Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Event/Special
Republican National Convention; Ivanka Trump Proud of Her Father; President Trump Officially Accepted GOP's Nomination. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired August 27, 2020 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, HOST, FOX NEWS: Washington, D.C., the establishment is terrified, and they should be. They were all -- all of them wrong, making this one of the greatest upsets in American political history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Immediately upon taking office, President Trump changed things, but change threatened the establishment. And the establishment fought back Democrat obstruction, phony investigations, the dishonest media, an incredible 92 percent of stories are negative. No president has seen anything like it.
Despite everything they threw at him, President Trump delivered for the American people and he delivered like never before, building the strongest economy in American history, seven million new jobs, the lowest ever unemployment for black and Hispanic Americans, ending the Biden era of lopsided trade deals that sent our factories overseas, passing the historic USMCA, taking on China, winning the trade war, protecting and strengthening Medicare and Social Security, lowering the cost of insulin, delivering the first real drop in drug prices in 50 years restoring our military, fixing the V.A. Bringing our troops home, and taking the world's deadliest terrorists off the battlefield. Soleimani, Al Baghdadi, ISIS brought to justice, moving America's embassy to Jerusalem, a new era of of strong allies with our ally Israel, negotiating a historic peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, securing our border, miles of new border wall being built, illegal immigration dropped to the lowest point in a decade, tackling the coronavirus head-on, banning travel from China, mobilizing government, business and the American people to manufacture masks, ventilators and medical supplies, and launching Operation Warp Speed, an unprecedented effort to develop a vaccine to eradicate the coronavirus from the face of the earth in record time.
President Trump has accomplished more for the American people in four years than any other president in history. And in his second term, he will lead America to even greater heights, draining the swamp, rebuilding the economy, bringing back millions of jobs, creating 10 million new jobs in 10 months.
New opportunities for all Americans, not just those at the top, lowering drug costs, expanding access to high-quality health care for every American family, defending America's police, restoring law and order to our cities, stopping illegal immigration and protecting American families and ending America's reliance on China once and for all, bringing back jobs and factories, making medicine and products in America again.
President Trump will rebuild America's infrastructure. Renew hope in our entrepreneurial spirit for a new generation. And restore the American dream.
It won't be easy. Never pretty. The swamp will continue to fight him every step of the way, but under President Trump, our families will thrive, our incomes will rise, our communities will be kept safe, our factories will flourish, our flag will fly high, our country will soar, and we will make America great again.
(APPLAUSE)
HOST: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ivanka Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: Good evening.
Before I begin, I want to send out a special message to everyone who's been affected by Hurricane Laura. Our hearts are with you. The president will continue to support you every step of the way. And just like Americans always do, the nation will come together to help you rebuild your homes, businesses, and communities stronger and more resilient than ever before.
(APPLAUSE)
Four years ago, I introduced to you a builder, an entrepreneur, an outsider, and the people's nominee for the president of the United States.
Tonight, I stand before you as the proud daughter of the people's president.
(APPLAUSE)
He is our commander-in-chief, champion of the American worker, defender of common sense, and our voice for the forgotten men and women of this country, he is our president and my father, Donald J. Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
This evening, I want to tell you about the leader I know and the moments I wish every American could see. I want to tell you the story of a president who is fighting for you from dawn until midnight when the cameras have left, the microphones are off and the decisions really count.
When Jared and I moved with her three young children to Washington, we didn't exactly know what we were in for, but our kids -- our kids loved it from the start. My son Joseph promptly built grandpa a Lego replica of the White House.
The president still displays it on the mantle in the Oval Office right over there so that he can show world leaders just so they know he has the greatest grandchildren on earth.
(APPLAUSE)
I agree.
Over the last four years, we'd learned a lot. I'd seen in Washington, it's easy for politicians to survive if they silenced their convictions and skipped the hard fights. I couldn't believe so many politicians actually prefer to complain about a problem rather than fix it.
I was shocked to see people leave major challenges unsolved so that they can blame the other side, campaign on the same issue in the next election.
But Donald Trump did not come to Washington to win praise from the Beltway elites. Donald Trump came to Washington for one reason and one reason alone, to make America Great Again.
(APPLAUSE)
My father has strong convictions. He knows what he believes, and he says what he thinks. Whether you agree with him or not, you always know where he stands.
I recognize that my dad's communication style is not to everyone's taste and I know that his tweets can feel a bit unfiltered, but the results -- the results speak for themselves.
(APPLAUSE)
He is so unapologetic about his beliefs that he has caused me and countless Americans to take a hard look at our convictions and ask ourselves, what do we stand for? What kind of America do we want to leave for our children?
I am more certain than ever before we want a future where our kids can believe in American greatness. We want a society where every child can live in a safe community and go to a great school of their choice.
(APPLAUSE)
We want a culture where differences of opinion and debate are encouraged, not canceled, where law enforcement is respected, where our country's rich diversity is celebrated and where people of all backgrounds, races, genders, and creeds have the chance to achieve their God-given potential. This is the future my father is working to build each and every day.
(APPLAUSE) Building, after all, is what he's done his whole life. He's admired and befriended construction workers on countless job sites, but it has been a new and profound experience for him and for me to see these stoic machinists and steel workers come to him with a tear in their eye and thank him for be the only person willing to go to bat for them, for their jobs, for their families, and for their futures.
To the hard-working men and women across America and here tonight, you are the reason my father fights with all of his heart and all of his might. You are the reason he ran for president in the first place and you are the reason he is going to keep fighting for four more years.
(APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE: (CHANTING: FOUR MORE YEARS)
I remember one evening in early February of 2018, we were in the Oval Office with my father's top economic. And the president was pushing to keep the promise he made to renegotiate the bad trade deals that had gutted millions of middle-class jobs.
Most of his advisers argued that the economy was so strong, following our historic tax and regulatory cuts, that it didn't make sense to risk rocking the boat.
After the meeting, as I walked with my father back towards the residence, he said: "You know, the reason this has never been done before is because our leaders haven't had the guts. When the economy is good, they settle for good, and when things are bad, they don't have the will or ability, so they kick the can until it's someone else's problem."
He was right. If my father didn't take on these fights, no one would.
In the months that followed, President Trump refused to settle for a good deal. He wanted a great deal. And, ultimately, that is exactly what we got.
(APPLAUSE)
I remember, each time he was updated on the progress of the new trade deal with Mexico and Canada, he would say: "Don't let down those dairy farmers I met in Wisconsin. I don't want them to like this deal. I want them to love it."
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
Today, in the midst of this unprecedented global pandemic, it's more clear than ever that our president was absolutely correct to take on trade when he did, and bring our jobs, our factories and our lifesaving medicines back to the USA.
(APPLAUSE) As our nation endures this grave trial, I pray for the families who are mourning the loss of a loved one, for those who are battling COVID-19 and for the first responders and the health care heroes who remain on the front line of this fight.
The grief, sorrow and anxiety during this time is felt by all. I have been with my father, and I have seen the pain in his eyes when he receives updates on the lives that have been stolen by this plague. I have witnessed him make some of the most difficult decisions of his life.
I sat with him in the Oval Office as he stopped travel to Europe. I watched him take the strongest, most inclusive economy in a lifetime, the lowest unemployment in a half-century and the highest wage increase for working families in decades and close it down to save American lives.
(APPLAUSE)
It is why our president rapidly mobilized the full force of government in the private sector to produce ventilators within weeks, to build the most robust testing system in the world, and to develop safe and effective treatments, and very, very soon a vaccine.
My father isn't deterred by defeatist thinkers. The word impossible, well, it only motivates him. Donald Trump rejects the cynical notion that this country's greatest achievements are behind us. He believes that nothing is beyond our reach and that the best is yet to come.
(APPLAUSE)
I have seen all of my life how my dad believes in the potential of each individual.
Earlier this evening, we were all inspired by the incredible testimony of Alice Johnson, a great-grandmother who was sentenced to life in prison for a first-time nonviolent drug offense.
I was with my father when he decided to commute Alice's life sentence. Together, we watched Alice leave prison after nearly 22 years. As she ran into the arms of her family, and they celebrated a joyful reunion, my father got very quiet. I could see the emotion on his face.
After a long silence, he looked at me and said, "Imagine how many people there are just like Alice."
From that point on, he became a voice for those who had been unfairly silenced in our prison system. President Trump rectified the disparities of the 1994 Biden crime bill that disproportionately hurt African Americans.
(APPLAUSE)
Against all odds, he brought together Republicans and Democrats and passed the most significant criminal justice reform of our generation, and we're just getting started. (APPLAUSE)
My father did not campaign on this issue. He tackled this injustice because he has a deep compassion for those who have been treated unfairly.
More than rhetoric and political prose, the ability to build consensus and achieve bipartisan success will help heal our country's racial inequities and bring us forward together.
President Trump is advancing the American values of work and family.
Four years ago, in Cleveland, I said President Trump would deliver for working women. Last year, over 70 percent of all new jobs were secured by women.
(APPLAUSE)
Four years ago, I told you my father would focus on making childcare affordable and accessible.
In President Trump's first term, we secured the largest ever increase for childcare funding, giving more than 800,000 low-income families great child care at a cost they can afford.
(APPLAUSE)
As part of Republican tax cuts, in 2019 alone, our child tax credit put over $2,000 into the pockets of 40 million American families.
(APPLAUSE)
Democrat politicians recently introduced a plan to increase the child tax credit, yet, when I was fighting less than three years ago, at the president's direction, to get Congress to double the child tax credit, not a single Democrat voted to pass the law. We got it done anyway.
(APPLAUSE)
Four years ago, I promised that President Trump would support mothers in the work force. In his first year in office, he signed into law the first ever national paid leave tax credit.
Today, eight million more Americans have access to this benefit.
(APPLAUSE)
Four years ago, I said that Americans needed an economy that permits people to rise again.
During President Trump's first three years in office, 72 percent of all new jobs went to Americans who had been outside of the work force.
(APPLAUSE)
Four years ago, I told you I would fight alongside my father, and four years later, here I am.
(APPLAUSE)
Many of the issues my father has championed are not historically Republican priorities.
Yet, where Washington chooses sides, our president chooses commonsense. Where politicians choose party, our president chooses people.
(APPLAUSE)
Since the day he took the oath of office, I have watched my father take on the failed policies of the past and do what no leader has done before.
Recently, he took dramatic action to cut the cost of prescription drugs, despite fielding angry calls from the CEOs of nearly every major pharmaceutical company. Now, when we see attack ads paid for by big pharma, my dad smiles and says to me, "You know, we're doing something really right if they're hitting us so hard."
(APPLAUSE)
This spring, our president saw that American crops were going to waste because food supply chains were disrupted by the virus.
He directed Secretary Perdue and me to find a way to get this nutritious food, fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy, to families most in need.
Within a matter of days, we launched the Farmers to Families Food Box Program, which has now delivered over 100 million meals into the hands of American families.
(APPLAUSE)
To protect the most vulnerable among us, I have worked alongside the president as he signed into law nine pieces of legislation to combat the evil of human trafficking.
(APPLAUSE)
I have stood by my father's side at Dover Air Force Base as he's received our fallen heroes, and, each time, it has steeled his resolve to finally stop, finally stop the endless foreign wars.
(APPLAUSE)
To change the paradigm in the Middle East, he took a fresh approach.
I heard foreign leaders beg him not to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem, yet he delivered on a promise also made and unfulfilled by past presidents, because my father knew that it was the right thing to do.
(APPLAUSE)
Defying all expectations, just weeks ago, he rewrote history again by making a peace agreement in the Middle East, the biggest breakthrough in a quarter-century.
(APPLAUSE)
For the first time in a long time, we have a president who has called out Washington's hypocrisy, and they hate him for it.
Dad, people attack you for being unconventional. But I love you for being real, and I respect you for being effective.
(APPLAUSE)
Our president refuses to surrender his beliefs to score a point with the political elite.
To my father, you are the elite. You are the only people he cares about scoring points with.
If these problems were easy to solve, previous presidents would have done so. But you don't achieve different results by doing things the same way.
(APPLAUSE)
Washington has not changed Donald Trump. Donald Trump has changed Washington.
(APPLAUSE)
America doesn't need another empty vessel who will do whatever the media and the fringe of his party demands. Now, more than ever, America needs four more years of a warrior in the White House.
(APPLAUSE)
Tonight, I could not be more proud to introduce my father, a man I know was made for this moment in history. My fellow Americans, our first lady and the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE CHANTING: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Oh, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you very much.
Friends, delegates and distinguished guests, please. I stand before you tonight honored 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.
(APPLAUSE)
We begin this evening our thoughts are with the wonderful people who have just come through the wrath of Hurricane Laura. We are working closely with state and local officials in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, sparing no effort to save lives.
While the hurricane was fierce, one of the strongest to make landfall in 150 years, the casualties and damage were far less than thought possible only 24 hours ago.
(APPLAUSE)
And this is due to the great work of FEMA, law enforcement and the individual states.
I will be going this weekend. And congratulations. Thank you for that great job out there. We really appreciate it.
We are one national family, and we will always protect, love and care for each other. Here tonight are the people who have made my journey possible and filled my life with so much joy.
For her incredible service to our nation and its children, I want to thank our magnificent first lady.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you, sweetie (ph).
(APPLAUSE)
I also want to thank my amazing daughter Ivanka for that introduction, and to all of my children -- Ivanka, please stand up.
(APPLAUSE)
Great job.
(APPLAUSE)
And to all of my children and grandchildren, I love you more than words can express. I know my brother Robert is looking down on us right now from heaven. He was a great brother and was very proud of the job we are all doing.
Thank you.
We love you, Robert.
(APPLAUSE)
Let us also take a moment to show our profound appreciation for a man who has always fought by our side and stood up for our values, a man of deep faith and steadfast conviction, our vice president, Mike Pence.
(APPLAUSE)
And Mike is joined by his beloved wife, a teacher and military mom, Karen Pence.
Thank you, Karen.
(APPLAUSE)
My fellow Americans, tonight, with a heart full of gratitude and boundless optimism, I profoundly accept this nomination for president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE CHANTING: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
TRUMP: The Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, goes forward united, determined and ready to welcome millions of Democrats, independents and anyone who believes in the greatness of America and the righteous heart of the American people.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
We will defend America against all threats and protect America against all dangers.
We will lead America into new frontiers of ambition and discovery. And we will reach for new heights of national achievement. We will rekindle new faith in our values, new pride in our history, and a new spirit of unity that can only be realized through love for our great country.
(APPLAUSE)
Because we understand that America is not a land cloaked in darkness, America is the torch that enlightens the entire world.
(APPLAUSE)
Gathered here at our beautiful and majestic White House, known all over the world as the people's house, we cannot help but marvel at the miracle that is our great American story. This has been the home of larger than life figures like Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson, who rallied Americans to bold visions of a bigger and brighter future.
Within these walls lived tenacious generals like President Grant and Eisenhower, who led our soldiers in the cause of freedom. From these grounds, Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on a daring expedition to cross a wild and uncharted continent.
In the depths of a bloody civil war, President Abraham Lincoln looked out these very windows upon a half-completed Washington Monument and asked God in his providence to save our nation. Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt welcomed Winston Churchill. And just inside, they set our people on a course to victory in the Second World War.
In recent months, our nation and the entire planet has been struck by a new and powerful invisible enemy. Like those brave Americans before us, we are meeting this challenge. We are delivering lifesaving therapies and will produce a vaccine before the end of the year or maybe even sooner.
(APPLAUSE)
We will defeat the virus and the pandemic and emerge stronger than ever before.
(APPLAUSE)
What united generations past was an unshakable confidence in America's destiny and an unbreakable faith in the American people. They knew that our country is blessed by God and has a special purpose in this world. It is that conviction that inspired the formation of our union, our westward expansion, the abolition of slavery, the passage of civil rights, the space program, and the overthrow of fascism, tyranny, and communism.
This towering American spirit has prevailed over every challenge and lifted us to the summit of human endeavor. And yet, despite all of our greatness as a nation, everything we have achieved is now in danger. This is the most important election in the history of our country.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you. At no time before have voters faced a clearer choice between two parties, two visions, two philosophies, or two agendas. This election will decide whether we save the American dream or whether we allow a socialist agenda to demolish our cherished destiny.
(APPLAUSE)
It will decide whether we rapidly create millions of high-paying jobs or whether we crush our industries and send millions of these jobs overseas, as has foolishly been done for many decades. Your vote will decide whether we protect law-abiding Americans or whether we give free rein to violent anarchists and agitators and criminals who threaten our citizens. And this election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it. That won't happen.
(APPLAUSE)
At the Democrat National Convention, Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic, and social injustice. So tonight, I ask you a simple question. How can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?
(APPLAUSE)
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. Our opponents say that redemption for you can only come from giving power to them.
This is a tired anthem spoken by every repressive movement throughout history. But in this country, we don't look to career politicians for salvation. In America, we don't turn to government to restore our souls. We put our faith in almighty God.
(APPLAUSE)
Joe Biden is not a savior of America's soul, he is the destroyer of America's jobs, and if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness. For 47 years Joe Biden took the donations of blue- collar workers, gave them hugs, and even kisses...
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
... and told them he felt their pain. And then he flew back to Washington and voted to ship our jobs to China and many other distant lands.
Joe Biden spent his entire career outsourcing their dreams and the dreams of American workers, off shoring their jobs, opening their borders, and sending their sons and daughters to fight in endless foreign wars, wars that never ended.
Four years ago I ran for president because I could not watch this betrayal of our country any longer. I could not sit by as career politicians let other countries take advantage of us on trade, borders, foreign policy, and national defense.
Our NATO partners, as an example, were very far behind in their defense payments. But at my strong urging, they agreed to pay $130 billion more a year, the first time in over 20 years that they upped their payments.
(APPLAUSE) And this $130 billion will ultimately go to $400 billion a year. And Secretary General Stoltenberg, who heads NATO, was amazed after watching for so many years and said that President Trump did what no one else was able to do.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you.
From the moment I left my former life behind -- and it was a good life.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: I have done nothing but fight for you. I did what our political establishment never expected and could never forgive, breaking the cardinal rule of Washington politics. I kept my promise.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Together, we have ended the rule of the failed political class, and they are desperate to get their power back by any means necessary. You have seen that.
They are angry at me because, instead of putting them first, I very simply said, America first.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you.
Days after taking office, we shocked the Washington establishment and withdrew from the last administration's job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I then immediately approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Ended the unfair and very costly Paris climate accord.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And secured for the first time American energy independence.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We passed record-setting tax and regulation cuts at a rate nobody had ever seen before.
Within three short years, we built the strongest economy in the history of the world. Washington insiders asked me not to stand up to China. They pleaded with me to let China continue stealing our jobs, ripping us off, and robbing our country blind.
But I kept my word to the American people. We took the toughest, boldest, strongest and hardest-hitting action against China in American history, by far.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They said that it would be impossible to terminate and replace NAFTA, but, again, they were wrong.
Earlier this year, I ended the NAFTA nightmare and signed the brand- new U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement into law.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And, right now, auto companies and others are building their plants and factories in America, not firing their employees, and not deserting us for other countries.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: In perhaps no area did the Washington special interests try harder to stop us than on my policy of pro-American immigration.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But I refused to back down. And, today, America's borders are more secure than ever before.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you.
We ended catch-and-release, stopped asylum fraud, took down human traffickers who prey on women and children. And we have deported 20,000 gang members and 500,000 criminal aliens.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We have already built 300 miles of border wall. And we are adding 10 new miles every single week. The wall will soon be complete. And it is working beyond our wildest expectations.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We are joined this evening by members of the Border Patrol Union, representing our country's courageous border agents.
Thank you very much for being here. Thank you.
Brave, brave people.
(APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE CHANTING: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
TRUMP: You see, this country loves our law enforcement. They do. They do.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They really do. Love and respect.
When I learned that the Tennessee Valley Authority laid off hundreds of American workers and forced them to train their lower-paid foreign replacement, I promptly removed the chairman of the board. And now those talented American workers have been rehired and are back providing power to Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They have their old jobs back, and some are here with us this evening.
Please stand. You went through a lot. Please stand. Thank you. Thank you very much.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: You have been through a lot. Thank you very much.
Last month, I took on big pharma. You think that's easy? It's not.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: And signed orders that will massively lower the cost of your prescription drugs and give critically ill patients access to lifesaving cures.
We passed the decades long-awaited right to try. Right to try.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We also passed VA Accountability and VA Choice.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Our great veterans. We're taking care of our veterans.
Ninety-one percent approval rating this month, the VA, given by our veterans, first time anything like that has ever happened.
By the end of my first term, we will have approved more than 300 federal judges, including two great new Supreme Court justices.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And to bring prosperity to our forgotten inner cities, we worked hard to pass historic criminal justice reform, prison reform, Opportunity Zones, and long-term funding of historically black colleges and universities, and, before the China virus came in, produced the best unemployment numbers for African-Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans ever recorded. (APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I say very modestly that I have done more for the African American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I have done more in three years for the black community than Joe Biden has done in 47 years.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And when I'm reelected, the best is yet to come.
(APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE CHANTING: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you very much.
When I took office, the Middle East was in total chaos. ISIS was rampaging. Iran was on the rise. And the war in Afghanistan had no end in sight.
I withdrew from the terrible one-sided Iran nuclear deal.
(APPLAUSE)
Unlike presidents before me, I kept my promise, recognized Israel's true capital, and moved our embassy to Jerusalem.
(APPLAUSE)
But not only did we talk about it as a future site, we got it built. Rather than spending $1 billion on a new building as planned, we took an already owned existing building and a better location. Real estate deal, right?
(LAUGHTER)
And opened it at a cost of less than $500,000.
(APPLAUSE)
Anything is like that the government is doing right now.
We also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. And this month, we achieved the first Middle East peace deal in 25 years. (APPLAUSE)
Thank you to the UAE. Thank you to Israel.
(APPLAUSE)
In addition, we obliterated 100 percent of the ISIS caliphate and killed its founder and leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
(APPLAUSE)
Then, in a separate operation, we eliminated the world's number one terrorist, by far, Qassem Soleimani.
(APPLAUSE)
Unlike previous administrations, I have kept America out of new wars, and our troops are coming home.
(APPLAUSE)
We have spent nearly $2.5 trillion on completely rebuilding our military, which was very badly depleted when I took office, as you know. This includes three separate pay raises for our great warriors.
(APPLAUSE)
We also launched the Space Force, the first new branch of the United States military since the Air Force was created almost 75 years ago.
We have spent the last four years reversing the damage Joe Biden inflicted over the last 47 years.
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. Biden voted for the NAFTA disaster, the single worst trade deal ever enacted. He supported China's entry into the World Trade Organization, one of f the greatest economic disasters of all time.
(BOOS)
After those Biden calamities, the United States lost one in four manufacturing jobs. We laid off workers in Michigan, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and many other states.
They didn't not want to hear Biden's hollow words of empathy. They wanted their jobs back.
(APPLAUSE)
As vice president, he supported the Trans Pacific Partnership, which would have been a death sentence for the U.S. auto industry. He backed the horrendous South Korea trade deal, which took many jobs from our country, and which I've reversed and made a great deal for our country. He repeatedly supported mass amnesty for illegal immigrants. He voted for the Iraq war. He opposed the mission to take out Osama bin Laden. He opposed killing Soleimani.
He oversaw the rise of ISIS and cheered the rise of China as a positive development for America and the world, some positive development.
That's why China supports Joe Biden and desperately wants him to win. I can tell you that upon very good information.
(LAUGHTER)
China would own our country if Joe Biden got elected.
Unlike Biden, I will hold them fully accountable for the tragedy that they caused all over the world, they caused. In recent months, our nation and in the world has been hit by the once in a century pandemic that China allowed to spread around the globe. They could have stopped it, but they allowed it to come out.
We are grateful to be joined tonight by several of our incredible nurses and first responders. Please stand and accept our profound thanks and gratitude.
(APPLAUSE)
Many Americans, including me, have sadly lost friends and cherished loved ones to this horrible disease. As one nation, we mourn, we grieve, and we hold in our hearts forever the memories of all of those lives that have been so tragically taken, so unnecessary.
In their honor, we will unite, in their memory, we will overcome. And when the China virus hit, we launch the largest national mobilization since World War II, invoking the Defense Production Act. We produced the world's largest supply of ventilators. Not a single American who has needed a ventilator has been denied a ventilator, which is a miracle.
(APPLAUSE)
Good job heading the task force by our great vice president. Thank you very much, Mike. Please stand up. Please.
(APPLAUSE)
We shipped hundreds of millions of masks, gloves, and gowns to our frontline health care workers. To protect our nation's seniors, we rushed supplies, testing kits and personnel (ph) to nursing homes, we gave everything you can possibly give, and we're still giving it because we're taking care of our senior citizens.
(APPLAUSE)
The Army Corps of Engineers built field hospitals, and the Navy deployed our great hospital ships. We developed from scratch the largest and most advanced testing system anywhere in the world. America has tested more than every country in Europe put together and more than every nation in the Western Hemisphere combined. Think of that.
We have conducted a 40 million more tests than the next closest nation, which is India. We've developed a wide array of effective treatments, including a powerful antibody treatment known as convalescent plasma. You saw that on Sunday night, when we announce it, that will save thousands and thousands of lives.
Thanks to advancements, we have pioneered the fatality rates, and you look at it, and you look at the numbers. It has been reduced by 80 percent since April, 80 percent.
(APPLAUSE)
The United States is as among the lowest case fatality rates of any major country anywhere in the world. The European Union's case fatality rate is nearly three times higher than ours, but you don't hear about it. They don't write about that. They don't want to write about that. They don't want you to know those things.
Altogether, the nations of Europe have experienced a 30 percent greater increase in excess mortality than the United States. Think of that.
We enacted the largest package of financial relief in American history. Thanks to our Paycheck Protection Program, we have saved or supported more than 50 million American jobs. That's one of the reasons that we're advancing so rapidly with our economy. Great job.
(APPLAUSE)
As a result, we have seen the smallest economic contraction of any major Western nation, and we are recovering at a much faster rate than anybody.
