Donald Trump reappeared at the Republican National Convention, accompanied by a video montage of him dancing to the gay anthem “YMCA”
Kamala Harris has been repeatedly criticized (she was derisively called the failed “border czar”), a sign that she is seen as a potential replacement for embattled President Biden.
Trump's former rival Nikki Haley expressed her unconditional support in the “name of unity,” retracting her earlier animosity more quickly than JD Vance, who is now Trump's running mate and opponent.
Columnists Mark Z. Barabak and Anita Chabria were in Milwaukee and analyzed the big events from the second day of the Republican National Convention.
Chabria: The theme of Tuesday night’s convention was “making America safe again,” and there was much talk about how the “woke, Marxist left” loves crime and criminals (that was said by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana).
Calls for unity were sprinkled like confetti over each speech, but the essence didn’t change much from what we’ve been hearing from MAGA for years: America is in a Democrat-induced spiral. Johnson presented it as a choice between “the party of self-destruction” and the party of “peace and prosperity.”
At one point, a speaker suggested that Washington, D.C., was too dangerous to visit. I’m not sure when this misconception became popular (though it certainly started during the Black Lives Matter protests), but it is very popular.
The big chants of the night were “back the blue,” in support of giving more power to the police, and “build the wall.”
They very, very much want to build a wall, in large part to end the devastating devastation that addiction is inflicting on families in every state. That’s where a lot of the criticism of Harris comes from, since Biden tasked her with dealing with the border.
Who's going to tell them that most of the fentanyl doesn't cross the border on foot?
What caught your attention on Tuesday night, Mark?
Barrabac: The collective amnesia that invaded the red, white and blue convention hall.
Trump's felony conviction in the New York City election interference and hush money case was once mentioned, fleetingly, by reality TV's Savannah Chrisley.
“Donald J. Trump has one belief that matters, and that is his belief in Making America Great Again,” Chrisley said.
Others pointed to the alleged persecution of Trump, the alleged politicization of the Justice Department and the “illegal impeachment” of the former president, as New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik put it, which makes no sense at all. (Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. presided over Trump’s Senate trial and presumably would have said something if the House impeachment vote had not been legally kosher.)
But that's not terribly surprising, and one has only to wait and see: Democrats will be more than happy to discuss Trump's criminal record at length at next month's convention.
What was much more evident were the attacks on Biden, Harris and those progressive Democrats for their refusal to support the police, not the “criminals and rioters.”
January 6th? What is that?
Amid all the Democratic signs and exhortations, there was no mention of the insurrectionists — or “political prisoners,” as Trump describes them — who stormed the Capitol and beat and bloodied police, killing one officer, in a failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Chabria: But there is one thing they have not forgotten: false claims of voter fraud. While aides have a clear sense that Trump is on his way to victory, they are also laying the groundwork to challenge a Biden victory, which is no nonsense.
Trump did not speak Tuesday night, but made a video appearance in addition to his dance. In this video, he alluded to the well-worn conspiracy theory that Democrats are allowing undocumented people into the country so they can illegally vote for Biden.
This has been debunked as baseless more times than I can count, but it is considered fact in Trump world and is the justification for why January 6 was a valid protest. The lack of evidence of widespread fraud is simply seen as a sign of how clever and dangerous the Democrats are.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said Democrats had “cynically decided they wanted illegal immigrants’ votes more than protecting our children.”
In his video, Trump promised that if elected, the United States would return to using paper ballots (although election experts have repeatedly warned that paper ballots are more prone to errors and manipulation). He also called on Republicans to be on the lookout for irregularities.
“Keep your eyes open,” Trump said. “Because these people want to cheat. And they do, and frankly that’s the only thing they do well.”
What else did you take, Mark?
Barrabac: The speakers tried — they really did — to maintain a tone of being on their best behavior following Saturday's attempted assassination of Trump.
But old habits die hard.
Wisconsin Senate candidate Eric Hovde called for the country to come together and rise above partisan politics to heal the divisions created by the radical left.
Ben Carson, who served as Trump's Housing and Urban Development secretary, acknowledged that we have a president who, “Well,” he told himself, “if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.”
Others were not so limited.
Cruz echoed that loose conspiracy talk about the border, saying Democrats wanted “the votes of illegals more than protecting our children,” so murderers, rapists and sex traffickers are free to come into the country.
Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott said Republicans are fighting every day to stop radical Democrats from “destroying our country.”
And then, suddenly, the tone changed as soon as the major television networks tuned in for their hour of live coverage.
Florida's other Republican senator, Marco Rubio, gave a speech full of sweetness and light.
Lara Trump, the former president's daughter-in-law and hand-picked party co-chair, followed with a rhapsody about how there is more that unites Americans than divides us.
“We all want the country to be great,” he said seriously. We just differ on how to achieve it.
Anita, my neck hurts. Did you have the same type of whiplash?
Chabria: Yes, there's no doubt that a lot of what happened — especially in prime time, as you point out — was more for the television audience than for those in the room.
There was a clear and forceful push for those undecided voters who may have reservations about a party whose platform focuses on dismantling government and making religion law.
So rather than focusing on that, as earlier speakers did, there was a lot of talk late in the evening about how inclusive the Republican Party is (although the delegates are predominantly white and older, from what I saw).
Nowhere was that push for swing voters, especially people of color, more apparent to me than in the insane Forgiato Blow/Amber Rose rap video to “Ice Ice Baby,” played to a stunned audience. No one in the room wanted to see that.
For those who don't know Blow, he is a self-proclaimed MAGA rapper from Florida. Rose is the ex-wife of rapper Wiz Khalifa and ex-girlfriend of Kanye West. She became a MAGA a few months ago and has now become an outspoken Trump fan.
On Monday night, Rose gave a speech at the convention in which she said: “Donald Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re black, white, gay or straight; it’s all about love. And that’s when it hit me. These are my people, this is my place.”
Of course, many Trump supporters are concerned about those attributes, especially LGBTQ+ issues. Which makes it all the more disconcerting and astonishing that this video was played at all.
Vanilla Ice’s original song steals the beat from Queen and David Bowie’s song “Under Pressure.” Both Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and Bowie were gay.
I love that somehow, despite the intense push against queer American rights, Republicans managed to include the Village People (whose “YMCA” is Trump’s favorite dance song), Bowie, and Queen in their lineup.
Maybe it's a secret message.
Barrabac: But that wasn't the only thing that got weird.
Conventions are often meant as a way to get to know and introduce the presidential candidate, but for someone like Trump, who has been in the public eye for decades, that's a pretty pointless exercise.
Yet for all his familiarity, polls show the real estate developer-turned-reality-TV star-turned-president-turned-returning-candidate has never been well-liked. So parts of the convention programming have been devoted to the proposition that, yes, you may know Trump, but you don't know him. In fact know him.
Lara Trump used her primetime slot to praise the candidate as a doting grandfather and a loving father-in-law and mentor, doing a pretty good imitation of the former president calling to offer her support.
Other anecdotes were much more strange and forced.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice talked about an outdoor adventure he was on with Trump's son, Eric, when their 4×4 vehicle got a flat tire in the wilderness. And who changed the flat tire? Eric Trump!
“He taught his kids the right values,” Justice said of the Trump son's dexterity with a wrench and a jack. “Sounds like a leader to me.”
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served a stint as White House press secretary under Trump, recalled taking her 4-year-old son to work one day and how he refused a presidential hug in favor of being held in his mother's arms.
“Because he is the incredible man that he is,” Sanders said, “he didn't care at all.”
What strength! If you let a four-year-old manipulate you, how are you going to treat Vladimir Putin?
Wait. Nevermind.
