MILWAUKEE — Six months ago, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley were the two lone challengers still in the race trying to steal the Republican nomination from former president Donald Trump. On Tuesday evening, that felt like a distant memory.
Both DeSantis and Haley filled primetime speaking slots at Tuesday night’s Republican National Convention session, and both expressed their support for a second Trump term. The decision to allow DeSantis and Haley to speak at the convention, who both were frequent critics of Trump while campaigning against him during the GOP primary, was part of an effort to “unify the party” after Saturday’s assassination attempt.
Trump has led the effort. He told the Washington Examiner that he rewrote his convention speech, which will be delivered Thursday, to reflect “a chance to bring the country together.” His daugther-in-law, Lara Trump, the RNC’s co-chair, said she, too, gave a different speech Tuesday than the one she had previously prepared. Trump campaign officials have given real-time instruction to delegates seated on the convention floor to tone down their cheers: instead of chanting “fight,” they asked delegates to say “we love Trump”; instead of booing Haley and DeSantis, they asked for respectful cheers.
On Tuesday night, DeSantis and Haley offered two different interpretations of the unity messaging: Haley called for all voters to come together to show they are “blessed to live in America”; DeSantis called on Republicans to unite against the “woke left.”
Haley: ‘We are so much better when we’re together’
Haley was met with cheers and scattered boos after taking the stage. “President Trump asked me to speak at this convention in the name of unity,” she said.
Haley served in Trump’s cabinet as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. During her yearlong campaign for the Republican nomination, she became a fierce critic of the former president. She frequently called him a liar and warned that he would not win in November.
She struck a different tone Tuesday. “We should acknowledge that there are some Americans who don’t agree with Donald Trump,” she said. “My message to them is you don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him.”
“I haven’t always agreed with him,” she added, “but we agree more than we disagree.”
On the campaign trail, she blasted Trump’s foreign policy, saying he sides with Vladimir Putin. On Tuesday, she seemed to walk those comments back. “Putin didn’t attack Ukraine (while Trump was president) because he knew Donald Trump was tough,” she said. “A strong president doesn’t start wars. A strong president prevents wars.”
She closed with a call for unity. “We are so much better when we’re together,” she said. “We have a country to save, and a strong, unified Republican Party is essential to saving her,” she said.
“Let us show our children and the world that even on our worst day, we are blessed to live in America,” she concluded. She was given a standing ovation, including by Trump.
DeSantis calls for ‘bold leadership’
DeSantis took a more aggressive tack when calling for support for Trump. He opened by saying America “could not handle four more years” of Biden. He blasted Biden’s pullout from Afghanistan, his handling of the southern border, his judicial appointments and his inability “to define what a woman is.”
“Biden is the first president of the United States who lacks the capability to discharge the duties of his office,” DeSantis said.
He called for a series of policy and social proposals, some pulled from the newly approved GOP platform and some of his own design: term limits for members of Congress; stronger border security; a “shared civic culture”; and requiring valid U.S. identification to vote.
He touted his leadership in Florida as the path forward for the country. “Today, due to bold leadership, the Democratic Party lies in ruins,” he said. “The left is in retreat.”
“Trump gives us the chance to do this all across America,” he said.
