-Terms Biden as ‘Trojan horse for socialism’
DM Monitoring
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican nomination Thursday night before a crowd of supporters on a White House lawn, launching searing attacks against Joe Biden, his Democratic challenger in the November 3 election, and calling him a “Trojan horse for socialism.”
“This is the most important election in the history of our country. At no time before have voters faced a clearer choice between two parties, two visions, two philosophies, or two agendas,” Trump said after he “profoundly” accepted his party’s nomination.
With America gripped by the deadly coronavirus pandemic, a deep recession and racial unrest, Trump offered an opaque agenda for a second term, focusing instead on savaging Biden by name 41 separate times. In accepting the Democratic presidential nomination last week, Biden never mentioned Trump by name.
“At the Democrat national convention, Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic, and social injustice,” Trump said. “So tonight, I ask you a very simple question: How can the Democrat party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?”
Trump delivered his speech in front of a line of flags on a red-carpeted stage at the White House, a decision that raised ethics concerns and called into question whether doing so would be violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity while on duty. The president is exempt from that law.
But over the past four days during the Republican National Convention (RNC) events Trump and officials have made numerous appearances from the White House in unorthodox ways.
Ethics expert Norm Eisen described Trump’s convention speech at the White House as “the greatest mass Hatch Act transgression in US history.”
The RNC has notably lacked some key party figures and the presence of the last Republican president, George W. Bush. Meanwhile, Democrats’ convention included speeches by former Republican elected officials who have emerged as outspoken critics of the president.
