CNN
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Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley praised America’s “remarkable ability to self-correct” in a speech at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
Haley, who until recently was a political opponent and fierce critic of former President Donald Trump, may have been speaking about herself.
On the second night of the convention in Milwaukee, less than 24 hours after a labor union leader in the same venue denounced corporate America, Haley reversed course, pledging her support for Trump and urging those who had expressed similar concerns about Trump’s return to power to consider the option of a President Joe Biden. As Republicans and the Trump campaign again tried to chip away at the former president’s rough edges, other speakers delivered more poignant messages, including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump and grieving parents who told their own families’ heartbreaking stories.
“Let me start by saying one thing: I strongly support Donald Trump. Period,” Haley said in her opening remarks, clearing away any dissenting voices and warming an audience that had previously had a lukewarm reception.
Haley’s speech, delivered the night after Trump was formally nominated, firmly put an end to any lingering opposition from some in the 2024 Republican primary field. But she was an exception if she was trying to navigate the tricky business of endorsing Trump as a candidate without endorsing all of his ideas.
Other speakers were unanimous in pledging loyalty to the former president, describing him as a self-sacrificing leader who elevated America to the highest level during his time in office only to have those achievements undone by Biden’s irresponsible administration. His former opponents praised Trump, acknowledged his mistakes and told voters that the halcyon days of Trump’s first term would seem serene compared to the promise of his second.
Here are five highlights from the second day of the Republican Convention.
Haley took to the stage at Trump’s invitation to a flurry of cheers and jeers, and she quickly tried to win over her supporters.
First she offered her full support, then delivered a “simple” message with occasional nods to the mean-spirited, if one-sided, primary battle.
“You don’t have to agree with me 100 percent of the time to vote for Donald Trump,” Haley said. “Take my word for it.”
In the 2024 primaries, Haley consistently received more than 20% approval among Republicans and won two contests, highlighting Trump’s persistent problems with moderate suburban Republicans. Haley said Tuesday she was speaking to a moderate crowd.
“For the sake of our country, we have to stand with Donald Trump,” Haley said, moments before telling delegates, “I’m here tonight because we have to save our country.”
She also made multiple crowd-pleasing remarks about Vice President Kamala Harris, spoke glowingly about President Trump’s foreign policy skills and praised his worldview.
Haley would certainly know this well, having served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations for two years.
Her takeaway from that experience? “He appreciated the advice and the opinions,” she said Tuesday.
02:20 – Source: CNN
Look who Republican National Convention Chairman Van Jones said “spoke tonight”
Haley is not the only one to have used the opportunity to ask for some sort of forgiveness from President Trump and his Republican supporters.
Former rivals who have kissed Trump’s ring include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose campaign collapsed shortly after voting began in the primary, Vivek Ramaswamy, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (who Haley endorsed in her 2016 run against Trump) and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
“Donald Trump is actually a president who will unify this country,” Ramaswami said.
Cruz, who urged a similar audience at the 2016 Republican National Convention to “vote your conscience,” focused much of his remarks on the “literal invasion” of illegal immigrants at the southern border and speaking out for the young women he said are victimized by them.
DeSantis also praised Trump but primarily called Biden a “tool of the left’s agenda” and warned against his reelection.
“America cannot afford four more years of a ‘Bernie’s Weekend’ president,” the Florida governor argued.
Christie and the “Unity” camp vs. Republican National Convention speakers
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie long ago transitioned from a key ally of President Trump to one of the former president’s most vocal Republican critics.
On Tuesday, just as the Republican National Convention speeches filled with calls for unity were about to begin, he published a striking op-ed in The New York Times calling Trump’s early attempts “to tamp down some of the worst rhetorical impulses” within the party “disappointing.”
“This is more than a momentary call for unity,” Christie wrote. “This change must go beyond this week, next month, and the November election to bring about real change. Otherwise, all we will have is a fleeting political moment.”
Inside and outside the convention, some preached unity and reconciliation, not just within the Republican Party but across an increasingly sick and angry political system, they argued. The attempted assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania last weekend meant it was time for everyone to calm down, Republicans agreed.
The memo reached many of the evening’s speakers, but not all of them.
Cari Lake, a hardline conservative candidate for the Arizona Senate, falsely claimed that her Democratic opponent, Rep. Ruben Gallego, “voted to allow millions of people who came into our country illegally to vote in this election,” and, as she always does, accused the media of lying “about everything.”
Eric Hovde, a Republican running for Senate here in Wisconsin, made a similar argument, accusing the media of “dividing us.”
“We’re here because, at the end of the day, there’s just one root to everything that’s going on in this great country right now: If Donald Trump doesn’t win in November, we’re totally screwed,” said West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, another Senate candidate.
03:36 – Source: CNN
CNN fact-checks speeches from the second day of the Republican National Convention
Lower-ranking candidates and party leaders make their case
Several Republican candidates in key House and Senate races took different approaches to making their case Tuesday night, from Lake’s combative rhetoric to Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick’s call for unity.
House Republican Leader Steve Scalise has used six words repeatedly to make his case in the fight to hold onto his party’s slim majority: “President Trump and the Republican majority…” Scalise suggested that nothing he said after that would matter unless the first two parts were secured.
Lake began his speech by decrying what he called “fake news” and the “disastrous policies of the Democratic Party.”
Hovde, following Lake’s lead, continued to blame the press for the division of the nation, saying the media “must stop dividing us.”
“We need to heal this country from the divisions that the left has created,” he said in his speech.
Meanwhile, McCormick said he was sitting in the front row at Trump’s rally on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the gunman plotted to assassinate the former president.
Later, in an interview with CNN’s Caitlin Collins, McCormick said Americans “need to be careful not to speak in ways that dehumanize people and ultimately foster an environment where violence can occur.”
Collins then asked Lake about his comments.
“I was just worried about myself. I wasn’t worried about anybody else,” McCormick said.
00:33 – Source: CNN
Matt Gaetz mocks Kevin McCarthy during Republican National Convention interview
Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and co-chair of the national party, closed the celebration with praise for the candidate and a conciliatory gesture to Democrats and independents who are intrigued by Trump.
“You don’t have to like everything he tweets,” she said of the former president, “but there’s no denying that things were better when Donald Trump was president.”
Her speech was a repeat of the 2016 Republican Convention, where Trump’s children all spoke attesting to their father’s sense of humor and self-sacrifice. She accused Democrats of trying to scare people about Trump’s reelection and alluded to concerns about the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” manifesto.
And she spoke emotionally about the attempted assassination of her father-in-law over the weekend, an incident that Lara Trump said had traumatized her and her children, but also brought out the best in an America united in horror at the shooting.
“You probably saw a side of Donald Trump on Saturday in his triumphant response to the assassination attempt,” she said, “a side you didn’t know existed until you saw it with your own eyes.”
“He’s a lion,” she said. “He’s bold, he’s strong, he’s fearless, and he’s exactly what this country needs right now.”
