Politics and views in the United States.

Continuing coverage of the Republican National Convention.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're tracking the 2024 election process from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

We have a chance to put aside our differences and focus on what unites us and strengthens our country.

Let us join together as a party.

Let us come together as a people, as one country, strong and proud.

Although former South Carolina governor and presidential hopeful Nikki Haley was first greeted with boos at the RNC, she won cheers for a message of unity, saying former President Donald Trump invited her to speak.

The calls for unity didn't stop speakers from making jokes about President Joe Biden.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis referred to a movie where the characters prop up a dead body to make it seem alive.

We need a commander in chief who can lead 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

America cannot afford four more years of a weekend at Bernie's presidency.

More serious is the constant drumbeat that migrants are to blame for crime and drugs.

Violent crime is actually down, and immigrants, legal and illegal, are actually more law-abiding than native-born Americans.

But MAGA hardliner and candidate for Governor Kerry Lake says Arizona is suffering from drugs which she blames on gangs and the Chinese government.

I want to take on the cartels and take on the CCP who is sending all of the ingredients.

I don't want to hear one more 19, 20-year-old, 22-year-old has died from fentanyl poisoning.

A roundtable discussion headed by three U.S. senators attacked the Department of Homeland Security for failing to track unaccompanied migrant children.

Texas delegate Walt Goodwater says huge numbers of the unaccompanied minors are coming in deep in debt to smugglers.

They end up working in, let's call it almost slavery, to pay the debt back.

That then in turn takes away from other people who have low-skilled job sets.

It takes away from them because they've got this slave labor doing it.

Goodwater repeated one idea common at the convention, that the country's at risk from terrorists coming in with the migrants.

He says it's putting America on the verge of another 9/11 attack.

Florida delegate Michelle Johnson extends the blame to Democratic leaders in states like California, who she calls weak on crime.

We need to make sure that we are supporting the police officers and the first responders in all of our cities to make sure that citizens and businesses feel like they can operate and live safely.

But California delegate Marjorie Profitt says she loves her state and that's why she's fighting to help with its homeless population.

Most of the majority of them have mental health problems and with mental health problems come safety issues.

And to find them a place to get help, rehabilitate them, find them jobs, meaningful work, will make a meaningful citizen.

I'm Farah Siddiqui for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.