The first day of the Republican National Convention kicked off in Charlotte, North Carolina, this morning – the city initially chosen to host the event – for an in-person event before moving the rest of the production to the nation’s capital.
The formal presidential nomination process was attended by six delegates from each state and territory, amounting to a total of 336 delegates, according to the RNC. RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel presided over the nomination process, which concluded with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being formally nominated as the party’s nominee for President and vice president.
Trump and Pence appeared at the roll call in North Carolina to thank delegates.
Pence briefly addressed a friendly, fired-up crowd of delegates at the RNC ahead of Trump’s appearance.
A Trump victory, he said, will make America great again, again.
“We are going to reelect President Donald Trump for four more years, and with your continued support and with God’s help, we are going to make America great again, again,” he said.
He called on the delegates to help with down-ballot races, and said the economy, law and order, freedom, and free markets are “on the ballot” this year, urging them to mobilize, phone bank, and door knock.
He thanked the delegates “for the honor of this day” and said he’d be speaking more about the nomination at Fort McHenry later this week.
Trump had voting on his mind Monday morning as he addressed his convention, kicking off his first remarks for the week with dark messaging lamenting the 2016 election and railing against mail-in voting, continuing to cast doubt on the election’s results.
“Now if you really want to drive them crazy, you say 12 more years,” he said as an enthusiastic crowd of delegates chanted “four more years.”
“Because,” he continued, “We caught them doing some really bad things in 2016. Let’s see what happens. We caught them doing some really bad things. We have to be very careful because they’re trying it again, this whole 80 million mail-in ballots that they’re working on. Sending them out to people that didn’t ask for them. They didn’t ask, they just get them, and it’s not fair, and it’s not right, and it’s not going to be possible to tabulate, in my opinion.”
There is no evidence that former President Barack Obama spied on Trump’s campaign. You can read CNN’s most recent mail-in voting fact checks here.
Still, Trump went on to claim Democrats “are trying to do it with the whole post office scam, they’ll blame it on the post office. You can see them setting it up. Be very careful and watch it very carefully.”
He closed his remarks with another warning about how important the election will be while telling the delegates not to “let them take it away from you.”
“Be very, very careful. This is going to be, and I really believe this, this is the most important election in the history of our country. Don’t let them take it away from you. Don’t let them take it away,” Trump said.
Trump’s formal acceptance speech will happen remotely Thursday from the White House.
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