Republican National Convention 2020: Day 4

Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, claimed that failure by Congress to enact a police reform bill was to deny Trump a victory during an election year.

“It seemed for a few brief shining moments, Democrat and Republican leaders would come together with a unified proposal to reduce police misconduct. This possibility was very dangerous to the left. They had a President to beat and a country to destroy. And although an agreement on action against police brutality would be very valuable for the country, it would also make President Trump appear to be an effective leader. They could have none of that.” 

Facts First: There is no indication Congress’ failure to agree on a police reform bill or demonstrators’ decisions to protest was motivated by concerns that was Trump looking too “effective.”

Amid nationwide protests and civil unrest in response to high-profile episodes of police misconduct, there was bipartisan consensus in Congress earlier this summer that federal legislative action was necessary.

But hopes of a prompt police reform bill were dashed in June when Senate Democrats blocked their chamber’s bill after criticizing it as an inadequate response to nationwide calls for action to address police misconduct and racial injustice, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell taking a noncommittal stance on bringing up police reform legislation following the Democrats’ block.

The next day, the House passed policing legislation that is not expected to be and has not been taken up in the Senate. Despite several states passing new laws regulating their police forces, Congress has failed to advance national police reform legislation since then.

President Donald Trump paid respect to medical professionals fighting the coronavirus pandemic with a standing ovation during the Republican National Convention.

Trump said he has “sadly lost friends and cherished loved ones to this horrible disease.”

“As one nation, we mourn, we grieve and we hold in our hearts forever the lives that have been so tragically taken, so unnecessary. In their honor, we will unite and in their memory we will overcome,” the President added.

The state of the pandemic in the US: An ensemble forecast published by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects more than 200,000 coronavirus deaths in the US by September 19.

The new projections, published Thursday, forecast 200,292 deaths by September 19, with a possible range of 195,824 to 207,269 deaths.

Watch:

President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on Thursday in Washington.

In his speech on the final night of the Republican National Convention, President Donald Trump attacked Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for pointing out racial and economic disparities in the United States.

“At the Democrat National Convention, Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic and social injustice. So tonight, I ask you a simple question: How can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?” Trump said.

“In the left’s backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just and exceptional nation on Earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sins. Our opponents say that redemption for you can only come from giving power to them. This is a tired anthem spoken by every repressive movement throughout history,” he added.

In his renewed vocal remarks in support for the law enforcement, he drew the distinction between himself and Biden for voters.

Trump also argued that Biden would not advocate for American jobs and the American way of life.

“Joe Biden is not a savior of America’s soul, he is the destroyer of America’s jobs, and if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness,” he said.

Watch:

President Donald Trump arrive for the acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday in Washington.

President Donald Trump took a moment to remember his late brother Robert Trump who died this month in New York.

“I know my brother Robert is looking down on us right now from heaven,” the President said. “He was a great brother and was very proud of the job we are all doing. Thank you. We love you, Robert.”

A funeral service for Robert Trump, 71, was held at the White House on August 21.

Trump had said he wanted to hold a service for his younger brother at the White House, telling reporters, “I think he’d be greatly honored. He loves our country. He loved our country so much. He was so proud of what we were doing and what we are doing for our country.”

Details of his illness have not been released, but a person familiar with knowledge of the matter told CNN that he had been sick for several months.

Watch:

President Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination on the South Lawn of the White House on August 27 in Washington.

President Donald Trump opened his Republican National Convention speech by remarking on Hurricane Laura that devastated communities as it swept through Louisiana and Texas.

“We begin this evening, our thoughts are with the wonderful people who have just come through the wrath of hurricane Laura,” he said. “We are working closely with state and local officials in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, sparing no effort to save lives.”

Trump praised law enforcement, local and state officials and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for their efforts to prepare for the storm.

The President said he will to visit the region this weekend.

About the storm: The storm left six people dead in Louisiana, including at least four from falling trees. Laura came ashore as a Category 4 storm early Thursday near the Texas border, tearing off roofs and knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of people.

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In this image from video, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, personal attorney to President Donald Trump speaks from New York, during the fourth night of the Republican National Convention on Thursday, Aug. 27.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed that violent crime has been increasing at percentages unheard of in the past.  

“New York City once described as America’s crime capital, had become by the mid-1990s, America’s safest large city,” Giuliani said, blaming current New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Murders, shootings, and violent crime are increasing at percentages unheard of in the past. We’re seeing the return of rioting and looting.”

Facts First: While there have been significant increases in the rates of murder, shootings, robberies and grand larceny of automobiles in New York to date in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, violent crime rates in every major crime category tracked by NYPD are down significantly since Giuliani was mayor.

According to the NYPD’s stats, the rates of seven major felony offenses have dropped 290 percent since Giuliani was in office.  

 There’s been 259 murders in New York in 2020 so far this year.  In the last two years – of Giuliani’s mayorship (2000 and 2001) there were 673 and 649 respectively.

Giuliani saw significant rates of crime drop during his time as mayor, but those drops have largely continued since he left office and remain significantly lower than when Giuliani was in office.

President Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination on the South Lawn of the White House on August 27, in Washington.

Donald Trump has formally accepted his party’s renomination for president from the White House South Lawn.

“I stand before you tonight honored by your support, proud of the extraordinary progress we have made together over the last four incredible years, and brimming with confidence in the bright future we will build for America over the next four years,” Trump said earlier in his speech.

Trump was introduced by his daughter Ivanka Trump.

“Four years ago I told you I would fight alongside my father and four years later here I am,” she said after touting her father’s economic policies and Covid-19 measures.

“Dad, people attack you for being unconventional. But I love you for being real and I respect you for being effective,” she continued later in her speech.

“Washington has not changed Donald Trump. Donald Trump has changed Washington,” she said.

Watch the moment:

In this image from video, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaks during the fourth night of the Republican National Convention on Thursday Aug. 27.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the Democrats for wanting to pass more regulations, including suggesting that Democrats want to tell Americans “how many hamburgers you can eat.”

Facts First: This is a clear exaggeration. Democrats have not called for limiting how many hamburgers Americans can eat. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Biden’s running mate, has said she would support changing dietary guidelines, a far cry from mandating what people can eat. 

Several Democratic presidential candidates talked about cattle production and its negative impact on the environment at a CNN town hall on climate change held in September 2019. 

When asked if she would support changing dietary guidelines to reduce the consumption of red meat, Harris said she would, but that “the balance that we have to strike here, frankly, is about what government can and should do around creating incentives.”

“I love cheeseburgers from time to time,” she added.

Republicans have often repeated this claim that Democrats want to control what Americans eat. They’ve also criticized Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s initial rollout of her Green New Deal to radically tackle the climate crisis. Critics seized on a line that mentioned cow flatulence that appeared to be based on a single sentence in a Frequently Asked Questions document posted by Ocasio-Cortez’s office.

The New York Democrat’s staff later walked back the document, but Republicans have focused on the “cow farts” line.  

Ivanka Trump, daughter of President Donald Trump and White House senior adviser, addresses attendees as Trump prepares to deliver his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination on the South Lawn of the White House on August 27 in Washington.

First daughter Ivanka Trump claimed that the Trump administration had lived up to promises to make child care more affordable and accessible by boosting child tax credits as part of the 2018 tax overhaul. 

“As part of Republican tax cuts in 2019 alone, our child tax credit put over $2,000 into the pockets of 40 million American families,” she said. 

Facts First: This is mostly correct. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the child tax credit to $2,000 per child and added another $500 credit for older children and other dependents. 

The Treasury Department estimates that about 39.4 million families received child tax credits and additional child tax credits in 2019, totaling $88.1 billion. That amounts to an average $2,234 per family. 

However, the tax overhaul bill also denied the full $1,000 child tax credit increase for more than 26 million children in low-and moderate-income families – those whose earnings are so low they owe little or no federal taxes – according to Chuck Marr, senior director of federal tax policy at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning think tank. Their analysis is here.  

Ivanka Trump, daughter of President Donald Trump and White House senior adviser, addresses attendees as Trump prepares to deliver his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination on the South Lawn of the White House on August 27 in Washington.

Ivanka Trump made an appeal for her father’s reelection as she introduced President Donald Trump from the South Lawn of the White House.

Unlike her siblings, she used more personal language to describe her father, whom she referred to as “dad” and “grandpa,” and, also, a “warrior.”

Trump addressed the coronavirus pandemic as she stood in front of a crowd of more than 1,500 supporters who did not practice social distancing and, for the most part, did not wear masks.

“As our nation endures this grave trial, I pray for the families who are mourning the loss of a loved one, for all those who are battling Covid-19, and for the first responders and the healthcare heroes who remain on the frontlines of this fight. The grief, sorrow and anxiety during this time is felt by us all. I’ve been with my father and seen the pain in his eyes when he receives updates on the lives that have been stolen by this plague. I have witnessed him make some of the most difficult decisions of his life,” noting that she was sitting in the Oval Office when he decided to halt travel to Europe and touting his response.

Trump touted her own accomplishments in her role as a White House adviser, including the child tax credit, part of the 2017 tax package that she championed as part of her White House portfolio. She promoted the Farmers to Families Food Box Program, which she’s taken on with the Department of Agriculture to redistribute crops to families in need. And she highlighted the administration’s efforts to combat human trafficking.

She made some personal references seeking to humanize the President: “My son Joseph promptly built grandpa a Lego replica of the White House. The President still displays it on the mantel in the Oval Office right over there and shows it to world leaders, just so they know he has the greatest grandchildren on earth. I agree,” she said. 

She spoke out in favor of law enforcement, school choice, trade deals and “American greatness.”

Trump closed by praising her father’s style, which she described as “real.”

Watch:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed, speaking of Democrats, “They want to … take away your Second Amendment rights.” 

Facts First: This needs context. While some on the left have advocated repealing the Second Amendment, leadership in the Democratic Party does not support this. Democrats do broadly support a range of gun control measures.

For instance, the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, has proposed to “end our gun violence epidemic and respect the Second Amendment, which is limited.”

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 them to the federal government or properly register them with the authorities, along with other measures. 

In 2019, House Democrats passed a gun control bill to extend the time allowed for federal agents to review background checks and to require that all gun sales go through background checks.  

Democrats certainly support more strict gun control measures than Republicans. 

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton said, “Joe Biden let ISIS terrorists rampage across the Middle East. President Trump eliminated ISIS’s leader — and destroyed its caliphate.”

Facts First: Trump did preside over the destruction of ISIS’s so-called “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria and the killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. However, Trump doesn’t deserve sole credit for the liberation of the caliphate: the US was part of a multinational coalition President Barack Obama launched in 2014, and Kurdish forces did much of the ground fighting. In addition, it’s not true that the Obama administration simply let ISIS roam free. Though the caliphate was indeed established under the Obama administration, Obama and Biden also presided over significant progress in retaking that territory.

It’s fair game for Cotton to fault the Obama administration for ISIS’s rise, though it’s worth noting the group emerged out of the instability following the invasion launched by Republican President George W. Bush. However, it’s inaccurate to suggest Obama and Biden did nothing about ISIS once it was formed. 

IHS Markit, an information company that studied the changing the size of the caliphate, reported two days before Trump’s 2017 inauguration that the caliphate shrunk by 23% in 2016 after shrinking by 14% in 2015. “The Islamic State suffered unprecedented territorial losses in 2016, including key areas vital for the group’s governance project,” Columb Strack, senior analyst and head of the IHS Conflict Monitor, said in a statement at the time. 

Under Trump, the military did kill ISIS leader al-Baghdadi. 

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton argued that the United States is safer under President Donald Trump’s leadership and that Joe Biden “would return us to a weak and dangerous past” if elected president. 

Taking a knee has become a form of protest against racial injustice and police brutality in America. Former NFL quarterback turned activist Colin Kaepernick in 2016 sparked controversy by sitting, then kneeling, during the National Anthem before games to protest the police shootings of Black men and racial injustice in America. 

Earlier this year, protests erupted across America after George Floyd, a Black man, died after a White police officer kneeled on his neck.

As the protests were sweeping America, Cotton wrote a controversial op-ed for the New York Times in June titled, “Send In the Troops,” which argued the Insurrection Act could be invoked to deploy the military across the country to assist local law enforcement with unrest sparked by Floyd’s killing.

Times staffers from both the opinion section and the newsroom, which operate separately from one another, publicly dissented. The Times later said that the op-ed did not meet its standards. 

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Alice Johnson.

Alice Johnson highlighted criminal justice reform with her own deeply personal story of how the President profoundly impacted her life during remarks Thursday at the Republican National Convention.

A first-time nonviolent drug offender, Johnson served 21 years in an Alabama prison after she was convicted on charges of conspiracy to possess cocaine and attempted possession of cocaine, according to the nonprofit Can-Do, which advocates for clemency for non-violent drug offenders.

President Donald Trump commuted Johnson’s sentence in June 2018 after Kim Kardashian West pleaded her case during an Oval Office meeting.

Trump, Johnson said, “saw me as a person.”

Months later, Trump signed the First Step Act, criminal justice legislation that was one of the few bills to pass with overwhelming bipartisan support.

“It was real justice reform,” Johnson said of the First Step Act, “And it brought joy, hope and freedom to thousands of well-deserving people. I hollered, ‘Hallelujah!’ My faith in justice and mercy was rewarded. Imagine getting to hug your loved ones again. It’s a feeling I will never forget. And to think, this first step meant so much to so many.”

Since her release, Johnson has appeared at multiple political events and attended the 2019 State of the Union address as Trump’s guest.

“The nearly 22 years I spent in prison were not wasted. God had a purpose and plan for my life. I was not delayed or denied, I was destined for such a time as this,” she said.

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Outlining reasons why Americans should vote for President Donald Trump, White House social media director Dan Scavino said, “You know the President cannot be bought.” 

Facts First: Trump has refused to release his tax returns, preventing the public from gaining a clear picture of his financial interests – including details of any outstanding debts.  

Trump is the first President since Watergate not to divest his business interests while in office and the first President in decades not to release his tax records, which would offer the public a truer picture of his income and net worth. 

His annual financial disclosures, which are self-reported and are not vetted by federal ethics officials, give only a veiled view into the President’s finances. 

You can read more about Trump’s finances here. 

Marsha and Carl Mueller.

During an appearance at the Republican National Convention tonight, Marsha and Carl Mueller spoke about and Kayla, their daughter, who was kidnapped and killed by ISIS.

The mission to kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named Operation Kayla Mueller, after their daughter.

In 2012, Kayla traveled to the Turkey/Syria border to work with the Danish Refugee Council and the humanitarian organization Support to Life, which assisted families forced to flee their homes.

She was taken hostage by ISIS in Aleppo, Syria, in 2013 after she visited a Spanish MSF (Doctors Without Borders) hospital. The family confirmed Kayla’s death in 2015 but her body has not been recovered.

Some context: Al-Baghdadi was killed in October 2019 after a US military raid was conducted in northwest Syria.

“Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead,” Trump said at the White House, calling the ISIS leader’s removal “the top national security priority of my administration.”

The President said a US special operations forces mission went after the ISIS leader and there were no US deaths during the operation.

Several ISIS fighters and companions of Baghdadi were killed, including two women wearing suicide vests and three children. Trump would not provide a specific number of casualties, only describing those targeted on scene as “more dead than alive.” Eleven children were moved out of the house and are uninjured, the President said.

The death of Baghdadi marks the culmination of a years-long hunt to find one of the most wanted terrorists in the world and the man who declared a so-called Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria in 2014. But it also comes as the US military is pulling back in Syria, a move analysts warn could allow for an ISIS resurgen

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Ann Dorn.

Ann Dorn, the widow of a retired police officer who was killed during violence in St. Louis, on Thursday condemned violent protests.

“Violence and destruction are not legitimate forms of protest. They do not safeguard Black lives; they only destroy them,” Dorn said in filmed remarks for the Republican National Convention.

Dorn’s 77-year-old husband, David Dorn, was killed when he responded to an alarm at the pawnshop during the early morning hours of June 2, the St. Louis Police Department said. The retired officer was providing security for the store. About 55 businesses in the city were burglarized and had property damage that night, city Police Chief John Hayden told reporters at the time. 

The looting and destruction followed protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, the Black man who was killed after a White police officer kneeled on his neck.

Dorn’s comments come as protests rage in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Blake, a Black man, was shot in the back by police on Sunday as he tried to enter his vehicle. He survived the shooting but his father said Blake is paralyzed from the waist down, although he is unsure if the paralysis is permanent.

Fighting back tears, Dorn recounted the moment she was told her husband had been killed.

“I relive that horror in my mind every single day,” Dorn said. “My hope is that having you relive it with me now will help shake this country from this nightmare we are witnessing in our cities and bring about positive, peaceful change.”

She praised President Donald Trump and said Trump has “offered federal help to restore order in our communities.”

“In a time when police departments are short on resources and man power, we need that help. We should accept that help. We must heal before we can effect change, but we cannot heal amid devastation and chaos,” Dorn said. 

“President Trump knows we need more Davids in our communities not fewer. We need to come together in peace and remember that every life is precious,” she said.

Watch:

Rudy Giuliani.

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and one of President Trump’s lawyers, derided the state of Democrat-run cities across the US, pleading to voters, “Don’t let Democrats do to America what they did to New York.” 

“New York City, once described as America’s Crime Capital, had become by the mid-1990s America’s safest large city. Now today my city is in shock,” Giuliani, who embraced tough-on-crime policing practices as mayor, said at the Republican convention. 

Giuliani’s remarks fit into a larger theme of the convention, with several speakers arguing that anti-police brutality demonstrations that escalated to violence are the fault of Democrats. 

Giuliani called Joe Biden “a Trojan Horse with Bernie (Sanders), (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), (Nancy) Pelosi, Black Lives Matter and his party’s entire Left Wing just waiting to execute their pro-criminal, anti-police, socialist policies.” 

“These continuous riots in Democrat cities gives you a good view of the future under Biden,” he warned, later adding, “It is clear that a vote for Biden and the Democrats creates the risk that you will bring this lawlessness to your city, to your town, to your suburb.” 

Giuliani said protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police were created out of a “truly just cause,” but that Democrats got in the way. 

“They had a President to beat and a country to destroy, and although an agreement on action against police brutality would be very valuable for the country, it would also make President Trump appear to be an effective leader. They could have none of that,” he said. “So, Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA sprang into action and in a flash, they hijacked the protests into vicious, brutal riots.” 

“For President Trump, and for us Republicans, all Black Lives Matter and the lives of (LeGend), Brandon and Davell matter to us,” Giuliani added, referencing the names of children who were the victims of violent crime.

“There is no question that this awesome job of restoring safety at this time, cannot be done effectively from your basement, Joe,” Giuliani continued. “There is also no question that President Trump will fight with all his strength to preserve the American system of government and our way of life.”

Watch:

Until this year, convention speeches were delivered inside sealed arenas. If protests occurred, they were out of sight and well out of mind.

President Trump’s outdoor speech Thursday from the White House South Lawn doesn’t provide those advantages, though a fortified security perimeter around the executive mansion will likely provide a wide buffer between him and expected protesters.

If they are seen or heard, they could help Trump illustrate a hardline “law and order” message that he’s been pressing in the wake of protests in Wisconsin earlier this week.

At least two groups have said they will convene near the White House during Trump’s speech. One has said they hope to “drown out” the President using loudspeakers and trucks.

Sound from protests has previously carried over the White House fence to where the President is speaking, including when a group of truckers blared their horns during a Rose Garden event.

More notably, the sound of flash bangs could be heard from the Rose Garden as Trump spoke ahead of his fateful walk across Lafayette Square to St. John’s Church in June.

Ahead of Trump’s speech on Thursday, temporary fencing was erected around the perimeter of the White House grounds, almost entirely encasing the property. It mimicked the barricades that were positioned around the White House during that week in June, when Trump at one point was rushed to an underground bunker.

Protests organized by anti-Trump protesters are now audible from the South Lawn of the White House.

Reporters on the South Lawn, where President Trump will deliver his acceptance speech at the conclusion of the Republican National Convention, say they can hear banging, air horns, and muffled chanting, and say it sounds like protesters are southeast of the South Lawn, either along 15th Street NW or the Ellipse.

DC’s GoGo musicians say they are deploying their GoGo truck, which will have musicians and loudspeakers aboard, and organizers say their goal is to “drown out Trump.” 

The media area on the South Lawn is behind where Trump’s guests are seated, so it’s unclear how audible the protests will be closer to the stage by the south portico entrance to the White House. 

CNN’s Jeremy Moorhead captured protests taking place on 15th street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, near the White House:

Pat Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association.

Pat Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, discussed the support President Trump has lent to law enforcement in the US.

Some context: Lynch’s comments come following renewed criticism of law enforcement in the US after Jacob Blake was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and large protests erupted, authorities are revealing more information about the shooti

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ng.

Four years ago, as then-candidate Donald Trump was accepting the Republican nomination from his convention in Cleveland, he emerged in dramatic silhouette and began his address with a grim assessment of the nation: 

“Our Convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.

Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities. Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims.

I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored.” 

Those words opened what was then considered an unusually dark and foreboding address — but which now closely resembles the types of speeches Trump delivers routinely as he continues to decry violence in American.

He has similarly accused Joe Biden of ignoring the chaos — including in a tweet hours before he was scheduled to deliver another convention acceptance speech.

“Democrats and Biden didn’t even mention the Anarchists, Agitators, Looters and so called ‘Peaceful Protesters’ at their Convention,” he wrote. “They will allow rampant crime, just as they do in Portland. If they ask us, as they must do, we will end crime in their Democrat run cities, FAST!”

Amid protests this summer over police violence and systemic racism, Trump has returned to almost the exact same rhetoric he offered four years ago. Only now, he is the President presiding over the self-described chaos.

In his speech four years ago, Trump accused then-President Barack Obama of helping foment the unrest.

“In this race for the White House, I am the Law And Order candidate. The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone,” he said.

Now, however, Trump is the President accused of the same thing, and is accepting the nomination amid a national reckoning on race that has prompted boycotts in professional sports and a new round of unrest.

In his speech on the final night of the Republican National Convention, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell voiced his explicit opposition to making Washington, DC, a state because Democrats would gain two more senators.

“Today’s Democrat Party doesn’t want to improve life for middle America. They prefer that all of us in flyover country keep quiet and let them decide how we should live our lives,” he claimed.

Positioning himself as the advocate for middle America, he reemphasized the importance of electing Republican candidates to the Senate in the 2020 election.

McConnell claimed that Democrats want to defund the police, take away second amendment rights, give free health care to undocumented immigrants and put liberal justices in the Supreme Court.

By making Washington, DC, a state, he said, Democrats would “codify” these policies, making it harder for Republicans to stand in opposition.

“Which is why I’m asking you to support Republican senate candidates across the country and re-elect my friend president Donald Trump,” he said in closing.

United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson shared words of solace for the family of Jacob Blake and others “who have been impacted by the tragic events in Kenosha,” he said tonight during the Republican National Convention.

“In order to succeed and change, we must first come together in love of our fellow citizens. History reminds us that necessary change comes through hope and love, not senseless and destructive violence,” he continued.

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UFC President Dana White.

UFC President Dana White backed President Trump’s leadership in his Republican National Convention speech, saying he has “unstoppable energy” and is “one of most loyal human beings.”

“I spoke at this convention four years ago and I’m back because I believe we need President Trump’s leadership now more than ever,” he said.

He also railed against any effort to defund police departments, saying that “is not the answer.”

“The first responders have always taken care of us, and now more than ever we need to take care of them,” he said.

White praised Trump for facing Covid-19 head-on, and said he “personally observed his ability to listen and understand the issues impacting Americans of all backgrounds.”

“It was clear his highest priority was always the health and safety of everyone in our country. Not just Republicans. Not just supporters. But every single American,” he said.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Republican-controlled Senate is a “firewall against” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s agenda, and that he is “immensely proud of the work the Republican Senate has done.”

McConnell has systematically blocked Senate votes on a long list of bills the Democrat-led House of Representatives has passed, on issues from gun control to additional protections for patients with preexisting health problems.

McConnell, in a Republican National Convention video recorded from his home state of Kentucky, urged Americans to vote for Republican Senate candidates across the country as well as President Donald Trump. 

“We’ll continue to support American families as we defeat the coronavirus and return our economy to the envy of the world,” McConnell said. “The stakes have never been higher. Which is why I’m asking you to support Republican Senate candidates across the country and re-elect my friend President Donald Trump.”

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New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew.

New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who switched parties in 2019 from Democratic to Republican, told a story about his political conversion. He said one of the reasons was that the Democratic Party had become “radical”: “Now they were for open borders.”

Facts First: This is false. Democratic congressional leaders and the presidential candidates who were running for the Democratic nomination at the time of Van Drew’s party switch — including eventual nominee Joe Biden — simply did not and do not support completely unrestricted migration.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that President Donald Trump’s impeachment has been largely forgotten. He is still the President, a world-altering pandemic struck weeks after he was acquitted and the political calculus surrounding the matter shifted.

What is surprising is who, seven months later, is raising it as an issue. Democrats entirely ignored the impeachment era during their convention last week, even though many claimed back then that the stain of impeachment would follow Trump forever.

Instead it is Republicans who have made it an issue during their convention — including through the final-night speaking slot assigned to Rudy Giuliani, the President’s volatile personal attorney whose actions helped prompt the entire impeachment scandal in the first place.

There was a time when many of Trump’s aides cringed when they looked up and saw Giuliani on television, given his predilection for openly admitting to doing things Democrats said were crimes. 

Trump stuck by him, though occasionally asked he appear less on TV. Emerging intact from the impeachment, Giuliani seemed to gain new stature in Trump’s orbit and has continued questioning the actions of Hunter Biden in Ukraine while adding new attacks on Joe Biden’s mental acuity into the mix.

Trump and his allies have repeatedly made unfounded and false claims to allege that the former vice president and his son acted corruptly in Ukraine. 

Trump’s allies appear to have calculated that time has either softened Americans’ views of the impeachment, clouded their memories of its specifics or rendered it a petty distraction compared to the massive problems of today.

Speaking Wednesday, Rep. Elise Stefanik — whose avid defense of Trump and questioning of witnesses made her one of the breakout Republican stars of the impeachment — called the matter “baseless and illegal” and said it amounted to an attack “not just on the President, it was an attack on you — your voice and your vote.” 

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino.

Dan Scavino, a White House aide who first met Donald Trump when he was a high school golf caddy, said during his speech at the Republican National Convention that Trump’s belief in him when he was a 16-year-old boy is a testament to how he sees the potential in everyday Americans. 

Scavino recalled seeing Trump on the golf course, adding, “He saw potential in me. A spark. The possibility that I could be more, do more, and achieve more than even I thought was possible.” 

Scavino, now the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Director of Social Media, used his time at the lectern to talk about Trump’s character, asserting, “You know the President cannot be bought,” “(You) know the President cannot be bullied,” and “You know the President cannot be beaten.” 

“If there is one thing I hope you will hear from me tonight, it is this — President Trump is a kind and decent man. I wish you could be at his side with me to see his endless kindness to everyone he meets,” he said. 

Scavino also took a swipe at the press, calling the media “a fog machine, creating a partisan mist around everything that’s hard to see through.”

“But in 2016, you navigated through it all — you found your way through the swamp – and you arrived safely on the other side, with Donald J. Trump as your new president,” Scavino continued.

He concluded: “Donald Trump believed in me when I was a teenage golf caddie and he was already one of the wealthiest, most famous people on the planet. He saw my potential, even when I couldn’t. He sees greatness in our country, too. And in each of you. He believes the world you dream about at night can be yours.”

New Jersey Rep. Van Drew.

New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who was elected to Congress as a Democrat but switched parties last year, claimed at the Republican National Convention that a lot of Democrats support President Donald Trump. 

“There are a lot of Democrats who support our President, and are disgusted for what their old party, what my old party, has become,” Van Drew said.

Trump announced that Van Drew would be joining the Republican Party a day after the New Jersey congressman and one other Democrat voted against both articles of impeachment. Trump was impeached by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives but was later acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate. 

He criticized Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and claimed the former Vice President “is being told what to do by the radicals running my former party — the same radicals trying to install him as their puppet president.”

Watch:

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy delivered the opening speech at the final night of the Republican National Convention, revisiting themes referenced repeatedly throughout the convention week, boasting about Trump administration victories and warning that Democrats would sink the US into socialism and poverty.

He opened the night in a slickly cut video featuring various scenes of Americana, saying, “Together we built the greatest economy the world has ever seen. And we will do it again. We confronted China head-on, tore up bad trade deals and made better ones, supported our men and women in uniform and took out the world’s top terrorist, achieved energy independence, defended the sanctity of life, and restored law and order at the border.” 

McCarthy also addressed coronavirus, saying it was an “invisible enemy that we didn’t ask for nor invite, but we will defeat it.”

Appearing to reference the night’s theme, “Land of Greatness,” McCarthy later added that “as Republicans, it’s our mission to renew the American dream, restore our way of life and rebuild the greatest economy in the world.” 

But in his remarks about Democrats, the video cut to looting, fires, and protests. 

“The socialist Democrats have a different agenda. They will dismantle our institutions, defund our police and destroy our economy. “ 

Like many speakers throughout the convention, McCarthy offered contrasting choices, making a plea to voters.

“The choice before you could not be clearer,” McCarthy argued. “Forward in freedom, or backward in socialism. Forward in prosperity or backward in poverty. Forward and personal liberty, or backward and more government control. I know which direction I’m heading.”

Watch:

The “law and order” message Trump hopes to advance Thursday comes at tense moment. Kenosha, Wisconsin, remains on edge after the police shooting of a Black man. Many professional athletes were continuing a boycott, though NBA playoff games were scheduled to resume. In Washington, a large racial justice demonstration was being planned for Friday.

The tinder-box atmosphere surrounding the President’s address is not an entirely unfamiliar or uncomfortable place for Trump, and in some ways fits squarely into the theme of his convention and campaign: that Democratic-run areas will devolve into chaos should Joe Biden win.

One of Trump’s top advisers, Kellyanne Conway, appeared to acknowledge as much in an interview earlier Thursday, quoting an earlier speaker during the convention: “The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and law and order,” she said. 

Speakers on Thursday — including Ann Dorn, the widow of a police captain who was killed during violence in St. Louis, and Patrick Lynch, the president of a New York Police Department union — seemed designed to advance that message.

But in refusing the address or even acknowledge the circumstances that have led to protests in Wisconsin, Trump also seems to undercut the assertions made over and over during the convention that he is attuned to the issues of the Black community and eager to help.

Those themes also seemed poised to arise again Thursday, with planned speeches from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Trump’s sole Black Cabinet member, and Ja’Ron Smith, the highest-ranking Black official at the White House. Also scheduled to speak is Alice Johnson, whose life sentence for a drug violation was commuted by Trump.

Given an opportunity earlier Thursday to comment on the shooting of Jacob Blake that precipitated protests in Kenosha this week, Trump instead pivoted to his familiar pledge to tamp down on violence.

“We will put out the fire. We will put out the flame,” Trump said during a visit to FEMA headquarters, where he received a briefing on Hurricane Laura. “We will stop the violence very quickly.”

Ja'Ron Smith, special assistant to the President for Domestic Policy.

Ja’Ron Smith, special assistant to President Trump for Domestic Policy and one of the only Black men working for the White House, invoked the names of numerous Black Americans killed by acts of violence when discussing why the US needs “police departments with the highest standards.”

More on Smith: Hired in 2017 to serve as an adviser to Trump on Urban Affairs and Revitalization, Smith was tasked with pursuing Trump’s agenda on a slate of issues important to the Black community, including prison reform and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Watch:

President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump rounds out the Trump family Republican National Convention speakers Thursday evening, with remarks focused on working families, a key component of her White House portfolio, per an aide familiar with the speech. She is slated to introduce her father later this evening.

“She will provide Americans with personal insight into how the President makes decisions and his everyday work for the forgotten men and women of our country. She will highlight his top policy accomplishments that have impacted American workers and families, and draw a contrast to her father’s leadership vs. Biden’s failed policies of the past,” the aide said. 

Based on that description, it appears that this will, like her siblings, be short on personal anecdotes but rather focus on her work and the administration’s work more broadly.

Trump championed paid family leave as part of the tax bill, which she is expected to highlight, per an excerpt of the speech provided to CNN:

Read more excerpts from her speech:

Guests gather to watch U.S. President Donald Trump deliver his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination on the South Lawn of the White House on August 27 in Washington.

The fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention has begun.

President Donald Trump will take the White House stage this evening after three nights of propaganda and pageantry at the convention for a speech that’s expected to paper over his flawed handling of the coronavirus pandemic and deliver a searing indictment of his rival Joe Biden.

Trump will accept his party’s renomination for president at a time when the nation has passed the grim milestone of more than 180,000 deaths as a result of Covid-19 and some 5.8 million US cases — more than anywhere else in the world.

The President is expected to cast his response in glowing terms, highlighting the administration’s efforts to produce a vaccine by the end of the year and its purchase of 150 million rapid tests to be distributed across the country in partnership with Abbott Laboratories.

Trump will be introduced on Thursday by his daughter Ivanka Trump and a crowd of more than 1,500 will attend the speech and the fireworks that follow. The White House thus far has offered conflicting information about how the guests will be screened for Covid-19.

The President is also expected, in some form, to address the protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man. Blake was shot seven times in the back Sunday by an officer as he tried to enter an SUV where three of his children were waiting. Early Wednesday morning, a 17-year-old Illinois youth — whose social media accounts show an affinity for Trump, guns and the police — allegedly shot and killed two people, and injured another, who were at one of the nighttime protests in Kenosha.

So far Trump has refused to answer questions about the two incidents in Wisconsin or to say whether he watched the video of Blake being shot by police, and it’s unclear if he will make any statement of sympathy to Blake’s family or Black Americans once again angered by police brutality.

Read about tonight’s event here.

If the speakers at this week’s convention provided a portrait of Trump’s presidency that didn’t always align with reality, the images of mask-less crowds gathered without social distancing helped reinforce it.

Combined with the repeated references to the coronavirus pandemic in the past tense — most notably by Trump’s chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow — the images protect a post-pandemic world, even as deaths mount. More than 3,600 Americans have died since the Republican National Convention started three days ago — more than died during the terror attacks on 9/11.

Unlike most Americans, Trump has access to an extensive testing regime that his aides say renders him the “most tested man in America.” Anyone who comes into close proximity with him receives one; on Thursday, that includes a sizable number of the more than 1,000 invited guests on the South Lawn for his speech.

The same was true, at least in part, for guests at the first lady’s speech in the Rose Garden and Vice President Mike Pence’s address at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. While neither the campaign nor the White House would provide specific details, at least some of the guests at those events were tested. Few wore masks.

The effect has been to provide Trump with the crowds he long desired for his convention. But it has also allowed him to project a reality that simply doesn’t exist for the rest of the country. Many states still ban large gatherings. Rapid testing is not available in many places, and wait times are long. The mask requirements that exist in many states would not permit the types of bare-faced events that Trump has convened.

How effective that is in convincing Americans that Trump has handled the virus well isn’t clear. Even a number of Republican senators are opting not to attend Trump’s acceptance speech at the White House, despite most receiving invitations to join the audience on the South Lawn.

People living through the outbreak are still feeling its effects, be it through closed businesses, struggles with childcare or just the daily inconveniences that have now become routine, like remembering to wear a mask. Images of the President going about his life as normal can’t change that reality.

“Here’s what you have to understand about the nature of a pandemic: It’s relentless. You can’t stop it with a tweet. You can’t create a distraction and hope it’ll go away. It doesn’t go away,” Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris said in a prebuttal to Trump’s speech earlier Thursday.

President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rudy Giuliani.

The fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention tonight will feature President Donald  Trump’s speech officially accepting the Republican nomination for president.

Similar to the first three nights, some speeches are expected to take place at an audience-less auditorium. But before closing out the week’s festivities, Trump is expected to deliver a speech to a large crowd from the South Lawn of the White House, breaking with tradition among US presidents not to mix official functions in the White House with overtly political ones. Fireworks are expected after his remarks.

The night will also feature Republican congressional leadership, namely Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The convention’s theme for Thursday night is “Land of Greatness.”

Here are key things to watch tonight:

Read more about the night’s events here.

Judging from the view on the South Lawn tonight, you wouldn’t know a pandemic has swept across the nation and killed 180,000 Americans. 

The White House and campaign are expecting anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 guests tonight on the South Lawn and the chairs are positioned within less than a foot of one another.

A White House official says there are 1,500 chairs and they expect the rest of the crowd (roughly 500) to be standing. 

The guests received guidance today that was obtained by CNN and did not include required coronavirus testing. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows just told reporters “a number of people will be tested.”

The guidance also said masks would be necessary to enter and in high traffic areas, but few were seen wearing masks as they milled about beforehand. 

President Trump’s allies, advisers and old friends are in the crowd tonight. Dozens of lawmakers are expected to attend as well, even though Congress is in recess.

The Republican convention worked with a company that said they have protocols in place that are in compliance with guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and DC Department of Public Health. These officials have been on site, the campaign says, though they declined to say which guidelines they were given. 

Watch the scene:

A senior Trump campaign adviser said President Trump will hit his law and order theme hard tonight.

The adviser explained “this is how we win suburban moms back,” an acknowledgment of Trump’s shaky standing with women voters.

Top adviser Stephen Miller is leading the writing team in drafting tonight’s speech.

As for the situation in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Trump is likely to address the unrest in the streets of US cities. But aides are being tight lipped about whether Trump will mention the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN he reached out to representatives for Blake’s family to offer Trump’s sympathies. Meadows said Trump has seen the video of Blake being shot by police, something Trump would not talk about earlier today when asked.

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at The George Washington University Hospital, says it’s “maddening” that President Trump and the Republican National Committee is hosting between 1,000 to 1,500 people at the White House tonight for their convention.

Reiner told CNN’s Erin Burnett that the President is breaking DC coronavirus gathering restrictions which states that mass gatherings of more than 50 people are prohibited.

This latest criticism comes after Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris called out Trump and the GOP for not acknowledging the reality of the pandemic during their convention earlier today.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows speaks to the press in Statuary Hall at the Capitol on August 22 in Washington.

The White House has reached out to the family of Jacob Blake but has not directly had contact with them, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Thursday. He also confirmed that the President has watched the video of Blake’s shooting. 

Meadows told CNN’s Jim Acosta that he reached out to representatives of the Blake family, and specifically his mother, “and conveyed a message that I wanted to make sure that not only as a mother of someone who has undergone a real tragic event and still the prognosis is yet to be fully determined, that for the President and myself we certainly appreciate her call for peace and we join her in that.” 

Meadows said he reached out to express, “not only my desire but the President’s desire to share support for the family.” 

“I’m fully confident that that message has been conveyed,” he added. 

Meadows said that Trump told his attorney general “I want to make sure it’s fully investigated I want to get to the bottom of what happened.” 

He also confirmed the President has seen the video of the shooting, which Trump ignored questions about earlier on Thursday. 

Meadows would not get into the details of tonight’s speech to the Republican National Convention, and on Covid-19 precautions, he would only say that people in close proximity to the President would be tested at the event. 

The White House coronavirus task force was not consulted about convention plans for President Trump’s speech tonight on the White House South Lawn, a senior administration official said.

The official said it made more sense for the campaign and the task force to “stay out of each other’s way.”

Health experts on the task force, like the nation’s leading coronavirus expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, have been advising Americans to avoid large crowds during the pandemic.

At a hearing in July, Fauci warned large crowds where people are not wearing masks are especially risky. 

Trump’s speech is expected to draw between 1,000 to 1,500 people, according to outgoing counselor Kellyanne Conway.

President Donald Trump speaks on stage during the first day of the Republican National Committee convention on Monday, August 24 in Charlotte.

Despite a major hurricane and large protests on racial inequality from Kenosha, Wisconsin, to professional sports leagues, President Donald Trump said he thinks it’s “very appropriate” to have a political celebration Thursday night as he accepts the Republican presidential nomination. He then pivoted to calling on governors to open their schools and to “let them play football.”

Trump said the US “set a record last quarter on jobs last quarter,” a slightly misleading statistic when the unemployment rate continues to hover near 10%. He also claimed that he thinks “we’re going to have a GDP that’s going to be mind-boggling. Now that will be announced interestingly just before the election, so that will be very interesting.”

“That’s despite the fact that great places like North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan are shut down unnecessarily at this point. It’s crazy what they’re doing. But they’re doing it I think for political reasons,” Trump claimed, not for the first time. “I think they’re making a tremendous mistake.”

“Let them open,” the President continued. “Let them open safely and carefully. Open up their schools. Let them play football. It’s got to open up.”

The President is set to formally accept the nomination from the White House tonight, an unprecedented move in modern politics, in front of a crowd of more than a thousand people.

His speech will be followed by fireworks near the Washington Monument.

Senator Ted Cruz arrives for the Senate Republican luncheon at the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on August 4.

A number of Republican senators are opting not to attend President Trump’s acceptance speech at the White House, despite most receiving invitations to join the audience on the South Lawn.

The Senate is not in session, and many lawmakers have returned to their home states for the rest of August recess. However, while some of the President’s strong supporters in the upper chamber are making the trip to Washington to attend the final night of the GOP convention, others are citing excuses from a “prior commitment” to preferring to watch from home.

Republican Sens. Tom Cotton, Thom Tillis, Roy Blunt, Kevin Cramer and Lindsey Graham are among the lawmakers expected to attend the event on Thursday evening. Cramer plans to bring his wife, an aide said.

CNN reached out to the offices all of 53 sitting Republican senators to see if they planned to attend the President’s acceptance speech.

Many offices did not respond to our inquiry, but nearly a dozen Republican Senate offices confirmed to CNN that their members would not be joining Trump’s supporters on the White House South Lawn.

Sen. Tim Scott – who himself spoke at the convention on Monday – had a “prior commitment” that will prevent his attendance. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz will be dealing with the fallout from the advance of Hurricane Laura in Texas. Sen. James Lankford will plan to watch from his home state of Oklahoma. And others pointed to reasons from personal health to family issues as to why they would not attend.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will also not be in attendance, but is taping a message to be played during the convention.

Sen. Mitt Romney was not invited.

Guidance provided to guests ahead of the speech suggests people will not be tested for Covid-19, nor will they be forced to wear masks in all common areas. A number of older senators had telegraphed in advance that they were unlikely to attend an in-person component of the convention due to health concerns.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a CNN request for a list of Senate attendees.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris speaks in Washington on Thursday.

In her prebuttal to President Donald Trump’s convention speech set to take place this evening, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris addressed what is happening in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the aftermath of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, as well as slammed the President’s response to Covid-19.

Harris, speaking at George Washington University, called the video showing the shooting of Blake “sickening to watch.”

Harris said a Biden administration would “pass meaningful police reform and broader criminal justice reform and acknowledge, yes, acknowledge, and address systemic racism.”

On Trump, she said: “Donald Trump doesn’t understand the presidency. He thinks it’s all about him. Well, it’s not. It’s about you. It’s about all of us, the people. As a lawyer and advocate, when I would rise to speak in a courtroom, I’d say the following words, Kamala Harris, for the people. And that is why I stand today to speak for the people because we know the truth. Donald Trump has failed at the most basic and important job of a president of the United States. He failed to protect the American people. Plain and simple. Trump showed that we in the legal profession would call a reckless disregard for the well being of the American people.”

On Covid-19, Harris said President Trump’s “incompetence” became “deadly.”

“Donald Trump’s incompetence is nothing new. That has always been on full display,” she said. “But in January of this year, it became deadly. That’s when the threat of a virus that would endanger the world first emerged. Trump dismissed the threat but Joe Biden sounded the alarm. It would be the beginning of a pattern that persists to this day.”

She also said a Biden administration would mandate wearing face masks.

Harris concluded her speech emphasizing the contrast between Trump and Biden.

“But we have a chance to right these wrongs and put America on a better path forward. One where the leaders we elect listen to the experts and follow the best medical guidance to keep us and our families healthy and safe. One where we take meaningful action against systems and traditions of oppression. One where we stop fanning the flames of hate and division, and treat one another with the respect and the dignity that each one of us deserves. As Joe Biden said in his acceptance speech, we have a choice between the light and the dark. I believe America will choose the light. Thank you,” she said.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks during a press briefing at the White House on August 13 in Washington.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany offered a broad preview of President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech remarks later this evening.

Most of the appearance addressed her speech at last night’s convention, including her “difficult” decision to get a double mastectomy and the “turmoil” of the situation.

She said she called Trump last Saturday “and said I wanted to share this.”

“He was very supportive,” she said, and called her back Wednesday morning to reiterate that support.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about economic recovery during a campaign event at Colonial Early Education Program at the Colwyck Center on July 21 in New Castle, Delaware.

Joe Biden responded to Vice President Mike Pence’s comments from Wednesday night’s Republican National Convention address – and the standard GOP talking point – that “you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” with a laugh Thursday, replying, “The problem we have right now is we’re in Donald Trump’s America.” 

Seizing on White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s comments this morning on Fox, Biden accused the President of viewing violence as a “political benefit.”  

“You know, he’s rooting for more riots, not less,” Biden said before going on to once again condemn the violence.

“By the way, I condemn violence in any form, whether it’s looting or whatever it is,” he said. 

 “The thing that bothers me the most is the idea of just pouring gasoline on the racial flames that are burning now. That does not justify any of the looting, any of the burning, any of the damage being done by protesters. But the people have a right to be angry,” Biden said. 

The former vice president said he would consider visiting Wisconsin if it were safe to do so, but said he did not want to add to the problem. Biden added, “If I were president, I would be going.”

Asked to respond to accusations that Biden is “Catholic in name only,” Biden replied, “I’m not going to proselytize. I’m a practicing Catholic, I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life.” 

Biden accused the President of “using the White House as a prop.”

“Look what’s going on in terms of the Hatch Act,” he said, referencing the law that limits the political action of federal employees while on duty. He added: “I know people don’t know the Hatch Act is.” 

The Democratic nominee once again doubled down that he will in fact be debating Trump. 

“As long as the commission continues down the straight and narrow, as they have, I’m gonna debate him. I know for certain, I’m gonna be a fact-checker on the floor while I’m debating him,” he said. 

President Donald Trump delivers remarks on the "Farmers to Families Food Box Program" at Flavor First Growers and Packers, on Monday, August 24 in Mills River, North Carolina.

Even as President Donald Trump loudly pledges to restore “law and order” to a Wisconsin city gripped by protests, he has remained silent on what prompted the unrest: another police shooting of a Black man.

Asked about the situation during a storm briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters earlier today, Trump focused on quelling the protests without addressing the shooting that precipitated them.

He wrote off a strike by NBA players, claiming the league had become too political after several teams declined to play Wednesday night in protest of police violence against Black Americans.

And he ended the questioning without answering whether he’d viewed the video of the incident, in which a White police officer is seen firing seven times into 29-year-old Jacob Blake’s back. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said later on in the day that the President had watched the video of Blake’s shooting. 

The absence of any presidential statement about the shooting that left Blake partially paralyzed underscores the fraught approach to safety and policing Trump is adopting as he runs for reelection: while he has railed against Democratic authorities for allowing violence in their cities, he has largely brushed off the events and circumstances that led to the unrest.

White House officials said Trump is wary of commenting on incidents before the details are fully known, though Blake was shot on Sunday and police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, have offered some details leading up to the incident.

On Monday morning he was briefed on the incident by Attorney General William Barr, though details about what happened were still vague at the time, according to a senior administration official.

He was briefed additional times later on Monday and Tuesday, and on Wednesday the Justice Department announced a federal civil rights investigation into Blake’s shooting.

But Trump still hasn’t addressed the incident itself, choosing to focus instead on the ensuing protests and the state’s Democratic governor.

Earlier this week, Trump tweeted he would “NOT stand for looting, arson, violence, and lawlessness on American streets.”

“TODAY, I will be sending federal law enforcement and the National Guard to Kenosha, WI to restore LAW and ORDER!” he wrote.

Later, the White House said in a statement the federal government had deployed nearly 1,000 National Guardsmen and 200 federal law enforcement personnel, including FBI and US Marshalls, to Wisconsin.

The White House has reached out to the family of Jacob Blake but has not directly had contact with them, Meadows said Thursday. 

Read more here.

In this March 10, 2020 file photo, Symone Sanders, senior campaign advisor, dances and sings after former Vice President Joe Biden spoke about his victories and party unity at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Democrats held their final counter-RNC press briefing Thursday afternoon, mostly taking the time to criticize Vice President Mike Pence for his comments, as well as the broader GOP talking point, that people will be unsafe Joe Biden’s America, pointing to the fact that the current unrest is happening while Donald Trump is President. 

“Poll after poll shows that Joe Biden is who voters trust when it comes to keeping them safe. Joe Biden is who voters trust to address crime. Joe Biden is who voters trust on criminal justice reform and that makes a hell of a lot of sense.  I mean, not only is the unrest taking place with Trump in office, but his botching of the pandemic response has cost again, over 180,000 of our fellow Americans their very lives,” she said. 

Sanders responded to Kellyanne Conway, who said this morning on Fox, “The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety, and law and order,” by calling her comments “nihilistic and disgusting.”

 “Welcoming the suffering is nihilistic and disgusting and Donald Trump is in charge right now,” said Sanders.

Sanders said Wednesday evening’s convention “vacillated between an imaginary list of Donald Trump’s accomplishments and an alternate reality meant to erase the disease plaguing our nation and the last four years of division and rhetoric that has driven the country further apart.”  

Former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg took on the Republicans’ attempts to portray Biden as a radical leader.

“I think one of the reasons why the convention’s message is falling flat with the American people is that no one looks at Joe Biden and thinks that they’re looking at a radical,” said the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor. “What we have in the Biden-Harris ticket is the kind of leadership that America is crying out for, the compassion that we need, the basic competence that we need, and a readiness to deal with the issues we’re actually facing on the ground.” 

There is no mention of required coronavirus testing in the guidance that was sent earlier today to guests who are invited to President Donald Trump’s speech on the South Lawn tonight.

Instead, the guidance advises guests to stay home if they are not feeling well or have experienced Covid-19 symptoms, recently tested positive or have been in close contact with someone who has. 

According to the guidance obtained by CNN, “face coverings are required upon arrival and in security screening areas. Use is encouraged in high traffic areas including restrooms and hospitality spaces.”

“Practice social distancing whenever possible,” it adds.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows would not get into the details of Trump’s speech tonight to the RNC, and on Covid-19 precautions, he would only say that people in close proximity to the President would be tested at the event. 

Testing for outdoor events at the Republican National Convention has been scattershot at best. Guests who were seated around the President Tuesday night were tested, but most who attended weren’t.

Reporters covering Vice President Pence’s speech Wednesday night were tested, but several guests who were seated much closer to the stage were not. And now it appears no testing will be required for the President’s speech Thursday night. 

Eric Trump, son of U.S. President Donald Trump, pre-records his address to the Republican National Convention at the Mellon Auditorium on August 25 in Washington.

President Trump’s son Eric Trump joined “Fox and Friends” for an interview Thursday morning and teased his father’s speech tonight, telling anchor Steve Doocy, “I was with him yesterday and this whole week was absolute home run.” 

Trump did not mention Hurricane Laura or the protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, but focused rather on touting the Republican National Convention.

Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh confirmed to reporters earlier today excerpts of President Donald Trump’s Republican National Convention speech as reported by Politico. 

The President is also expected to say, “The Republican Party goes forward united, determined, and ready to welcome millions of Democrats, independents, and anyone who believes in the Greatness of America and the righteous heart of the American people. This towering American spirit has prevailed over every challenge, and lifted us to the summit of human endeavor.”

President Donald Trump speaks on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Charlotte Convention Center on August 24 in Charlotte.

One of Republicans’ challenges this week has been recasting Trump as an effective crisis-time leader. Many Americans say in polls he mishandled the coronavirus pandemic, a view Trump’s advisers hope to change. 

Using revisionist history, they have tried to rewrite his approach to the crisis — though a top-down decision this week to restrict testing only amplifies the impression he’s continuing to downplay the outbreak. 

Yet as the week progresses he’s also faced a spate of real-time crises, including a serious hurricane bearing down on the Gulf Coast and unrest in Wisconsin. 

White House officials say Trump has been monitoring the storm closely, though they have not suggested he would alter his convention plans — unlike the 2008 and 2012 Republican National Conventions, which were both truncated because of hurricanes. Trump tweeted a photo on Wednesday from an Oval Office storm briefing. Trump traveled to FEMA’s headquarters ahead of today’s speech to receive a storm briefing.

Hurricane Laura is the first major weather event to occur during the coronavirus pandemic, though wildfires have also been ravaging parts of Northern California this week (Trump blamed the state, saying, “You gotta clean your floors”).

Laura has weakened into a tropical storm. Earlier this morning, it made landfall near Cameron, Louisiana, as a Category 4 hurricane. So far at least six deaths have been reported, as well as widespread damage.

Trump has always shown greater willingness to appear engaged when disasters strike states that voted for him — and the storm tracked toward Louisiana and Texas.

This is an instance where having the convention at the White House — opposed to an arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, or Jacksonville, Florida — could benefit Trump. Because he remains in Washington, he’s able to say he’s monitoring the storm from his Oval Office command center — even if his attention remains on his reelection campaign.

President Donald Trump listens during a meeting at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) headquarters in Washington on Thursday, August 27.

President Donald Trump will address Hurricane Laura’s landfall in the gulf during his address tonight at the Republican National Convention, per Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh.

“The President will talk about the hurricane, and the preparations that have been made, and ask for God’s blessing for the people who are in his path,” he told reporters on a call Thursday.

Murtaugh also told reporters, Trump is expected to address racial unrest, including protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, saying, “He will also talk about the unrest that we have seen in American cities, including Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and other cities. So it’s a big night for us, we are very much looking forward to it. The program leading up to the President’s speech will be just as good if not better than the previous three nights.”

Asked if Trump will address the shooting of Jacob Blake, Murtaugh dodged, saying, “I’m not going to get into very much in the way of specifics about what the President will talk about, as far as specific topics, but the President will address the unrest in this country, he will make reference to Kenosha, and he will speak about the issue also in terms of how the reaction cannot be to escalate violence, in that we cannot have Americans continue to harm Americans in our streets, and also in the frame that the police must be allowed to do their jobs, that he respects and admires the work that the vast majority of our men and women of law enforcement, respects the job that they do.”

A person stands outside of the White House lit in purple and gold to mark the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage during the third night of the Republican National Convention in Washington on Wednesday, August 26.

The White House and Trump campaign appear to be taking some big health risks in their planning for Trump’s speech on the South Lawn of the White House.

Trump’s speech is expected to draw between 1,000 to 1,500 people, according to outgoing counselor Kellyanne Conway. That would rank as one of Trump’s biggest events since his ill-fated rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, back in June. 

Asked about precautions for the event, a WH official said, “Anyone in close proximity to the president will be tested.” But when asked about everybody else, the official said that’s a question for the campaign. Campaign officials did not respond for comment.

Earlier this week, the campaign said it was working with a coronavirus adviser in all of its event planning.  

But the White House has taken a cavalier attitude toward the virus at times during the convention, staging Vice President Mike Pence’s speech Wednesday night in Baltimore where it appears there were not many people wearing masks.

A similar scene was seen during Tuesday’s speech for first lady Melania Trump in the Rose Garden where few people wore masks. As a task force source recently told CNN, Trump still doesn’t get it when it comes to the virus. 

As for Trump’s speech, campaign officials told CNN it will happen as scheduled, despite the likelihood Hurricane Laura will be leaving behind a lot of devastation in its wake. 

President Donald Trump speaks on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Charlotte Convention Center on August 24 in Charlotte.

President Donald Trump is expected to deliver his nomination acceptance speech Thursday evening from the White House, according to a Republican familiar with the planning.

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 exempted, 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.

Vice President Mike Pence formally accepted the Republican nomination for vice president last night, speaking in front of a live audience at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. A major theme of both his address and the night as a whole was support for law enforcement.

A dangerous storm tearing toward the Gulf Coast and an extraordinary protest by basketball and baseball stars over the latest police shooting of a Black man threatened to overshadow Pence’s turn to headline the convention.