Republican National Convention 2020: Day 2

President Trump issued a pardon for Jon Ponder, who was arrested for robbing a bank and has since founded a reintegration program for former prisoners, ahead of the Republican National Convention's primetime speeches on Tuesday.

In a White House video announcing the pardon, Trump called Ponder’s life story a “beautiful testament to the power of redemption.” 

Ponder joined Trump inside the White House alongside former FBI agent Richard Beasley, who arrested him in 2004 and is now a good friend. 

"My hope for America is that formerly incarcerated people will be afforded the opportunity to take advantage of the fact that we live in a nation of second chance," Ponder said in the video. "My hope for America is that law enforcement and people in the communities across our country can come together and realize that as Americans, we have more in common than we have differences."

In a video shown during the Republican National Convention, Ponder and Beasley shared their story and thanked Trump for his leadership.

Some background: In February, Trump attended a graduation ceremony in Las Vegas for former prisoners who participated in Ponder’s nonprofit program. At the ceremony, the President said he was asked to give Ponder a pardon. 

“Ware giving him absolute consideration, and I have a feeling he’s going to get that full pardon. I have a feeling. I can’t tell you, but I have a feeling,” Trump said at the time. 

Trump has granted clemency to more than two dozen individuals since taking office. Sometimes, the President has used the executive power after being swayed by celebrities, friends or insiders advocating for him to make the move. And frequently, he’s used the pardon power to make a political statement or to help out old friends.

Among the list are individuals granted clemency by Trump is Alice Johnson, who faced a life sentence on charges related to possession of cocaine. After Kim Kardashian West advocated on Johnson’s behalf, Trump commuted her sentence in 2018. Johnson is also scheduled to speak at the convention on Thursday. 

The list includes several orders absolving old friends and conservative politicians from their crimes, including clemency for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, conservative author Dinesh D’Souza and former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik. 

And more recently, Trump commuted Roger Stone’s prison sentence, after Stone, a longtime friend and former Trump adviser was convicted of crimes that included lying to Congress in part, prosecutors said, to protect the President.

Trump’s most recent act of clemency was a posthumous pardon for Susan B. Anthony on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Some experts have said Anthony likely wouldn’t have wanted a pardon.

Watch:

Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer said President Donald Trump has “always made it a priority to repair the relationship” between the government and the Navajo Nation. 

Lizer said, “Whenever we meet with President Trump, he has always made it a priority to repair the relationship with our federal family.”

Lizer praised Trump for signing a presidential proclamation recognizing May 5, 2020, as Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives Awareness Day, and signing an executive order forming the Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives.

He said Trump “delivered the largest financial funding package ever to Indian Country," and said the funding "was a great start in alleviating the devastating effects that the Covid-19 pandemic has inflicted on our Indian tribes."

"President Trump also strengthened the Supreme Court by nominating strong conservative judges like Neil Gorsuch, who supports Native American rights," he said.

Watch:

Pastor Norma Urrabazo of the International Church of Las Vegas opened the second night of the Republican National Convention with a prayer for "healing and comfort to Jacob Blake and his family."

Jacob Blake, a man shot multiple times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been paralyzed and his family is hoping for "a miracle," their attorneys said. The shooting has spurred protests and unrest in the state, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency.

Urrabazo also prayed that "we, as a people, will seek reconciliation with you as we do the same with each other."

"Let us stand together in unity as we embrace another chapter on our journey to greatness. I decree and declare America the best is yet to come. And I ask all this in the name of Jesus. Amen," she said in closing.

Watch:

The second night of the Republican National Convention has kicked off, with first lady Melania Trump slated to close the evening.

The first lady is hoping to use her enormous popularity on Tuesday at the Republican National Convention to help address one of the biggest challenges facing President Donald Trump in November — his enormous deficit with female voters.

Speaking from the Rose Garden, the first lady is expected to give an uplifting speech reflecting on her work with children, her "Be Best" initiative, her second-term agenda and some of her favorite moments of the past three-and-a-half years as she makes the case that her husband should be reelected. Advisers have said that her speech was not vetted by anyone in the West Wing.

She is hoping to turn the page from the plagiarism controversy that surrounded her 2016 speech when the Trump campaign acknowledged that passages from her remarks had been taken from Michelle Obama's 2008 speech to the Democratic National Convention, in what was framed as an innocent mistake by a writer who helped her with the speech.

Her chief of staff and former White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, told MSNBC's Hallie Jackson on Tuesday morning that "every word in this speech is from her" and that it would be an "authentic" address that "comes from the heart."

Read more here.

Melania Trump’s chief of staff Stephanie Grisham was the primary speech writer for the first lady – Grisham has written the majority of FLOTUS speeches since early 2018.

As with most things, she did not run the content of her speech by anyone in the West Wing or the campaign ahead of time – nor was it vetted upon completion by the West Wing.

The first lady operates completely in a silo, and this speech, even considering what happened in 2016 with the plagiarism, is no exception. 

Historically, it’s incredibly rare that a first lady does not work in tandem with the campaign or the administration on a national address of this magnitude.

The speech set-up is already done in the East Room of the White House in case the rain forces her speech indoors. The East Room, of course, is the same room where Friday the Trumps hosted a funeral for Robert Trump.

Melania again shunned professional speechwriters for this Republican National Convention address, a decision that raised eyebrows in campaign and west wing circles, considering the debacle of 2016. In 2016, she was offered the services of seasoned GOP political speechwriters, but rejected their drafts and instead went with Meredith McIver, a Trump Organization staffer. A plagiarism scandal ensued after that speech. 

This is not only the first campaign appearance for Trump 2020 by Melania, it will likely also be her last. She has no fundraisers, speeches or travel for planned for the rest of the foreseeable future and like 2016, no intention of being an active campaign spouse, according to a source familiar.

The second night of the Republican National Convention is this evening, and will take place from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET.

Like Monday night's speeches in Washington, most of Tuesday's speeches are scheduled to be taped from an empty auditorium in downtown DC.

President Donald Trump is not scheduled to speak during Tuesday's events, but the campaign has promised surprise appearances by the President throughout the week.

Notable speeches will include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, first lady Melania Trump, and Tiffany and Eric Trump — two of the President's children.

After adopting a "Land of Promise" theme on Monday, the convention will move on to the theme "Land of Opportunity" on Tuesday.

Here are key things to watch tonight:

Read more about tonight's event here.

CNN's Jennifer Hansler and Kate Bennett contributed to this report.

A previously-scheduled speaker at tonight’s Republican National Convention session has been suddenly pulled from the program after it came to light that she had retweeted a thread promoting an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.

Mary Ann Mendoza, whose police officer son was killed by a drunk driver, had been included in a list of excerpts of speakers’ remarks sent by the campaign earlier Tuesday evening. But the latest rundown of speakers sent by the network pool does not have her listed as a speaker.

Mendoza tweeted an apology saying, “I retweeted a very long thread earlier without reading every post within the thread. My apologies for not paying attention to the intent of the whole message. That does not reflect my feelings or personal thoughts whatsoever.”

Mendoza was also identified as an advisory board member of Steve Bannon’s “We Build the Wall” organization in a March 2019 Facebook post. Bannon and three others involved in that group have been charged with defrauding donors.

According to excerpts from her speech tonight, Mendoza was scheduled to say:

The Daily Beast was first to report news of the tweet.

Hear more:

Rep. Joaquin Castro, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, has opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s decision to speak at the Republican National Convention.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, Castro cites the Hatch Act and State Department policies on political activities, writing, “It is highly unusual, and likely unprecedented, for a sitting Secretary of State to speak at a partisan convention for either of the political parties. It appears that it may also be illegal.”

He called for Biegun to arrange for a briefing and provide written answers by September 1 to a number of questions related to the legal authorization for the RNC speech, use of State Department resources and staff, and his official trip to the region.

In addition, Castro asked Biegun to provide by September 10 “Any and all records prepared by or sent to or from the Office of the Legal Adviser on or after December 3, 2019 regarding restrictions on political activities by Secretary Pompeo or Presidential Appointees or Political Appointees; and (a) list of expenditures from the trip during which Secretary Pompeo recorded his remarks to the RNC, including receipts demonstrating that any expenses incurred by the State Department were reimbursed by the RNC, Trump’s campaign, or other outside sponsors.”

CNN has reached out to the State Department for comment.

Some background: Pompeo's decision to address the RNC in pre-taped remarks from Jerusalem breaks with past precedent of secretaries of state not addressing political conventions and a long-standing protocol of not discussing domestic politics while abroad. It has drawn scrutiny and scorn from diplomats.

A State Department spokesperson and another source familiar with the situation defended the move by saying Pompeo would deliver the remarks in his personal capacity and that no taxpayer funds would be used.

However, in his July cable, Pompeo himself noted that "presidential and political appointees and career SES (Senior Executive Service) are subject to significant restrictions on their political activity; they may not engage in any partisan political activity in concert with a partisan campaign, political party, or partisan political group, even on personal time and outside of the federal workplace."

Read more here.

On night two of the Republican National Convention, the GOP is highlighting another conservative at the center of an incident that went viral.

The RNC on Monday featured the St. Louis couple — the McCloskeys — who went viral in late June after they were seen with 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.

Monday's remarks also featured Kim Klacik, a GOP congressional candidate who starred in a viral video about "the reality for Black people" in Baltimore.

On Tuesday, the convention will feature Nick Sandmann, a Kentucky teenager who was at the center of a viral video controversy in which he was filmed while wearing a MAGA hat with his student group at the Lincoln Memorial after his group encountered other groups of protesters. 

He sued numerous news organizations and has so far reached settlements with the Washington Post and CNN.