MILWAUKEE (CN) — Strength was the theme of the night at the Republican National Convention’s third evening session on Wednesday, where conservatives from inside and outside Donald Trump’s administration hit on national security and foreign policy and railed against President Joe Biden’s handling of those issues.
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley began the evening by reminding the delegates in attendance where America was before Biden’s presidency.
“Four years ago, Russia was in check. China was in check. Iran was in check. Our southern border was secure, and our economy was strong,” Whatley said.
Whatley compared that to today, living in a world where he said Russia has invaded Ukraine, China threatens the entire world, Iran has attacked Israel through proxies, 10 million immigrants have crossed the southern border unchecked and the economy is weaker.
“We can do better. We need to do better,” he said.
Headlining Wednesday night was Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who two days ago was announced as Trump’s VP pick in a post on Truth Social by the former president himself.
Introduced by his wife, Usha, the 39-year-old “Hillbilly Elegy” author addressed Whatley directly and sealed his status as Trump’s running mate: “I officially accept your nomination to be Vice President of the United States of America.”
Vance took digs at “career politican” Biden for supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement, bad trade deals with China and the Iraq War. These resulted in lost jobs in areas like where he grew up in Southern Ohio, and young men from similar regions and backgrounds being sent to war, he said.
The newly designated vice presidential candidate appealed to working people in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, promising the Republican movement led by Trump will represent them and bring them prosperity.
Other speakers wasted no time highlighting foreign policy failures they laid directly at the feet of the Biden administration, including the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan that featured an IS-claimed terrorist attack that killed 13 U.S. service members at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport as U.S. diplomats and non-combat personnel fled the country.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich contrasted the “orderly end to the Afghanistan war” orchestrated by Trump to the “chaotic, panic-filled withdrawal” overseen by Biden.
At one point in the evening, a montage of interviews with gold star families who lost loved ones in the Kabul attack played on the Fiserv Forum jumbotron. Interviewees in the video said Biden kept looking at his watch and seemed not to care during the fallen soldiers’ dignified transfer ceremony.
Members of the gold star families appeared on stage after the montage, drawing chants of “USA! USA! USA!” from the crowd. They held up Trump’s compassion and support for their grief against Biden’s relative silence and lack of empathy.
Gingrich also blamed Biden’s “weakness and confusion” for Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and resulted in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that, according to Gaza health authorities, has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians.
The parents of 22-year-old Omer Neutra, a Jewish-American hostage held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since the attack in Israel last fall, took the stage late in the night’s program. They chanted “Bring them home!” along with the crowd.
Also appearing Wednesday night — and receiving something like a hero’s welcome from the crowd — was Peter Navarro, Trump’s former director of the U.S. Office of Trade & Manufacturing.
Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison for defying a subpoena issued by the House special committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. But he had just been released from a Florida prison Wednesday morning, he said, looking ready and willing to stump for Trump.
“This is a beautiful thing,” Navarro said. “And I think you folks just want to know if you can see my MAGA tattoo I got in there.”
Navarro decried his persecution by the “sham January 6th committee” and “Department of Injustice” that failed to get him to flip on Trump. He invoked the names of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to bitter jeers from the audience.
“They did not break me … and they will not break Donald Trump,” he said, before issuing a dire warning to the GOP faithful in the arena: “make no mistake, they’re already coming for you.”
“I went to prison so you don’t have to. I am your wake-up call,” Navarro said.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott blasted Biden on border security, saying the number of illegal immigrants to cross the country’s southern border during the Biden presidency is double the population of Wisconsin.
“Send them back! Send them back! Send them back!” the crowd chanted.
“It is time to restore order at the border. It is time to rid our streets of crime and chaos. It is time to secure our nation by returning Donald Trump as president of the United States of America,” Abbott said.
Just before 8 p.m., the former president, right ear bandaged, entered the arena to enthusiastic applause as an alternate version of James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” featuring opera singer Luciano Pavarotti played.
The convention proceedings were little more than background noise at the RNC’s official watch party across from the Fiserv Forum. Fox News’ coverage of the event shared screen time with National Hot Rod Association drag racing as delegates and conferencegoers mingled over beer and a buffet of pulled pork and rolls.
Tim and Stephanie, a pair of alternate delegates from Pennsylvania who did not give their last names, said their experience at the convention so far has been overwhelmingly positive.
“After what happened on Saturday,” said Tim, referring to the attempted assassination on former President Trump last weekend, “everyone here is totally unified. There’s this real sense of camaraderie.”
He pointed to endorsements from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley Tuesday night as examples of the unity among Republicans.
“What could be more unifying than that?” Tim said. “They were his only real serious threats.”
As far as calls for national unity — between Democrats and Republicans — following the attempt on Trump’s life, Stephanie argued the ball was in the other party’s court.
“The call has been there,” she said. “Whether you respond to the call is another issue.”
Tim added that Republicans should not compromise their values while extending an olive branch to Democrats.
“We would love to have the whole country come together,” he said. “But we also have certain principles, conservative values.”
Both delegates seemed content with Trump’s decision to select Vance for the presidential ticket, although they acknowledged that they knew little about the lawmaker before the announcement was made. Tim said he had hoped the former president would pick New York Representative Elise Stefanik for the role.
As the watch party continued, conservative podcast host Benny Johnson taped a live episode of his show on a stage emblazoned with the Newsmax logo. Guests including Montana Senator Steve Daines and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders were welcomed to the stage with a spitting sparkler display.
Later on, Johnson was joined by Eric Trump, who drew a sizeable crowd as he slammed the media and discussed his experience in the wake of the attempt on his father’s life.
The younger Trump also appeared to head off future attacks from Democrats later in the election season.
“They will have their tricks, they will have their October Surprise,” he told onlookers. “Democrats will have something up their sleeve.”
Following Eric Trump was Charlie Kirk, founder of conservative youth advocacy group Turning Point USA. He positioned the former president as a “Lincoln, Washingtonian” figure “where we will be talking about him for the next 1,000 years.”