Noting the speeches Tuesday night by former rivals of Donald Trump such as Nikki Haley and the general agreement on the Trump-crafted platform, delegates to the Republican National Convention who spoke to Newsmax agreed the party was unified going into the fall election.
Many conceded the unity is in large part due to Donald Trump's reaction following his near-assassination over the weekend. Others underscored the need to defeat Joe Biden and win control of both houses of Congress.
And still others agreed the absence from the convention of nearly all "never-Trumpers" — notably former President George W. Bush and his brother Jeb and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney — as evidence it was Donald Trump's Republican Party and they were fine with that.
"Certainly the attempt on President Trump's life is a factor in our being as united as we've never been, just as it surely changed him," District of Columbia GOP Chairman Patrick Mara told us. "And the platform recognizes abortion as a state issue and eliminates any anti-LGBTQ language or opposition to same sex marriage. That has helped us become far more united than in the past.
"A near-death occurrence with our nominee and the pride we have in how he reacted to it is a factor in our unity," Mississippi Republican National Committeeman Henry Barbour said. "Our platform is design to grow the vote and we're running on unifying issues."
Before cheering on Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' address to the convention, Arkansas Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge said, "the attempt to assassinate our candidate has united us more than ever, but the price of groceries and gasoline and Joe Biden himself are factors in that unity."
Rutledge's view was seconded by fellow Razorback State delegate Eddie Arnold but he also emphasized "10 million people coming over the border illegally and then eating up our welfare system can get a lot of people fed up and lead to party unity."
"President Trump has the best chance of defeating Joe Biden — and we have a message that simple people can understand," Delegate Sue Cienki of Rhode Island told us.
Connecticut’s Republican National Committeewoman-elect Annalisa Stravato told us "everyone in [the Connecticut GOP] is very optimistic. That says a lot." (Connecticut last went Republican for president in 1988.)
Stravato, Cienki, and Mara are considered far more moderate than stalwart conservatives Rutledge and Barbour, but they were all in agreement on the party's unity and enthusiasm for its platform and candidate.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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