Pence leads Republican counterattack after Democrats savage Trump at convention

[WASHINGTON] Vice-President Mike Pence on Friday launched the Republican counterattack to the scathing criticism that President Donald Trump received at the Democrats' nominating convention this week, countering that a Joe Biden presidency would crush the US economy and allow civil unrest in the streets.

"The Democrats are offering a vision for this country that would crush our economy and promote the kind of policies that will result in more violence in our streets," Mr Pence told Fox News in one of a series of morning television interviews following the four-night Democratic event.

Mr Biden accepted the Democratic Party nomination for the White House on Thursday, vowing to heal a United States battered by a deadly pandemic and divided by four years of Mr Trump's presidency.

Trailing Mr Biden in many national polls, Mr Trump is under pressure to convince Americans they should re-elect him amid double-digit unemployment and an economic downturn that Democrats blame on his failure to address the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 170,000 Americans.

Mr Pence outlined what would be the main thrust of Republicans at their own national convention next week, appropriating a line from Mr Biden's speech that character, decency, science and democracy "are all on the ballot".

"The economy is on the ballot. Law and order is on the ballot, and the American people know it," Mr Pence countered.

He dismissed the array of high-profile Republicans, including former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Ohio Governor John Kasich, who have crossed party lines to support Mr Biden, 77, over Mr Trump, 74, in the Nov 3 election.

Those Republicans turned on Mr Trump because he came to Washington promising to shake up the establishment, Mr Pence said.

Mr Biden's long tenure in politics, as a US senator and two terms as Democratic President Barack Obama's vice-president, will be used against him, Mr Pence made clear.

"Joe Biden has been in Washington for 47 years and the speech he gave last night was just more of the same talk that we've heard from him and other liberal Democrat politicians for the decades," he said.

Mr Biden's vice-presidential pick, "California liberal" Kamala Harris, whom Mr Pence will debate in the fall, confirmed that the Democratic Party has been taken over by "the radical left", he said.

"I'm looking forward to that debate more than I can tell you," Mr Pence quipped.

REUTERS