Editor’s Note: Say What? is the segment of Liberty Nation Radio where we unveil some of the most wacky, astonishing, and damnable things uttered by politicians and the chattering class.
Tim Donner: The Republicans responded to the doom and gloom and deeply personal attacks on the president by the Democrats at their convention with a soaring defense of traditional American values, defending the nation as they loudly decried the breakdown of civility and the culture itself amid the rioting, looting, burning, and insurrections in cities across the land, which are now expanding and threatening more and more safe suburban communities.
The Republican Party is offering a full-throated defense of the America we've known, while Democrats promise a different country, the completion of what Barack Obama promised and began: the fundamental transformation of America.
But for all the talk of Republican virtue and Democratic intransigence, the president made one proclamation during his acceptance speech which would likely guarantee him victory if his promise is kept.
President Trump: We have three different vaccines in the final stage of trials right now, years ahead of what has been achieved before. Nobody thought it could ever be done this fast. Normally, it would be years, and we did it in a matter of a few months. We're producing them in advance so that hundreds of millions of doses will be quickly available. We will have a safe and effective vaccine this year, and together we will crush the virus.
Tim: Trump later said, "We might have a vaccine before the end of the year." Translation: He'll try to make the COVID vaccine his huge October surprise leading right up to the election.
But when it came to making the case for law and order, as opposed to lawlessness and chaos on the left, the GOP rolled out a number of law enforcement officials, and then the former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, to issue a stark warning.
Rudy Giuliani: New York City, once described as America's crime capital, had become, by the mid-1990s, America's safest large city. Now today, my city is in shock. Murders, shootings, and violent crime are increasing in percentages unheard of in the past. We're seeing the return of rioting and looting during riots. This Democrat mayor, like others, have often prevented the police from making arrests, and even when arrests are made, liberal progressive DAs release the rioters, so as not to disrupt the rioting ... Don't let Democrats do to America what they have done to New York.
Tim: But the Republicans did not limit their rhetoric to their opponent. The GOP, understandably, chose to list the many accomplishments of President Donald Trump, believing his record, in three and a half years, contrasted with Biden's record for over 47 years in Washington is a winning strategy. The president's son, Eric Trump, laid out the record with probably the most concise summary of what you'll be hearing over and over from the Trump campaign in the next two months.
Eric Trump: Taxes were slashed, regulations were cut, and the economy soared to new heights. Wages went through the roof, unemployment reached historic lows, especially for black Americans, Hispanic Americans, and women. Lights were turned back on in abandoned factories across our country. Trillions of dollars were repatriated back to the United States, which had been sitting in foreign lands for far too long … Over and over, issue after issue, the economy, the Wall, the military, trade deals, tax cuts, Supreme Court justices, VA hospitals, prescription drugs, school choice, right to try, moving the embassy to Jerusalem, peace in the Middle East, never-ending wars were finally ended. Promises made, and promises, for the first time, were kept.
Tim: A real track record, but Trump's record is not what the Democrats have been attacking. It's his character. He's a racist, even a white supremacist, say these socialists on the left. So the Republican Party sent out one of their rising black stars, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, to discuss his own rise from humble roots and decry the stereotypes perpetuated by Joe Biden.
Daniel Cameron: I think often about my ancestors, who struggled for freedom, and as I think of those giants and their broad shoulders, I also think about Joe Biden, who says, "If you aren't voting for me, you ain't black." Who argued that Republicans would put us back in chains. Who says there is no diversity of thought in the black community. Mr. Vice President, look at me. I am black. We are not all the same, sir. I am not in chains. My mind is my own, and you can't tell me how to vote because of the color of my skin.
Tim: Powerful stuff. What do you know, Mr. Former Vice President, black people can actually think for themselves? One way or another, mark my words, there will be a reckoning among the black people of this country, which could be the biggest story of the election.
While Democrats focused almost exclusively on the character of Donald Trump in their convention, there were so many lines of attack on Joe Biden at the GOP convention that you could hardly keep track. But here's one that was gaining steam before COVID hit, and which you'll also be hearing much about in the weeks ahead, and the messenger was former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Pam Bondi: We all know about Joe's son, Hunter Biden. A corrupt Ukrainian oligarch put Hunter on the board of his gas company, even though he had no experience in Ukraine or in the energy sector. None. Yet he was paid millions to do nothing. He only had one qualification that mattered. He was the son of the man in charge of distributing U.S. aid to Ukraine … Now let's talk about China. Fact: Joe Biden flew to China on Air Force Two with Hunter along for the ride. Ten days later, those Chinese communist bankers approved millions to go to Hunter's firm.
Tim: Now, that's a two-fer for the Republicans, cashing in on the public trust as vice president, and doing it not just in Ukraine, but in China, probably the most hated nation in the world among Americans.
Meanwhile, when Democrats were holding their convention, Trump was out making public appearances in battleground states. But with the GOP convention on, Joe Biden had nothing on his calendar -- confirming the notion that he's no longer, shall we say, up to campaigning around the clock the way you need to ordinarily in a presidential campaign, and that his strategy, at least for now, continues to be the basement strategy, rope-a-dope, sit back, take a pounding, and then just, well, sit back again. But Biden did submit to an interview on ABC News, in which he made a most revealing statement about COVID-19.
Joe Biden: I would be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives, because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus. That is the fundamental flaw of this administration's thinking to begin with. In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing and people employed, you have to fix the virus. You have to deal with the virus.
ABC News reporter: So if the science is saying, "Shut it down" ...
Biden: I would shut it down. I would listen to the scientists.
Tim: Now, that is the opposite of President Trump, who says he will never shut down the country again during this pandemic, but would deal with regional outbreaks and provide special protections for the sickest and oldest among us. God knows what will happen to this country if a President Biden orders another national shutdown.
But the most powerful Democrat in the nation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), is busy whipping her base into a frenzy over Trump allegedly trying to suppress the vote.
Nancy Pelosi: We take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and sadly, the domestic enemies to our voting system and honoring our Constitution are right at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They're doing everything they can to suppress the vote with your actions, scare people, intimidate by saying law enforcement will be there, diminish the role of the postal system, and all of this. It's really actually shameful, enemies of the state.
Tim: Enemies of the state. You can't make a more serious accusation than that, but you can see where they're headed with this. They're setting up to dispute a Trump victory, no matter what, and the loser from 2016 did not mince words -- in Hillary's usually incredibly grating voice -- when she issued instructions to this year's nominee.
Hillary Clinton: We have to have our own teams of people to counter the force of intimidation that the Republicans and Trump are going to put outside polling places. Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances, because I think this is going to drag out, and, eventually, I do believe he will win if we don't give an inch.
Tim: That is a remarkable statement. "Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances." Like if they just keep trying to find votes after Election Day, they'll eventually win, or maybe they can prove the Russians stole the election, just like in 2016.
And Trump just keeps driving leftists crazy by making this kind of statement, right after being officially nominated by his party for a second term.
President Trump (as supporters yell “four more years”): Now, if you really want to drive them crazy, you say, "Twelve more years."
Tim: Trump is a dictator, Trump will shred the Constitution, plans to be president for life. He just keeps baiting his enemies, and they respond every time, like Pavlov's dogs.
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