CNN’s Chris Wallace gave a blistering review of Donald Trump’s “extensive” speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, expressing disappointment in the former president’s inability to deliver the more unifying tone his campaign had promised.
“The Trump campaign had talked so much about how we would see a softer, more reflective Donald Trump,” the former Fox News host said during a panel discussion on CNN.
He said he briefly believed it would be “another Donald Trump,” early in the speech when Trump said, “I’m running to be president for all of America, not half of America.”
Wallace added, “But despite all that, he couldn’t seem to keep up the act.”
Trump’s more subdued tone lasted 17 minutes. He then began attacking the criminal cases against him as “partisan witch hunts,” calling Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) “crazy,” and complaining that the 2020 election was rigged, among other lies over the course of the 92 elections. minutes long story.
“Honestly, it was a long speech. It was a controversial speech. It was a speech by an older man and I couldn’t help but think that the people who will be happiest tonight are not the people at Trump’s headquarters, but the people, the Democrats, perhaps at Biden’s headquarters,” said Wallace.
Previously, Wallace was one of several media figures who speculated that viewers would see a softer and more moderate Trump after Saturday’s attempt on his life, as “The Daily Show” noted in a review titled, “The Media Definitely Didn’t Fall for It” Trump’s new tone again, right??
Trump and his team had teased that the speech would be very different from what was originally planned after the former president survived an assassination attempt. They decided it was time to “bring the country together.”
Trump’s advisers had said he did not even plan to mention President Joe Biden by name. But he did when he argued that Biden has been worse than the last ten worst presidents combined.