Republican National Convention 2020: Day 1

Republicans kicked off night one of the Republican National Convention tonight with a theme focused around the “Land of Promise” after formally nominating President Donald Trump earlier in the day in Charlotte, North Carolina.

A slew of Trump surrogates and supporters delivered speeches from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC.

Republicans tried to cast Trump as a caring, empathetic leader who worked to halt the spread of the coronavirus and created an inclusive economy, while being the only thing standing between the US and a devious Democratic Party.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott delivered the closing speech on the first night of the party’s convention, and — invoking the names of Black people who had been shot by police, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor — he touched on his own roots as the son of mother who “worked 16 hours a day to keep food on the table” and a “roof over our heads” as they shared a two-bedroom house with his grandparents.

Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley attempted to burnish Trump’s image on the world stage even as America’s standing has fallen across the globe during his presidency. She argued that unlike former President Barack Obama and Biden, Trump has projected strength around the world while Biden would be “good for Iran and ISIS” and “great for Communist China.”

“He’s a godsend to everyone who wants America to apologize, abstain and abandon our values,” said Haley, the former governor of South Carolina. “Donald Trump takes a different approach. He’s tough on China, and he took on ISIS and won, and he tells the world what it needs to hear.”

Haley made that argument despite the fact that Trump is viewed unfavorably around the world. Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center found that across 32 countries, a median of 64% said they do not have confidence in Trump to do the right thing in world affairs, while only 29% expressed confidence in the President.

Trump made his first “surprise” appearance in tonight’s Republican National Convention alongside  frontline workers in the East Room of the White House. In his second appearance of the night, the President was featured in a video from the White House with American hostages freed by foreign countries during his administration. “We got you back,” Trump told Sam Goodwin, who was held in Syria in 2019.

The other featured Americans were held abroad in countries that included in Turkey, Iran and Venezuela.

Catch up on more moments of the night here.

Donald Trump Jr. referenced a report from the US intelligence community in claiming that China preferred Biden for the presidency because he would weaken the US economy, “Beijing Biden is so weak on China that the intelligence community recently assessed that the Chinese Communist Party favors Biden. They know he’ll weaken us both economically and on a world stage.”

Facts First: While Trump Jr. might be asserting his opinion here, his characterization of a recent assessment from the US intelligence community is misleading. The US intelligence community did not determine that China preferred Biden because he would economically or otherwise weaken the US. Rather, it outlined that China preferred that President Donald Trump lose the election because he was “unpredictable” and because of the many actions he has taken against China.

William R. Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, in a statement on Aug 7 updating the election threat landscape heading into the election noted that “China prefers that President Trump – whom Beijing sees as unpredictable – does not win reelection.” 

The statement went on to note that China has been critical of Trump’s “COVID-19 response, closure of China’s Houston Consulate” and “actions on Hong Kong, TikTok, the legal status of the South China Sea, and China’s efforts to dominate the 5G market.”Evanina’s report makes no mention of China preferring Biden because he would weaken the US economy. 

In praising his father Monday night, Donald Trump Jr. pushed the idea that the middle class has benefitted from President Donald Trump’s economic policies. “After eight years of Obama and Biden’s slow growth, Trump’s policies have been like rocket fuel to the economy and especially the middle class,” he said at the Republican National Convention. 

Facts first: Actually, middle class income grew in the final years of the Obama administration but has stagnated under Trump. Median household income stayed essentially flat in 2018, at $63,200, breaking a three-year streak of increases, according to the most recent Census Bureau data. 

Median income ticked up only 1.8% in 2017, Trump’s first year in office, and then plateaued despite a strong job market and very low unemployment, according to the latest Census data, which predates the pandemic and this year’s recession.  

In the last two years of former President Barack Obama’s administration, median income rose more sharply – increasing 5.2% in 2015 and 3.2% in 2016. However, the middle class has not advanced much, if at all, over the past decade. Median income in 2018 was not statistically different than in 2007 or 1999, which was the high point. 

Donald Trump Jr. delivered a fiery speech at the Republican National Convention in which he argued that Americans “looking for hope” should look to his father, President Donald Trump. 

“If you’re looking for hope, look to the man who did what the failed Obama-Biden administration never could do and built the greatest economy our country has ever seen. And President Trump will do it again. We will be stronger than ever because when we put our mind to it, there is no obstacle that America can’t surmount,” Trump Jr. said. 

“Except, there’s a difference this time,” Trump Jr. said. “In the past, both parties believed in the goodness of America. We agreed on where we wanted to go, we just disagreed on how to get there. This time the other party is attacking the very principles on which our nation was founded: Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the rule of law.”

Trump Jr., a top campaign surrogate, said the economy was strong and the unemployment rate was low before the coronavirus pandemic, which he blamed on the Chinese Communist Party, hit the United States. He defended his father’s handling of the pandemic, and said his father “quickly took action and shut down travel from China,” provided ventilators to hospitals, delivered personal protective equipment to frontline workers, and “rallied the mighty American private sector to tackle this new challenge.”

“There’s more work to do, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. 

He took aim at 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden, arguing Biden’s policies would “stop our economic recovery cold.” Trump Jr. said he thought it was “madness” that Biden has said he would be willing to shut down the country if scientists recommended it to stop the coronavirus from spreading. 

Trump Jr. called Biden “Beijing Biden” — he said the Democratic nominee was “weak on China” — and said the former vice president was “basically the Loch Ness Monster of the Swamp.” He criticized Biden’s views on immigration and his support of trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“If Democrats cared for the forgotten men and women of our country, they’d do exactly what President Trump is doing,” he said. “America is the greatest country on Earth. But my father’s entire worldview revolves around the idea that we can always do even better.”

Watch:

After weeks of increasing political furor over recent cuts at the US Postal Service, President Donald Trump on Monday said he would not support agency cuts.

“We’re taking good care of our postal workers. That I can tell you,” the President said on the first night of the Republican National Convention. “Believe me, we’re not getting rid of any our postal workers, you know.” He went on to claim, “If anyone does it’s the Democrats, not the Republicans.”

Facts first: This is false. Internal USPS documents obtained by CNN contradict the President’s statement. Before Postmaster General Louis DeJoy suspended many changes until after the election, the USPS was planning to drastically cut work hours in at least one district. Also, Democrats have not proposed laying off postal workers. 

In documents obtained by CNN, USPS managers held a “stand up talk,” around July 13, telling workers they would be cutting roughly 100,000 to 124,000 work hours across the district, in all sectors — retail, delivery and processing. It was unclear how management would be implementing the changes. The USPS planned on cutting so many work hours in mail processing operations — 124,000 — the documents say it would be the equivalent of closing all processing plants in the Appalachian district for 29 days or eliminate an entire shift of workers for 86 days.

Delivery in urban areas would be reduced by 110,983 work hours. The documents equated the work hour cuts to: not delivering mail for 13 days, or stopping 43 city routes, or ending mail delivery by 25 minutes every day. 

It also included clerk and retail operations, which management was going to cut by 112,475 work hours. That’s the equivalent of shutting post office retail operations for 90 days, district wide, according to the documents.

The initiative to cut work hours has since stopped because DeJoy paused them after intense public scrutiny. But union officials CNN has spoken to fear the changes will be brought back after the 2020 election.

They also are concerned because past work hour cuts have led to job cuts. 

In his congressional testimony, DeJoy alluded that significant changes are still coming to the USPS, they’re just coming after the election now.

DeJoy operates independently of the President, but has significant ties to him as a mega-donor and the former finance chair for the Republican National Committee. In recent weeks, the President has pushed baseless accusations that sought to undermine trust in the USPS and has said he opposed funding the USPS because of mail-in voting.

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley attacked Democratic positions on health care. 

“They want a government takeover of health care,” she said at the Republican National Convention on Monday. 

Facts first: This is true of some Democrats, but it’s not a policy Joe Biden supports. While he does advocate broadening the government’s involvement in the nation’s health care system, he does not back so-called “single payer” programs like Medicare for All, which were pushed by others in the primary.  

While Biden has agreed to back lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60, from the current 65, as a concession to the party’s progressive wing, he is not a supporter of Medicare for All, which would have essentially replaced the private health insurance system with a single, government-run plan. That idea was pushed by Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. 

Biden would also increase the federal subsidies in Obamacare so more middle-class Americans could afford to buy coverage. 

His running mate, Kamala Harris, shifted her positions during her short campaign – at times strongly backing Medicare for All. But when she eventually unveiled her health care plan, it also included a role for private insurance companies. However, she now supports Biden’s proposal. 

In the final major speech at the Republican convention tonight, South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott called on voters to look at the actions of each presidential candidate to guide them in the voting booth, and used his life story as an example for the night’s theme — “Land of Promise.”

Scott, the only Black Republican in the US Senate, cast the GOP vision for the country as one of opportunity for all Americans — praising school choice, touting opportunity zones and describing his electoral success in an overwhelmingly White district as one where “voters judged me not on the color of my skin, but on the content of my character.”

He also invoked the names of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and asserted that this coming election is “not solely about Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It’s about the promise of America.”

Scott, who has called some of the President’s tweets “indefensible” and “racially offensive,” criticized cancel culture and boasted the economic opportunities for minorities he said were made possible by Trump and the Republican agenda.

“We are always striving to be better. When we stumble, and we will, we pick ourselves back up and try again,” Scott said. “We don’t give into cancel-culture, or the radical — and factually baseless — belief that things are worse today than in the 1860s or the 1960s.”

He also sought to cast Biden as a president who would not defend minority communities, bringing up Biden’s support for a 1994 crime bill often blamed for disparities in the US criminal justice system, and criticizing his inaction to assist Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Biden and his vice presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, “want a cultural revolution” that’s “a fundamentally different America” which will look like “a socialist utopia,” Scott said.

The South Carolina senator concluded by speaking about his grandfather, who was forced out of school to pick cotton.

“Our family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime,” Scott said. “There are millions of families like mine across this nation…full of potential seeking to live the American dream. And I’m here tonight to tell you that supporting the Republican ticket gives you the best chance of making that dream a reality.”

Watch:

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan claimed that Democrats were trying to confiscate US citizens’ guns.

“They’re also trying to take away your guns,” Jordan said.

Facts First: Some Democrats have supported a mandatory gun confiscation buy-back. Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, instead supports a voluntary buy-back program.

Along with banning the “manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” Biden’s plan includes mandating that people who own assault weapons either sell theirs to the federal government or properly register them with the authorities.

Donald Trump Jr. claimed that Joe Biden had called President Donald Trump a racist and xenophobe for having imposed travel restrictions on China.

Facts First: Biden did accuse Trump of “xenophobia” in an Iowa campaign speech the same day, Jan. 31, that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced the Trump administration’s travel restrictions on China – but it was not clear if Biden was even aware of the travel restrictions at the time, and his campaign says he wasn’t. Biden first took a firm position on the travel restrictions in early April, when he expressed support for them.

Biden said on Jan. 31 that “this is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia — and fear-mongering to lead the way instead of science.” But he did not specifically mention the travel restrictions in that address. 

Watch:

Pennsylvania Republican congressional candidate Sean Parnell spoke at the Republican National Convention on Monday, saying he believes in “our President’s vision for the future.”

“I look across the aisle and I do not see a party that wants you to pursue your dreams. I see a Democrat party that wants to dictate what those dreams are. I don’t see a party that wants you to be free. I see a party that wants to chain you to conformity and will destroy anyone they deem a heretic,” Parnell said. 

Parnell is running against Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb, who has been representing Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District since 2019.

A veteran who served in Afghanistan, Parnell said, “I swore an oath to defend my country and its Constitution. President Trump has sworn to do the same. That is why he has advanced freedom despite savage political attacks to overcome the agenda of the radical left.”

Parnell urged Americans to vote for Trump in November, saying, “It doesn’t matter what you look like, who you love, how you worship, your gender or your job. If you’re a traditional Democrat who has become disillusioned with how radical your party has become, then stand with us. You are most welcome.”

“America needs all her patriots to rush to her defense,” Parnell said. 

Top Congressional Republicans attacked the Democrats on police funding.

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan implied Democrats want to “defund the police” and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said “The left wants to defund the police.”

Facts First: While some Democrats have joined calls for a radical shift in police policy, including a reduction in police budgets, top congressional Democrats and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden have not supported calls to “defund the police.”

Biden’s published criminal justice plan called for a $300 million investment in community policing efforts – including the hiring of more officers. 

On June 8, Biden told CBS, “No, I don’t support defunding the police,” Rather, he said, “I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness. And, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community and everybody in the community.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat of Maryland, told CNN, “Defunding police departments are not the answer.” House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline and Karen Bass have also spoken out about the phrase, CNN reported in June. 

It’s worth noting that the slogan “defund the police” means different things to different activists – from the dissolution of police forces to partial reductions in funding. 

Trump’s campaign has seized on a single comment Biden made to a progressive activist in a July video chat. In that conversation, Biden repeated his opposition to defunding police. When pressed, he did say he “absolutely” agrees that some funding can be redirected to social services, mental health counseling and affordable housing, but he immediately transitioned to his previous proposal to deny federal funding to specific police departments that do not meet certain standards. Biden said in early June that decisions about funding levels should be made by local communities, since some have too many officers but some don’t have enough.  

Former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said allegations that the country is racist are personal to her, and she used her remarks before the Republican National Convention to praise the leadership of President Donald Trump while noting that “America is a work in progress.”

“In much of the Democratic Party, it’s now fashionable to say that America is racist. That is a lie. America is not a racist country,” Haley said. “This is personal for me. I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. They came to America and settled in a small Southern town. My father wore a turban. My mother wore a sari. I was a brown girl in a Black and White world. We faced discrimination and hardship, but my parents never gave in to grievance and hate.”

“America is a story that’s a work in progress, now is the time to build on that progress and make America even freer, fairer and better for everyone,” she said.

Haley went on to slam the Democratic Party for “turning a blind eye toward riots and rage.”

“The American people know we can do better, and of course we value and respect every Black life. The Black cops who have been shot in the line of duty, they matter. The Black small business owners who have watched their lives work go up in flames, they matter. The Black kids who have been gunned down on the playground, their lives matter too. And their lives are being ruined and stolen by the violence on our streets. It doesn’t have to be like this,” Haley said.

Haley said that with Trump as president, “we will build on the progress of our past and unlock the promise of our future.”

“America isn’t perfect but the principles we hold dear are perfect. There is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that even on our worst day, we are blessed to live in America. It’s time to keep that blessing alive for the next generation. This President and this party are committed to that noble task,” Haley said.

Watch:

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley sought to demonstrate President Trump’s leadership around the world in her Republican National Convention speech tonight, saying he has been tough against North Korea, Iran and China.

She praised Trump for passing sanctions on North Korea and said he “ripped up the Iran nuclear deal.”

“Joe Biden and the Democrats are still blaming America first. Donald Trump has always put America first,” she said.

Haley went on to slam the Democrats, claiming they’ve raised taxes and “piled on more mandates.”

“A Biden-Harris administration would be much, much worse,” she said.

Watch:

Florida businessman Maximo Alvarez spoke at the Republican National Convention and said, “Right now, it is up to us to decide our fate and to choose freedom over oppression.”

Alvarez said his family “has fled totalitarianism and communism more than once. First my Dad from Spain, then from Cuba.”

“But my family is done running away,” Alvarez said. “By the grace of God, I live the American dream—the greatest blessing I ever had. My dad, who only had a sixth grade education, told me: Don’t lose this place.”

Alvarez said Trump “may not always be politically correct,” noting he is not a career politician. He described Trump as “just another family man.”

“Keep in mind the other guy running for president is mostly concerned about power,” Alvarez said. “Yes, yes, power for them. But not for the benefit of all Americans. I’m speaking to you today because I have seen people like this before. I’ve seen movements like this before. I have seen ideas like this before. And I’m here to tell you: We cannot let them take over our country.”

Patricia McCloskey, the woman who along with her husband Mark McCloskey pointed a gun at protestors from her St. Louis home in June, claimed that Democrats want to “abolish” suburbs. “They want to abolish the suburbs altogether by ending single-family home zoning,” she claimed.

Facts First: This is false. Democrats are not seeking to abolish suburbs or end single-family home zoning. An Obama-era housing rule meant to address racial segregation does not abolish suburbs in any way.

McCloskey seems to be repeating Trump’s racially coded nonsense from July when he worked to overturn the change the Obama administration made in 2015 to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), a decades-old federal requirement aimed to eliminate discrimination and combat segregation in housing.

You can read more about the regulations and Trump’s false claims here.

Some background: The McCloskeys drew national attention in late June after they were seen in a viral video brandishing guns outside their mansion at protesters walking on a private street en route to demonstrate outside the St. Louis mayor’s residence. 

The mayor lives on a nearby public street and the protesters were going down a street that doesn’t reach the mayor’s house, a St. Louis city official said. The Missouri couple was charged in July with unlawful use of a weapon, a class E felony.

On the first night of the Republican National Convention, CNN’s Jake Tapper said the convention “so far is great for Donald Trump’s base,” but “with a couple of exceptions is not even remotely reaching out to any voters in the middle.”

“We’ve heard a lot of grievance, really, this evening” Tapper said. “Some of them perhaps understandable, but we’ve heard from someone who hates unions, we’ve heard from someone who hates democratic leadership in Baltimore, we heard from the McCloskeys in St. Louis who certainly don’t like the Black Lives Matter protesters. But we have yet to really hear much in terms of the positive, optimistic hopeful message we were told.”

Tapper also discussed the RNC video that was played during the convention that portrayed President Trump as a “decisive leader” on coronavirus.

“That was just complete revisionism when it came to President Trump’s empirically mishandling of the pandemic early on when he dismissed the threat of the virus. And we still in this nation do not have control of the virus like other western wealthy countries do. We have 4% of the population and more than 20% … of the world’s Covid deaths,” he said.

You can read our fact check on the RNC video here.

Watch:

Multiple speakers — including Rep. Vernon Jones, Rep. Jim Jordan and Mark McCloskey — touted the low unemployment rate America has witnessed under the Trump administration. Both Jordan and McCloskey credited the President for the “lowest unemployment in 50 years,” while Jones said President Trump “built the most inclusive economy ever, with record low unemployment for African Americans.”

Facts first: This is misleadingly outdated, as it ignores the economic destruction caused by the coronavirus pandemic. While the US unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.5% last September – its lowest level since 1969 – the pandemic has put a definitive end to America’s strong jobs market and millions of people remain out of work.

After dropping to a 50-year low in September 2019, the unemployment rate hovered around that level for five months before Covid-19 hit and millions of jobs vanished.

The unemployment rate for Black workers, meanwhile, fell to 5.4% in August of 2019, a record low for the data, which have been collected since 1972. It was mostly driven a drop in the jobless rate for Black women. The Black unemployment rate rose throughout the winter months.

All in all, America’s jobs market was strong when the pandemic hit. The March jobs report was the weakest since 2009. Things got worse in April, when more than 20 million American jobs disappeared amid the pandemic lockdown, by far the most sudden and largest decline since the government began tracking the data in 1939.

The unemployment rate spiked to 14.7% — the highest level since monthly records began in 1948. Joblessness had not been that severe since the Great Depression: The unemployment rate peaked at 24.9% in 1933, according to historical annual estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While the pandemic affected workers across the country, minorities fared worse than White workers. In July, the overall unemployment rate fell back to 10.2% — still higher than during the worst part of the Great Recession — while the jobless rate for Black Americans was 14.6%.

President Trump has made a second “surprise appearance” on night one of the Republican National Convention, this time appearing from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House with former hostages and detainees who were freed during his administration.

“We have six incredible people who were held hostage by various countries and I’m very pleased to let everyone know that we brought back over 50 hostages from 22 different countries,” Trump said.

Trump spoke with Pastor Andrew Brunson who was held in Turkey, Sam Goodwin who was held hostage in Syria, Michael White who was held hostage in Iran, Josh Holt who was held in Venezuela and Brian Nerran who was arrested and held in India. 

Brunson said “Trump took unprecedented steps to secure my release and your administration really fought for me.” 

Holt also thanked the President for his help.

“You helped us get out, and it was a great honor to be able to meet you when we got back,” Holt said. 

Trump concluded the appearance by saying “we have a few more people we want to get back and we will get them back and they’ll be back very soon.” 

An RNC video played during the convention contrasted President Trump as a “decisive leader” on coronavirus while suggesting that Democrats and media outlets “got it wrong” by downplaying the pandemic. 

Facts First: This suggestion is inaccurate. Trump continued to downplay the virus into March. Trump declared in February that the number of cases in the US would go “within a couple of days” from 15 to “close to zero,” and he predicted that the virus might “disappear” through a “miracle” or something of the sort. In late February, he was still likening the virus to the flu; in March, he suggested that the virus did not require the country to take more severe measures than the flu requires. 

He claimed in March that the virus was under “control”  and that the media and Democrats were overhyping the situation. 

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr. and a top fundraiser for the Trump campaign, praised President Trump in her speech tonight, saying he “is the leader who will rebuild the promise of America and ensure that every citizen can realize their American dream.”

Guilfoyle, whose mother is from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, spoke about the importance of the American dream and how she felt it was her “duty to fight to protect that dream.”

She went on to claim that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris “will fundamentally change this nation.”

“They want to destroy this country, and everything that we have fought for and hold dear. They want to steal your liberty, your freedom. They want to control what you see and think, and believe, so they can control how you live,” Guilfoyle said.

She said Trump has put America first and will continue do so if reelected.

Guilfoyle urged Americans to stand for a “President who is fearless, who believes in you, and who loves this country and will fight for her.”

Watch:

The Missouri couple facing felony charges after pointing guns at protesters outside of their home in St. Louis earlier this summer spoke on the first night of the Republican National Convention. 

“What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country. And that’s what we want to speak to you about tonight,” Patricia McCloskey said. 

“Not a single person in the out-of-control mob you saw at our house was charged with a crime. But you know who was? We were. They’ve actually charged us with felonies for daring to defend our home,” Mark McCloskey said. 

The McCloskeys drew national attention in late June after they were seen in a viral video brandishing guns outside their mansion at protesters walking on a private street en route to demonstrate outside the St. Louis mayor’s residence. 

The mayor lives on a nearby public street and the protesters were going down a street that doesn’t reach the mayor’s house, a St. Louis city official said. The Missouri couple was charged in July with unlawful use of a weapon, a class E felony.

In videos obtained by CNN, the pair were seen brandishing weapons outside their St. Louis home as demonstrators walked outside the house in late June.

The White House has defended the couple on a number of occasions. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters at the time that President Donald Trump “said it is absolutely absurd, what is happening to the McCloskeys.”

“You’ve seen us on your TV screens and Twitter feeds,” Mark McCloskey said. “You know we’re not the kind of people who back down. Thankfully, neither is Donald Trump.”

Watch:

Before the 2018 shooting, Andrew Pollack, the father of Parkland mass shooting victim Meadow Pollack, wasn’t a political activist.

But in the face of unspeakable tragedy, after 17 people were killed in the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, he is among those who have transformed their grief into political activism, with the goal of preventing other families from facing the same horror.

Tonight, speaking from the Republican National Convention, Pollack said he believes President Trump is committed to keeping children safe in America.

“I truly believe the safety of your kids depends on whether this man is reelected,” he said.

The shooting, he said, changed his life forever.

“So many moments that I waited so long for were taken from me. I didn’t get to drop her off at college. I didn’t get to walk her down the aisle,” Pollack said.

“But every moment was taken from her and for what? I never wanted this to become a political spectacle but it did,” he added.

Pollack called Trump a “good man and a great listener” who he said “cuts through the BS.”

Reporting from CNN’s Betsy Klein contributed to this report.

Vernon Jones, a Democratic politician from the state of Georgia, slammed Joe Biden’s leadership and praised President Donald Trump’s commitment to the Black community.

“As you can see, I am a man of color and I am a lifelong Democrat, too. You may be wondering, why is a lifelong Democrat speaking at the Republican National Convention? And that is a fair question. And here’s your answer, the Democratic Party does not want Black people to lead their mental plantation. We’ve been forced to be there for decades and generations,” Jones said in his remarks.

“But I have news for Joe Biden, we are free, we are free people with free minds. And I am part of a large and growing segment of the Black community who are independent thinkers and we believe that Donald Trump is the president that America needs to lead us forward,” Jones continued.  

Jones said Biden has had “47 years to produce results,” but has been “all talk and no action.”

“Just like so many of the Democrats who have been making promises to the Black voters for decades. We have been there captive audience,” Jones said.

Jones went on to tout Trump’s measures with regard to the economy and funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

“The President also built the most inclusive economy ever with record low unemployment for African Americans and record high participation in the workforce,” Jones said.

“He put the interests of American workers and especially Black workers first. That’s right. Donald Trump did that,” Jones said.

Former NFL star Herschel Walker spoke at the Republican National Convention on Monday and said he has a “deep personal friendship” with President Donald Trump and has known him for 37 years. 

“It hurt my soul to hear the terrible names that people call Donald. The worst one is ‘racist.’ I take it as a personal insult that people would think I’ve had a 37-year friendship with a racist. People who think that don’t know what they are talking about. Growing up in the Deep South, I’ve seen racism up close. I know what it is. And it isn’t Donald Trump,” said Walker, who is African American. 

Walker said Trump is a “caring, loving father” and that over the years he has “watched (Trump) treat the janitors, security guards, and waiters the same way he would treat a VIP.”

Walker is a 1982 Heisman Trophy winner, former pro football star and a former Olympian. 

In 2008, Walker published a book, “Breaking Free,” and revealed he had a form of mental illness called dissociative identity disorder, or DID, formerly known as multiple personality disorder. He told CNN at the time that he hoped to educate the public and break down stereotypes about this disorder.

Watch:

Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, one of the President’s most ardent defenders in the US House of Representatives, touted the GOP as “the pro-America party” and President Donald Trump as the “pro-America candidate,” decrying what he said were Democrats’ values.

“Look at what’s happening in America’s cities – cities all run by Democrats. Crime, violence and mob rule. Democrats refuse to denounce the mob,” Jordan said during his convention speech. “And their response to the chaos? Defund the police, defund border patrol, and defund our military. And while they’re doing all of this, they’re also trying to take away your guns.”

Jordan also addressed the Russia investigation and the President’s impeachment, saying Trump has taken on the Washington swamp.

“When you take on the swamp, the swamp fights back. They tried the Russia hoax, the Mueller investigation, and the fake impeachment. But in spite of this unbelievable opposition, this president has done what he said he would do,” Jordan said.

Concluding his remarks, Jordan brought up his nephew’s deadly car accident — and the President’s conversation with Jordan’s family three days after his nephew’s death.

“For the next five minutes, family and friends sat in complete silence, as the President of the United States took time to talk to a dad who was hurting,” Jordan said.

He added: “That’s the President I’ve gotten to know over the last four years — a president who has shared private moments like this with soldiers, victims of violent crime and people who have had businesses destroyed by the mob. That’s the individual who’s made America great again and who knows America’s best days are in front of us.”

President Trump made a “surprise” appearance in tonight’s Republican National Convention appearing with frontline workers in the East Room of the White House.

The President nor the participants were wearing masks and did not seem to be social distancing.

“These are my friends. These are the incredible workers who helped us so much with the Covid,” Trump said.

“These are great, great people. Doctors, nurses, firemen, a policeman. We want to thank you, all you’ve been incredible and we want to thank you and all the millions of people that you represent,” the President continued.

The participants shared their stories and described their line of work, including a registered nurse who praised Trump’s leadership.

“I am so in awe of your leadership. Honestly, I know many people have said often interesting things but it takes a true leader to be able to ignore all that stuff and take what is right and not be offended by all the words being said. You really do show that positive spirit to us and as nurses I appreciate that, I’m grateful for,” she said.

The official roll call renominating President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to the 2020 Republican ballot took place earlier today in Charlotte, North Carolina, but during the Republican National Convention’s primetime event, a video montage was shown to mark the moment.

“We have created a short video to symbolize the excitement for President Trump across all 50 states and territories,” RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said.

Participants in different parts of the country cheered “four more years.”

Watch the video:

Kim Klacik, who is running for Maryland’s 7th Congressional District, said Democrats have controlled Baltimore for far too long and assumed “Black people will vote for them, no matter how much they let us down and take us for granted.”

“We’re sick of it and not going to take it anymore. The days of blindly supporting the Democrats are coming to an end,” she said.

Klacik went on to slam Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, saying that he believes “we can’t think for ourselves — that the color of someone’s skin dictates their political views.

“We’re not buying the lies anymore — you and your party have ignored us for too long,” she said.

Klacik praised Trump’s efforts, saying he is “bringing this country back roaring.”

Klacik is running for the seat formerly held by the late Rep. Elijah Cummings. The race is rated “Solid Democrat” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Watch:

During the opening remarks of the Republican National Convention, Charlie Kirk, founder of the youth-oriented conservative group Turning Point USA, claimed that “bitter, deceitful, vengeful activists…have us locking up pastors.” 

Facts First: This connection is not true. Pastors in the US have been arrested for disobeying state and local social distancing orders during the pandemic by holding in-person church services. One of the first instances of a pastor being arrested in the US happened in late March when a Florida pastor held two church services that disobeyed state health emergency rules. The pastor turned himself in at the time, the Associated Press reported. CNN could not find instances of pastors being arrested because of “bitter, deceitful, vengeful activists.”

A West Virginia nurse who was deployed to New York and Texas to work as a relief nurse during the coronavirus pandemic praised President Trump for his efforts to stop the virus.

The nurse, Amy Johnson Ford, said “we have President Trump to thank” for expanded telehealth access amid the pandemic.

“President Trump recognized the threat this virus presented for all Americans early on, and made rapid policy changes. And as a result, telehealth services are now accessible to more than 71 million Americans, including 35 million children,” Ford said.

She added: “As a health care professional, I can tell you without hesitation, Donald Trump’s quick action and leadership saved thousands of lives during Covid-19. And the benefits of that response extend far beyond coronavirus.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida and longtime defender of President Trump, slammed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, issuing a scathing description of the former vice president’s leadership and policies.

“I’m speaking from an auditorium emptier than Joe Biden’s daily schedule,” Gaetz said in his remarks, speaking from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC. “But we are a nation of full hearts — and clear minds. We see the choice clearly: Strength or weakness. Energy or confusion. Success or failure. And Biden knows failure.”

Gaetz praised Trump’s leadership and vision for the country.

“Donald Trump like all builders is a visionary. That which is built in the mind is even more powerful than the brick and mortar that holds it together,” Gaetz said.

“President Trump sometimes raises his voice — and a ruckus. He knows that’s what it takes to raise an army of patriots who love America and will protect her,” Gaetz said.

“America is not just an idea or a Constitution, it is our home. We must protect our home with unbreakable Made-in-America strength — strength I see every day in President Donald Trump,” the congressman said in closing.

Watch:

Charlie Kirk, founder and president of conservative youth activist organization Turning Point USA, praised President Trump’s leadership and warned that the 2020 presidential election “is a decision between preserving America as we know it, and eliminating everything that we love.”

“From that moment he came down that famous escalator, he started a movement to reclaim our government from the rotten cartel of insiders that have been destroying our country. We may not have realized it at the time, but Trump is the bodyguard of western civilization,” the 26-year-old said during the Republican National Convention. “Trump was elected to protect our families from the vengeful mob that seeks to destroy our way of life, our neighborhoods, schools, churches, and values. President Trump was elected to defend the American way of life.”

Kirk said that if reelected in November, Trump would help give youth and future generations a better country.

“This election is the most critical since 1860, when a man named Lincoln was elected to preserve the union from disintegration. This election is not just the most important of our lifetime — it is most important since the preservation of the Republic in 1865,” Kirk said.

“By reelecting Trump, we will ensure that our kids are raised to love our country and respect our founding father, not taught to hate or be ashamed of them,” he continued.

“We will be a country that has its best 100 years ahead. We will build a future where America remains the greatest country ever to exist in the history of the world. All of that is within our grasp if we secure four more years for the defender of western civilization, our champion, my friend, the 45th president of the United States, President Donald J. trump,” Kirk said.

Kirk described Turning Point USA as “the largest pro-American student organization in the country” that is “fighting for the future of our Republic.”

Watch:

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, delivered the opening prayer ahead of Monday’s primetime speeches at the Republican National Convention.

Dolan called on prayers for frontline workers and those suffering from coronavirus. He called for prayers for all lives to be protected — an apparent nod to recent anti-police brutality demonstration across the country. He also pushed for prayers for immigrants and unborn infants.

“Pray we must that all lives may be protected and respected in our troubled cities and the police who guard them, in tense world situations where our men and women in uniform keep the peace, for the innocent life of the baby in the womb, for our elders in nursing care and hospice, for our immigrants and refugees, those lives threatened by religious persecution throughout the world or by plague, hunger, drugs, human trafficking or war,” Dolan said as the Statue of Liberty was seen in the background.

Before concluding, Dolan called for watchers to “pray for democracy,” for “an electorate so eager to perform its duty of faithful citizenship.”

Dolan received online criticism for accepting the invitation to pray at the RNC, but earlier Monday, he defended his appearance, saying that he doesn’t see a prayer offering as an endorsement of a party or candidate.

Republicans have kicked off night one of the Republican National Convention tonight with a theme focused around the “Land of Promise” after formally nominating President Donald Trump earlier in the day.

While the in-person Democratic National Convention was scrapped due to the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans began their convention with an in-person roll call in Charlotte, North Carolina, and then move to remote speeches largely from an auditorium in Washington, DC — but, in an unprecedented move, also from the White House.

The start to the Republican convention comes as the first polls since the DNC last week show Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has gained popularity, but has not widened his lead over Trump.

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence appeared at the roll call in North Carolina on Monday to thank delegates.

Notable speakers tonight will include some of Trump’s Republican allies in Congress (Sen. Tim Scott, House GOP Whip Steve Scalise, Rep. Matt Gaetz and Rep. Jim Jordan), former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and the President’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

Besides lawmakers, tonight’s program includes a list of speakers who appear to have credited the Trump administration and Republicans for policy successes or who have been successful examples of the President’s policies in action.

The lineup will include the father of a student killed in the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, a GOP congressional candidate who starred in a viral video about “the reality for Black people” in Baltimore and a coffee shop owner who was the first to qualify for a Paycheck Protection Program loan in Montana.

There will also be remarks by Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the couple who drew national attention this summer after they were filmed brandishing guns at a group of protesters who were walking along the neighborhood’s private street, en route to the St. Louis mayor’s residence to advocate for policing reform.

The night’s event began with this video:

While there will be an audience when President Trump delivers his address from the South Lawn Thursday night, sources tell CNN the RNC and Trump campaign scrapped plans to have a live audience at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC, where Donald Trump Jr. and others will give their speeches Monday night. 

Gatherings of more than 50 people are prohibited in Washington under current regulations and it became too much of a headache to figure out how to safely have an effective audience, an official involved in the planning told CNN.

The conversation at the Republican National Convention is expected to focus on Covid-19 during at least a portion of the program Monday night.

Officials, lawmakers and allies of President Donald Trump will attempt to rebut four days of Democrats hammering his response as inadequate during last week’s Democratic National Convention.

On Monday, Trump teased possible breakthroughs for a vaccine as critics accused him of putting a political timeline on a scientific endeavor. 

Trump is expected to appear with frontline workers tonight.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan defended his Republican National Convention appearance by stating he doesn’t see offering a prayer as an endorsement of a party or a candidate after receiving online criticism.

Posting on Twitter his previous statement on why he agreed to participate, Dolan said that had he been invited to offer a prayer during the Democratic National Convention he would have “happily accepted,” as he did during the 2012 DNC convention. 

The statement says it’s one of his “most sacred obligations” to “try and respond positively whenever I am invited to pray.”

In response to CNN’s inquiry about some of the criticism he has received since word emerged of his participation, Dolan acknowledged it.

“I want to say that I maintain almost neutrality when it comes to Politics, we the church absolutely don’t get involved in party politics, I only represent a sector of the church, if we don’t pray for America, as Catholics, who will? The RNC involvement is giving me a positive criticism these past days,” he told CNN.

The Archdiocese of New York says that they notified the Democratic National Committee that Cardinal Dolan would accept an invitation to pray at the Democratic National Convention as well.

“We notified the DNC that the Cardinal would also accept an invitation to pray at their convention, if they wished. However, they had already invited other Catholic representatives to pray,” Joseph Zwilling, the director of communications for the Archdiocese of New York told CNN.

Read the tweet:

A senior Trump campaign official told reporters on a call today that the President “will be making an appearance every night” of this week’s Republican National Convention, though he will not be speaking every night.

Tonight’s appearance involves Trump “meeting with frontline workers during the course of the broadcast, honoring them for their sacrifices and commitment to keeping the American people healthy, safe and supplied. These will include police officers, firefighters, nurses, truckers and delivery drivers, and President Trump will be welcoming and thanking the frontline workers for their efforts,” according to the official.

The official also pointed to the list of speakers announced earlier today for tonight’s RNC programming, telling reporters, “there may be names, not included on the list, who will in fact speak tonight. And we do anticipate that there will be some surprises that we are not rolling out at this point, and there may be further information about those as we get closer to airtime.”

More than two dozen former Republican lawmakers announced Monday they are endorsing Joe Biden for president.

Former Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona and former Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania are among those throwing their support behind the Democratic presidential nominee through “Republicans for Biden,” and the endorsements come on the morning of the first day of the Republican National Convention.

Biden has repeatedly emphasized Republican support as he looks to build a broad coalition in his campaign against President Trump.

While the endorsements offer a symbolic boost to Biden as he seeks to win over persuadable voters, Trump is still overwhelmingly popular among Republicans, a point made by Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh, who dismissed the significance of the endorsements.

“Joe Biden has been a failure in the Washington Swamp for a half century, so no one should be surprised when Swamp creatures gather to protect one of their own,” Murtaugh said. “President Trump has unprecedented support — over 95% — among real Republican voters and is also making strong inroads in Biden’s core Democrat constituencies, like Black Americans, Latinos, and union members. President Trump’s record of success for all Americans will carry him to victory in November.”

Along with Flake and Dent, former Sens. Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire and John Warner of Virginia added their support.

Read more about the endorsements here

Ahead of the Republican National Convention kicking off today, President Donald Trump said to expect an overall positive message.

“I think the overall is going to be a very positive as opposed to a dark — a very, very positive message,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News with “The Next Revolution” host Steve Hilton that was taped on Friday and aired Sunday night.

Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said Republicans would present an “optimistic and upbeat convention this week” in contrast with what he described as last week’s “massive grievance fest” of a Democratic National Convention.

Speaking from Charlotte, North Carolina, moments after he was formally renominated as the Republican Party standard-bearer, however, Trump delivered a screed that predicted a legally contested election in November and complained that Democrats were exploiting the coronavirus pandemic — still raging in the United States — to undermine his reelection.

“What they’re doing is using Covid to steal an election. They’re using Covid to defraud the American people, all of our people, of a fair and free election,” Trump said, without evidence, to applause from GOP delegates, who were gathering in North Carolina to conduct the formal business of the party convention.

It was hardly the optimistic message that Trump’s advisers have been relentlessly previewing ahead of this week’s renomination festivities. Instead, Trump’s speech was indistinguishable from the meandering, grievance-filled appearances he has been making in the lead-up to his scaled-down convention.

Sadoux Kim, a former producer of “The Apprentice,” is one of the producers and consultants helping to put together the Republican National Convention, three sources confirmed to CNN.

A source familiar with convention planning, a White House official and a campaign official confirmed to CNN Kim is helping to put together the show but did not detail his specific role.

The New York Times, which first reported Kim’s involvement, said he was a longtime deputy to Mark Burnett, who created and produced “The Apprentice.”

The Republican National Committee has confirmed it will not release a new platform during the 2020 convention this week — and in lieu of one, the party will support President Trump’s agenda. 

In one of several resolutions issued and viewed by CNN, the RNC said it has “unanimously voted to forego the Convention Committee on Platform, in appreciation of the fact that it did not want a small contingent of delegates formulating a new platform without the breadth of perspectives within the ever-growing Republican movement.” 

Instead there will be no new platform until the next convention in 2024 and, in the meantime, the RNC “will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.” Despite multiple opportunities, Trump has struggled repeatedly to articulate what a second term of his presidency would look like and what goals he’d like to achieve. 

On June 12, Trump tweeted, “The Republican Party has not yet voted on a Platform. No rush. I prefer a new and updated Platform, short form, if possible.”

The resolution issued this week said is due to logistics and if the platform committee had been able to meet this year without Covid-19 restrictions, the RNC “would have undoubtedly unanimously agreed to reassert the Party’s strong support for President Donald Trump and his Administration.”

Before the convention was dramatically scaled back, Trump’s aides, including Jared Kushner and Bill Stepien, had been assembling a platform for 2020, which they were hoping would be slimmed down.

The RNC accused the media of misrepresenting why it is not adopting a new platform this convention and said reporters are engaging in “misleading advocacy for the failed policies of the Obama-Biden Administration.” 

It ends by saying “any motion to amend the 2016 Platform…will be ruled out of order.”

The Trump campaign announced the list of speakers for the Republican National Convention beginning Monday in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Among the notable speakers listed are Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Ambassador Nikki Haley, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, Rudy Giuliani and UFC President Dana White.

Trump family members appearing at the RNC include first lady Melania Trump, and his children Ivanka, Donald Trump Jr., Eric and Tiffany Trump.

Lawmakers slated to address the convention include Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, Sens. Tim Scott, Rand Paul, Marsha Blackburn and Joni Ernst, along with Reps. Steve Scalise, Matt Gaetz, Dan Crenshaw, and Jim Jordan. 

State lawmakers include Govs. Kim Reynolds of Iowa and Kristi Noem of South Dakota.

Multiple sources told CNN that President Trump will participate in each night of the convention, with his acceptance speech coming from the White House on Thursday.

The campaign did not indicate whether any of the remarks will be prerecorded, a criticism Trump and others lobbed at many of the Democratic National Convention speakers last week.

Pompeo, who is slated to address the convention Tuesday night, departed Sunday on an official visit to the Middle East. A person familiar with his plans said Pompeo intends to address the RNC from Israel, a break from longstanding traditions of leaving domestic politics when outside the country — particularly for the nation’s top diplomat. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will tape a speech that will be featured as part of the Republican National Convention, Tim Murtaugh, Trump campaign communications director, told CNN.

Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis homeowners who pointed guns at protesters earlier this summer, are scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention tonight.

The McCloskeys drew national attention in late June after they were seen in a viral video brandishing guns outside their mansion at protesters walking on a private street en route to demonstrate outside the St. Louis mayor’s residence. The Missouri couple was charged in July with unlawful use of a weapon.

The White House has defended the couple on multiple occasions, with White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany telling reporters at the time that President Donald Trump “said it is absolutely absurd, what is happening to the McCloskeys.”

In videos obtained by CNN, Mark McCloskey holds a long rifle and Patricia McCloskey holds a handgun as demonstrators, protesting Mayor Lyda Krewson’s decision to publish the names and addresses of people in favor of police reform, walked outside the home. Portland Place, the private street where the McCloskeys live, is near Krewson’s home.

Daniel Shular, a local reporter, took one of the videos and said he watched the entire roughly 10-minute long incident unfold. About 500 protesters were cutting through Portland Place, according to Shular, to bypass road closures nearby that blocked access to the mayor’s home.

“A door next to the gate at Portland Place was unlocked and protesters went through it to cut through the neighborhood to get to Krewson’s house,” he told CNN.

That’s when Shular says the McCloskeys came out of the house with the firearms. At one point in Shular’s 31-second video, Patricia McCloskey points the handgun in the direction of protesters. In multiple videos, it appears the McCloskeys and protesters exchange words, but it is unclear what is said.

Mark McCloskey has defended his actions towards the protesters, saying last month that he was “in imminent fear they would run me over, kill me.”

McCloskey asserted that it is “ridiculous” to consider him the face of opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement after the incident.

“I didn’t care what color they were. I didn’t care what their motivation was,” he said. “I was frightened. I was assaulted.”

Former Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann, Andrew Pollack, the father of Parkland shooting victim Meadow Pollack, anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Pennsylvania congressional candidate Sean Parnell will also be among the speakers at the Republican convention.

The Republican National Convention will get underway this week with a four-night event that will see the party formally renominate President Donald Trump while navigating a mix of online and in-person events due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that viewers can plan on hearing Trump “speaking at various parts through each of the nights” at the GOP convention.

Here’s what you need to know of this week’s event:

Notable speakers: Participants will include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Ambassador Nikki Haley, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, Rudy Giuliani and UFC President Dana White.

Trump family members appearing at the RNC include first lady Melania Trump, and his children Ivanka, Donald Trump Jr., Eric and Tiffany Trump.

The convention will also feature “breakout stars,” people one wouldn’t typically consider to be Trump supporters, and “a great, uplifting message from the President,” he told NBC.

Dan Scavino, one of President Trump’s longest serving aides and one of the few people with access to his Twitter account, is also scheduled to speak at the RNC this week, a person familiar with the planning told CNN.

As the deputy chief of staff for communications, Scavino is in a public-facing role, but he rarely speaks publicly.

The convention’s focus: Miller said Republicans will present an “optimistic and upbeat convention this week” in contrast with what he described as last week’s “massive grievance fest” of a Democratic National Convention.

The RNC will focus heavily on Trump’s accomplishments over his first four years, lay out a second term vision for the administration, and promised “a complete change in the perception that I believe the media tries to tell of what a Trump supporter looks like, or who a Trump supporter is,” Miller added.

Where Trump will accept the nomination: Trump will accept the Republican nomination at the White House after scrapping his plans to deliver the speech in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Ethics experts have said that accepting the nomination from White House property highlights Trump’s willingness to trample on norms. A federal law, known as the Hatch Act, generally forbids the use of government property and employees for political activities with some exceptions.

The President and vice president are exempt, but some previous officeholders have sought to limit political activity in the White House, for instance, by holding political events elsewhere or in the residential spaces of the presidential mansion.

Where the convention will take place: After exhaustive deliberations over potential venues, the bulk of the convention will be centered in Washington, including on the White House lawn and at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, situated around the block from Trump’s hotel (which Republicans said they expected to act as a social hub for the week and will likely benefit financially).

Notably, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to address the RNC on Tuesday from Jerusalem, a person familiar with his plans said, a break from longstanding traditions of leaving domestic politics when leaving the country — particularly for the nation’s top diplomat.

Read more about the four-day event here.

President Trump, a television producer at heart, is hoping for a convention this week that looks vastly different from the all-digital event Democrats have staged over the past days — including an emphasis on live programming and at least some type of audience who can respond to the multiple appearances he is planning.

Calling aides at all hours from Air Force One or the White House residence, Trump has conveyed last-minute ideas on venues or gimmicks and demanded progress reports on the speakers he wants during his nominating extravaganza, which he hopes will provide a boost to his poll numbers.

Early drafts of his nomination acceptance speech closely resemble two previous addresses that delved heavily in the divisive culture wars that Trump has aggressively stoked: his first convention speech in 2016, where he declared “I alone can fix” the country’s ailments, and his July 4 address at Mount Rushmore, which seized upon recent racial strife to hammer a “law and order” message.

Even amid a national pandemic that has severely limited Republicans’ ability to party, the convention ordered up by the President will still contain moments that are designed both to surprise viewers and trigger outrage from Trump’s opponents — both defining features of Trump’s political style.

Depending on how the election turns out in November — and how Republicans reshape themselves if the President loses —this week’s proceedings could reflect either the last gasp of that brand of politics or an illustration of the new GOP formed in his image.

Donald Trump was unanimously renominated by the Republican National Convention to be the party’s nominee for president in November.

All 2,550 delegates were able to cast their votes, though many were done via proxy. Each state and territory was offered six in-person spots at the convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Nevada cast the votes that put the President over the top at the convention.

Florida skipped their alphabetical spot. The state would have needed to cast their votes between Nebraska and Nevada to formally give the President enough votes to win the nomination during the roll call.

Instead, the Sunshine State cast their votes after South Dakota, immediately before the President spoke. In the announcement of their votes, Florida GOP Chairman Joe Gruters called the President, “our new favorite son,” acknowledging Trump’s change of formal residence from New York to Florida in 2019.

Here’s some notable speakers who cast their state’s votes:

Republicans from all over the country are about to kick off night one of the Republican National Convention with a theme focused around the “Land of Promise.”

The convention begins as the first polls since last week’s Democratic National Convention show Joe Biden has gained popularity, but hasn’t widened his lead over Donald Trump.

CNN’s Zachary B. Wolf, alongside Leyla Santiago and Kelly Mena, gave a preview of what to expect in the nights ahead and took viewers’ questions.

Watch:

Read more about why the US still has political conventions and what will happen in 2020 here.

The first day of the Republican National Convention kicked off in Charlotte, North Carolina, this morning – the city initially chosen to host the event – for an in-person event before moving the rest of the production to the nation’s capital. 

The formal presidential nomination process was attended by six delegates from each state and territory, amounting to a total of 336 delegates, according to the RNC. RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel presided over the nomination process, which concluded with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being formally nominated as the party’s nominee for President and vice president.

Trump and Pence appeared at the roll call in North Carolina to thank delegates.

Pence briefly addressed a friendly, fired-up crowd of delegates at the RNC ahead of Trump’s appearance.

A Trump victory, he said, will make America great again, again.

“We are going to reelect President Donald Trump for four more years, and with your continued support and with God’s help, we are going to make America great again, again,” he said.

He called on the delegates to help with down-ballot races, and said the economy, law and order, freedom, and free markets are “on the ballot” this year, urging them to mobilize, phone bank, and door knock.

He thanked the delegates “for the honor of this day” and said he’d be speaking more about the nomination at Fort McHenry later this week.

Trump had voting on his mind Monday morning as he addressed his convention, kicking off his first remarks for the week with dark messaging lamenting the 2016 election and railing against mail-in voting, continuing to cast doubt on the election’s results.

“Now if you really want to drive them crazy, you say 12 more years,” he said as an enthusiastic crowd of delegates chanted “four more years.”

“Because,” he continued, “We caught them doing some really bad things in 2016. Let’s see what happens. We caught them doing some really bad things. We have to be very careful because they’re trying it again, this whole 80 million mail-in ballots that they’re working on. Sending them out to people that didn’t ask for them. They didn’t ask, they just get them, and it’s not fair, and it’s not right, and it’s not going to be possible to tabulate, in my opinion.”

There is no evidence that former President Barack Obama spied on Trump’s campaign. You can read CNN’s most recent mail-in voting fact checks here.

Still, Trump went on to claim Democrats “are trying to do it with the whole post office scam, they’ll blame it on the post office. You can see them setting it up. Be very careful and watch it very carefully.”

He closed his remarks with another warning about how important the election will be while telling the delegates not to “let them take it away from you.”

“Be very, very careful. This is going to be, and I really believe this, this is the most important election in the history of our country. Don’t let them take it away from you. Don’t let them take it away,” Trump said.

Trump’s formal acceptance speech will happen remotely Thursday from the White House.

Watch: