WASHINGTON — Mike Pence emerged from President Donald Trump’s long shadow Wednesday night to accept the nomination for vice president, delivering a revisionist case for their management of the coronavirus pandemic and offering unwavering support for law enforcement amid growing protests over the police shooting of another unarmed Black man.
The rising calls for racial justice and an end to police abuses prompted the cancellation of professional basketball and baseball games and formed a chaotic backdrop to the third night of the Republican National Convention, which took place as a monstrous hurricane roared toward the Gulf Coast, threatening widespread devastation.
Speaking from historic Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Pence elided over the multiple crises convulsing the country, offering gauzy claims of success and criticizing Democrats for a convention last week that focused on the grim realities of a virus that has killed more than 180,000 Americans and put millions out of work in the last six months.
“Where Joe Biden sees American darkness, we see American greatness,” Pence said, in one of several harsh attacks against the Democratic nominee. “In these challenging times, our country needs a president who believes in America.”
Unlike all but one other speaker, Pence acknowledged the looming threat from Hurricane Laura and urged residents along the Gulf Coast to stay safe as the most powerful storm to hit the U.S. this year was poised to crash into the the upper Texas coast and western Louisiana before dawn today. Up to 20 million people were potentially in its path.
But Pence stuck to the script on matters of crime and punishment, declaring that he and Trump support “peaceful protest” while demanding that violent protesters and those who damage statues be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” adding an appeal to those angered by efforts to remove Confederate statues.
“If you want a president who falls silent when our heritage is demeaned or insulted, then he’s not your man,” Pence said.
Pence suggested — falsely — that Biden supports defunding law enforcement.
“The hard truth is: You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” Pence said. “Under President Trump, we will stand with those who stand on the thin blue line, and we’re not going to defund the police — not now, not ever.”
To some extent, the growing uproar over the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake in front of his children in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday overshadowed Pence’s comments on urban unrest, and may complicate the president’s reelection strategy.
Trump, who flew to Baltimore for Pence’s speech and greeted him on stage for a rendition of the national anthem, had planned to run on his economic record before it was ravaged by the pandemic.
As millions of Americans lost their jobs and a deep recession set in, he shifted to a muscular “law and order” message, signaling that he was willing to use armed force if necessary to put down violent protests, or even peaceful protests — while stoking fears of crime and portraying protesters as vigilantes.
BUT THE VIDEO of Blake being shot multiple times in the back has reenergized activists demanding police reforms three months after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis spurred a national reckoning on race.
On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that he would send National Guard troops to Kenosha to quash any violence arising from protests, prompting the state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, to agree to request them. But there were signs that the calls for police reform could not be ignored.
As part of the backlash against the Blake shooting, the NBA suspended all playoff games Wednesday following the Milwaukee Bucks’ decision not to take the floor for their game. At least three Major League Baseball games were also canceled after players opted not to play in protest.
