Republican National Convention, day two: Donald Trump officially nominated

Chris Christie, the Governor of New Jersey and a former federal prosecutor, said he was there as “Donald Trump’s friend for the last 14 years”. He said America is “about to be led by a caring, genuine and decent person”.

But Christie used most of his time at the podium to savage Hillary Clinton, running through a list of the mistakes she made as Secretary of State, including her use of a private email server in violation of federal rules.

“Since the Justice Department refuses to allow you to render a verdict, let’s present the case now,” he said, enlisting the partisan crowd as his jury. He proceeded to mention each of Clinton’s alleged failures one by one, asking the audience for a verdict.

“Guilty!” the crowd roared back at him, again and again. More than once, it broke out into chants of “Lock her up!”.

That was all before he started riffing on Clinton’s private email server.

“Let’s face the facts. Hillary Clinton cared more about protecting her own secrets than she cared about protecting American secrets. And then she lied about it over and over and over again,” Christie said.

“Time after time after time, the facts and just the facts lead you to the same verdict both around the world and here at home.

“Her focus group tested persona with no genuineness to be found is a sham.

“We didn’t disqualify Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States, the facts of her life and career disqualify her.”

Christie promised to “prosecute” Clinton at the beginning of his speech, and he certainly followed through. He was the first speaker to really engage the audience tonight - and in doing so, he got thousands of people to chant about putting the other nominee in prison.

Job done, then.

Read More (...)