Vice President Mike Pence raised the stakes for the November election in his Republican National Convention (RNC) speech, arguing that Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s election threatens the end of America.

“Joe Biden said that we were living through a season of American darkness," said Pence. "But as President Trump said, where Joe Biden sees American darkness, we see American greatness."

Pence accepted the vice presidential nomination, on the third night of the convention, with a speech defending President Donald Trump’s record on the economy and combating the coronavirus outbreak while encouraging voters to question whether Biden is “nothing more than a Trojan horse for the radical left.”

The former vice president argued last week in accepting his party’s nomination that “character” and even democracy itself are on the ballot in November. Pence, in a speech delivered from Fort McHenry in Baltimore, sought to turn those remarks against Biden.

“The truth is: Our economic recovery is on the ballot. Law and order are on the ballot,” Pence said. “In this election, it’s not so much whether America will be more conservative or more liberal, more Republican or more Democrat. The choice in this election is whether America remains America.”

After his speech, Pence stood with Trump and their wives for the National Anthem, sung by country music star Trace Adkins. Members of Pence’s audience at Fort McHenry -- where a battle during the War of 1812 inspired the song -- also rose to their feet, including wounded veterans -- a scene intended in part as criticism of professional athletes who protest police brutality by kneeling during the anthem, according to people familiar with the matter.

Very few people in the audience of about 100 wore masks, and some of them said they had been screened for fever but had not been tested for the coronavirus infection before the event. Trump and Pence greeted members of the audience after the speech and posed for pictures. Pence was photographed shaking hands with a woman who was not wearing a mask.

Pence’s remarks served as a setup for Trump’s speech Thursday accepting the Republican nomination, which will take place after Hurricane Laura strikes Louisiana and Texas.

People familiar with campaign planning denied reports that Trump’s speech might be canceled or postponed because of the hurricane.

Republicans have sought to capitalize on American cultural divides and present themselves as defenders of freedom, while portraying Democrats and Biden, the former vice president, as socialists bent on trampling American values. Democrats painted Trump at their convention last week as an incompetent and corrupt chief executive who threatens democracy.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was among the first speakers Wednesday, saying the U.S. is “an exceptional nation founded on three principles -- equality, freedom, and opportunity.”

Pence criticized the Barack Obama administration’s handling of the economy, claiming that the former president and Biden “presided over the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression,” while Trump is “a proven leader who created the greatest economy in the world.”

Before the pandemic struck, Trump could boast that U.S. jobs had increased by close to 7 million on his watch, with unemployment at a half-century low of 3.5%.

This year, the economy has endured the sharpest recession on record, shrinking in the second quarter by 9.5%. The job gains have been wiped out and unemployment stands at 10.2%.

Democrats have hammered Trump for reacting too slowly to the pandemic that has killed more than 179,000 Americans, saying it would disappear, and failing to marshal a national response plan. Republicans largely avoided focusing on the virus during their convention until First Lady Melania Trump spoke at length on Tuesday night with sympathy for victims, saying her husband “will not rest until he has done all he can to take care of everyone impacted.”

Pence strongly defended the Trump administration’s response, saying that the president had saved lives by stopping most travel from China in late January and “partnering with the private sector” to manufacture more protective equipment and ventilators and to hasten the development of vaccines and cures.

He promised the first safe and effective coronavirus vaccine in the world by the end of the year, and rebuked Biden for saying that Trump expected a “miracle” that won’t arrive.

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