from nbc news, the republican national convention. here are lester holt and savannah guthrie. >> welcome. we are here to bring you the final night of the republican national convention. this night belgs to donald trump. moments from now he will accept the republican party's renomination for president of the united states. >> the president will have no better chance than this, a prime time speech lasting perhaps an hour or more to explain to the american people why he should be entrusted with the presidency for another four years. >> this is a moment of high political drama.

it comes amid multiple crises. the deadly pandemic, unrest over racial injustice and the hurricane. >> there's a lot riding on this for the president. he will be introduced in a few moments by his daughter ivanka trump. >> hallie jackson is there at the white house. no matter what the president may or may not say about covid tonight, that crowd makes a statement. >> 1,500 people on the south loun with lawn. they are waiting to hear from ivanka trump. president trump is closing out the convention at a time of multiple crises. he will reference the hurricane that's happening, the pandemic that's occurring in this country and the unrest we have seen in wisconsin and elsewhere. president trump is trying to make the case for four more years. he will try to paint joe biden as the architect of what he will call an extreme agenda. lester?

>> we will hear about joe biden tonight. andrea mitchell interviewed him earlier today. what did he tell you? tell me about the timing of him talking. >> after three days, officials tell me he had something to say and wants to get it out. we were on the air at noon on msnbc and they called and said, would you like him to come on? my producer said, sure. they said, joe biden is going to come on. it was very sudden. i asked about whether law and order is taking hold and whether they think that is becoming a problem. he defended himself on that, said that he has always condemned violence. a senior adviser telling me that's not what folks they are talking to are talking about. they are talking about covid, send their kids to school, whether they can have thanksgiving dinner. >> let's go to chuck todd as we await ivanka trump. are the republicans lands punches? >> that's a question i think we're all wondering. you have to know who is

watching. this has been an interesting night to watch. at times donald trump is the challenger and joe biden is the incumbent. at times they are look like at the ways donald trump solved certain problems. is he going to speak as the sitting president or something trying to challenge the establishment? >> a lot has been focused on fear of what life would be under a biden administration. we heard from most of donald trump's family. now to introduce the president, we will hear from eldest daughter and senior adviser ivanka trump. she's reprising the role she had four years ago when she introduced her father at the nominating convention in cleveland. now once again, she will bring him and begin the introduction, the tape and the president himself. >> ladies and gentlemen, please

welcome ivanka trump. ♪ >> good evening. before i begin, i want to send a special message to everyone who has 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 home, businesses and communities stronger and more resilient than ever before. [ applause ] four years ago, i introduced to you a builder, a entrepreneur, an outsider and the people's

nominee for 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 -- 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 to midnight, when the cameras have left, the microphones are off and the

decisions really count. when jarrod and i moved to washington, we didn't know wh what -- over the last four years, we have learned a lot. i have seen in washington it's easy for politicians to survive if they silence their convictions and skip 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 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 caused me and countless americans to take a hard look at our own 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 cancelled, 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

has done his whole life. he has admired and befriended construction workers on countless job sites. it has been a new and profound experience for him and for me to see these stoic machinists and steel works come to him with a tear in their eye and thank him for being the only person willing to go to the mat for them, for their jobs, families and 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. you are the reason he is going to keep fighting for four more years. [ applause ]

[ 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 advisers. 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 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. 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 up da updated on the progress with the trade deal with mexico, he would say don't let down those dairy farmers. i want them to love it. [ 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. bring our jobs, our factories and our life saving 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 health care heros 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 mow 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 pry vivate

sector. my father isn't deterred by defeatist thinkers. the word impossible, 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 inspired by the incredible testimony of alice johnson. a great grandmother who was sentenced to life in prison for a first-time non-violent drug offense. i was with my father when he decided to commute alice's life sentence. 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 disproportionally 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 are 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% 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 childcare

at a cost they can afford. 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. 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. four years ago, i promised that president trump would support mothers in the workforce. in his first year in office, he signed into law the first ever national paid leave tax credit. today, 8 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% of all new jobs went to americans who had been outside of the workforce. [ 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 campaigned are not historically republican priorities. yet, where washington chooses sides, our president chooses common sense. 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 says, we're doing something really right if they are hitting us so hard. [ applause ] this spring, our president saw american crops were going to waste because food supply chains were disrupted by the virus. he directed secretary purdue and me a way to get this nutritious food to families most in need. within a matter of days, we launched the farmers to family food box program which has 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 received our fallen heroes. 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 approa approach. i heard foreign leaders beg him not to move the embassy to jerusalem. he delivered on a promise made and unfulfilled by past presidents because my father knew 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, t 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 point with the big 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. washington has not changed donald trump. donald trump has changed washington. [ applause ] american 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 ] ♪ >> the president and first lady walking down the stairway from the blue room. first, acknowledging the crowd laid out there on the south lawn of the white house. trump/pence signs, things we don't normally see, campaign signs at the white house. >> we don't. everything is unconventional this year and certainly this is as well. the president we know wanted a crowd for his convention speech. he has got it. 1,500 people on the south lawn of the white house. as many people have noticed, not socially distanced and not wearing masks. today, it's their individual choice.

they wanted to be here for the president's moment sf. >> could be a clue for how he will fight the fight of covid. the first couple taking a slow stroll. he wanted this pageantry. he wanted this imagery. what he wanted was for the convention to be in north carolina and then florida. things didn't work out. so here they are. ♪

♪ >> let's bring chuck todd in. you have seen a lot in your coverage of washington. we have not seen a moment like this. >> no. i will admit, as somebody who has reverence for all the monuments we have, this is ya jarring to see, the white house in a political advertisement in that way. i know what donald trump wanted. he is getting what he wanted. he wanted this crowd and he wanted to want ed wanted to be big. >> this is his last night. he has a crowd of thousands of people on the lawn there at the white house. this is the president's moment to make his case for four more years. >> thank you very much. thank you very much.

thank you. [ applause ] friends, delegates and 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 ] 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. 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 so much. i also want to thank my amazing daughter, ivanka, for that introduction and to all of my children. iey ivanka, please stand up. thank you. 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. 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 ] 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 ] 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 income 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 iceisenhowe.

from these grounds, thomohomas jefferson sent lewis and clark in the depth 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 roosevelt welcomed churchill. 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 life saving therapies. and we will produce a vaccine by 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, tier knyranny and communist. this has prefavailed over every chleo e summit of human endeavor. yet despite all of this, everything we achieve is 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. two agendas. this election will decide whether we save the american dream or whether we allow a socialist agenda to demolish other 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 reign to violent anarchists and agitators and criminals who threaten our citizens. this election will decide whether wel

we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it. it 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. 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 ] 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. we don't look to career politicians for salvation. we don't turn to government to restore our souls. we put our faith in god. [ applause ] joe biden is not a savior of america's soul. he is the destroyer of america's jobs a s and if given the chanc

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, offshoring 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 our 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 ] this $130 billion will ultimately go to $400 billion a year.

the secretary-general 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. thank you. [ applause ] from the moment i left my former life behind -- and it was a good life. 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 ] together we have ended the rule of the failed political class.

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 ] thank you. days after taking office, we shocked the washington establishment and withdrew from the last administration's job killing transpacific partnership. i then immediately approved the keystone xl and dakota access pipelines. ended the unfair and very costly paris climate accord.

and secured for the first time american energy independence. [ applause ] 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 ] 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 ] 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 ] perhaps no area did the washington specialist interest try harder to stop us than on my policy of pro-american immigration. [ applause ] but i refused to back down. today america's borders are more

secure than ever before. [ applause ] thank you. we ended catch and release. stopped asylum fraud. took down human traffickers who prey on women and children. we have deported 20,000 gang members and 500,000 criminal aliens. [ applause ] we have built 300 miles of border wall. we are adding ten new miles every single week. the wall will soon be complete. it is working beyond our wildest expectations.

[ applause ] 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 ] you see this country loves our law enforcement. they do. [ applause ] they really do. love and respect. when i learned the tennessee valley authority laid off hundred 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 re-hired and are back providing power to georgia, alabama, tennessee, kentucky, mississippi, north carolina and virginia. [ applause ] they have their old jobs back. some are here with us this evening. please stand. you went through a lot. please stand. thank you. thank you very much. been through a lot. thank you very much. last month, i took on big pharma. you think that's easy? it's not. signed orders that will massively lower the cost of your prescription drugs and give critically ill patients access

to life saving cures. we passed the decades long awaited right to try, right to try. [ applause ] we also passed va accountability and va choice. [ applause ] our great veterans, we are taking care of our veterans. 91% 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 ] 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. before the china virus came in, produced the best unemployment numbers for african-americans, hispanic americans and asian americans ever recorded. [ applause ] 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 ] i have done more in three years

for the black community than joe biden has done in 47 years. [ applause ] when i'm re-elected, the best is yet to come. [ applause ] [ chanting four more years ]

thank you very much. when i took office, the middle east was in total chaos. isis was rampaging. iran was on the rise. the war in afghanistan with no end in sight. i withdrew from the terrible one-sided iran nuclear deal. [ applause ] unlike many 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 in a better location -- real estate deal, right? and opened it at a cost of less than $500,000. [ applause ] many things like that that government is doing right now. we also recognized israeli sovereignty over the golan heights. [ applause ] and this month, we achieved the first middle east peace deal in 25 years. [ applause ] thank you to uae, thank you to israel. [ applause ] in addition, we obliterated 100%

of the isis caliphate and killed its founder and lead er. [ applause ] then in a separate operation, we eliminated the world's number one terrorist by far, 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 spend 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 the greatest economic disasters of all time. 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 want to hear biden's hollow words of empathy. they wanted their jobs back. [ applause ] as vice president, he supported the transpacific 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 have reversed and made a great deal for our country. he repeatedly supported mass amnesty for illegal immigrants.

vo he opposed the mission to take out 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. 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 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. when the china virus hit, we launched 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. please stand up. [ applause ] we shipped hundreds of millions of masks, gloves and gowns to our front line health care workers to protect our nation's seniors, we rushed supplies, testing kits and personal to nursing homes, we gave everything you can possibly give and we're still giving it because we are taking care of

our senior citizens. [ applause ] the army corps of engineers build field hospitals. the navy deployed our 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 ever nation in the western hemisphere combined. think of that. we have conducted 40 million more tests than the next closest nation, which is india. we developed a wide array of effective treatments, including a powerful antibody treatment known as convalescent plasma. you saw that sunday night when we announced it. that will save thousands and thousands of lives. thanks to advances, we have pioneered the fatality rate and you look at it and you look at

the numbers, it has been reduced by 80% since april. 80%. [ applause ] the united states is 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. you don't hear that. they don't write about that. they don't want to write about that. they don't want you to know those things. aurl togeth the nations of europe have experienced a 30% 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 are advancing so rapidly with our economy. great job. as a result, we have seen the

smallest economic contraction of any major western nation. we are recovering at a much faster rate than anybody over the past three months we have gained over 9 million jobs. that's a history in the record of our country. [ applause ] unfortunately from the beginning, our opponents have shown themselves capable of nothing but a partisan ability to criticize. when i took bold action to issue a travel ban on china, very early, indeed, joe biden called it hysteril and xenophobic. then i introduced a ban on europe very early again. if we had listened to joe, hundreds of thousands more americans would have died. instead of following the science, joe biden wants to inflict a painful shutdown on the entire country.