By Canadian Press

RNC, Day 2: Melania Trump takes the stage, Pompeo joins from Jerusalem

Aug 25, 2020 | 11:19 AM

WASHINGTON — Melania Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are the big headliners tonight on Day 2 of the Republican National Convention.

The election-year gathering of the U.S. Republican Party kicked off Monday with a bleak, apocalyptic vision of America under Democratic contender Joe Biden, and revisionist interpretations of President Donald Trump’s first term in office.

Guests included former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former NFL star Herschel Walker and Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters during a peaceful march in St. Louis.

Tonight, the first lady is expected to appeal to women voters, while Pompeo addresses the largely online convention with a speech from Jerusalem — a controversial move that has critics accusing the Trump administration of mixing government business with partisan priorities.

But it’s hardly the first example of Trump blurring the lines between party and country.

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The president, who is expected to feature prominently in convention events throughout the week, played talk-show host in video appearances Monday from inside the White House, and will deliver the big finale Thursday from the south lawn.

And if Monday was any indication, he has no intention of trying to bridge America’s cavernous divide between left and right. Instead, the Trump game plan seems to be to terrify supporters into getting out the vote.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who were charged with felonies for brandishing firearms at protesters outside their home, suggested the Democrats intend to wage war on wealthy white suburbs.  

“What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighbourhoods around our country,” Patricia McCloskey said. “Your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America.”

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host who’s now a prominent Trump fundraiser, accused the Democrats of turning her home state of California “into a land of discarded heroin needles in parks, riots in streets and blackouts in home.”

And Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, long a trusted Trump ally, warned Democrats plan to “disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home and invite (the gang) MS-13 to live next door.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 25, 2020.

— Follow James McCarten on Twitter @CdnPressStyle

The Canadian Press