CLEVELAND —
After an exciting first day, the second day of the Republican National Convention had a somewhat more subdued feeling. The event began Tuesday at 5 p.m. with the formal nomination proceedings. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Representative Chris Collins of New York both opened the evening with pro-Trump speeches that were very well received and set a celebratory tone for the awarding of the delegates. Each state announced the awarding of their delegates to the nominee after very brief and somewhat comical speeches. Delegates took the opportunity to boast about their state in prepared remarks while sneaking in jabs at rival sports teams from other states. It was a light-hearted moment for the convention after the controversial vote on the rules from the day before.
The crowd cheered as each state announced the awarding of the delegates to Donald Trump, the man they dubbed “the next president of these United States.” Trump’s family was with the New York state delegation, which waited to award their delegates until doing so would give Trump enough delegates to secure the nomination. Donald Trump, Jr., who gave the keynote address later that night, gave a speech congratulating his father before officially putting him “over the top.” The words “Over The Top” flashed on the giant television screen behind the stage as an instrumental version of “New York, New York” played over the loudspeakers and the delegates celebrated Trump’s nomination.
The energy of the night seemed to peak at that moment and appeared to wane from there. Dana White, the president of Ultimate Fighting Championship, was one of the first speakers to give a speech after the official nomination. White’s speech avoided getting into politics or anything contentious and basically just left the listener with the impression that White and Trump were friends.
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The next few speeches were so dry and uninteresting that it seemed like most of the delegates were barely paying attention. Delegates were on the floor walking around and talking as if there were a recess, even though speakers were up on the stage. Also, these later speeches did not seem to have a consistent theme, as did the speeches from the day before. The theme of the day was “Make America Work Again,” which is a play on Trump’s campaign theme of “Make America Great Again,” and was supposed to focus mostly on economic issues, but the speeches that were given were varied and inconsistent in their topics.
Chris Cox, the executive director for the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), gave an endorsement speech that focused on Second Amendment issues. Cox definitely got the delegates’ attention, and specifically criticized Hillary Clinton for her anti-gun stances:
What’s so outrageous is that for the rest of her life, Hillary Clinton will never even think about dialing 9-1-1. For thirty years, she hasn’t taken a walk, a nap or a bathroom break without a good guy with a gun there to protect her. So it’s easy for her to dismiss a right she will never have to use. But for the rest of us, the choice to own a firearm is ours to make. And in America, there cannot be one set of rules for the Clintons and another set for us.
Trump appeared in a live video feed on the big screen thanking the convention for his nomination. While Trump’s face was met with applause, the reaction was less than the day before when he first appeared on the stage as a silhouette in a memorable appearance. It was as if the crowd wanted Trump to be there in person, and anything less was a disappointment. The rest of the convention would likewise fail to meet the highs achieved the night before.
Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) gave tepid endorsement speeches for Donald Trump that avoided getting into policy specifics and mostly focused on criticizing Obama.
The recurring theme was that electing Clinton would be “Obama’s third term.” Furthermore, a strong anti-establishment feeling was evidenced by the fact that Senator McConnell got almost as many boos as cheers whenever he walked on stage. There is clearly hostility directed toward establishment Republicans when the senate majority leader is getting booed by almost half of the attendees at his own convention!
Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey fired up the crowd with an interactive speech that was structured as a closing argument in a prosecution of Hillary Clinton. After making the case of Hillary’s guilt, Christie would ask the crowd whether Hillary was “guilty or not guilty,” to which the crowd would loudly respond, “guilty!” The chant of “lock her up” broke out multiple times throughout the speech.
Much as with Melania Trump from the night before, Trump’s family was once again on stage with both his daughter, Tiffany, and son, Donald Trump, Jr., giving endorsement speeches. While Tiffany’s speech was the type you’d expect from a family member, Trump Jr.’s speech was much more. Unlike the speeches of many of the previous speakers who avoided discussing Trump’s policy positions, Donald Jr. dived into a wide range of topics from economics to national security, and argued on behalf of his father. The speech left many political pundits wondering whether Donald Jr. will follow his father’s footsteps into the political realm just as Rand Paul did after his father’s insurgent presidential campaign in 2008.
Ben Carson closed out the night reminding voters of the importance of Supreme Court appointments, which is a standard argument Republicans use to encourage disenfranchised Republicans to support the ticket even if the presidential candidate was not who they truly wanted. Speaking of Hillary Clinton, Carson reminded voters: “She [Hillary Clinton] would appoint Supreme Court justices, she would appoint federal judges, and that would have a deleterious effect on what happens for generations to come.”
The convention continues tonight with speeches from Newt Gingrich, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, and Mike Pence.
Photo of people gathering at the start of Tuesday night at the RNC: AP Images
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