Speakers during the first night of the 2020 Republican National Convention made it a point to slam Democrats for supposedly creating a “cancel culture,” despite President Trump’s history of attempting to get people and entities punished or banished over actions he disagrees with.
Just last week, the President called for a boycott against Goodyear Tire and Co. over a “BAN ON MAGA HATS” following a report on an anonymous Goodyear employee’s screenshot that the employee claimed was part of the company’s diversity training.
However, the Ohio-based company has not officially implemented a ban targeting MAGA hats, and stated that it’s asked its employees to “refrain from workplace expressions involving political campaigning or forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of racial justice and equity issues.”
Republicans appeared to echo Trump’s sentiment on night one of the RNC as they decried that “cancel culture” that the President has repeatedly invoked in recent days. The rhetoric surrounding conservatives disdain for what it perceives to be “cancel culture” was slotted in right around the same rhetoric that has encompassed its belief in an anti-PC culture for the last two decades.
Here’s how they weighed in:
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)
After slamming “woketopians” such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for supporting Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden “because they will make him an extra in a movie written, produced and directed by others,” Gaetz mocked the former VP for being a “basement dweller” before attacking “cancel culture.”
Gaetz praised Trump as a “visionary” and compared him to former Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson while decrying “cancel culture.”
Matt Gaetz, one of Trump’s fiercest supporters in the House, declared Trump a “visionary” and rebuked cancel culture in his #RNCConvention remarks.
And he mocked a movement urging progressives to “settle for Biden."
More key moments: https://t.co/MqraE6PQP7 pic.twitter.com/Hw8prjW05e
— POLITICO (@politico) August 25, 2020
Nikki Haley
Haley also went after Democrats over “cancel culture” as she praised Trump for supposedly knowing that “political correctness and cancel culture are dangerous and just plain wrong.”
Nikki Haley on "cancel culture": "it's just plain wrong!" pic.twitter.com/JOoBIOlnD9
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) August 25, 2020
Donald Trump Jr.
Trump Jr. accused Democrats of imposing a “cancel culture” over the growing movement to tear down monuments and rename military bases that pay tribute to racist figures.
Don Jr.: The Left wants the cancel the Founders.
"Our founders believed there was nothing more important than protecting our god-given right to think for ourselves. Now, the left, they're trying to cancel all of those founders." pic.twitter.com/KLTgKJu7Gz
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) August 25, 2020
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC)
Scott ended the first night of the RNC by warning that Biden winning the November election would encourage a “culture that cancels everything.”
“Do we want a society that breeds success, or a culture that cancels everything it even slightly disagrees with?” Scott said.
"Do we want a society that breeds success, or a culture that cancels everything it even slightly disagrees with?" Scott said. pic.twitter.com/39orJbTrul
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) August 25, 2020
