Tag: 2020 RNC convention

RNC vs. DNC Ratings: Kamala Harris Draws 5.7 Million More Viewers Than Mike Pence

Someone start playing the Rocky theme music because the DNC’s ratings might have just delivered the knockout punch to the RNC score. Viewership for the Republican National Convention fell on its third night, in sharp contrast to the gains the DNC saw last week for Night 3. 

According to early Nielsen numbers, about 15.7 million viewers watched the Republican National Convention during the 10 p.m. hour across six networks: Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, and CBS. That’s down about 2.3 million viewers from the previous night, which featured a speech from First Lady Melania Trump. By comparison, the Democratic National Convention pulled 21.4 million viewers across those same six networks on Night 3, which was up 2.2 million from its previous night’s viewership numbers.

The RNC’s big Night 3 speaker was President Donald Trump‘s running mate and Vice President Mike Pence. Pence spoke about the administration’s support of the families in the path of hurricane Laura and its dedication to the American armed forces and veterans, and he praised Trump’s response to the outbreak of COVID-19. Continue reading.

Trump draws fewer viewers than Biden for convention speech

The Hill logo

President Trump‘s convention speech drew fewer views than former Vice President Joe Biden‘s, according to preliminary numbers released by Nielsen Media Research. 

Trump accepted his party’s nomination from the south lawn of the White House on Thursday night.

An estimated 19.9 million Americans watched Trump’s speech on television, while Democratic nominee Joe Biden drew 21.7 million viewers the week before. Continue reading.

The Malign Fantasy of Donald Trump’s Convention

Using the White House as his prop, the President makes war on Joe Biden, and pretends the pandemic is all but defeated.

For four years, Donald Trump has been asking us to believe the unbelievable, to accept the unthinkable, to replace harsh realities with simple fantasies. On Thursday night, using the White House as a gaudy backdrop, the President made his case to the American people for four more years. His speech capping the Republican National Convention was long, acerbic, untruthful, and surprisingly muted in comparison to the grandeur of the setting, which no chief executive before him has dared to appropriate in such a partisan way. “We will make America greater than ever before,” he promised.

Even for a salesman like Trump, it was never going to be an easy deal to close, what with a deadly pandemic, mass unemployment, nationwide protests over racial injustice, and even a killer hurricane smashing into the Gulf Coast hours before his speech. Some seventy per cent of Americans currently believe that the country is on the wrong track, according to recent polls. Who can blame them?

This should be devastating context for a President, any President, seeking reëlection, a true picture of American carnage to replace the false one that Trump conjured four years ago. Yet the strategy of Trump and his team is now clear: to talk about how bad things would be in Joe Biden’s America, a violent socialist ruin in which freedom itself will no longer exist and rampaging protesters, like those now committing “rioting, looting, arson, and violence” in “Democrat-run cities,” will be coming soon to a suburb near you. “The hard truth is, you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” Vice-President Mike Pence said on Wednesday night. “No one will be safe in Biden’s America,” Trump said on Thursday night. To say this sounded a bit off in actual America, Trump’s America, does not do justice to the bizarre dissonance of this year’s Republican Convention. Continue reading.

Protesters gather outside the White House as Trump speaks to GOP convention

Demonstrators rallied in Black Lives Matter Plaza as the president accepted the Republican nomination on the South Lawn.

Hundreds of protesters — some wielding air horns and whistles — gathered outside the White House on Thursday night as President Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination on the South Lawn.

The demonstration followed calls on social media for protesters to try to disrupt the president’s outdoor speech by making lots of noise. Federal officials erected extra fencing around the White House this week apparently to keep protesters farther away.

Reporters at the protest site described the mood as festive ahead of the speech and said there was a police presence but no sign of a large federal response. Continue reading.

Fox’s Chris Wallace slams Trump for ‘flat’ RNC speech and ‘2000 people in close quarters on the south lawn’

AlterNet logo

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, the face of the conservative cable network, decimated President Donald Trump’s Thursday night renomination acceptance speech both for its delivery and for holding the Republican National Convention at the White House while taking no protections against the coronavirus.

Glossing over that the RNC and Trump campaign had “Trump 2020” spelled out in fireworks over the National Mall, Wallace said, “there certainly were impressive fireworks on the mall but I have to say I was surprised at the lack of fireworks in the President’s speech tonight.”

“First of all, it was far too long. 70 minutes exactly,” he lamented. “And I thought at times it felt more like a State of the Union speech, like a campaign speech. The President went through all of his accomplishments during his first term and there are a great number and they are considerable, and then, as you say, he went after Joe Biden and he had some good lines,” Wallace said, before enumerating a few. Continue reading.

Four at RNC in Charlotte test positive for coronavirus

The Hill logo

Two attendees and two staffers contracted to work at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte have tested positive for the coronavirus, local health officials said Friday.

Mecklenburg County officials said the four people were isolated and that those with whom they came into contact had been alerted. The health department did not say whether any had shown symptoms of the virus. The two staffers were sent home before attending any convention functions.

Charlotte officials had raised concerns over the lack of social distancing measures taken at even the scaled-back convention, where only a few hundred Republicans gathered to formally renominate President Trump and Vice President Pence. Video of the event showed few people wearing masks and many posing close together for photographs. Continue reading.

What virus? At GOP’s convention, pandemic is largely ignored

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was a stunning scene in a country where parents and children have been laid to rest without their loved ones present, schools have gone to online-only learning and businesses have shut their doors to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

On Thursday night, about 1,500 people gathered on the South Lawn of the White House so President Donald Trump could accept his party’s nomination for reelection in front of a roaring crowd. Masks were not required and chairs were placed inches apart from one another, with no room for social distancing, in violation of endless public health recommendations.

Only those the White House expected to be in “close proximity” to the president and vice president had been tested for COVID-19. Continue reading.

The GOP’s Alternate Convention Reality

As protests for racial justice continue, the coronavirus rages and a hurricane looms, Republicans present President Trump as the protector-in-chief.

WITH AMERICA ON EDGE Wednesday night over a looming, powerful hurricane, unrest over the shooting of African American Jacob Blake by Wisconsin police and the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans at their national convention Wednesday night presented an alternate reality, downplaying those crises and casting President Donald Trump as the protector-in-chief.

The theme of the third night of the Republican National Conventions was “Land of Heroes,” and the speakers – including several veterans – underscored the planned message. Headliner Vice President Mike Pence made his speech from Ft. McHenry, site of the 1814 battle that inspired the national anthem.

Barely mentioned was Hurricane Laura, which was headed toward the Gulf Coast as the convention (much of it taped) continued. Pence called for prayers, and a promise that the federal government would respond, but other speakers largely ignored the looming disaster. Continue reading.

Biden: Trump ‘rooting for more violence’

The Hill logo

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Thursday accused President Trump of “rooting” for violence amid the unrest in Kenosha, Wis., following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

“He views this as a political benefit to him. You know, he’s rooting for more violence, not less. And he’s clear about that. And what’s he doing, he’s pouring more gasoline on the fire,” Biden said on MSNBC.

The former vice president cited comments from White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who told Fox News earlier in the day that “the more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and law and order.” Continue reading.