 "Donald Trump, Joe Biden")
US President Donald Trump castigated his Democratic rival Joe Biden as "the destroyer of American greatness" and assured voters that he will end the raging coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged the economy and quell the civil unrest, as he accepted the Republican nomination for a second term in office.
"This election will decide whether we save the American dream" or whether "we allow a socialist agenda to demolish our cherished destiny," Trump, 74, said on Thursday amidst cheers from some 1,500 ardent supporters who were mostly maskless.
My fellow Americans, tonight, with a heart full of gratitude and boundless optimism, I proudly accept this nomination for President of the United States," he said in his 70-minute address from the South Lawn of the White House as hundreds of protesters staged a noisy demonstration outside against his policies.
I stand before you tonight honoured by your support. Proud of the extraordinary progress we have made together over the last four incredible years, and brimming with confidence in the bright future, we will build for America over the next four years, Trump said.
In a new term as President, we will again build the greatest economy in history quickly returning to full employment, soaring incomes, and record prosperity! he said.
"We will defeat the virus, end the pandemic, and emerge stronger than ever before," he told the Americans as the country has witnessed over 180,000 deaths and over five million COVID-19 infections, making the the US the worst-hit nation.
Party's delegates from across the country at Republican National Convention, which has been drastically scaled down at its original venue of Charlotte in North Carolina, on Monday re-nominated Trump and Vice President Mike Pence as its presidential and vice-presidential candidates respectively.
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This is for the first time in recent memory that a presidential candidate has delivered his acceptance speech from the White House.
Trump and Pence are being challenged in the November 3 elections by Democratic presidential nominee and former vice president Joe Biden and his running mate, Indian-origin Senator Kamala Harris.
Trump slammed Biden's record as a "shameful roll call of the most catastrophic betrayals" and said his victory will endanger the nation and destroy the American greatness.
"He is the destroyer of America's jobs, and if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness."
Biden's record is a shameful roll call of the most catastrophic betrayals and blunders in our lifetime. He has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history, Trump said.
The president said that despite all of the American greatness as a nation, everything that the US has achieved is now endangered.
This is the most important election in the history of our country. At no time before have voters faced a clearer choice between two parties, two visions, two philosophies, or two agendas, he said.
Trump told Americans that their vote will decide whether they protect law-abiding Americans, or whether they give free rein to violent anarchists, agitators, and criminals who threaten the citizens.
And this election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life, or whether we allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it, he said.
"Biden is a Trojan horse for socialism," he said.
Trump also referred to violent racial justice protests that have swept the nation in recent months following the killings of Black Americans.
The president said the Democrats at their party convention last week had disparaged America as a place of racial, social and economic injustice.
"So tonight I ask you a very simple question - how can the Democrat party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?
"In the left's backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just and exceptional nation on earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sins," Trump said.
Attacking his opponent's decades-long political life, Trump said: "Joe Biden spent his entire career outsourcing the dreams of American workers, offshoring their jobs, opening their borders and sending their sons and daughters to fight in endless foreign wars."
China, Trump said, would "own our country" if Biden wins and that only he would hold Beijing accountable for the "tragedy they caused" over the COVID-19.
Meanwhile, in an average of major national polls tracked by Real Clear Politics, Biden leads Trump by 7.1 percentage points and in the battleground states it has come down to 3.7 percentage points, indicating that the presidential elections in less than 70 days is headed for an interesting finish.
Trump's acceptance speech concluded four days of star-studded convention of the Republican Party.
Earlier, Trump was introduced by one of his daughters, Ivanka, who said her father did not come to Washington to win praise from the Beltway elites, but to "make America great again".
"Washington has not changed Donald Trump. Donald Trump has changed Washington," she said.
Biden's running mate, Harris, delivered a speech hours before the president spoke, declaring: "Donald Trump doesn't understand the presidency."
"Donald Trump has failed at the most basic and important job of a president of the United States: he failed to protect the American people, plain and simple," the Indian-American senator said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
