United States (US) President Donald Trump opened the Republican National Convention on Monday by painting a horrible picture of what America would look like if Democrat Joe Biden wins the White House race in November.
Addressing delegates in person at the convention in North Carolina beamed live on CNN and Fox News, Trump warned his fellow Republicans to be alert, claiming their Democratic opponents may “steal” the election.
Said Trump: “They are trying to steal the election… The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election. We’re going to win.”
According to the US leader, his rival and former US vice-president and other Democrats are purportedly using Covid-19 pandemic to steal the election which will be held on November 3.
But some critics argue that Trump’s resistance to expanded mail-in voting, which is widely used in the US, is an attempt to suppress voter turnout while setting up an excuse to challenge the result in case of defeat.
US media says Trump is currently trailing Biden in opinion polls over his handling of the coronavirus crisis that has now killed over 177 000 Americans and infected over 5.7 million others.
Earlier on Monday, the four-day convention officially nominated Trump to be the Republican torchbearer as scores of supporters cheered him and chanted “four more years!”.
He is scheduled to give a formal acceptance speech of his official presidential nomination tomorrow with US vice-president Mike Pence as his running mate.
Other Republican speakers on the first day of the convention included former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley who praised Trump for his foreign policy record.
She said: “The UN is not for the faint of heart. It’s a place where dictators, murderers and thieves denounce America, and then put their hands out and demand that we pay their bills.
“Well, President Trump put an end to all that. With his leadership, we did what [ex-president] Barack Obama and Joe Biden refused to do. We stood up for America and we stood against our enemies.”
Donald Trump junior praised his father for fighting coronavirus and boosting the US economy.
Last week, Democrats concluded their convention where Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris also accepted their nominations.
The race for the White House is getting intense and the outcome of the 2020 US general election will have an impact around the world.
