Donald Trump’s top aide, Paul Manafort, and communications director, Stephen Miller, rejected criticism of the real estate mogul’s speech Thursday at the Republican National Convention as “dark.” Instead, they argued Trump’s address was “profoundly optimistic.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Manafort to respond to a former speechwriter for George H.W. Bush who tweeted that Trump’s speech was “very dark and frightening.”

Trump spoke on a variety of topics, including a dark description of the state of crime in America, falsely claiming that violence had risen under President Obama.

“It wasn’t dark, it was reality,” Manafort said. Miller also chimed in to say the one-hour-and-15-minute-long speech was “profoundly optimistic.”

When asked why Trump’s was the longest campaign speech in history, Miller at first said that the campaign had broken a lot of records, including with the number of votes it earned.

When pressed, Miller said, “The crowd wanted it that way. They wanted more and more and more.”