RNC Day 1 report from 18-year-old

Tanner Goldsmith, an 18-year-old Columbus High School graduate, is helping to represent Georgia at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland as an alternate delegate.

The Ledger-Enquirer previously reported about the path Goldsmith took to reach this point, as well as Columbus High classmate David Smith, 18, who will be a delegate at the Democratic National Convention next week in Philadelphia.

In emails to the L-E, Goldsmith reported on the first of the four-day event expected to culminate in the nomination of billionaire businessman Donald Trump for president:

“This convention has been unbelievable thus far,” Goldsmith wrote. “I had no idea of the incredible magnitude of the RNC. On Monday, I had the opportunity to view the action from the floor of the Convention. Media personnel flooded the floor in order to interview Delegates from all over the country. As I passed by Senators, Representatives, Governors, and TV personalities, I realized that I was at the center of history as the entire world looked upon the RNC.”

The highlight of the first day’s slate of speakers was Trump’s wife, Melania, who subsequently was accused of plagiarizing parts of the speech first lady Michelle Obama gave during the Democratic National Convention eight years ago.

“I thought Melania did a great job and brought a great degree of authenticity,” Goldsmith wrote. “With that being said, her great performance will be overshadowed by the fact that her speech contained a passage that was strikingly similar to Michelle Obama's DNC speech. While I think this is relatively unimportant to the other issues discussed on night one of the convention, it has dominated the headlines. On a more general scale, I think many media outlets are nitpicking in the sense that the entire convention has been portrayed on various sources as ‘sloppy’ and ‘chaos’, when I have witnessed a wonderful, entertaining lineup of speakers, who as a whole, did a fantastic job.”

Earlier in the day, Goldsmith saw how discention is handled on the convention floor.

“I observed the delegates engage in a small disagreement as ‘Never-Trumpers’ advocated for a roll-call vote to adopt the proposed rules,” Goldsmith wrote. “Ultimately, they had too little support to force a roll-call vote, and the rules were adopted in such a way that the delegates are bound to the candidate they were assigned to vote for. This marked the last nail in the coffin for rogue delegates who refused to support Trump as the nominee. As a result, the Colorado delegation walked out from the floor.

“After the rules scuffle, the convention quickly changed tones, and the main emphasis became party unity. All speakers focused on supporting Donald Trump in order to defeat Hillary Clinton. Lone Survivor, ex-Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell delivered a powerful speech, in which he went off-script and delivered a powerful and emotional appeal to take care of our military.”

Sunday, at the Georgia delegation’s luncheon, he took a photo with U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., who honored him and another 18-year-old delegate, Will Carter of Savannah, in his speech.

“He spoke to the importance of younger people getting involved in politics and called Will and I out by name,” Goldsmith wrote. “I have had the opportunity to speak with Sen. Purdue on a few occasions, and he has always been extremely supportive and genuinely interested in hearing my story.”

This story was originally published July 19, 2016 at 10:05 AM with the headline "RNC Day 1 report from 18-year-old."