Trump seeks to reboot struggling campaign with a 'hopeful' convention
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[August 24, 2020]
By Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw
WASHINGTON/CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Reuters) -
Republicans will make their case this week that the United States'
economic and political future depends on the re-election of Donald Trump
at a party convention designed to highlight his pre-pandemic record as
president and sow doubt about opponent Joe Biden.
Against the backdrop of a coronavirus pandemic that has killed https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA/0100B5K8423/index.html
over 175,000 Americans, and an ensuing recession that has seen the loss
of millions of jobs and Trump's erosion in the polls, Republicans plan a
partly virtual, partly in-person extravaganza https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-convention-people-factbo/factbox-who-is-speaking-at-the-republican-national-convention-and-why-idUSKBN25J0RI
studded with Trump family members that features the president speaking
every night.
The four-day convention will focus on the highlights of Trump's first
term and a promise to do more in a second, said White House and party
officials, who did not provide details about his policy plans.
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The event follows last week's Democratic National Convention that
nominated Biden, a former vice president, and running mate Senator
Kamala Harris. The Democrats, originally scheduled to gather in
Milwaukee, held the first-ever virtual convention because of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Biden, 77, is leading Trump, 74, in opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 3
election. Biden and his fellow Democrats portrayed Trump as a force for
darkness, chaos and incompetence, while stressing the Democrats'
diversity and values like "empathy" and "unity."
Republicans said their convention would offer a more hopeful message,
with an emphasis on "law and order," gun rights, tax cuts and the
"forgotten" men and women of America.
"We definitely want to improve the mood, the dour, sour mood from this
week at the DNC," White House counselor and former Trump campaign
manager Kellyanne Conway told reporters on Friday. "We need to be lifted
up. We need to hear more optimism and hopefulness."
But with the pandemic not yet under control, good news has been in short
supply for Trump and his party. His performance as president was sharply
criticized by Biden and former President Barack Obama at the Democratic
convention, which the party considered a huge success.
Trump continues to receive low marks from the public on his handling of
the virus. Biden's campaign said Trump and his allies would attempt to
change the subject.
"What (voters) will hear from Donald Trump this week are the last things
our country needs: more desperate, wild-eyed lies and toxic division in
vain attempts to distract from his mismanagement," said Biden spokesman
Andrew Bates.
"What they won't hear is what American families have urgently needed and
been forced to go without for over seven consecutive months: any
coherent strategy for defeating the pandemic," Bates said.
LIVE EVENTS, WHITE HOUSE STAGE
The president, a former reality television star, plans to hold several
live events with in-person audiences during the Republican
convention, in contrast to Democrats, who showed pre-taped segments or
delivered speeches in mostly empty venues to avoid the spread of the
coronavirus.
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![](../images/082420PIX/news_a1.jpg)
President Donald Trump arrives to speak in Arlington,
Virginia, U.S., August 21, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
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Trump will travel on Monday to North Carolina, the originally
scheduled convention venue, where some activities are still slated
to take place. His nightly speeches are a break from both parties'
tradition, in which the nominee takes a low profile ahead of the
acceptance speech on the last night of the convention.
The contrast between Trump and Biden is "overwhelming," Pennsylvania
Republican Chairman Lawrence Tabas said on Sunday while attending
the party's summer conference in Charlotte. Trump "is vigorous,
optimistic and dynamic. In Biden’s speech, he was dull and did not
seem to have the energy, the spirit or the optimism."
On Tuesday, Trump's wife, Melania, will give a speech from the White
House, while Vice President Mike Pence follows on Wednesday from
Baltimore's Fort McHenry historic site.
Trump will accept his party's nomination on Thursday night from the
White House South Lawn with a large crowd in attendance, a location
that has been criticized by Democrats as a partisan use of public
property.
“Trump has four days to make two cases: One is 'we know what we are
doing and have done a great job, obviously interrupted by the
virus,'" said Constantin Querard, president of Grassroots Partners,
an Arizona-based conservative political consultancy.
"And then you have to knock the Democratic ticket for being as
far-left as they are," he said.
BASHING BIDEN
Trump, who uses nicknames and pejorative descriptions to demean his
opponents, previewed his attacks on Biden, whom he frequently
derides as "Sleepy Joe," in a rebuttal address after the Democratic
convention finished last week.
"Joe Biden grimly declared a season of American darkness. And yet,
look at what we've accomplished. Until the plague came in, look at
what we've accomplished," Trump told supporters on Friday. "Where
Joe Biden sees American darkness, I see American greatness."
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Peter Trubowitz, a professor at the U.S. center of the London School
of Economics, said he expected Republicans to launch "a
full-throated attack on Biden’s fitness to be president" throughout
the convention.
"It will be less about his age ... and more about questioning his
'independence' from Democratic constituencies that the Trump
campaign is defining as 'radical,' 'socialist,' and a threat to law
and order,' he wrote.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington and Jarrett Renshaw in
Charlotte, North Carolina; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal,
Heather Timmons and James Oliphant; Editing by Heather Timmons and
Peter Cooney)
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