WASHINGTON — A rising generation of Republican stars offered an optimistic view of President Donald Trump's leadership but presented serious warnings about the country’s future, on the opening night of the GOP's scaled-back convention.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senate’s sole Black Republican, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, highlighted the party’s diversity.
“I was a brown girl in a black and white world,” Haley said Monday night, noting that she faced discrimination but rejecting the idea that “America is a racist country.” She also gave a nod to the Black Lives Matter movement, saying “of course we know that every single Black life is valuable.”
But the prime-time convention proceedings, which featured a blend of taped and live speeches, painted the policies of Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic challenger in the November election, as leading to violence in American cities spilling into the suburbs. One speaker called Trump the “bodyguard of Western civilization."
Trump’s team highlighted multiple themes over the course of the night. They featured optimism from those who could represent the GOP’s future, and made the case for Biden as a vessel for socialists and far-left Democrats.
One of several African Americans on Monday night's schedule, former football star Herschel Walker, defended the president against those who call him a racist.
“It hurts my soul to hear the terrible names that people call Donald,” Walker said. “The worst one is ‘racist.’ I take it as a personal insult that people would think I would have a 37-year friendship with a racist.”
Others warned of misguided threats to middle-America amid protests that turned violent. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple charged with felonies while protecting their properties from what prosecutors deemed non-violent Black Lives Matter protesters, spoke passionately about growing threats.
“What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country,” Patricia McCloskey said.
“They’ve actually charged us with felonies for daring to defend our home,” her husband said.
And Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said Democrats will "disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home and invite MS-13 to live next door.”
Trump's political future may depend on his ability to convince voters that America is on the right track, as the coronavirus pandemic forced economic shutdowns.
A deep sense of pessimism has settled over the electorate. Just 23% of Americans think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.