RNC Closing Night Preview: Donald Trump to Tackle Leftist Riots in Speech

President Donald Trump plans to make the leftist riots in America’s major cities a key part of his Republican National Convention speech on Thursday night.

“The president will address the unrest in this country, he will make reference to Kenosha, and he will speak about the issue,” Trump 2020 director of communications Tim Murtaugh told reporters in a call on Thursday.

The ongoing rioting fueled by radical leftists in the normally peaceful city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, has served as an alarming backdrop to the Republican convention.

“He will speak about the issue also in terms of how the reaction cannot be to escalate violence,” Murtaugh said. “We cannot have Americans continue to harm Americans in our streets, and also in the frame, the police should be allowed to do their jobs and that he respects and admires the work that the vast majority of our men and women of law enforcement do.”

Riots have devastated Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and other major cities throughout the summer, inspiring the president to repeatedly demand law and order in cities typically led by Democrat political leaders.

Murtaugh said Trump will speak forcefully about the contrast between his policy agenda and the one that Biden and the radical left was offering.

“The media generally has ignored or glossed over the criticism of Joe Biden’s record,” Murtaugh said. “The best way to really punch through is if the president delivers this speech himself.”

Trump is also expected to highlight the administration’s successes fighting the coronavirus, despite the Biden campaign’s effort to blame the president for both the physical toll and the economic blow the virus has caused.

Democrat vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris plans a Thursday afternoon speech criticizing Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The president will also compare his record of mounting an unprecedented effort to combat the coronavirus versus Joe Biden’s basement strategy of sitting on the sidelines and offering nothing but useless criticisms,” Murtaugh said.

Trump will be introduced Thursday night by his daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, for his speech that will take place on the South Lawn of the White House.

“We look forward to a good, strong, tough speech but one filled with policy and one filled with contrast between his own record and vision and those of Joe Biden, the Democrat nominee,” Murtaugh concluded.