43rd Republican National Convention Rewind
Floyd Jernigan provides the Day 3 Highlights for the Republican National Convention. It's hard to believe how much has happened between July 17th and today, but we should look back and reflect.
by Floyd Jernigan
Day 3 Wednesday, July 17, Quotable Highlights – “Make America Strong Once Again”
Matt Gaetz, Florida, U.S. House of Representatives since 2017
“Democrats have been hiding the real Biden for years. We saw people in the Witness Protection Program more often than we saw unscripted Biden.
“I don’t think it’s too much to ask that the American president be able to do the job. Kamala Harris isn’t able to do any job. She was appointed Border Czar. Appointing Kamala Harris to oversee the border is like appointing Bernie Madoff to oversee your retirement plan.”
Newt Gingrich, Georgia, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995-1999
“We have to remember that the greatest threat to American safety is not Biden’s brain. The greatest threat is Biden’s policies and the people he appoints to implement them.
“Where President Trump brokered the Abraham Accords and was moving the Middle East toward peace and cooperation, President Biden’s weakness and confusion led to a terrible Hamas assault, killing more than 1,200 innocent people in Israel. Under Trump, we achieve peace through strength. Under Biden, we have war, suffering, death, and a world teetering on the edge of World War III.”
Peter Navarro, economist, former Assistant to President Trump
“This morning, I walked out of a federal prison where Joe Biden and his department of injustice put me. If they can come for me, if they can come for Donald Trump, be careful, they will come for you.
“If we don’t control our government, their government will control us. If we don’t control all three branches of our government, legislative, executive, and judicial, their government will put some of us like me and Steve Bannon in prison and control the rest of us.
“I went to prison so you don’t have to. I am your wake-up call.”
Jim and Sue Chilton, Arizona ranchers. On the couple's land, at least three asylum seekers have died of dehydration, a border patrol agent was shot multiple times, and their house was broken into twice.
"The cartel drug smugglers are crossing our nation's borders every day. They are bringing lethal drugs into our country," Sue Chilton said. "This is chemical warfare."
"Since Joe Biden took office, our hidden cameras have recorded over 3,500 drug packers and others dressed in camouflage marching north through our ranch," Jim Chilton said as footage of people crossing the ranch played on the screens behind them.
"Biden-Harris and the Democrats who support open borders are complicit in this death and the death of tens of thousands American citizens," Jim Chilton said.
“It looks like an invasion because it is.”
Greg Abbott, Texas governor since 2015
“Around 11 million immigrants have crossed our border illegally. That’s more than the entire population of Michigan and it’s twice the population of Wisconsin. Biden has welcomed into our country, rapists, murderers, even terrorists, and the price that we have paid has been deadly.
“When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refused to even come to Texas and to see the border crisis that they created, I took the border to them. I began busing illegal immigrants to Washington DC. And we have continued busing migrants to sanctuary cities across the entire country. And those buses will continue to roll until we finally secure our border.”
Thomas Homan, former Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on the record number of illegals crossing the border and the record high numbers in child sex trafficking in the U.S. "This isn't mismanagement, this isn't incompetence, this is by design — it is a choice.”
98-year-old William Pekrul, Sgt. Retired, World War II veteran of the Battle of Bulge and Omaha Beach
“America is still worth fighting for. It breaks my heart to see what the current president and vice president have done to our country. American is our home. When I got back, I kissed the ground and thanked God. If President Trump was commander-in-chief, I would go back and re-enlist today. I would storm whatever beach in any country he needs me to.”
Scott Neil, retired Army Green Beret veteran, Bronze Star winner. As part of the 5th Special Forces group, Neil was one of the first Americans in uniform to deploy to Afghanistan after the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001
“Deep in enemy territory, some of us rode on horses. Some of us went further behind the lines to track down the terrorists who killed our fellow Americans. Today, they call us the Horse Soldiers.
"For the next 17 years, we were on the forefront of this country and Iraq and Africa. Again and again, we deployed for our fellow Americans. Some of us sacrificed our bodies. Some of us sacrificed our lives for the American people. And for me, America was worth it.
"De oppresso liber" - the motto of the US Army Special Forces, translated from the Latin to mean "to free from oppression" or "to liberate the oppressed."
Col. Michael Waltz, Florida, member of U.S. House of Representatives, retired, first Green Beret elected to Congress
“The only thing that matters when you’re in that foxhole is the Red, White and Blue.”
Donald Trump Jr., American businessman, eldest son of President Trump
“We won’t ever forget the lies from left-wing politicians and from their allies in the media. They lied about Russia collusion. They lied about Hunter’s laptop. They lied about Joe Biden’s fitness for office. They lied about the border being secure. They lied about inflation being transitory. They lied about how they would safely withdraw from Afghanistan. They lied about Biden being a ‘moderate’ and they told one nonstop lie after another about my father, but they could only run away from reality for so long. Remember, build back better? Instead, we got broke bumbling Biden. Nothing is built, nothing is back, and nothing is better.
“Who is actually running the country anyway? It’s obviously not Joe Biden. So who are they asking us to elect? Seriously? Who’s running things? Does anyone really know? Is it Jill? Is it Hunter? Barack Obama?
“There was a time when the Democrats really wanted what was best for America, even if they had a different way of getting there. It was the party of Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. You may have disagreed with that party, but at least you could respect it.
“But this new extreme Democrat party, they want us to somehow believe that the only way forward is going backwards.
“This November, we have a choice. It’s a choice between one team that wants to build this country up and another that wants to tear this country down. It’s a choice between people who are proud of America and people who are ashamed of America, and ultimately, it’s a choice between one team that wants to build this country up and one that wants to tear this country down: A choice between America first and America last.”
Alicia Lopez and Herman Lopez, Cheryl Jules, Christy Shamblin
(Gold Star family members representing the 13 U.S. service members who died in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2021 during the U.S. pullout).
"While Joe Biden has refused to recognize their sacrifice, Donald Trump spent six hours in Bedminster with us," said Christy Shamblin. "He allowed us to grieve. He allowed us to remember our heroes. Donald Trump carried the weight for a few hours with me. For the first time since Nicole's death, I felt like I wasn't alone in my grief." Shamblin is the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee.
"Joe Biden said the withdrawal from Afghanistan was an extraordinary success," Cheryl Jules, Gee's aunt, said. "Look at our pain and our heartbreak and look at our rage. That was not an extraordinary success. The humiliation of our nation was not an extraordinary success."
Herman and Alicia Lopez spoke about their son, Capt. Hunter Lopez.
"In the nearly three years since Hunter's been gone, there has been silence. Silence from that empty space at the dinner table, where Hunter would have joined his brothers and sister and us for family gatherings," Alicia said. "And there has been a deafening silence from the Biden and Harris administration. Despite our pleas for answers and accountability, they have pushed us away."
Ronen and Orna Neutra, parents of Israeli American hostage Omer Neutra, a 22-year-old Israeli American held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip
"Our son Omer is an American citizen. For 285 long days and nights, Hamas terrorists have been holding Omer in prison, in tunnels underneath Gaza," said Omer's mother Orna.
“He was born in New York City, one month after 9/11. Eight months pregnant, I walked across the Queensborough Bridge toward home that day. And here we are 23 years later, and he’s the victim of another vile terrorist attack.”
"He turned 22 on October 14, 2023," she added. "And instead of celebrating with us and with his friends, he spent his birthday as the hostage of Hamas terrorists.
"Imagine over nine months not knowing whether your son is alive and waking up every morning, praying that he too is still waking up every morning."
“During the brutal October 7 attack on Israel, over 1,200 people were slaughtered — of them, 45 were American citizens. Where is the outrage? This was not merely an attack on Israel. This was and remains an attack on Americans,” said Neutra's father Ronen, adding that Trump called the family personally to voice his support.
Staff Sergeant David Bellavia, retired, Medal of Honor Recipient
“Ask yourself, are our enemies better off now than they were four years ago.”
(On Aug. 14, four weeks after Bellavia’s comments at the RNC, the Taliban paraded billions of dollars’ worth of American military hardware around the streets of Afghanistan near the former U.S. airbase inside that country.)
J.D. Vance, Ohio, Vice Presidential nominee, Marine veteran, U.S. Senator since 2023
“Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington for longer than I’ve been alive, 39 years. Kamala Harris is not much further behind. For half a century, he’s been the champion of every major policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”
“Shouldn’t we be governed by a party that is unafraid to debate ideas and come to the best solution? That’s the Republican Party of the next four years, united in our love for this country, and committed to free speech and the open exchange of ideas.”
University of North Carolina fraternity members, on April 30, held up an American flag at the center of Polk Place that Pro-Palestinian protesters had tried to remove so that they could replace it with a Palestinian flag.
“Too many people have sacrificed everything for it,” Alex Johnson, a sophomore from Kennesaw, Georgia, said. “The least we could do was keep it flying, and tonight we are proud to honor our flag again.”
Sara Phillips, petroleum engineer
“Our society and our standard of living couldn’t exist without fossil fuels. We need to make America energy dominant again for the sake of our quality of life.”
Trent Conaway, mayor of East Palestine, Ohio, a town of 4,700 on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border where in Feb. 2023 a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and caught fire. Secretary of transportation Pete Buttigieg visited the town the day after President Trump.
“There was a clear difference between former President Trump and President Biden. President Trump first called and asked permission to visit. Then he asked how he could help.
“I guess we weren’t their type of folks. No Hollywood elites or Wall Street billionaires live in East Palestine, just hard-working Americans.
“We needed so much, and he (Biden) delivered so little. I know a few things about train wrecks now, and that’s what the Biden administration has been.”