Chris Wallace: Trump acceptance speech ‘surprisingly flat’

Chris Wallace early Friday morning called President Trump’s speech accepting the nomination to end the Republican National Convention “surprisingly flat,” with the “Fox News Sunday” anchor saying the president’s remarks “didn’t seem to have the bite” of past addresses.

“The president went through all his accomplishments during his first term, and they are a great number and they are considerable, ” Wallace said. “Then he went after Joe Biden, and he had some good lines … but I have to say, his delivery, and we have seen the president turn on a crowd, was surprisingly flat and it didn’t seem to have the bite that he usually does have in his speeches.”

Trump’s speech from the South Lawn of the White House lasted nearly 70 minutes with more than 1,500 in attendance, a stark contrast from Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s acceptance speech from Delaware that lasted 24 minutes with no attendees due to the coronavirus pandemic.

After stating that the president’s speech was “far too long,” Wallace focused on the number of attendees sitting closely together amid the pandemic.

“The fact that there were 2,000 people in close quarters on the South Lawn there with no — seemingly, very few of them with masks — no social distancing, ignoring all of the public health recommendations, I suspect that is going to get a lot of comment in the next few days,” Wallace noted.

Ratings for Trump’s speech will be released Friday afternoon.

Biden’s speech last week drew 21.8 million viewers.