President rails against Joe Biden in dark address
Crowd prompts fears over Covid-19 spread
Protesters gather outside White House on convention’s final night
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Republican national convention: Trump accepts presidential nomination
Key events
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10.39pm EDT22:39
Trump’s speech continues dark tone of Republican convention
10.31pm EDT22:31
Trump accepts Republican presidential nomination
10.24pm EDT22:24
Trump takes the stage to accept Republican nomination
10.10pm EDT22:10
Ivanka Trump introduces her father at convention
10.00pm EDT22:00
Alice Johnson praises Trump for her commutation
9.47pm EDT21:47
Giuliani falsely accuses BLM of having ‘hijacked peaceful protests’
9.22pm EDT21:22
Protesters gather outside White House on last night of RNC
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11.22pm EDT23:22
Trump made his first reference to the unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as protests continue over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
But the president did not mention the name of Blake, who was repeatedly shot in the back by Kenosha police officers.
Instead, like other convention speakers this week, Trump condemned “the rioting, looting, arson and violence we have seen in Democrat-run cities.”
11.22pm EDT23:22
During the Democrat Convention, the words “Under God” were removed from the Pledge of Allegiance – not once, but twice,” Trump said. “The fact is, this is where they are coming from.”
The fact is, that is a bit misleading.
During the DNC, several caucuses were organized alongside the main convention.
At the LGBTQ Caucus Meeting and at the Muslim Delegates and Allies Assembly, the words “under God” were omitted
But during the primetime DNC broadcasts, the full Pledge of Allegiance was recited with the word God.
– Maanvi Singh
11.20pm EDT23:20
Ann Dorn, the widow of officer David Dorn who addressed the convention earlier tonight, is in the audience for Trump’s speech at the White House.
The president recounted how Dorn was fatally shot during unrest in St Louis earlier this year.
“To each of you: we will never forget the heroic legacy of Captain David Dorn,” Trump said.
11.15pm EDT23:15
“Days after taking office,” Trump said, his administration “ended the unfair and very costly Paris climate accord.”
That is not what happened.
Trump served notice that the US would withdraw from the Paris climate accord in 2019, not the day after he took office in 2017. Due to the accord’s rule of withdrawal, the US will not officially exit the agreement until 4 November this year.
Read the Guardian’s Climate Countdown series, which spotlights what the withdrawal will mean for the US:
– Maanvi Singh
Updated
at 11.16pm EDT
11.15pm EDT23:15
Repeating a line from one of his campaign commercials, Trump said, “No one will be safe in Biden’s America.”
Amid nationwide protests against racism and police brutality, the president added, “My administration will always stand with the men and women of law enforcement.”
Mike Pence delivered a similar line in his convention speech last night, and Biden responded to the vice-president in a statement today.
“Did Mike Pence forget Donald Trump is president? Is Donald Trump even aware he’s president?” Biden said in the statement.
“These are not images from some imagined ‘Joe Biden’s America’ in the future. These are images from Donald Trump’s America today. The violence we’re witnessing is happening under Donald Trump.”
Updated
at 11.15pm EDT
11.11pm EDT23:11
Trump blamed Joe Biden and the Democratic party for the recent power outages in California amid an intense heatwave.
“How can Joe Biden claim to be an ally of the light when his own party can’t even keep the lights on?” Trump said, prompting laughter from the crowd gathered on the South Lawn.
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at 11.16pm EDT
11.08pm EDT23:08
Trump promised that a coronavirus vaccine would be developed by the end of this year.
“We will have a safe and effective vaccine this year, and together we will crush the virus,” the president said.
There are multiple vaccine candidates that are currently being developed, and Dr Anthony Fauci has previously said he is cautiously optimistic a coronavirus vaccine will be approved by the end of this year or early next year.
11.07pm EDT23:07
Here’s what Trump said on economic relief for Americans affected by the coronavirus crisis:
We enacted the largest package of financial relief in American history. Thanks to our Paycheck Protection Program, we have saved or supported more than 50 million American jobs. As a result, we have seen the smallest economic contraction of any major western nation, and we are recovering much faster. Over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, a new record.
A bit of context here:
The PPP program expired, and the Trump administration and Republicans couldn’t make a deal with congressional Democrats to extend the program.
The US gained 9m jobs, after losing 22m as the pandemic hit.
– Maanvi Singh
Updated
at 11.13pm EDT
11.04pm EDT23:04
“We are focusing on the science, the facts and the data” on coronavirus, Trump said.
Trump has not been doing that. The Trump administration has continuously undermined science and facts in its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Here’s my explainer from a while back:
Play Video
5:28
From miracle cures to slowing testing: how Trump has defied science on coronavirus – video explainer
– Maanvi Singh
11.01pm EDT23:01
After Democrats spent a week highlighting Joe Biden’s empathy and compassion, Trump used his convention speech to dismiss the importance of such character traits.
“The laid off workers in Michigan, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and many other states didn’t want Joe Biden’s hollow words of empathy, they wanted their jobs back,” Trump said.
Over the past four nights, a number of Trump’s advisers and family members have tried to paint him as a compassionate president, although those comments generally lacked examples of such behavior.
10.59pm EDT22:59
Trump said he “passed VA Accountability and VA Choice”. He did not.
President Barack Obama signed the Veterans Choice Act in 2014. Trump expanded it, under a 2018 law called the Mission Act.
– Maanvi Singh
Updated
at 11.15pm EDT
10.57pm EDT22:57
Trump continued his attacks against Joe Biden, painting the Democrat’s long career in government as a string of failures.
“Biden’s record is a shameful roll call of the most catastrophic betrayals and blunders in our lifetime,” Trump said. “He has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history.”
The president has already mentioned Biden’s name dozens of times in his convention speech, which is noteworthy given Biden never once said Trump’s name in his speech last week.
10.55pm EDT22:55
Some quick fact checks:
Donald Trump said this is the first time in 20 years that Nato members have increased spending. The president likes to repeat this false claim. But he’s still wrong: Nato Europe and Canada increased defense spending in 2015 and 2016, before Trump took office.
Trump touted the southern border wall, saying that 300 miles were built. That more or less true, if embellished – there’s new wall across about 245 miles of the border – but only thirty miles of wall has been erected where there was no barrier before.
– Maanvi Singh
Updated
at 10.57pm EDT
10.53pm EDT22:53
Trump repeated his outlandish claim that he has done more for the African American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln.
He added, “I have done more in three years for the black community than Joe Biden has done in 47 years.”
Trump apparently believes his accomplishments for African Americans exceed those of, for example, the Democratic president Lyndon Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Updated
at 10.55pm EDT
10.48pm EDT22:48
Trump praised his own record on a wide range of issues, exaggerating his accomplishments and spewing a number of falsehoods.
On immigration, Trump said, “The wall will soon be complete and it’s working beyond our wildest expectations.”
That is not true. The border wall is nowhere near complete, and Trump has built very few new miles of the wall. More
