Republican convention speakers ramp up rhetoric despite vow to change tone

Speakers at the Republican national convention ramped up their rhetorical attacks on Democrats on Tuesday night despite Donald Trump’s presidential campaign signalling that the party would adopt a message of unity in the face of political violence.

Kari Lake, a Trump ally and Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona, used her speech time to launch an attack on the media, which she called “fake news”, and said more Americans were no longer tuning in to mainstream media.

She then turned her attention to illegal drugs and crime, part of the Tuesday theme, “Make America Safe Once Again”. She attributed the issues to the Biden administration and Democrats. “The problems we face are huge – the problems caused by the Democrat party – but the solutions are simple. First of all, stop the Biden-vasion and build a wall,” she said.

The convention floor erupted with chants of “build that wall”.

Other speakers repeatedly slammed Joe Biden, seeking to portray his time in government as a threat to the American way of life. They also heaped praise on Trump, often referring to him as a friend and telling anecdotes of their interactions with him.

Meanwhile, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis took the stage, making the case for Trump to their primary voters in a move that finally pulled the entire party publicly together behind Trump and ended any lingering divisions with his former arch-rivals for the party nomination.

“I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” said Haley, who entered the stage to a mix of applause and boos. She went on to speak to voters with mixed feelings about Trump. Haley cast the election in dramatic terms. “We have a country to save,” said Haley. “And a unified Republican party is essential for saving her.”

DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, who has generally been supportive of Trump since abandoning his White House bid in January, opened by attacking Biden and suggesting the president lacks the cognitive ability to lead.

“America cannot afford four more years of a Weekend at Bernie’s presidency,” said DeSantis, referring to the 80s comedy in which two salesmen accidentally kill their boss and then pretend he is still alive. “Let’s be honest here. Biden is just a figurehead.”

The speeches come after Republicans opened their nominating convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on a high-energy note. Trump began the convention on Monday with the announcement that JD Vance, the Ohio senator, would serve as his running mate, ending months of heated speculation over who would join the former president at the top of the ticket.

The decision to try a change in tone of the campaign came after Saturday’s assassination attempt at a Trump rally, in which Trump’s ear was injured and one attendee was killed.

But the message did not seem to filter down to the parade of speakers taking the convention stage. During her speech on Tuesday, the New York representative Elise Stefanik called Biden “feckless and failed” and accused him of causing “chaos”.

Related: Trump appears with bandaged ear at Republican national convention

The Florida senator Rick Scott, meanwhile, levelled an inflammatory – and false – accusation at Democrats, whom he accused of rigging elections by allowing “all the non-citizens to vote”.

Immigration reform has become a rallying cry for Republicans, with Trump and his allies repeatedly and falsely accusing Biden of supporting “open borders”.

Trump has previously called for the deportation of 15 million to 20 million undocumented immigrants if he wins re-election, and Vance voiced his own support for mass deportation in an interview with Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, on Monday.

“We have to deport people,” Vance told Hannity. “We have to deport people who broke our laws who came in here. And I think we need to start with the violent criminals.”

Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, doubled down on therhetoric, invoking a series of anecdotal examples of women killed by undocumented immigrants.

“We are facing an invasion on our southern border – not figuratively, a literal invasion,” Cruz exclaimed. “These aren’t just stories or statistics. They’re our daughters, sisters, friends.” Cruz later claimed that Democrats wanted “votes from illegals”.

While Republicans rally, Biden and his Democratic allies are resuming some campaign communications after suspending their planned anti-Trump ads in response to the assassination attempt. At a press conference in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Biden campaign officials said that the assassination attempt against Trump would not change their messaging strategy.

“The president and the vice-president have been very clear on their vision when it comes to the agenda that they want to put forward for Americans. Our campaign has been talking about that for months,” said Quentin Fulks, Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager. “And we’re going to continue to draw the contrast of what that work actually means and what it means for the lives of those American people.”

As of now, it seems like Biden still needs to sell more voters on that message. National polls show a neck-and-neck race, and Biden appears to be in trouble in several states he won in 2020. In a more worrisome sign for Biden, 19 congressional Democrats have called on him to drop out of the race following his disastrous debate performance last month.

Speaking at a brunch in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Chris LaCivita, the co-manager of Trump’s campaign, expressed the utmost confidence in their chances of victory this fall.

“We have nearly 20 paths to get to where we need to get,” LaCivita said. “They have one, maybe two.”