Milwaukee
CNN
—
On Thursday night, thousands of supporters chanted “Fight, fight, fight” and pumped their fists as Donald Trump basked in the love of the new Republican Party he built and hailed as a God-touched superhero.
Far away, Joe Biden lay sick and alone in his Delaware beach house as the party he led to victory just four years ago turned against the 81-year-old president, raising the prospect of a humiliating final chapter in his storied political career.
Trump and Biden have been engaged in a bitter political feud since seven years ago, when Biden vowed to launch a battle for the soul of the nation as white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, Virginia.
Their fates diverged Thursday: Trump accepted a united party’s nomination confident he was headed for victory in November’s election, but Democrats were divided, with some worried their own president could lead them to a major defeat after a disastrous debate performance three weeks ago sent his reelection campaign into a tailspin.
Trump spoke on the final night of the Republican National Convention, after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt and at the end of a week he may not have lived to see, in the second stunning development in three weeks in an abruptly transformed campaign.
“Just a few days ago, my journey with you came to an end, I know that,” Trump said. “And yet we gather here tonight, speaking of the promise of the future and the total renewal of this thing we love so much called the America,” he declared.
“We live in a world of miracles.”
The former president displayed rare vulnerability and remorse as he wistfully recounted the terrifying moments of the attack at a Pennsylvania park on Saturday. “I should not have been here tonight,” Trump told the crowd, which erupted into a spontaneous chorus of “Yes, yes, you guys!”
Tears welled up in the eyes of fans in the upper stands of the Milwaukee Bucks arena as Trump said he heard a “loud whoosh” and felt something “hit me really hard on my right ear.” He said he survived because “God was on my side.”
All this week, Republicans have been crafting a story of some doomed iron man who will pull a wounded America out of the mire, just as he rose from the brink of death, bloodied and raising his fist in defiance.
But Trump’s aides promised that their candidate had changed in the aftermath of the shooting that wounded his right ear, and that he would respond to the breath of new life with a message of national reconciliation and unity. And early in his remarks, Trump laid out his vision of national renewal: “The divisions and rifts in our society must be healed. As Americans, we are bound by a single destiny and a common destiny. We will rise together, or we will fall apart.”
But the new Trump was back to his old self within minutes. In no time, the former president was rambling about weaponizing justice, falsely claiming that foreign countries were shipping psychiatric patients across the U.S. border, and accusing Democrats of stealing the election.
Trump then tried to recreate the dystopian atmosphere of his impassioned 2016 convention speech, but the comparison to that tense night in Cleveland eight years ago underscored that Trump is eight years older and no longer as ferociously eloquent as he once was.
After all, Trump’s usual speeches full of lies and rhetoric that alienates moderates have made him deeply unpopular with half of the American people.
The former president and would-be president painted a nostalgic, idealized vision of his own term in office, accusing Biden of leading a country into deep division and economic decline with his own hands. He warned that perceived weakness abroad created great danger. “The planet is on the brink of World War III and it will be the first war we’ve ever had,” Trump said.
On a night dedicated to unity, the divisive nature of Trump’s undercard speech weakened his message and hinted at the hardline authoritarian undercurrent of the “Make America Great Again” movement that could characterize a second term for a former president who believes he has a right to unchecked power. Wrestler Hulk Hogan portrayed Trump as a developing Third World dictator wielding power without accountability.
“You criminals, you vile people, you vile people … what are you going to do when Donald Trump and his supporters come after you?” Hogan yelled.
In an election that can be won by galvanizing the Republican base, Trump’s tough talk may serve a purpose, along with the appointment of new MAGA favorite J.D. Vance as his running mate. But it’s hard to see how it would satisfy swing voters, and at a tedious hour and 32 minutes, it was well beyond primetime. And for Americans wondering how to pay for their health care, afford a home or send their kids to college, it offered no new details about what Trump would actually do in a second term.
Trump’s limp speech in the vast arena was far less persuasive than many of his rallies and the most disorganized, off-script moment of the entire convention. To be fair, he had just survived an assassination attempt. But in a campaign where Biden’s age has increasingly highlighted the vulnerabilities of his age, Trump at times looked like a 78-year-old himself. And his ramblings may serve as encouragement to Democrats, who believe a more energetic candidate could thwart Biden’s hopes of a second comeback as a defeated one-term president.
And combined with Biden’s predicament, it may have been the clearest indication of one of the election’s defining features: Americans are utterly unimpressed with either option.
The speech came after a day of extraordinary unrest in Biden’s reelection campaign, which has stalled after his poor debate performance confirmed the concerns of millions of voters who question whether he is fully eligible to serve a second term that ends at age 86.
Biden’s coronavirus infection forced him to retreat to his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, this week, deepening his political quagmire and coming at a time when many White House and campaign officials believe the president will have to abandon his bid for a second term.
“The next 72 hours are critical,” one Democratic governor in close contact with party leaders told aides on Thursday. “We can’t go on much longer.”
“People can see and feel the wall coming in,” one Democratic official said, CNN reported.
Another senior Democratic official close to the White House said Biden has been “very isolated and detached” since the June 27 CNN debate in Atlanta.
In a major sign of the party’s concern about the lower-ranking candidate, Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, who faces the toughest reelection of any incumbent, became the latest Democratic caucus member to say Biden should step aside.
“I have worked with President Biden to strengthen Montana and have never been afraid to stand up to him when he’s wrong. While I appreciate his public service and commitment to our country, I do not believe President Biden should seek reelection.”
Biden continues to maintain he is the Democratic Party’s favorite to beat Trump, and his keynote speech at the convention on Thursday made it look like he could indeed beat the former president.
But events increasingly suggest the task may fall to another Democrat, one who has yet to be identified.
