The crowd roared at its first glimpse of actor/director Clint Eastwood, the night's surprise guest. "Save some for Mitt," he told them.
In free-wheeling, joke-filled remarks, Eastwood remembered the enthusiasm around President Barack Obama's nomination four years ago.
"Everybody's crying. Oprah was crying. I was even crying," he joked.
Then he quickly pivoted to the serious: "I haven't cried that hard since I found out there's 23 million unemployed people in this country. That is something to cry for. That is a disgrace, a national disgrace."
"This administration hasn't done enough to cure that," Eastwood said, and it's "time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem."
Eastwood got an adoring standing ovation by telling the delegates, "When somebody does not do the job, we've got to let him go."
At their insistence, he ended with his Dirty Harry catchphrase, joined by the crowd: "Go ahead, make my day."
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.