if all the chaos on our streets isn’t happening on his watch.
Ivanka Trump, America’s princess of privilege and nepotism, who weeks ago told down-on-their-luck folks to “find something new,” described her daddy as the people’s president.
When Trump took the stage, he called Joe Biden and the Democrats a party of violent anarchists, rioters, looters, criminals, radicals and socialists. He claimed if Biden was elected, crime in Democrat-run cities would spread to virtually every city and town in America, and nobody would be safe. At the same time, he described Democrats as “repressive.”
Trump continued to take credit for an expanding economy he inherited from Barack Obama, whose leadership pulled the nation out of a Great Recession given to him by the last Republican president. He said Biden was a “Trojan horse” for socialism and called him weak.
Trump lied about the COVID-19 fatality rate, falsely tied Biden with protesters who want to defund law enforcement and exaggerated how many miles of his beloved border wall have been built.
Most ridiculously, Trump reiterated his absurd claim that he has been the best president for African-Americans since Abraham Lincoln.
When it was all over, a massive display of fireworks exploded behind the Washington Monument.
“Joe Biden may claim he is an ally of the light, but his agenda will keep us totally in the dark,” Trump said.
Things can’t get much darker than they are in this country at this moment.