CHARLOTTE: US President Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination for the presidency on Monday and claimed the Democrats want to “steal” the election. Trump is current behind Democrat Joe Biden in the polls.
In a hour-long speech, he told delegates at the Republican national Convention Republicans his party to be on alert for what he claimed was a Democratic plan to rig the contest through increased use of mail-in voting – a measure Democrats say is needed to protect people from contracting Covid-19 in crowded polling stations.
“They are trying to steal the election,” he told party delegates. “The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election.”
Polls show Trump losing to Biden, as Americans turn on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic chaos. Trump hopes the convention, which concludes Thursday with his formal acceptance of the nomination, will shift voters’ attention from coronavirus to what he says is the “super-V” shaped economic recovery.
Trump is expected to make more live television appearances on each of the four days of the convention ahead of his acceptance speech at the White House.