Fox News pans Trump's RNC speech as 'far too long' and 'surprisingly flat'

Stephen Proctor
Updated ·2 min read

Following President Trump’s extremely long speech at the White House on Thursday, capping off the final night of the Republican National Convention, the president received the requisite praise from Fox News, but also some criticism from Chris Wallace. Though he admitted that Trump had some “good lines,” Wallace lamented the length of the speech and the lack of energy.

“Well there certainly were impressive fireworks on the (National) Mall, but I have to say I was surprised at the lack of fireworks in the president’s speech tonight. First of all, it was far too long: 70 minutes exactly. And I thought at times it sounded more like a State of the Union speech, like a campaign speech,” Wallace said, later adding, “I have to say, in his delivery, again, I thought the president, who we have seen really turn on a crowd, was surprisingly flat and didn’t seem to have the bite that he usually does have in his speeches.”

Longtime Fox News political analyst Brit Hume agreed with those sentiments.

“Chris has a point,” Hume said. “The speech was very, very long. I don’t know that any speech at an hour and ten minutes, uninterrupted by anything visual, can work very well. … And he was, as Chris suggests, I think a little flat. He’s done very good speeches from teleprompters before, but tonight he seemed to miss the excitement he generates in himself when he’s ad libbing.”

Besides the speech, Wallace condemned the event altogether for the blatant disregard for safety protocols amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has now claimed over 180,000 American lives. Throughout the convention, the coronavirus has been downplayed, on the rare occasion it was mentioned at all, and on Thursday night, though outside, a large crowd gathered, seated close together on the lawn of the White House to watch Trump speak.

“One other thing we have to note, and that is the event itself,” Wallace said. “The fact that there were 2,000 people in close quarters on the south lawn there, with no, seemingly, very few of them with masks, no social distancing, ignoring all of the public health recommendations. I suspect that’s gonna get a lot of comment [sic] in the next few days.”

For more on the Republican National Convention check out Yahoo! News.

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