Donald Trump made his first public appearance since surviving an assassination attempt on Saturday night, strutting on stage at the Republican National Convention with a bandage over his ear.
The former president was greeted by chants of ‘fight fight fight’ as Republican delegates backed him to lead their ticket for a third time and welcomed Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate.
Delegates cheered wildly as Mr Trump appeared onscreen backstage and then emerged to the strains God Bless The USA.
‘They wanted tonight to be his funeral,’ said Angie Wong, a delegate from Florida, as the strains of ‘God Bless the USA’ died away.
‘Instead they got the Super Bowl of politics: A nomination and a VP pick.’
Mr Trump did not address the convention with his acceptance speech, which is scheduled for Thursday, but instead stayed to watch the final speeches of the night with his family members and inner circle.
He hit the necessary threshold with votes from his home state of Florida, announced by his son Eric.
‘We must unite as a party, and we must unite as a nation,’ said Republican Party chairman Michael Whatley, Mr Trump’s hand-picked party leader, as he opened Monday’s primetime national convention session.
‘We must show the same strength and resilience as President Trump and lead this nation to a greater future.’
But Mr Whatley and other Republican leaders made clear their calls for harmony did not extend to President Joe Biden and Democrats.
‘Their policies are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values and our people,’ said Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, welcoming the party to his battleground state, which Mr Trump won in 2016 but lost to Mr Biden four years ago.
Others were whipped into a sense of religious fervour by Trump’s survival, with delegate Debbie Epling referring to the botched assassination as ‘divine intervention’.
Meanwhile, Bill Kolo, 56, a delegate from Connecticut said no ‘mere mortal’ could bounce back as Trump had done on Saturday.
‘He’s been persecuted more than, in my opinion, any person since Jesus Christ, he said.
‘And somehow he gets back up every day, when everything’s being thrown at him from every level, and still he stays and talks and fights for us.’
Also on Monday, President Joe Biden told NBC News that it was a ‘mistake’ to say he wanted to put a ‘bullseye’ on Republican nominee Donald Trump, but argued that the rhetoric coming from his opponent was more incendiary while warning that Mr Trump remained a threat to democratic institutions.
Those remarks came during a private call with donors last week when Mr Biden declared he was ‘done’ talking about his poor debate performance and that it was ‘time to put Trump in the bullseye’, saying the former president has had far too little scrutiny on his stances, rhetoric and lack of campaigning.
Insisting ‘there was very little focus on Trump’s agenda,’ Mr Biden told NBC anchor Lester Holt that while he acknowledged his ‘mistake’ he nonetheless is ‘not the guy who said I wanted to be a dictator on day one’ and that he wanted the focus to be on what Mr Trump was saying.
It is Mr Trump, not Mr Biden, who engages in that kind of rhetoric, Mr Biden said, referring to Mr Trump’s past comments about a ‘bloodbath’ if the Republican loses to Mr Biden in November.
‘Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says?’ Mr Biden said. ‘Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?’
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