Donald Trump’s coronation because the Republican presidential the nominee continues on Wednesday evening with a convention address by his faithful lieutenant,
Vice-President Mike Pence, and a number of other
Republican rising stars, as unrest in Wisconsin following the police shooting
of Jacob, Blake threatens to overshadow the choreographed proceedings.
Pence is thanks to speaking from Fort McHenry in Baltimore,
where the raising of the American flag during the war of 1812 inspired Francis
Scott Key to write down the poem that might later become The American flag.
His speech is predicted’ to stress his belief that standing
during the anthem may be a sign of respect, a rejection of these who prefer to
kneel in protest against racism and police brutality.
The vice-president will speak just hours after a curfew was
instituted’ in Kenosha, where protests sparked by Blake’s shooting are entering
their fourth night. A white 17-year-old was arrested’ after two protesters were
shot’ dead on Tuesday night.
The NBA postponed three playoff games after the Milwaukee
Bucks refused to require the ground on Wednesday evening, prompting teams and
players across the league to hitch the boycott during a dramatic stand against
racial injustice.
Trump and his political allies have used the occasion of this
week’s Republican national convention to strengthen the image of Trump as a
“law and order” president, who will protect Americans from rising crime and
violent demonstrators that threaten to disrupt their way of life. Those appeals
have often clashed with reality, as most Americans say they afflict his
handling of the Black Lives Matter protests and trust his Democratic
presidential opponent, Joe Biden, on race relations.
Yet the Trump campaign is seizing on the consecutive nights
of looting and violence that has unfolded alongside peaceful protests against
police brutality in Kenosha, where police shot Blake, a 29-year-old Black man,
during a confrontation that was captured’ on camera.
How voters there answer, the unrest could determine whether
the president is re-elected: Wisconsin is one among the foremost fiercely
contested battleground states this election and in 2016 Trump was the primary
Republican to hold Kenosha county in decades.
During his remarks, Pence is predicted to hammer the message
of “law and order”, intended to appeal to suburban voters who have turned far
away from the party since Trump’s election.
Earlier on Wednesday, Biden said he had spoken to the Blake
family and promised that’ “justice must and can be done” while also condemning
“needless violence”. Trump has not commented directly on the episode, but said
on Twitter: “We won't represent looting, arson, violence, and lawlessness on
American streets.”
In a statement on Wednesday night, White House press
secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, Trump “condemns violence altogether forms and
believes we must protect all Americans from chaos and lawlessness” and
encourages “Democrat governors to request the National Guard and federal
enforcement to reinforce their local enforcement efforts.”
Pence, who leads the White House’s coronavirus task force, is
additionally expected to extol the president’s handling of the coronavirus
pandemic, which has killed nearly 180,000 Americans and infected quite 5.8m.
So far, speakers at the Republican convention have offered
revisionist testimonials about Trump’s management of the outbreak, falsely
casting him as a pacesetter who never doubted the severity of the virus and
whose decisive, early actions staved off a way worse outcome.
But their telling is belied by Trump’s own words, during
which he has repeatedly minimized the threat of the virus, ignored the
recommendation of public health officials, promoted unproven medical cures and
vacillated on mask-wearing.
Also appearing on Wednesday: Pence’s wife, Karen Pence, also
as Kelly Anne Conway, one among Trump’s closest and longest-serving advisers
who announced in the week that she is going to depart from her role at the top
of the month.
Absent from an updated speaking list provided by organizers
was Jack Brewer, a former footballer and a member of Black Voices for Trump,
after NPR reported that he had been charged with trading by the US Securities
and Exchange Commission earlier this month.
And Trump’s campaign announced that the Goya CEO, Robert
Unanue, would not speak at the convention, citing a logistical problem.
Unanue’s praise of the president sparked backlash and a public boycott of the
corporate by prominent Latino activists.
The action provoked a counter-protest by Trump supporters,
including the president’s daughter Ivanka, who experts said violated federal
ethics laws when she posted a photograph of herself posing with a can of Goya
beans.
The changes follow a series of scheduling missteps earlier in
the week that has raised questions on how seriously organizers are vetting
speakers.
On Tuesday, organizers abruptly canceled an appearance by
“Angel Mom” Mary Ann Mendoza, after she directed her Twitter followers to
research an antisemitic conspiracy theory hours before her segment was thanks
to air.
Still, Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood employee
turned anti-abortion activist was permitted to talk after The 19th unearthed
recent tweets during which she embraced household voting, a practice allowing
only the typically male “head of the household” to cast a choose election,
thus potentially barring women from voting.
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