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United States President Donald Trump warned Republicans who officially backed his bid for a second term on Monday that November's election could be "rigged" despite offering no evidence, as the party began outlining its vision for the future on the first night of its national convention.
Trump spoke on the first day of the sharply scaled-back Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, after receiving enough votes to win the nomination to take on his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, in the November 3 election.
The president repeated his assertion that voting by mail, a long-standing feature of American elections that is expected to be far more common during the Covid-19 pandemic, will lead to widespread fraud.
Independent election security experts say voter fraud is extraordinarily rare in the US.
"The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election," Trump said. "We're going to win."
The four-day convention got under way at a critical juncture for Trump, who trails Biden in national opinion polls during a pandemic that has killed more than 176,000 Americans, erased millions of jobs and eroded the president's standing among voters.
Another frenetic day across the country threatened to overshadow the party's celebration, however. In Washington, congressional Democrats grilled US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump donor, over whether service cuts under his watch aimed to curtail efforts to vote by mail.
One of Trump's closest advisers, Kellyanne Conway, said she would leave the White House to focus on her family.
Then the New York attorney general disclosed in court papers she is investigating whether Trump and his family business committed fraud; both the president and the Trump Organisation have denied wrongdoing.
OPENING NIGHT
As befits the first president who starred in his own reality television show, the four-night event will focus heavily on Trump himself. While his acceptance speech will not come until Thursday, when he will address the party from the White House, Trump plans to appear each night, and several members of his family will deliver prime-time speeches.
The first night's programme includes remarks from more mainstream Republicans such as Senator Tim Scott, the lone Black Republican in the Senate, and Nikki Haley, Trump's former ambassador to the United Nations.
But it also will feature speakers seemingly aimed at firing up Trump's base, including Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a couple from St Louis who earned national attention for brandishing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters who marched past their home.
The in-person proceedings marked a contrast with Democrats, who opted for an almost entirely virtual format instead of gathering in the election battleground state of Wisconsin in a nod to the pandemic.
Biden (77) and his fellow Democrats portrayed 74-year-old Trump as a force for darkness, chaos and incompetence during their convention last week, while stressing the Democrats' diversity and values like "empathy" and "unity."
Republicans said their convention would emphasise "law and order," gun rights, tax cuts and the "forgotten" men and women of America.
The McCloskeys will depict Biden as seeking to protect "criminals from honest citizens," leaving Americans unsafe, according to excerpts of speeches sent by organizers.
Medical professionals and small-business owners will credit Trump's coronavirus response with saving lives and livelihoods.
The president's eldest son, Donald Jr., will also speak on Monday.
Biden's campaign said Trump would attempt to change the subject, delivering "more desperate, wild-eyed lies and toxic division, in vain attempts to distract from his mismanagement," according to spokesman Andrew Bates.
"What they won't hear is what American families have urgently needed and been forced to go without for over seven consecutive months: any coherent strategy for defeating the pandemic."
BREAK WITH TRADITION
With the pandemic not yet under control, good news has been in short supply for Trump. His performance as president was sharply criticised by Biden and former President Barack Obama at the Democratic convention.
Trump plans to hold several live events with in-person audiences during the Republican convention, in contrast to Democrats, who showed pre-taped segments or delivered speeches in mostly empty venues.
His daily speeches are a break with the tradition of the nominee keeping a low profile before an acceptance speech on the convention's final night.
On Tuesday, Trump's wife, Melania, will give a speech from the White House, while Pence follows on Wednesday from Baltimore's Fort McHenry historic site.
Trump will accept his party's nomination on Thursday night before a crowd on the White House South Lawn. Democrats have criticised the move as a partisan use of public property.
"Trump has four days to make two cases: One is 'we know what we are doing and have done a great job, obviously interrupted by the virus,'" said Constantin Querard, president of Grassroots Partners, an Arizona-based conservative political consultancy.
"And then you have to knock the Democratic ticket for being as far-left as they are."