SFGATE: Melania Trump's night: GOP convention stars first lady
Published on August 26, 2020 at 05:39AM by By STEVE PEOPLES, MICHELLE L. PRICE and DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The people closest to President Donald Trump — his family — were starring on the second night of the Republican National Convention as the GOP worked to reintroduce the president to American voters in the midst of the campaign and pandemic.
First lady Melania Trump was delivering Tuesday evening's keynote address at the White House, while the president's daughter Tiffany and son Eric were to be featured, too. Trump himself played a significant role even before the formal program began.
For a second consecutive night, his unscripted remarks threatened to overshadow the convention's carefully crafted message. And there was a separate controversy about one of the speakers, who was pulled from the convention minutes before it began.
“The fraud and abuse will be an embarrassment to our country,” Trump tweeted about the expected reliance on mail voting by many voters during the pandemic, raising anew the unsupported prospect of voter fraud. Experts say mail voting has proven remarkably secure.
Meanwhile, the convention's planned humanizing focus on Trump's family came as the first-term president labors to improve his standing in a 2020 presidential race he is currently losing. Most polls report that Democratic rival Joe Biden has a significant advantage in terms of raw support; the former vice president also leads on character issues such as trustworthiness and likability.
With Election Day just 10 weeks off and early voting beginning much sooner, Trump is under increasing pressure to reshape the contours of the campaign. But as he struggles to contain the pandemic and the related economic devastation, Republicans have yet to identify a consistent political message arguing for his reelection.
Trump’s political future may depend on his ability to convince voters that America is on the right...
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