Trump accepts nomination for reelection, seeks to draw contrast with Biden

Photo taken in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, on Aug. 27, 2020 shows screens displaying U.S. President Donald Trump delivering his acceptance speech during the 2020 Republican National Convention. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump accepted the Republican Party's nomination for reelection on Thursday night and is seeking to draw contrast between himself and his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

"This is the most important election in the history of our country," Trump said in a speech from the White House South Lawn to a crowd of more than 1,000 people. "There has never been such a difference between two parties, or two individuals, in ideology, philosophy, or vision than there is right now."

Trump went after Biden from economy to foreign policy, trying to paint the 77-year-old moderate political veteran as beholden to the "radical left." The president notably hammered a "law and order" message, a major theme of his reelection bid, as he warned against an America under the Biden presidency.

"The most dangerous aspect of the Biden platform is the attack on public safety," Trump said. "Make no mistake, if you give power to Joe Biden, the radical left will defund police departments all across America ... No one will be safe in Biden's America."

Biden, whose campaign has made racial justice a pillar, has said that he supports police reform but not the movement to "defund the police" in response to a nationwide reckoning over what activists have described as police brutality and systemic racism after George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May.

Photo taken in Arlington, Virginia, the United States on Aug. 20, 2020 shows screens displaying images of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaking in a video feed of the 2020 Democratic National Convention. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Floyd's death sparked weeks-long protests and social unrest across the United States. Public anger has been reignited in the wake of the Aug. 23 police shooting of 29-year-old African American Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which has led to consecutive days of protests and violence at times in the city.

In Washington, protesters gathered near the White House with the intention of disrupting Trump's outdoor speech, with the Secret Service beefing up security around the presidential residence.

Trump didn't address the shooting or the issue of racism in his acceptance speech. Instead, he touted job numbers for African Americans, doubled down his support of law enforcement agencies, and blamed the unrest in cities like Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago, and New York, on Democrats.

"There is violence and danger in the streets of many Democrat-run cities throughout America. This problem could easily be fixed if they wanted to. We must always have law and order," he said. "All federal crimes are being investigated, prosecuted, and punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Kate Bedingfield, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, rebuked Trump's remarks in a statement, saying that "In Donald Trump's America, safety is pitted against justice, Americans are pitted against one another, and the violence that Trump warns of plays out on the streets of communities across our country -- stoked by his own words and actions."

Biden said earlier on Thursday that he thinks Trump is "rooting for more violence, not less."

"He views this as a political benefit to him," said the former vice president. "And he's clear about that. And what's he doing, he's pouring more gasoline on the fire."

Photo taken in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, on Aug. 27, 2020 shows screens displaying U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. first lady Melania Trump arriving on stage for the 2020 Republican National Convention. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Making his case for reelection clear, Trump also touted what he believes were accomplishments of his first term, made promises for the next four years, and tried to reshape the narrative of his administration's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In recent months, our nation, and the entire planet, has been struck by a new and powerful invisible enemy," he said. "We are meeting this challenge. 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."

The United States passed the grim milestone of 180,000 coronavirus deaths on Thursday, with nearly 5.9 million cases -- more than anywhere else in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University. Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the United States is handling the pandemic worse than other countries, according to an NPR/Ipsos poll released earlier this month.

Biden's running mate, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of California, hit Trump on his response to the public health crisis in a speech on Thursday afternoon.

Images of U.S. Senator Kamala Harris speaking in a video feed of the 2020 Democratic National Convention are displayed on screens in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, on Aug. 19, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

"It's relentless. You can't stop it with a tweet. You can't create a distraction and hope it'll go away. It doesn't go away. By its nature, a pandemic is unforgiving," Harris said. "If you get it wrong at the beginning, the consequences are catastrophic. It's very hard to catch up ... President Trump got it wrong in the beginning."

The finale of the 2020 Republican National Convention, under the theme "Land of Greatness" on Thursday night, also featured speeches from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, former New York City mayor and Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and the president's daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump.

Trump, 74, was a businessman and television celebrity before entering politics. He won the 2016 U.S. presidential election as a Republican by defeating then Democratic presidential nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Biden, 77, was U.S. vice president from 2009 to 2017 after serving 36 years as U.S. senator for state of Delaware. This is the third time Biden has run for president.

According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Biden leads Trump by 7.1 percentage points nationally. However, Trump has repeatedly dismissed polls showing him falling behind as "fake."

Trump will hold a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire on Friday in the hope of building momentum for his campaign after the White House acceptance speech. Biden said on Thursday he will begin traveling to battleground states after Labor Day, including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arizona, and Pennsylvania.

The Commission on Presidential Debates has scheduled three debates between Trump and Biden and one between Vice President Mike Pence and Harris in the next two months. The 2020 U.S. presidential election will take place on Nov. 3. ■