The media has panned President Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Thursday night, seeing it as not being reconciliatory enough in the wake of the assassination attempt.
Trump spent the first half of his speech talking about his miraculous survival and calling for national unity. He only mentioned the word “Biden” once and spoke calmly throughout the speech.
But that wasn’t enough for the media, who apparently expected a presidential acceptance speech at a national party convention to contain no partisan content whatsoever.
The CNN panel asserted, without evidence, that Trump’s attacks on Democrats and “partisan witch hunt” would alienate voters.
A gleeful Van Jones made a particularly rude remark: “Trump averted a crisis on Saturday. Democrats averted a crisis tonight.”
President Joe Biden Inaugural AddressWith the nation’s capital surrounded by armed guards and a barbed wire fence around the Capitol, he used the word “unity” eight times, but also spoke out against “political extremism, white supremacy, [and] He called it “domestic terrorism,” implying that the label was a reference to his Republican opponent and to Trump, and he divided the country into good and evil, calling for unity against the latter.
The media praised Biden’s speech because they agreed with it. Clearly, the privilege of rallying the country around a common goal while calling for national unity is something only Democrats enjoy.
There is no contradiction in calling for unity and at the same time urging Americans to fight. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) Said Wednesday’s speech contained one of the most memorable lines of the entire convention:
Now, wounded and bloody, we must stand up and fight. We must fight, not with violence and destruction, but with our voices and our votes. We must fight not against each other, but for the hopes and dreams we share and that unite us. And we must fight for an America that is safe from those who would seek to harm us in our streets and abroad. And we are not alone in this fight, for leading us in this fight is a man who stood up, wounded and in the face of danger, raised his fist, and reminded us that our people and our country are always worth fighting for.
It was clear during Trump’s speech on Thursday that the near-death experience of the assassination attempt had changed him. In fact, viewers could see the change in his face all week. He was scheduled to make a spectacular appearance on Thursday evening, but instead he rescheduled to attend each day of the convention, where he sat and listened to everyone speak.
He continued to be combative in his speeches, attacking the opposition and the media.
But he also revealed a very personal and vulnerable side, confessing his secrets to the public: “I’m going to tell you exactly what happened. You’ll never hear from me again, because it’s too painful to talk about.”
He kissed the helmet of the late firefighter Corey Comperatore, who died in a hail of bullets, an intimate act rarely seen by men in public.
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump kisses the helmet of Cory Comperatore during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Thursday, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Luke)
That wasn’t enough for the media, who seemed to hope that the assassination attempt would change Trump’s thinking, as if the shooting served some noble purpose.
“This was billed as a completely rewritten speech focused on unity, and there’s no denying that the opening was certainly compelling,” said CNN’s Caitlin Collins. Complained“Then we got to the halfway point and it sounded like a regular, typical Trump rally that you would have before Saturday.”
In fact, that was a good thing: Trump supporters needed to hear something familiar to know he was OK.
If Trump hadn’t been Trump – if he’d simply spoken about unity and then ended his speech 20 minutes later – the media would have assumed the bullets had weakened him and voters would have wondered what happened to him.
While the assassin’s motive is said to be unknown, the media has attempted to use the shooting for their own purposes.
That is exactly what Trump is fighting.
Joel B. Pollack is executive editor of Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday The show airs Sunday nights from 7 to 10 p.m. (4 to 7 p.m. ET) on SiriusXM Patriot. He is the author of “Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” which is available for preorder on Amazon. He also wrote,Trumpian virtue: The lessons and legacy of Donald Trump’s presidency” is available on Audible. He is the 2018 recipient of the Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter. Joel Pollack.
