© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Energizing The Base: Updates From The Republican National Convention

First lady Melania Trump addresses the Republican National Convention from the Rose Garden at the White House on August 25 in Washington, DC. The convention is being held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic but will include speeches from various locations including Charlotte, North Carolina and Washington, DC.
First lady Melania Trump addresses the Republican National Convention from the Rose Garden at the White House on August 25 in Washington, DC. The convention is being held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic but will include speeches from various locations including Charlotte, North Carolina and Washington, DC.

The Republican National Convention is in full swing this week. On Tuesday night, First Lady Melania Trump, Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke.

Melania Trump praised her husband and acknowledged the racial unrest and COVID-19 crises facing the United States.

Here’s some of what she said during her address from the Rose Garden, via The Washington Post.

“We all know Donald Trump makes no secrets about how he feels about things,” she said. “Total honesty is what we as citizens deserve from our president. Whether you like it or not, you always know what he’s thinking. And that is because he’s an authentic person who loves this country and its people and wants to continue to make it better.”

We also heard from others who have reached a public platform during the Trump administration, including teenager Nicholas Sandmann.

Nicholas Sandmann, the MAGA hat-wearing Catholic high school teenager whose interaction with liberal activist Nathan Phillips at a January 2019 protest near the Lincoln Memorial triggered widespread coverage on social and mainstream media, received prime billing at the convention. The circumstances of his encounter with Phillips were inaccurately reported by several major media outlets. Sandmann talked about what he called the experience of being “canceled.”

“Canceled is what’s happening to people around this country who refuse to be silenced by the far left,” Sandmann said. “Many are being fired, humiliated or even threatened, and often the media is a willing participant.” Sandmann delivered his remarks in front of the Lincoln Memorial, and donned a MAGA hat at the end of his speech.

We talk with an RNC speaker, Democratic State Representative Vernon Jones of Georgia and conservative analyst Jeff Vreeland about the convention so far.

Copyright 2020 WAMU 88.5

Emmanuel Johnson