Delegates were in high spirits Wednesday night about nominee Donald Trump’s prospects in the Nov. 5 election as they gathered for the third night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
The night’s most anticipated speech probably was the one to be delivered by Trump’s pick for vice president, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. Trump announced his choice of Vance on Monday, the first day of the GOP convention.
Convention delegates formally nominated both Trump and Vance on Monday night. Trump, who has attended part of each night’s events, is scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech Thursday night.
Other speakers scheduled Wednesday night included the 45th president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia; and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who last year led a successful GOP effort to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
The convention’s Milwaukee location is significant for two big reasons: Wisconsin is a key battleground state where Trump and President Joe Biden, his Democratic opponent, have been neck-and-neck in polls. And the Republican Party was founded in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin, about 90 minutes from Milwaukee.
This regularly updated report spotlights some key moments from the third night of the GOP convention.
Jackson: Trump ‘Took a Bullet for Our Country’
Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, a Navy doctor who served 14 years as White House physician, including for Trump, made a strong comparison between Biden and former presidents.
“Now I can say I served a president who literally took a bullet for our country,” Jackson said, prompting strong applause. “I have never been prouder of his leadership than I was last Saturday.”
“His warrior spirit and his display of will to keep fighting for our country, even after getting shot down, will go down as an all-time moment in American history,” the Texas Republican told delegates.
Jackson contrasted Trump with Biden, who many Americans—including Democrats—say they fear isn’t up to the job, based on his poor debate performance June 27 with Trump as well as his public appearances and news interviews since the debate on CNN.
Jackson’s remarks likely were drafted hours before the White House announced Wednesday evening that Biden had canceled campaign stops because he had tested positive again for COVID-19 in Las Vegas. The president returned to his home in Delaware for a “long weekend,” The Associated Press reported just before 6:30 p.m.
Navarro: ‘I Went to Prison So You Won’t’
“I went to prison so you won’t have to,” Peter Navarro, a lawyer and former White House aide who advised Trump on trade, told the crowd inside Fiserv Forum.
“I am your wake-up call,” Navarro added.
Earlier Wednesday, Navarro was released from a federal prison in Miami, where he did time after being convicted of contempt of Congress for declining to testify to Democrats’ House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack on the Capitol.
“If they come for me, if they come for Donald Trump, be careful, they will come after you,” Navarro said.
He called the House select committee a “sham” committee that demanded he violate the law by divulging conversations with Trump despite his executive privilege.
“The J6 committee demanded that I betray Donald J. Trump to save my own skin. I refused,” Navarro said.
After a partisan congressional committee and a Democrat majority in the House found him in contempt, he said, a Democrat-run Justice Department—what he called the “Department of Injustice”—prosecuted him.
Prosecutions for contempt of Congress are rare. In one example, the Justice Department recently opted not to prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland for contempt of Congress, although he refused to produce an audio recording of Biden’s interview with a special counsel about his possession of classified documents.
Gaetz: ‘They Can Run Biden From the Nursing Home’
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., asserted that the president Americans saw at the June debate, and which the media finally noticed, is the same Biden who has been in the White House for years.
“Democrats have been hiding the real Biden for years,” Gaetz said. “We saw people in the witness protection program more often than we saw unscripted Biden.”
“They can run Biden from the nursing home, [Kamala] Harris, George Clooney, Robert De Niro, whoever they want to run,” he said. “We are on a mission to rescue and save this country, and we ride or die with Donald John Trump to the end.”
In talking about inflation, Gaetz joked about Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who was convicted Tuesday on bribery charges involving foreign entities.
“Under Biden-Harris, inflation has gotten so bad you can no longer bribe Democrat senators with cash alone,” he said. “You have to use gold bars just so the bribes hold value.”
Gingrich Accuses Biden of ‘Make-America-Weak Ideology’
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia contrasted Trump and Biden’s foreign policies and the results.
“Under Trump, we achieved peace through strength,” Gingrich said. “Under Biden, we have war, suffering, death, and a world teetering on the edge of World War III.”
The former House speaker criticized Biden for the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan as well as weakness in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
“The contrast between President Trump’s realistic policy of resolute strength in a dangerous world, and President Biden’s policies of appeasement, weakness, and self-delusion may be the biggest difference between the Make America Great Again movement and the Make-America-Weak ideology of the Left,” Gingrich said.
Abbott: ‘I Took the Border to Them’
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that when the Biden administration took 50 acres of land along the U.S.-Mexico border to process 5,000 illegal aliens a day, he directed the National Guard “to take back our land and wire it shut.”
Abbott said there are no longer 5,000 migrants per day trying to enter Texas.
“Now that the National Guard has wired that shut, on average, there is one illegal immigrant crossing the border at that location a day,” Abbott said.
The Republican governor said that when Biden administration officials refused to come to Texas to see the state of the southern border, “I took the border to them.”
“I began busing illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C.,” Abbott said to a rousing ovation. “We have continued busing migrants to sanctuary cities across the entire country. Those buses will continue to roll until we secure our border.”
This is a developing news story and will be updated throughout the night, so check back.
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