WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump kicked off the 2020 GOP convention by accusing the Democrats of using COVID to 'steal' November's presidential election. Addressing a scaled-back convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, after Republican delegates nominated him as the party's presidential candidate in an in-person roll call vote, Trump said, 'They're using Covid to defraud the American people.'
He repeated his disputed claim that mail-in ballots could lead to voter fraud.
'The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election,' Trump said, repeating the same allegation he made ahead of the 2016 election, when he trailed Hillary Clinton in the polls.
336 delegates participated in the roll-call vote from a Charlotte Convention Center ballroom in the first day of the party convention.
The convention also renominated Vice President Mike Pence as Trump's running mate.
Speakers on the first night included former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott, Donald Trump Jr., and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle. They defended Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic . Trump Jr. called Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden the 'Loch Ness Monster of the swamp.'
The highlight of the second and final day of the convention will be a speech by first lady Melania Trump from the newly renovated White House Rose Garden.
Trump, his children, Eric and Tiffany, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are also scheduled to deliver remarks Tuesday.
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