Former Donald Trump rivals for the Republican presidential nomination Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis offered full-throated endorsements of his candidacy at the party’s convention, in a display of unity days after he survived an assassination attempt.
Ms Haley, who had described Mr Trump as unfit for office during her campaign, urged her supporters to vote for him for US president over Democratic president Joe Biden “for the sake of our nation”.
“You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 per cent of the time to vote for him,” Ms Haley, a former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor, said after taking the stage to a mixture of cheers and boos. “Take it from me.”
Mr DeSantis, the conservative Florida governor whose campaign sputtered early in the year, received a warm welcome from the crowd as he attacked Mr Biden (81) as too old for the job.
His right ear bandaged after Saturday’s assassination attempt, Mr Trump applauded from his box in the arena, where sat alongside running mate US senator JD Vance. Mr Vance, himself a former fierce Trump critic who has become a staunch supporter, will headline the convention’s third night on Wednesday.
The show of harmony was intended to contrast with Democrats, who have spent weeks mired in intraparty tensions over whether Mr Biden should abandon his re-election bid after his halting June 27th debate performance against Mr Trump (78).
Many of the evening’s speeches in Milwaukee – centred on the theme of law and order – were infused with Mr Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, with speakers angrily denouncing Mr Biden’s southern border policies.
While border crossings reached record highs during Mr Biden’s tenure, arrests dropped sharply in June after the president implemented a broad asylum ban.
[ Lost Republican daughter Nikki Haley falls into the Trump adoration lineOpens in new window ]
Mr Trump has pledged to launch the largest deportation effort in US history.
Some of the heated attacks contradicted the message of national unity Mr Trump had promised to deliver after the attempt on his life at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.
But Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee, closed the night with a shift in tone, saying Americans should remember “there is more that unites us than divides us”.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on Monday and Tuesday found 80 per cent of voters – including similar shares of Republicans and Democrats – agreed “the country is spiralling out of control”.
Authorities have yet to identify a motive for the recent Pennsylvania shooting attack on Mr Trump. The gunman (20) was killed at the scene by the US secret service.
The four-day Republican convention will culminate with Mr Trump’s prime-time address on Thursday, when he formally accepts the party’s nomination to face Mr Biden in a rematch of 2020.
In his first campaign speech since the Trump assassination attempt, Mr Biden told voters in Las Vegas on Tuesday he was “all in” for re-election, again dismissing calls from some Democrats to step aside. – Reuters