GOP convention showcases rising stars, dark warnings

A rising generation of Republican stars offered an optimistic view of President Donald Trump's leadership, but were undermined on the opening night of the GOP's scaled-back convention by speakers issuing dark warnings about the country's future and distorting the president's record, particularly on the pandemic. As Trump faces pressure to expand his appeal beyond his loyal supporters, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senate’s sole Black Republican, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, sought to cast the GOP as welcoming to Americans of color, despite the party’s overwhelmingly white leadership and voting base. “I was a brown girl in a black and white world,” Haley said Monday night, noting that she faced discrimination but rejecting the idea that “America is a racist country.”