Trump attacks Biden, accepts Republican nomination for 2nd term

By Lucia Leal

Washington, Aug 27 (efe-epa).- President Donald Trump on Thursday launched a scathing attack on rival Joe Biden as he accepted the Republican nomination for a second four-year term to “save” the United States from a “radical left” Democratic Party whose victory would “demolish our cherished destiny”.

“This is the most important election in the history of our country. There has never been such a difference between two parties, or two individuals, in ideology, philosophy, or vision than there is right now,” Trump said, speaking from the South Lawn of the White House.

“This election will decide whether we save the American dream, or whether we allow a socialist agenda to demolish our cherished destiny.”

The president on the fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention in a speech lasting more than an hour stoked fear, telling voters that they had a choice to vote for a savior or a destroyer of America.

The November presidential election, he said, would decide “whether we protect law abiding Americans, or whether we give free reign to violent anarchists, agitators, and criminals who threaten our citizens.”

“This election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life, or whether we allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.”

He said if Biden comes to power, the radical left would “make every city look like Democrat-run Portland, Oregon”.

“No one will be safe in Biden’s America,” he thundered in front of some 1,500 people, seated in chairs without social distancing measures or hardly anyone wearing face masks, despite the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 180,000 people in the US.

Much of his lengthy speech was dedicated to attacking Democrats, with a brief mention towards its end on what he would do in his second term.

Trump defended his handling of the Covid-19 crisis that has infected some six million Americans and promised that the US will have a vaccine before the end of the year.

“We are delivering lifesaving therapies, and will produce a vaccine before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner. We will defeat the virus, end the pandemic, and emerge stronger than ever before.”

Trump again blamed China for the pandemic, calling it a “China virus” that “China allowed to spread around the globe.”

In faulting Beijing for the global health crisis that has shattered the world economy, Trump didn’t spare Biden, claiming that he would shut down the country to slow the disease outbreak.

“Joe Biden’s plan is not a solution to the virus, but rather a surrender,” he said.

“The cost of the Biden shutdown would be measured in increased drug overdoses, depression, alcohol addiction, suicides, heart attacks, economic devastation and more.”

He pledged that in his second term he would levy tariffs on any company that left America to create jobs overseas and “again build the greatest economy in history, quickly returning to full employment, soaring incomes, and record prosperity.”

The Republican convention comes against the backdrop of a wave of anti-racial and anti-police violence protests across the US since the murder of George Floyd in May.

“In the strongest possible terms, the Republican Party condemns the rioting, looting, arson and violence we have seen in Democrat-run cities like Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago, and New York,” he said.

“When there is police misconduct, the justice system must hold wrongdoers fully and completely accountable, and it will.”