Why has America faced what Senator Ted Cruz implied (after listing incident after incident) was a wave of violent crime perpetrated by illegal immigrants? “It happened,” he said, “because Democrats cynically decided they wanted votes from illegals more than to protect our children.”
Ted Cruz opens by saying, “God Bless Donald Trump!” to big cheers. A big contrast with 2016, when he famously didn’t endorse Trump and urged delegates to “vote your conscience,” earning boos from many. Just another indication of how much more united the party is around Trump than it was eight years ago.
JD Vance– the Associated Press has terminated the periods after his initials – has entered the arena, and the delegates’ excitement has turned up another notch. I think there’s real curiosity about Vance, a relative newcomer to the political scene, and an eagerness to hear more from the heir apparent to the MAGA movement.
The anti-Bush protest song is back to introduce J.D. Vance back to the hall. Careful observers will notice a subtle but distinct message about the ideological orientation of Donald Trump’s GOP in that deliberate and repeated choice.
“Fear has been infectious in this country, but courage can be contagious too.” A barnburner speech from Vivek Ramaswamy, who has clearly updated to a more crowd-pleasing version of himself since the bitter debates.
During the primaries, Vivek Ramaswamy’s debate performances had begun to grate on every other candidate, and much of the audience. But while you can criticize the Trump flattery it took to get a good speaking slot, he is still an engaging speaker, and that was a strong performance.
Credit where due, Vivek brings down the house with a buoyant, impassioned speech that wishes the best for America’s future. A hype man among hype men.
Ramaswamy pledges, “we will seal the southern border, on day one!” If illegal immigration had remained around the levels of 2020, or even 2019, Democrats could take shots at Donald Trump, saying he’s making the same promises he made in 2016. But the situation at the border is so chaotic, the images of the waves of migrants so searing, the overloading of the asylum system so inexcusable, that no Democrat — well, no rational Democrat – dare bring up the issue of which man can do a better job of securing the southern border.
“Our government sold us a false bill of goods with the Iraq War and the 2008 financial crisis… but we can’t just be cynical about our country, because the United States of America is still the best hope that we have.” – Vivek Ramaswamy. Says we deserve a political class “that tells the truth, even if that comes with some mean tweets from time to time.”
“Our message to black Americans is this: The media has tried to convince you for decades that Republicans don’t care about your communities, but we do.” – Vivek Ramaswamy