A little over an hour into the first night of the Republican National Convention, former Fox News host and Donald Trump Jr.’s current girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, walked onto the flag-strewn stage and took a deep breath. While the night was already governed by a bleak message of the threat of life without Trump — contrasting with the president’s promise that the evening would be “uplifting and positive” — Guilfoyle brought the fear, the fanaticism, and the convention’s fascist timbre to the next level.
“They want to destroy this country and everything that we have fought for and hold dear,” Guilfoyle said, describing the opposition party as she yelled to an audience of none. “They want to steal your liberty, your freedom, they want to control what you see and think and believe so that they can control how you live. They want to enslave you to the weak, dependent, liberal victim ideology to the point that you will not recognize this country or yourself.”
Even in a party defined by presidential fealty, the speech was an unforgettable display, amplified by the sound of Guilfoyle’s voice echoing in the empty room:
For those watching the convention front to back, the speakers after Guilfoyle were faced with the impossible task of matching her energy. (Apologies to her follow-up act Steve Scalise.) Perhaps that’s why her former employer Fox News cut away from her everything-up-to-11 speech.
