Trump advisers rally Wisconsin Republicans, mock Democrats

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A pair of President Donald Trump's top advisers touted him to Wisconsin Republicans on Saturday as a defender of law and order who will win over key Black voters, while casting presumed Democratic rival Joe Biden as out of touch and Biden's party as a “mob” bent on erasing American history.

The strategists headlined the state Republican convention, which the party held in-person at a Green Bay convention center despite the risks posed by the coronavirus pandemic. The schedule was shortened, masks and hand sanitizer were made available, and guests had to accept risk and liability for their health in attending. Wisconsin set record highs in daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state in each of the two days leading up to the convention.

Mercedes Schlapp, a Trump adviser who is Cuban American, and Katrina Pierson, who is Black and worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign, are among the highest-profile senior female staffers working to help him get reelected. They participated in a women for Trump bus tour in Wisconsin leading up to them speaking at the convention.

Both women described Trump as a “law and order” president.

Speaking to a mostly white audience, Pierson said Republicans have the “moral authority to stand strong and fight back" and win over minority voters.

“And that is why the black voices for Trump coalition will be taking on Black Lives Matter,” she said. “Because we have the candidate who has the policies that prove Black lives matter because he believes that all lives matter.”

Schlapp said Trump will keep communities safe and stand by police. She contrasted him with Biden and Democrats, who Schlapp said “let the left mobs destroy our cities. ... These Democrats want to rewrite our past, they want to erase history,...