Republican National Convention 2020: Day 3

Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn said of Democrats she didn’t identify: “They say we can’t gather in community groups, but encourage protest, riots, and looting in the streets.

Facts First: Blackburn’s claim about riots and looting is an exaggeration. While there are scattered examples  of Democrats making comments that can be seen as supporting riots, the party and Democratic leadership have not “encourage(d)” violent protests. 

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has explicitly condemned such protest, both in a speech in June and in a Wednesday video statement released after Blackburn recorded this speech.  

“[T]here is no place for violence,” Biden said. “No place for looting or destroying property or burning churches, or destroying businesses — many of them built by people of color who for the first time were beginning to realize their dreams and build wealth for their families.”

Rep. James Clyburn told the Washington Post on June 3 that “peaceful protest is our game. Violence is their game,” adding, “This looting and rioting, that’s their game. We cannot allow ourselves to play their game.” These are just two examples of the many Democratic leaders who have criticized the riots and looting. 

Blackburn could, like other conservatives, make a subjective argument that Democratic cities and states have not done enough to denounce or discourage protest violence — and it’s possible she could find some Democratic official somewhere in the country who has cheered on a riot. But her suggestion that Democrats as a group have encouraged riots and looting is misleading. 

As Vice President Mike Pence made the last minute decision to address Wisconsin unrest in his RNC speech tonight, CNN’s Van Jones says he is glad and that his “prayer is that he will try to bring us together.”

“If you’re an African American tonight, the despair is so hard to hold off,” he said. “I’m scared for my sons. My big boy just turned 16. He’s as tall as me. He’s driving now in Los Angeles.”

Ahead of Pence’s speech, Jones said, that he wants “the vice president to speak to me tonight. You’ve got your votes, sir. You’ve got your votes locked up. You’ve got your red states locked up. Talk to me and talk to my family tonight, Mr. Vice President. Because we have people out here who are hurting.”

Former Sen. Rick Santorum claimed that a Black man is more likely to be killed in a neighborhood criminal incident instead of a police officer.

“We’re talking about seven or eight unarmed people in the entire country last year who were shot by a police officer,” Santorum said.

“My kid is much more likely to get stopped or hurt by a police officer than anybody else because of the neighborhood I live in,” Jones said in response. “The way that we fix it is that we’re honest about the fact that you’ve got communities being crushed between street violence and police violence and the fact that you have too much lawlessness in police departments, it’s making everything worse.”

“If you want Black votes, talk about that tonight,” he asked of Pence. “Talk about these right-wing vigilantes tonight. Don’t just pick and choose.”

Lara Trump, the President’s daughter-in-law, said, “Abraham Lincoln once famously said, ‘America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.’ ”   

She added that even those words were spoken long ago, “never have they been more relevant.” 

Facts First: While this quote has circulated online, Lincoln did not say it in those words, according to PolitiFact and Snopes.  

Christian McWhirter, a historian at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, told PolitiFact that the quote mangles a speech the 16th President made in 1838.  

In it, Lincoln said, “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” 

Lara Trump, the President’s daughter-in-law, claimed that “4.3 million new jobs have been created for women” during the Trump administration. 

Facts First: This is false. While female employment grew by 3.7 million between January 2017, when Trump took office, and February of this year, Lara Trump completely disregarded the devastating force of the Covid-19 pandemic. Including the pandemic, female employment has actually fallen by 3.9 million between January 2017 and July 2020.

Women are hit harder by this recession than by previous ones. The crisis wiped out more jobs in sectors that employ more women than men, such as hospitality. While many jobs have resurfaced since the lockdown shock, female employment is still down 7.6 million from February of this year.

The spring lockdown to curb the spread of the virus collapsed America’s job market. In April alone, more than 20 million jobs vanished. As of July, the country is still nearly 13 million jobs short compared with February.

Clarence Henderson described his own personal experience with racism during his Republican National Convention speech tonight.

“By sitting down to order a cup of coffee, we challenged injustice. We knew it was necessary. But we didn’t know what would happen,” Henderson added. “We faced down the KKK. We were cursed at and called all kinds of names. They threatened to kill us. And some of us were arrested.”

“But it was worth it,” he said.

Henderson, a Republican and civil rights activist, said “America isn’t perfect,” but it is “always improving.”

He went on to President Donald Trump “is not a politician. He is a leader.”

Henderson blasted Joe Biden for having the “audacity to say if you don’t vote for him ‘you ain’t black.’” He is referring the Democratic presidential nominee’s remarks during an interview with Charlamagne tha God on “The Breakfast Club,” during which he told he told a popular African American radio host that anyone struggling to decide whether to support him or Trump in the general election “ain’t black.”

“Well to that, I say, if you do vote for Biden, you don’t know history,” he continued.

Henderson argued that “Trump truly cares about Black lives” and is “offering real and lasting change.”

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Burgess Owens, a Utah congressional candidate, said: “Mobs torch our cities while popular members of Congress promote the same socialism my father fought against in World War II.” 

Facts First: Owens’ historical analogy is entirely baseless: US enemies during World War II were not socialists or left-wingers of any kind, whether Owens was talking about Germany, Japan or Italy. (The US was allied with the communists of the Soviet Union.) While dictator Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party called itself “National Socialist,” it was not actually a party of the left; it was a far-right – fascist – entity whose totalitarian and genocidal politics do not at all resemble those of the left-wing Democrats of 2020.

It’s perhaps worth noting that the best known democratic socialist in Congress, Sen. Bernie Sanders, is a Jewish man who lost family members in the Holocaust 

President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, made a personal pitch to the Republican National Convention referencing her relationship with the President and his support of women and family, turning to a dire warning of socialism, and then back to a personal pitch.

Trump did not have a speaking slot in the 2016 Republican National Convention, but has emerged as a top surrogate and paid adviser to his reelection campaign.

When she met her husband, Eric Trump, and his family, she said, “Any preconceived notion I had of this family disappeared immediately. They were warm and caring, they were hard workers, and they were down to earth. They reminded me of my own family. They made me feel like I was home.”

She described the Trump Organization as a “family environment,” and highlighted the “countless women executives who thrived there.”

“Though I had no political experience, he believed in me. He knew I was capable even if I didn’t,” she said, one day after another convention speaker, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, railed against nepotism.

Trump, a former producer at “Inside Edition,” was a frequent presence on the 2016 campaign trail, and worked for former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale’s digital firm, Giles-Parscale, as a senior consultant after her father-in-law’s inauguration. She is now a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, and appears often on its livestreams and as a surrogate at events. 

She touted the administration’s economic successes before the pandemic, without referencing coronavirus, commemorated the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment, and abruptly turned her remarks to warn of a Biden administration, which, she said, would put the nation on an “uncharted, frightening path towards socialism,” going on to quote Abraham Lincoln.

She reiterated the President’s “law and order” message and railed against “weak, spineless politicians,” who, she said, have “(ceded) control of our great American cities to violent mobs.”

“Joe Biden will not do what it takes to maintain order,” she warned.

Trump highlighted her personal story and cast herself as an everyday American born to small business owners: “I know the promise of America because I have lived it, not just as a member of the Trump family, but as a woman who knows what it’s like to work in blue collar jobs, to serve customers for tips, and to aspire to rise.”

Unlike her husband, and brother-in-law Donald Trump Jr., and sister-in-law Tiffany Trump, Lara Trump sought to paint a more personal picture of the President.

“I learned that he is a good man, that he loves his family, that he didn’t need this job… He is a person of convictions. He is a fighter and will never stop fighting for America,” she said.

Trump continued, “He will uphold our values. He will preserve our families. And he will build on the great American edict that our union will never be perfect until opportunity is equal for all — including, and especially, for women.”

She briefly referenced Hurricane Laura, the convention’s second reference to the storm barreling toward Louisiana and Texas: “May God bless the Gulf States in the path of the Hurricane,” she said.

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North Carolina congressional candidate Madison Cawthorn, 25, made a case for young leaders in a speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday. 

Cawthorn scored a stunning political upset in June when CNN projected he would win the North Carolina Republican congressional primary to fill the seat vacated by President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Trump and Meadows had both backed Cawthorn’s opponent. 

“In times of peril, young people have stepped up and saved this country, abroad and at home,” Cawthorn said, in remarks that focused on himself rather than Trump. 

He also called on conservatives to “define what we support and win the argument in areas like health care, on the environment.” Notably, the Republican National Committee decided it would not define and adopt a new party platform in 2020 and would instead support Trump’s agenda. 

Cawthorn was partially paralyzed in a 2014 car accident. Toward the end of his remarks, he lifted himself out of his wheelchair onto a walker as he said, “for our republic, for which I stand.”

In August, Cawthorn faced criticism for resurfaced Instagram posts of his 2017 visit to Adolf Hitler’s vacation house in Germany known as the “Eagle’s Nest,” in which he referred to Hitler as “the Fuhrer” and said the visit was “on his bucket list for a while.” 

“Strange to hear so many laughs and share such a good time with my brother where only 79 years ago a supreme evil shared laughs and good times with his compatriots,” the caption states.

Cawthorn has defended the posts and said he denounces White nationalism.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst said, “The Democratic Party of Joe Biden is pushing this so-called Green New Deal.” She continued by alleging that “if given power, they would essentially ban animal agriculture…” 

Facts First: This claim about animal agriculture is baseless. While we can’t definitively fact-check what might happen in the future, Biden’s platform does not include anything even close to a ban. The Green New Deal resolution introduced by other Democrats in 2019 also does not include anything resembling a ban.

Biden’s climate plan says he will “create new opportunities to support deployment of methane digesters,” which turn waste produced by cattle and other animals into electricity.  The plan also says Biden will “invest in climate-friendly farming such as conservation programs for cover crops and other practices aimed at restoring the soil and building soil carbon, and in the process, preventing run-off and helping family farmers deploy the latest technologies to maximize productivity.”

Trump has repeatedly alleged that the Green New Deal would ban cows. It wouldn’t. 

The allegation appears to be based on a single sentence in a Frequently Asked Questions document posted by the office of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. That sentence explained that proponents of the Green New Deal were proposing “net-zero” carbon emissions in 10 years, rather than proposing zero carbon emissions at all, “because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast.”

It wasn’t clear how serious the “farting cows” comment was supposed to be. Regardless, the FAQ document, which was quickly deleted, was never endorsed by the other Democrats who signed on to the Green New Deal resolution. 

Uiform through-lines have sometimes been hard to detect at this week’s convention, which has veered between fatalistic warnings about Democrats, denial about coronavirus and general economic optimism.

One consistent, however: every speaker has offered a view of the President that, no matter how divorced from reality, is the view he’s always wanted to see depicted on television. 

Trump’s self-produced television show — with his own editors and himself as the casting director — has achieved what near-daily complaints about news media converge and lengthy venting sessions to aides cannot: a depiction he finally agrees with.

Of course, the convention speakers and slickly produced videos have sanded off all of Trump’s flaws. In videos shot inside the White House of Trump greeting frontline workers, former American hostages, pardoned inmates and new US citizens, deft editing is employed to avoid the impression — often present when watching Trump live — that he struggles to remain on topic.

The angry outbursts and questionable information that are a hallmark of his news conferences and other media encounters are gone. Speakers describe a President who did not ignore the coronavirus pandemic, has not stoked racial tensions and generally acts like a different president than the one seen on television every day.

It’s exactly the person Trump wants to see.

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik said that the impeachment of President Donald Trump was not only “baseless” and a “sham” but “illegal.”

Facts First: The impeachment of Trump was not illegal. The Constitution grants the House “the sole power of impeachment.” In December, the House exercised that power for the third time in U.S history, charging Trump with two crimes: abuse of power, for pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden while withholding US security assistance and a coveted White House meeting, and obstructing Congress in its investigation. The House voted to impeach the President and the Senate voted to acquit him largely on party lines.

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, an Army combat veteran and the highest-ranking woman in Senate leadership, used her remarks at Wednesday’s Republican National Convention to highlight service, the recent derecho storm, and agriculture to make a neatly-speech tailored to her Iowa constituents.  

Ernst, who is up for reelection this year, is currently in a competitive race with Democrat Theresa Greenfield that will be crucial to maintaining Republican control of the Senate. She appeared to directly address an audience of Iowa voters, standing in front of bales of hay piled on a tractor wearing a plaid shirt and jeans, American and Iowan flags in the background.

Like Gov. Kim Reynolds’ remarks on Tuesday, Ernst praised Trump’s response to the derecho that devastated an area nearly 800 miles wide with hurricane-force winds. Only one of the 27 counties impacted by the storm has received approval from the Trump administration for federal individual assistance, so far. Ernst also swiped at national media, which, she claimed, considers her state “still just flyover country.”

Speaking from her home state, she highlighted her Iowa roots and military record: “I was raised on a small family farm here in Iowa, where I learned the importance of faith, hard work and service. I worked my way through college, then dedicated my life to serving my country, as a local official, a battalion commander in the military, and as a US senator. Service, it’s more than a word to me: It’s a mission, a way of life.”

And she touted Trump’s trade and agricultural successes, including trade deals, removing the Waters of the United States rule, and implementing the sale of E15 fuel year-round, calling the Obama administration “hostile to farmers.”

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White House counselor Kellyanne Conway attempted to make the case at the Republican National Convention that President Donald Trump is a champion for women, despite Trump’s history of publicly demeaning women and leveling sexist and misogynistic attacks.

Trump’s presidential campaign is looking to win over female voters, as recent polls show female registered voters prefer Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden over Trump. 

Conway said that for decades, Trump has “elevated women to senior positions in business and in government,” that he “confides in and consults us, respects our opinions, and insists that we are on equal footing with the men.”

“President Trump helped me shatter a barrier in the world of politics by empowering me to manage his campaign to its successful conclusion,” Conway said. 

Trump has a long history of making sexist remarks and mocking women based on their appearances. Most recently, Trump has resorted to sexist and racist tropes to describe Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The President has been accused publicly by more than a dozen women of sexual harassment or assault. 

Trump apologized in 2016 for lewd and sexually aggressive remarks he made in 2005 that were recorded while he was taping of a segment for “Access Hollywood.” 

Conway announced Sunday she would leave the White House at the end of the month, and her husband, George Conway, said he was withdrawing from The Lincoln Project, both citing a need to focus on their family. 

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New York Rep. Lee Zeldin got personal tonight during the Republican National Convention as he described what happened to his twin daughters who were born 14 weeks early.

Both girls weighed just a pound and a half and were in need of urgent medical attention, Zeldin said tonight.

Zeldin has since made it a point to support medical professionals. In April, he worked with the White House to have roughly 200,000 N-95 masks to Suffolk County as it struggled under the coronavirus pandemic, he said,

“That number quickly grew to a staggering 1.2 million items of PPE in just one month, including masks, gowns, and more,” he said.

In the 90 minutes before he was scheduled to speak, Vice President Pence decided he will address the unrest unfolding in Wisconsin on the third night of the Republican convention.

Whether or not he would bring up Wisconsin when he took the stage remained up in the air all day Wednesday. In the morning, a source said he would reference it. Then, around 8 p.m., a source familiar with the speech said Pence would not address the matter whatsoever and said the draft of his speech was locked.

But after seeing how dramatically events had escalated throughout the day, as he watched from his residence Wednesday afternoon, Pence added a last-minute reference to Wisconsin into the final drafts of his speech, making the ultimate decision only after he had landed in Baltimore to headline the third night.

Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn exaggerated Democrats’ views on coronavirus restrictions, then misleadingly described a remark about China by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Blackburn exaggerated by claiming that Democrats want people locked in their homes until they become “dependent on the government for everything.” (While some Democrats have called for additional stay-home orders to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, they are not seeking endless lockdowns for the purpose of fostering dependence.) Blackburn then said that this supposed Democratic position is reminiscent of “Communist China.” (It’s worth noting that many vibrant industrialized democracies had longer mandatory lockdowns than the US.)

And then she continued: “Maybe that’s why Joe Biden is so soft on them. Why Nancy Pelosi says that ‘China would prefer Joe Biden.’ Yeah. I bet they would.”

Facts First: Blackburn’s claim about Pelosi was misleading in two ways. First, Pelosi did not personally argue that China would prefer Biden. Rather, in a CNN interview on August 9, Pelosi made clear that she was quoting the view of the US intelligence community, not speaking for herself. Second, the intelligence community reported that China wants Trump to lose because it sees him as “unpredictable,” not because Biden is perceived to be friendly to Chinese interests. 

Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash on August 9, Pelosi argued that what the intelligence community has concluded about China is “not equivalent” to its conclusion about Russia. She noted that the intelligence community has found that China would prefer Biden, but that Russia has been actively interfering in the election to hurt Biden.

Pelosi’s exact words: “What they said is, China would prefer Joe Biden. Whether they do – that’s their conclusion, that they would prefer Joe Biden. Russia is actively, 24/7 interfering in our election.”

Here are some excerpts from Vice President Mike Pence’s speech that you can expect to hear tonight. President Trump is going to Baltimore’s Fort McHenry to attend the speech.

On the decision voters need to make this November:

“On November 3rd, ask yourself: Who do you trust to rebuild this economy? A career politician who presided over the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression? Or a proven leader who created the greatest economy in the world?”

On the Trump Administration’s support for law and order:

“President Trump and I know the men and women that put on the uniform of law enforcement are the best of us. They put their lives on the line every day.”

“The American people know we don’t have to choose between supporting law enforcement, and standing with African-American neighbors to improve the quality of life in our cities and towns.”

“From the first days of this Administration, we have done both. And we will keep doing both for four more years in the White House.”

On Joe Biden:

“Joe Biden says America is systemically racist. And that law enforcement in America has a quote, ‘implicit bias’ against minorities.”

“And when asked whether he’d support cutting funding to law enforcement, and he replied, “Yes, absolutely.”

On the Two Paths America Faces: 

“When you consider their agenda, it’s clear: Joe Biden would be nothing more than a trojan horse for a radical left.  

The choice in this election has never been clearer and the stakes have never been higher.

Last week, Joe Biden said democracy is on the ballot, but the truth is…our economic recovery is on the ballot, law and order is on the ballot. But so are things far more fundamental and foundational to our country. 

It’s not so much whether America will be more conservative or more liberal, more Republican or more Democrat. The choice in this election is whether America remains America.

It’s whether we will leave to our children and our grandchildren a country grounded in our highest ideals of freedom, free markets, and the unalienable right to life and liberty–or whether we will leave to our children and grandchildren a country that is fundamentally transformed into something else.”

Obtained by CNN’s Nikki Carvajal 

Legendary football coach Lou Holtz threw his support behind President Trump because he said Trump “works hard at making America greater, and who genuinely cares about people.”

He went on to say that “Trump always finds a way to get something done.”

“If you want to do something bad enough, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse, and excuses are a lot easier to find than solutions. President Trump finds solution,” Holtz said.

“President Trump is committed,” he said.

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Michael McHale, the president of the National Association of Police Organizations, praised President Trump tonight during the Republican National Convention, calling him someone who shown support “for the men and women on the front lines, particularly during these challenging times.”

McHale, who served for 27-years with the Sarasota, Florida, Police Department, claimed the lack of support for law enforcement in cities like Portland and Minneapolis is why “shootings, murders, looting and rioting occur unabated,” he said tonight.

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The early portion of the third night of the RNC was a microcosm of how President Donald Trump’s campaign has sought to ignore or move past the crises gripping the nation.

There were no mentions of the police killing of Jacob Blake or the vigilante who killed two people in Wisconsin last night. Little acknowledgment of the coronavirus pandemic that has left 180,000 Americans dead. Barely anything about Hurricane Laura, which is bearing down on the Gulf Coast, hours from making landfall.

Instead, Republicans stayed focused on Trump – often inflating or misstating his record, while touting his support for the military, backing of religious freedom and efforts to crack down on protesters in major cities.

In a vacuum, it set the stage for some moving speeches. But in the context of fast-moving developments on health, climate and racial crises, it felt disconnected from reality.

It was all intentional: The Trump campaign’s efforts to close the polling gap with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden could depend on the President’s ability to redirect Americans’ focus. Polls have shown voters trust Biden more on matters of health care and racial justice, forcing Trump and the RNC to try to shift the landscape on which the 2020 campaign is being waged in short order.

Second lady Karen Pence’s Republican National Convention remarks largely eschewed politics, sticking closely to the evening’s theme of “Land of Heroes” by honoring the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment, military spouses, veterans, and first responders with compelling anecdotes from those she’s met in her role. 

Pence has made art therapy her platform and worked to raise awareness for the practice as a mental health profession and treatment option. She share the story of a Marine veteran dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder through art therapy.

Master Gunnery Sgt. Chris Stowe, she said, “Credits art therapy with saving his marriage and his life.”

A mom of a Marine and mother-in-law to a Naval Lieutenant, Pence also, like her predecessor Jill Biden, has worked with military spouses. On Wednesday, she called those spouses “home front heroes.”

“Military spouses may experience frequent moves and job changes, periods of being a single parent while their loved one is deployed—all while exhibiting pride, strength, and determination and being a part of something bigger than themselves,” she said, thanking them.

Pence is, arguably, the vice president’s closest and most trusted adviser. Early this year, Pence was tapped to lead PREVENTS, the administration’s interagency task force on mental health and suicide prevention.

She described a recent meeting with Americans who answer the Veterans Crisis Line.

“One in particular, Sidney Morgan, especially impacted me. A veteran herself, Sidney said it is the highest honor of her life to be on the other end of the phone to hold a veteran’s hand every step of the way until they physically walk into a clinic to receive help they deserve and she can pass their hand to someone ready to help,” she said.

Like first lady Melania Trump, Pence acknowledged the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic in her six-minute remarks. As a part-time art teacher at a private school, Pence is returning to the classroom in the coming weeks, her husband noted in an interview last week. The Northern Virginia school is resuming full-time, in-person instruction amid the administration’s push to reopen schools.

“In these difficult times, we’ve all seen so many examples of everyday Americans reaching out a hand to those in need,” she said, calling healthcare workers, teachers, first responders, mental health providers, law enforcement officers, grocery and delivery workers, and farmers “heroes all.”

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White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany shared her personal story at the Republican convention of undergoing a preventative mastectomy as a testament to how President Donald Trump cares about preexisting conditions. 

“On May 1, 2018, I followed in my mother’s footsteps, choosing to get a preventative mastectomy. I was scared. The night before I fought back tears, as I prepared to lose a piece of myself forever,” McEnany said. “But the next day, with my mom, dad, husband, and Jesus Christ by my side, I underwent a mastectomy, almost eliminating my chance of breast cancer— a decision I now celebrate.” 

McEnany said that as she came out of anesthesia, “one of the first calls I received was from Ivanka Trump.” 

Later, it was a call from President Trump.

“But now I know him well, and I can tell you that this president stands with Americans with preexisting conditions,” she continued. 

“The same way President Trump has supported me, he supports you, she added. “I see it every day.” 

Later, McEnany spoke about her nine month old baby, who she called a “miracle.” 

“I want my daughter to grow up in President Donald J. Trump’s America,” McEnany said. “Choosing to have a preventative mastectomy was the hardest decision I ever had to make. But supporting President Trump, who will protect my daughter and our children’s future, was the easiest.”

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Rep. Dan Crenshaw spoke on the third night of the Republican National Convention Wednesday and the Texas congressman opened with a story of sacrifice witnessed during his active duty in Afghanistan.

“Eight years ago, in the fields of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, a close of friend and teammate laid down cover fire against Taliban insurgents so that I could walk – blind and bloodied – to the Medevac helicopter and survive,” Crenshaw said. “But he didn’t. Dave was killed two months later. He died a hero to this great country. Here’s the truth about America: we are a country of heroes. I believe that, so should you.”

Crenshaw also spoke of the heroism he sees in everyday Americans in spite of the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic and civic unrest.

“It’s the nurse who volunteers for back to back shifts caring for Covid patients because she feels that’s her duty. It’s the parent who will re-learn algebra because there’s no way they’re letting their kid fall behind while schools are closed. It’s the cop that gets spit on one day and will save a child’s life the next,” Crenshaw said.

Crenshaw closed his remarks with a suggestion that the opposing side in many of the debates and protests currently gripping this country are less than heroic.

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President Donald Trump is going to Baltimore’s Fort McHenry to attend Vice President Mike Pence’s speech to the Republican National Convention later this evening. 

The White House pool has been called to gather for a presidential movement. 

He may come off like a bully when insults women’s looks or — as he did with the Democratic running mate — call them crazed, but a roster of female White House advisers hoped to convey a different side of President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

Kayleigh McEnany, his fourth press secretary, recounted Trump’s support when she became a new mom. Kellyanne Conway, the outgoing presidential counselor who also spoke Wednesday, has said her recent decision to leave the White House to focus on her family was made with Trump’s full backing.

It’s a side of Trump many of his aides have long insisted is there in private: the man who cares for his employees, gives women a boost in the workplace and generally is aware of the challenges they confront.

But it’s one that is rarely evident in public. Recently, Trump has taken to addressing American “housewives” in tweets, a dated term that doesn’t capture in full the scope of the female electorate — including the working women who are boosting him on Wednesday.

Trump’s political advisers have watched with increasing concern as polls showed his support among women — and specifically White women — sliding. Trump has scrambled to make amends, including targeting women in his efforts to roll back anti-segregation rules.

But the President’s aides have said privately he must do more. Women voters have rated him poorly on his handling of coronavirus and give him poor marks for his divisive behavior and rhetoric.

As the upper Midwest remains under duress following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, discussed the importance of law enforcement in the US, calling them “heroes.”

Blackburn’s perspective was inspired by her father, who served in the Army during WWII and who volunteered with the sheriff’s department for 30 years after returning home, she said.

More on Wisconsin: A 17-year-old Illinois resident connected to an overnight shooting during a protest in Kenosha was taken into custody Wednesday morning, according to police in Antioch, Illinois.

Wisconsin authorities issued an arrest warrant charging Kyle Rittenhouse with first-degree intentional homicide, Antioch Police said. He is in the custody of the Lake County Judicial System pending an extradition hearing to transfer him from Illinois to Wisconsin. Antioch is located about 15 to 20 miles from Kenosha, just across the state border.

Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis confirmed that a 17-year-old Antioch resident has been charged in a shooting incident and said that the man “was involved in the use of firearms to resolve whatever conflict was in place.”

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South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem delivered the first speech at the Republican convention on Wednesday, focusing on the idea that America’s “founding principles are under attack.” 

“This year, the choice for Americans is between a man who values these ideals and all that can be built because of them, and a man who isn’t guided by these ideals and coincidentally, has built nothing,” Noem said.

Noem, the staunch ally who welcomed President Donald Trump to Mt. Rushmore for its first Fourth of July fireworks in years this summer, and reportedly produced a mock-up of the monument to include Trump’s face, appeared to compare Trump to Abraham Lincoln during her RNC speech.

Amid ongoing demonstrations in Wisconsin, turned deadly overnight, Noem sought to convey both an inclusive message about the party and one which blame Democrats for violence that’s transpired at anti-police brutality protests across the country this year.  

“From Seattle and Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs. The violence is rampant. There’s looting, chaos, destruction, and murder,” she said, later adding, “Our party respects individuals based on who they are. We don’t divide people based on their beliefs or their roots. We don’t shun people who think for themselves. We respect everyone equally under the Constitution and treat them as Martin Luther King, Jr. wished, according to the content of their character and not the color of their skin.” 

Watch:

A crisis is brewing in the upper Midwest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. A prayer for peace in the city opened Tuesday night’s Republican National Convention, but Trump has since sought to use the violence there to advance his “law and order” message, chastising the state’s governor before eventually saying he was sending in federal law enforcement.

The events in Kenosha provide an unsettling backdrop for Trump’s convention – though the unrest does seem to fit into it’s pro-law enforcement theme, which continue on Wednesday with scheduled speeches from a man whose wife was murdered and the president of the National Association of Police Organizations.

But they also lay bare the consequences of Trump’s actions and provide another stark reminder of how Trump has stoked racial divisions during his presidency. Two featured convention speakers on Monday, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who 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.

How speakers – particularly those representing the administration, including Vice President Mike Pence – address the unrest in Wisconsin on Wednesday remains to be seen. The President’s rival Joe Biden said Wednesday he’d spoken with Blake’s family and said protests must be peaceful. A White House official told CNN’s Jim Acosta efforts have been made to connect Trump with the Blake’s family but the President hasn’t specifically addressed Blake’s shooting. The White House released a statement broadly condemning violence on Wednesday: “President Trump condemns violence in all forms and believes we must protect all Americans from chaos and lawlessness,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said.

At the beginning of the third night of the Republican National Convention, Rabbi Shubert Spero prayed for “divine protection over our brothers and sisters in the path of storms along our Gulf Coast.”

Further in the prayer, Rabbi Spero praised constitutional rights such as the freedom of speech and expression as well as religious freedom. He also hailed President Trump for “his determination to defend and maintain the God-given rights of our citizens as enshrined in our Constitution and in our declaration.”

Here’s an excerpt from his prayer:

In a political closing to the prayer, he renewed Trump’s campaign call.

Watch:

Vice President Mike Pence isn’t expected to address the unrest unfolding on the streets of Wisconsin during his speech at the Republican National Convention tonight, a source familiar with the address tells CNN. 

This person said mention of Wisconsin had never been included in the draft, but a separate source said earlier Wednesday that Pence would reference it tonight. It’s not clear what changed as events shifted dramatically throughout the day, but it is certain that the events in Kenosha will loom over the third night of the RNC. 

Beyond tweeting about sending in law enforcement to Wisconsin, President Trump has not publicly commented on the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Aides have said he is waiting for more information. He has been briefed by the attorney general and aides have been in contact with the governor’s office. 

It’s a familiar pattern in the Trump White House where Pence will delay commenting on a matter until the President has weighed in. That appears to be the case here in Fort McHenry tonight. 

The third night of the Republican National Convention has kicked off. Vice President Mike Pence will step into the convention’s leading role this evening as the party looks to push President Donald Trump’s pro-police “law and order” message on the same night sports stars make a historic protest against police brutality.

Pence is expected to make the case that Joe Biden would lead the country in a dangerously liberal direction as he defends the Trump presidency. A major theme of both his address and the night as a whole will be support for law enforcement. The theme of the night contrasts sharply with National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball teams announcing they will not play in their Wednesday night games to protest police violence against Black people.

The Milwaukee Bucks decided against playing Game 5 of their playoff series against the Orlando Magic in protest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake — a 29-year-old Black man who was shot multiple times in the back as he tried to enter an SUV with his children in the vehicle — in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which is close to Milwaukee. The two other playoff games scheduled to be played Wednesday night were then also postponed as players decided to join the Bucks in the protest.

It’s a historic moment in the sporting world that will stand starkly against the Republican messages of support for police and regular calls for athletes to stick to sports instead of making political statements. Pence is expected to address players kneeling during the National Anthem as a form of protest against police brutality and both Trump and Pence have repeatedly criticized players who have taken a knee as disrespectful to the flag and to American values.

Throughout the spring and summer as Americans filled the streets to protest the death of George Floyd, Pence has tried to reframe the debate as an attack on police. In numerous swing state appearances this summer, he has inaccurately suggested that the former vice president would side with far-left activists who favor defunding the police.

Read more here.

Vice President Mike Pence and Kellyanne Conway.

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

Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence are among the scheduled speakers, alongside several women in high-ranking political positions within the Republican Party across the country and Madison Cawthorn, the 25-year-old who won a North Carolina Republican congressional primary over a candidate backed by Trump.

The night is also expected to feature a military veteran, a civil rights activist and the president of the National Association of Police Organizations.

Like Tuesday’s speeches, Wednesday’s appearances are expected to be a mix of pre-taped remarks, pre-cut videos and live broadcasts. The Trump campaign has said to prepare for surprises and expect President Donald Trump to make an appearance each night of the convention.

Day three of the convention is set to focus the theme: “Land of Heroes.”

Here are key things to watch tonight:

Read more about tonight’s events here.

On a call with reporters earlier today, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh previewed tonight’s keynote speech from Vice President Mike Pence. Pence will speak from Fort McHenry, the inspiration for Francis Scott Key’s Star Spangled Banner

Pence will focus on the Trump administration’s accomplishments, Murtaugh said, “especially as compared to the platitudes that are all that we hear from Joe Biden.”

President Donald Trump will appear in tonight’s program, as he has every night this week so far.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is among the list of scheduled speakers at the RNC Wednesday evening, speaking just a few days after she abruptly announced she would be leaving her White House job.

In 2016, Conway became the first female campaign manager to win a presidential race. After the election, she became counselor to the President and has remained one of the President’s longest-serving advisers.

Conway announced Sunday evening she will leave her job at the White House at the end of the month while her husband, George Conway, said he was withdrawing from the anti-Trump organization, The Lincoln Project, with both citing a need to focus on their family.

Conway’s speech on Wednesday will mark her second appearance at the 2020 GOP convention.

On Tuesday, she was featured in a short video with other women in leadership positions across the Trump campaign and the Trump administration.

Conway is among a list of standout women in GOP leadership roles expected to speak on Wednesday. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the youngest Republican ever to be elected to Congress, are also scheduled to speak.

It appears to be part of a larger appeal to bring more women into the party amid fears that their support for the GOP and Trump is eroding. According to several national polls conducted over the summer, the gender gap among voters is near historic highs.

Vice President Mike Pence speaks during the first day of the Republican National Convention on August 24, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In his speech at Fort McHenry tonight, Vice President Mike Pence will address the racial unrest in America.

He will make a particular mention of the violence unfolding in Wisconsin, where two people were killed overnight and a third injured during the third straight night of demonstrations in Kenosha over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

The vice president’s remarks are still being written — and updated as events unfold in Wisconsin and elsewhere — but he plans to steep his remarks in patriotic tones and will make a particular reference to the National Anthem.

He is expected to repeat his call for standing during the anthem — as a sign of respect for the flag — and use that in his remarks tonight.

It remains an open question how much he will dwell on that, aides said, because he is also focused intently on Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and VP nominee Kamala Harris.

A senior Republican official says Pence will use his remarks “to keep defining the Democratic ticket as out of touch and dangerous for America.”

President Donald Trump applauds as he arrives to listen to first lady Melania Trump's address to the Republican National Convention from the Rose Garden at the White House on August 25 in Washington.

President Donald Trump is slated to accept the 2020 Republican presidential nomination on Thursday with a speech from the White House lawn — an act ruled permissible by a federal agency. Yet even with the legal sign-off, the Republican convention’s use of the White House this week is as norm-busting as anything in the Trump presidency and has gone far beyond his predecessors’ actions.

First lady Melania Trump held her speech in a newly renovated Rose Garden. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a speech from Jerusalem during an official foreign trip.

And throughout this week, Trump himself has used the White House as a backdrop for other programming — including a surprise pardon and immigration naturalization ceremony.

All presidents, in some way, use the powers of their office when it comes time for reelection. That includes highlighting executive orders that benefit key voting blocs or touting foreign policy achievement available only to the sitting commander in chief.

But never have those moves been so blatantly staged for political gain -—or have officials appeared so nonchalant about violating longstanding rules like the Hatch Act, a law that is supposed to stop the federal government from affecting elections or going about its activities in a partisan manner.

There is a shrugging attitude toward the Hatch Act among many of Trump’s aides, people familiar with the West Wing dynamics say, after the President made clear early in his tenure he would not admonish advisers found to have violated the law restricting political activity by government officials.

“Nobody outside of the Beltway really cares. They expect that Donald Trump is going to promote Republican values,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Wednesday morning in an interview with Politico. “This is a lot of hoopla that’s being made about things.”

“What are the consequences?” another administration official asked. “No one gets punished.”

Trump has joked he would excuse anyone found to be violating the act on his behalf, one of the people said. The President himself decides what punishment to dole out.

Read more here.

Vice President Mike Pence listens as his wife Karen Pence speaks at a tree planting ceremony to mark Earth Day and Arbor Day on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on April 22.

Second lady Karen Pence joined “Fox and Friends” Wednesday to preview her speech set to take place tonight, night three of the Republican National Convention, and said she would be talking about the military community.

Pence praised first lady Melania Trump’s Tuesday night speech, calling it “absolutely beautiful, absolutely uplifting” and praised President Donald Trump as a man who loves America. 

“I think last night, what you heard from Melania was she shared how much this President loves this country and I’ve got to tell you, Ainsley, I see that all the time when I talk to this President. He absolutely loves this country and wants everybody to succeed,” she said.

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, speaks to reporters outside of the West Wing of the White House on August 6 in Washington.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway announced Sunday evening she will leave her post at the end of the month while her husband, George Conway, said he was withdrawing from The Lincoln Project, both citing a need to focus on their family.

“We disagree about plenty but we are united on what matters most: the kids. Our four children are teens and ‘tweens starting a new academic year, in middle school and high school, remotely from home for at least a few months. As millions of parents nationwide know, kids ‘doing school from home’ requires a level of attention and vigilance that is as unusual as these times.”

Conway confirmed Monday that she’ll still be speaking tonight at the Republican National Convention.

George Conway tweeted Sunday that he was withdrawing from The Lincoln Project — a group formed by anti-Trump Republicans — to “devote more time to family matters.”

One of the Conways’ high school-aged daughters has generated attention on social media about her family and their political views over the last several months.

The Sunday evening announcement marks an abrupt end to Kellyanne Conway’s high-profile time in the White House where she earned a reputation as one of the President’s fiercest — and most controversial — defenders. She landed her position in 2016 after becoming the first female campaign manager to win a presidential race.

But political tension with her husband had spilled into public view in recent years.

A Washington lawyer who was considered for multiple Justice Department posts early in Trump’s tenure, George Conway quickly emerged as a prominent critic of the President.

He’s previously said that Trump is “guilty” of being unfit for office, called for Congress to remove the “cancer” of Trump from the presidency and openly questioned the President’s mental health.

Read more here.

Vice President Mike Pence arrives to speak on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Charlotte Convention Center on August 24 in Charlotte.

Vice President Mike Pence will deliver his acceptance speech tonight from Fort McHenry, which for nearly the last century has been a historic monument and shrine.

It is a National Park, not a military base, and is located on the port of Baltimore.

The flag flying just overhead Pence will be a replica of the one that flew in 1814. It is adorned with 15 stars and 15 stripes, which was the flag designated in 1795. (Notice the red stripe just below the box of blue stars, which forever after became a white stripe and remains so today. At the time, Tennessee, Ohio and Louisiana were new states, but would not be added to the flag until 1818.)

As of 11 a.m. ET this morning, 135 white wooden folding chairs were situated in the Fort for the speech tonight.

It will be the biggest live audience yet during the Republican National Convention this week, with the Thursday night crowd at the White House for the President’s speech expected to be larger.

Officials said strong testing protocols are in place, with staff working on the grounds here required to test for three consecutive days.

A separate platform has been built for Sean Hannity, who is scheduled to broadcast his show live from inside the perimeter of the Fort, which is decorated with multiple flags and patriotic bunting.

Fort McHenry is a significant site in the country’s history — and its psyche. The Battle of Baltimore took place only three weeks after the British burned the Capitol. The triumph in Baltimore inspired a young lawyer named Francis Scott Key to write “The Star Spangled Banner,” named after the garrison flag that flew over the Fort.

Col. Schultz, a park ranger here, said the Fort has been closed to tours since March. But the park is open to outdoor use and visitors.

President Donald Trump spoke from Fort McHenry on Memorial Day.