Donald Trump Jr took his turn in the spotlight on Monday night as the highest profile member of the first family to address the Republican National Convention, painting his father as the sole guardian of American values, and Democrats as intent on tearing down the country.
His girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle also addressed the GOP faithful that night in remarks that seemed to come from the pulpit, with her arms reached out as she shouted out praise for President Donald Trump.
The couple's speeches came on a night in which the Republicans sought to present Trump as standing between the U.S. and an unruly, socialist future.
In a heavily-produced evening which saw two segments with Donald Trump speaking to first frontline workers and then freed hostages and prisoners from abroad, the party spent just short of two and a half hours seeking to convince voters of the virtue of four more years - which party faithful chanted at one point.
Trump had said last week that he wanted more of his convention to be live than the Democrats' but just three speeches were live Monday - those of Ronna McDaniel, the Republican Party chair, Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, and Tim Scott, the South Carolina senator - and Trump Jr and his girlfriend pre-taped their speeches earlier in the day.
Organizers rolled out 'ordinary voters' who praised Trump for his impact on their lives, including a cancer patient and a recipient of PPP bailout cash, tried to present a diverse face of the party with black black speakers and an emotional Cuban immigration, started with a movie-style voiceover by Jon Voight and ended before 11pm EST.
The night made far less mention of coronavirus than the Democratic convention, and no mention at all of the death toll, with a taped segment of Trump meeting frontline workers to thank them at the White House, and a dental surgeon speaking about how he credited Trump with saving his life when he contracted COVID.
But it was president’s eldest son who made the main political argument of the night and struck directly and forcefully at his father’s rival for the presidency - Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
'This time the other party is attacking the very principles on which our Nation was founded,' he said of Democrats, in a speech taped before it was aired.
He accused Biden, who has spent over 40 years in public office as a senator from Delaware and then as vice president, ‘the Loch Ness Monster of the Swamp’ – which is the nickname for Washington D.C.
‘Joe Biden is basically the Loch Ness Monster of the Swamp. For the past half-century, he’s been lurking around in there. He sticks his head up every now and then to run for President, then he disappears and doesn’t do much in between,’ Trump Jr. said.
The couple recorded their speeches a few hours before they aired and did them in one take, live to tape, DailyMail.com has learned.
In his remarks, Trump Jr. addressed some of his father's weakness - his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and race relations - while hitting Biden in one of his areas of strength - his appeal to middle-class workers.
The president's son echoed his father in blaming the ‘Chinese Communist Party’ for the pandemic that has infected more than 5.74 million Americans, including his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, and killed more 177,00 people.
He and Guifoyle, like most of the convention speakers Monday night, spoke from the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in Washington D.C., just a few miles from the White House.
Trump Jr. complained when the president shut down travel from China that ‘Joe Biden and his Democrat allies called my father a racist and xenophobe for doing it. They put political correctness ahead of the safety and security of the American people.’
He also attacked Biden for saying he would shut down the country to help combat the pandemic.
Biden told ABC News in an interview that aired Sunday night that he would close down the country if scientists recommended it.
‘I would shut it down; I would listen to the scientists,’ he said - a line Republicans promptly pounded on to attack the Democratic candidate.
Trump Jr. said Biden’s actions – if elected – would destroy the American economy.
‘Biden’s radical leftwing policies would stop our economic recovery cold. He’s already talking about shutting the country down -- again. It’s madness,’ he said.
The president’s son, who works for the family business The Trump Organization, attacked Biden in one of the Democrat's strongest areas – his appeal to blue-collar voters, the same voters that helped elect President Trump in 2016.
‘In fact, if you think about it, Joe Biden’s entire economic platform seems designed to crush the working man and woman,’ Trump Jr. said. ‘He supported the worst trade deals in the history of the planet. He voted for the NAFTA Nightmare. Down the tubes went our auto industry. He pushed TPP. Goodbye manufacturing jobs.’
He also warned that Biden wants to open American borders so ‘more illegal immigrants’ can ‘take jobs from American citizens.’
‘Biden also wants to bring in more illegal immigrants to take jobs from American citizens. His open border policies would drive wages down for Americans at a time when low-income workers were getting real wage increases for the first time in modern history,’ he said.
Trump Jr kicked off the opening night of the Republican National Convention, which moved its hub of operations to Washington D.C. on Monday night after the business of the gathering - the formal nomination of the president - was completed earlier in the day in Charlotte, North Carolina.
President Trump’s family will take center stage at this week's convention: first lady Melania Trump will give the keynote address on Tuesday night while Eric Trump and Tiffany speak the same evening. Ivanka Trump will introduce her father on Thursday night ahead of his key note address, delivered from the South Lawn of the White House.
Meanwhile, Trump Jr appears to have found a calling in politics. A popular surrogate for his father at campaign rallies and a prolific fundraiser for the Republican Party, Trump Jr has sparked talk he’ll run for office one day himself.
But on Monday, he advocated for a second term for his father. He addressed the racial tension in the United States, which is another area where voters give President Trump low marks.
‘All men and women are created equal and must be treated equally under the law. That’s why we must put an end to racism, and we must ensure that any police officer who abuses their power is held accountable. What happened to George Floyd is a disgrace. And if you know a police officer, you know they agree with that, too,’ he said.
However, he also repeated the Republican line that police must be defended.
‘But we cannot lose sight of the fact that our police are American heroes. They deserve our deepest appreciation. Because no matter what the Democrats say, you and I both know when we dial 911, we don’t want it going to voicemail. So “defunding” the police is not an option,’ he said.
Biden has said repeatedly he does not want to defund police departments.
And Trump Jr closed with a vision for the future.
‘Imagine the country you want to live in--one with true equality of opportunity, where hard work pays off and justice is served with compassion and without partiality. You can have it,’ he said, adding it would just take re-electing President Trump.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, one of President Trump’s most energetic supporters on the campaign trail and the girlfriend of his eldest son, preceded Trump Jr on stage.
The couple make a popular side show ahead of the president at his campaign rallies with their cute, couplely shtick about their life in politics, complete with cute nicknames for one another.
After Guilfoyle finished her remarks, Trump Jr gave her a fist bump.
Guilfoyle stuck to the campaign’s talking points in her brief remarks, emphasizing that Trump is the ‘law and order president’ while Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want to defund the police, which Biden has said is not true.
‘As Commander-in-Chief, he always puts America First! President Trump is The Law and Order President,’ she said. ‘Biden, Harris and their socialist comrades will fundamentally change this nation - they want open borders, closed schools, dangerous amnesty and will selfishly send your jobs back to China, while they get richer! They will defund, dismantle and destroy America’s law enforcement.’
She also criticized her former home state of California. Guilfoyle is the ex-wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. When he was San Francisco mayor the couple were portrayed as the future of Democratic politics.
‘If you want to see the socialist Biden/Harris future for our country, just take a look at California. It is a place of immense wealth, immeasurable innovation and immaculate environment – and the Democrats turned it into a land of discarded heroin needles in parks, riots in streets and blackouts in homes,’ she said in dramatic tones.
She then pivoted to what life is like under President Trump.
'In President Trump’s America we light things up, we don’t dim them down. We build things up, we don’t burn them down. We kneel in prayer and we stand for our flag!' she said.
She spoke dramatically, waving her arms and practically shouting her words.
Guilfoyle, who is the finance chair of the Trump re-election campaign, promised the ‘best is yet to come’ under President Trump. She raised her arms wide, as if in prayer, shouting her support for the president.
‘President Trump is the leader who will rebuild the Promise of America and ensure that every citizen can realize their American Dream!,’ she said and closed with: ‘Ladies and Gentleman, Leaders and Fighters for Freedom and Liberty and the American Dream – The best is yet to come!'
This article has been adapted from its original source.
