‘Elephants deserve so much better’: AOC and Biden among Democrats mocking first night of Republican convention

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The Democratic Party’s leading lights have by turns condemned and ridiculed the first night of the Republican National Convention while also lambasting Donald Trump for the still-rising coronavirus death toll.

A week after the start of her party’s own nominating convention, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez summed up the Republicans’ decision not to generate a new platform.

“GOP 2020,” she wrote, “‘We have no vision, no values, and no beliefs.’”

The Republican National Convention on Sunday formally agreed to re-run the 2016 platform, and to throw full weight behind Trump's re-election at this year's conference.

Ocasio-Cortez then turned her fire on the party’s animal avatar, “Honestly elephants deserve so much better than to be a mascot for this.” However, her own party was not spared.

“Here is my new mascot proposal:

“Progressives take elephants from Republicans, bc they are compassionate, empathetic creatures w nuanced social structures.

“General Dems can keep Donkeys if desired – we can unite under that tent.

“Republicans are Honey Badgers.”

The omnivorous and notoriously voracious honey badger was famously the subject of a viral video – with tens of millions of views – entitled “The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger”.

Joe Biden’s official account, meanwhile, took a more sobre tone, sharing a picture of a downcast Donald Trump walking in front of a steep curve in the US’s cumulative number of coronavirus cases.

Its focus then turned to the Republicans at large, with a montage video showing various of the party’s top figures – including Nikki Haley, who spoke last night – deriding and castigating the president before he took office.

“Donald Trump is everything I taught my children not to do in kindergarten,” said Ms Haley in a clip from a Marco Rubio presidential rally during the last election.

The convention’s first night has been widely mocked from outside the Democratic Party, in particular for its tone.

Critics are ridiculing Kimberly Guilfoyle in particular for her remarkably bellicose style, which she kept up for six minutes in the empty room, as well as her reference to “human sex drug trafficking”. “Kimberly Guilfoyle made Dear Leader very happy tonight,” tweeted the Daily Show.

Her partner Donald Trump Jr.’s upbeat prosperity-themed speech, meanwhile, saw some compare him to a used car salesman.