Closing summary
Thanks for reading our coverage of the second evening of the Republican national convention.
Delegates will return to Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum at 5.45pm CT tomorrow for the third session of the convention. The four-day event concludes on Thursday.
Here’s a look back at what happened this evening:
Nikki Haley gave Donald Trump her “strong endorsement”, and tried to sway wary Republicans to his cause.
Ron DeSantis launched a volley of attacks on Joe Biden, in a stark contrast with Haley that underscored the ultimately unsuccessful strategies both deployed as candidates to try to win the GOP’s presidential nomination instead of Trump.
Trump and his running mate JD Vance both returned to the convention to watch the primetime speakers, though neither gave remarks.
Biden said in an interview with BET that only a “medical condition” would convince him to abandon his run for re-election, despite ongoing concern over his fitness to continue serving.
Kari Lake, the GOP nominee for Senate in Arizona, kicked the evening off with an acerbic attack on journalists in the convention hall.
Elise Stefanik, the House Republican conference chair, boasted of her role in getting the presidents of two top universities to resign.
House Speaker Mike Johnson described the country as locked in “a struggle between two completely different visions of who we are”.
Lara Trump closed the evening with a speech all about “the Donald Trump that I know.”
Second night of Republican national convention concludes
With a bang of his oversized gavel, Michael Whatley, the chair of the Republican national convention, has concluded its second night.
Stay tuned as we present a look back at what happened this evening.
The Republican national convention is about finished for the night.
Some delegates and guests have already left, though Donald Trump, JD Vance and other VIPs remain in their seats.
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Concerns 'for the generations to come' motivate Trump's run, daughter-in-law says
If there’s a theme to Lara Trump’s speech, it would be “the Donald Trump that I know”.
The former president’s daughter-in-law is describing how he is a family man, which is indeed a side that is not often seen by the public.
“Donald Trump didn’t need to run for president for fame or money. Trust me, we all know he already had plenty of that. I’ll tell you why he did it and why he continues on, even in the face of the unthinkable – because he loves this country,” Lara Trump said.
“He did it for his grandchildren, for your children and grandchildren and for the generations to come.”
She described how: “I’ll never forget watching my two children run up to him with their drawings and hugs for grandpa, just moments before he took the elevator down in Trump Tower to address the media the day after his wrongful conviction.”
Referring to the assassination attempt, Lara Trump said: “In that split second on Saturday, Donald Trump reminded us all of that very history and who we are at our core as a nation. That is the Donald Trump that I know.”
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Senator Tim Scott compared Donald Trump to a lion last night, and Lara Trump said the same thing tonight:
“Proverbs 28 reads: ‘The wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.’ And that truly epitomizes Donald Trump. He is a lion, he is bold, he is strong, he is fearless, and he is exactly what this country needs right now,” she said.
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In one of the last speeches of the night, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, is discussing the emotional toll the assassination attempt took on their family.
“Nothing prepares you for a moment like that,” said Trump, who co-chairs the Republican National Committee.
“Our family has faced our fair share of death threats, mysterious powders sent to our homes, tasteless and violent comments directed towards us on social media, but none of that prepares you, as a daughter-in-law, to watch in real time someone try to kill a person you love. None of that prepares you, as a mother, to quickly reach for the remote and turn your young children away from the screen, so that they’re not witness to something that scars the memory of their grandpa for the rest of their lives.”
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As he closed his speech, Rubio directly referenced how Donald Trump had stood up and pumped his fist in the air after being injured in the assassination attempt on Saturday.
“Our country has been injured, injured by the bad decisions of weak leaders. But now, though bloodied by our wounds, we stand up and we must fight,” Rubio said.
He continued:
Fight not with violence or destruction, but with our voices and our votes. Fight not against each other, but for the hopes and dreams we share in common and make us one, and fight for an America where we are safe from those who seek to harm us on our streets and from abroad, and we will not be alone in this fight. For leading us in this fight will be a man who, although wounded and facing danger, he stood up and raised his fist and reminded us that our people and our country are always worth fighting for.
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Florida’s Marco Rubio was on the shortlist to be Donald Trump’s running mate, but was passed over in favor of his Senate colleague JD Vance.
Rubio is now addressing the convention, but hasn’t mentioned the snub, instead sticking to territory well-trod by previous speakers.
“There is absolutely nothing dangerous or anything divisive about putting Americans first,” Rubio said.
“Anyone who is offended about putting America first has forgotten what America is and what America means. America isn’t the color of our skin or our ethnicity. Americans are people as diverse as humanity itself. But out of many, we are one, because, as the life story of our next vice-president, JD Vance, reminds us, we are all descendants of ordinary people who achieved extraordinary things.”
Ben Carson cites scripture as he reflects on Trump assassination attempt
Ben Carson, the former secretary of housing and urban development who is speaking now, struck a similarly biblical tone when discussing the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
“Like many of you, last week, I watched with horror as the events unfolded in that Pennsylvania field. I saw President Trump, a dear friend, escape death by mere inches, and my thoughts immediately turned to the book of Isaiah that says: ‘No weapon formed against you shall prosper,’” said Carson.
“Well, let me tell you the weapons that they use. First, they try to ruin his reputation, and he’s more popular now than ever. And then they tried to bankrupt him, and he’s got more money now than he had before. And then they tried to put him in prison, and he’s freer and has made other people free with him. And then, and then, last weekend, they tried to kill him. And there he is, over there, alive and well,” Carson said, to a round of hearty applause.
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Donald Trump has been found civilly liable for sexual abuse, and convicted on felony charges related to trying to cover up an affair.
But to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, “The left doesn’t care about empowering women. Biden and Harris can’t even tell you what a woman is. They only care about empowering themselves.”
“God spared President Trump from that assassin, because God is not finished with him yet, and he most certainly is not finished with America yet, either. With God as our guide and President Trump back in the White House, we will show the world that America is the place where freedom reigns and liberty will never die, Sanders said.
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Former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders addresses convention
Speaking now is Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Arkansas governor who served for a time as Donald Trump’s press secretary.
“I want to say I have always been proud to stand with President Trump, but never have I been more proud than to stand with him right now tonight. Not even an assassin’s bullet could stop him. God Almighty intervened, because America is one nation under God, and He is certainly not finished with President Trump,” Sanders said.
The line attracted lengthy applause, with the VIPs, including JD Vance, rising to their feet to clap. Trump stayed seated, with a big smile on his face.
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After her son was murdered in New York City, Madeline Brame told the convention that the killers “were facing justice, but that changed when district attorney Alvin Bragg was elected”.
The crowd let out perhaps its biggest unified boo of the night at the mention of Bragg’s name. Bragg spearheaded the prosecution of Donald Trump on business charges, which resulted in the former president’s conviction on 34 felony counts in late May.
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The convention is now hearing from what it describes as “everyday Americans” who are victims of tragedies that they blame on the Biden administration.
Anne Fundner described how her 15-year-old son Weston was killed by a fentanyl overdose.
“His whole future, everything we ever wanted for him, was ripped away in an instant. And Joe Biden does nothing. I hold Joe Biden, Kamala Harris the border czar, what a joke, and Gavin Newsom and every Democrat who supports open borders responsible for the death of my son,” Fundner said. The crowd stood up to applaud, including Donald Trump and JD Vance in the VIP section.
“For that alone, they should be voted out of office,” Fundner said, as the crowd chanted: “Joe must go!”
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In response to Nikki Haley’s endorsement of Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris campaign issued a statement reminding everybody of the times the former United Nations ambassador criticized her one-time boss.
“Ambassador Haley said it best herself: someone who doesn’t respect our military, doesn’t know right from wrong, and ‘surrounds himself in chaos’ can’t be president,” said Austin Weatherford, the campaign’s national Republican engagement director.
He continued:
That’s why millions of Republicans cast their votes in protest of Donald Trump and his attacks on our institutions, our nation’s allies, and civility. Those millions of voters across the country deserve a president who shares their commitment to bipartisanship, to America’s standing on the global stage, and who respects our nation’s brave men and women in uniform. There’s a home for every single one of these voters in the coalition President Biden is building of patriotic Americans who will always put country over party.
Haley’s attacks on Trump were particularly fierce as her presidential campaign neared its end:
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Snap analysis: Haley goes for unity but DeSantis's combative speech is a hit with delegates
The contrast between Nikki Haley’s and Ron DeSantis’s convention speeches encapsulated their very different (although both unsuccessful) strategies to prevent Donald Trump from winning the Republican nomination.
Haley based her presidential campaign on the premise that America needed a “new generation” of leaders, as both Trump and Joe Biden are unpopular with a majority of Americans. Haley’s criticism seems prescient now, as the “double haters” who dislike Trump and Biden may determine the outcome of the election in November.
Emphasizing the importance of unity, Haley told convention attendees: “We must not only be a unified party. We must also expand our party.”
The practical argument was met with somewhat tepid applause from the convention audience, who represent the Republican base that rejected Haley as their presidential nominee.
When DeSantis stepped up to the mic after Haley, he was met with a noticeably louder round of applause, and his cutting insults of Biden roused the crowd. “America cannot afford four more years of a Weekend at Bernie’s presidency,” DeSantis said to loud applause.
DeSantis went on to detail a rightwing policy wishlist, including severe restrictions on immigration and the destruction of the “administrative state”. Even though DeSantis’s Trump-like appeal was not enough to win him the Republican nomination, his hard-right talking points triggered a much more boisterous response from the delegates than Haley’s talk of unity and party outreach.
But Republicans will need to both energize their base and sway independent voters to win in November.
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Ron DeSantis’s rise coincided with a fall in the fortunes of Democrats in Florida, which was once considered a swing state.
As he wrapped up his speech, DeSantis said re-electing Donald Trump would make the same thing happen in states nationwide.
“For decades, my home state saw elections determined by razor-thin margins. Today, due to bold leadership, the Democratic party lies in ruins. The left is in retreat. Freedom reigns supreme. The woke mind virus is dead and Florida is a solid Republican state,” DeSantis said.
“Now, electing Donald Trump gives us the chance to do this all across America, and we have a responsibility to step up and make it happen.”
Like many speakers have done at the Republican convention, Ron DeSantis called for stricter controls on who can vote.
“We believe that you must be a citizen in order to vote, and that photo ID should be required before casting a ballot,” the Florida governor said.
Joe Biden tangled with Ron DeSantis after the Florida governor arranged for people who had crossed the border to be flown to the wealthy Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts two years ago.
“Let’s be honest here, Biden is just a figurehead. He’s a tool for imposing a leftist agenda on the American people. They support open borders, allowing millions and millions of illegal aliens to pour into our country and to burden our communities, but just don’t send any to Martha’s Vineyard. Then they get really upset,” DeSantis said.
Once again, the crowd leapt to its feet at that line.
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“Let’s send Joe Biden back to his basement, and let’s send Donald Trump back to the White House,” said Ron DeSantis, who is drawing strong applause from the crowd for his lines.
The crowd was brought to its feet when DeSantis, in an attack on Biden’s age, referenced the 1989 comedy Weekend at Bernie’s, about a hapless duo’s struggles to convince people that their deceased boss is still alive.
“Our enemies do not confine their designs to between 10am and 4pm … we need a commander-in-chief who can lead 24 hours a day and seven days a week. America cannot afford four more years of a Weekend at Bernie’s presidency,” DeSantis said.
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Ron DeSantis addresses Republican convention
Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who also challenged Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, is now addressing the convention.
He was greeted with loud applause.
The GOP is clearly hedging its bets against the possibility that Joe Biden will drop out of the race, and that the Democrats will nominate Kamala Harris in his stead.
Several speakers, Nikki Haley included, along with videos played during the convention have referenced Harris’s involvement in immigration policy, which is an issue of importance for voters that Republicans have vowed to improve.
“Look at the border … it’s the single biggest threat Americans face under Joe Biden. Migrants are coming into our country by the thousands every day. We have no idea who they are, where they end up, or what they plan to do. And let me remind you, Kamala had one job, one job, and that was to fix the border. Now imagine her in charge of the entire country,” Haley said.
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Haley argues that, based on Joe Biden’s debate performance, the Democrat is unlikely to last another four years if re-elected, meaning Kamala Harris would eventually take over.
“After seeing the debate, everyone knows it’s true. If we have four more years of Biden or a single day of Harris, our country will be badly worse off. For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump,” she said.
She then directed her remarks at voters who might not be on board with Trump’s policies, alluding to herself as being among that group:
Take it from me. I haven’t always agreed with President Trump, but we agree more often than we disagree. We agree on keeping America strong. We agree on keeping America safe and we agree that Democrats have moved so far to the left that they’re putting our freedoms in danger.
I’m here tonight because we have a country to save, and a unified Republican party is essential for saving her.
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Haley says Trump 'has my strong endorsement, period'
Nikki Haley and Donald Trump were rivals during the Republican primaries. But after dropping out of the race, Haley would go on to say she would vote for him, though didn’t quite say she endorsed him.
“I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” Haley said.
Haley was greeted by boos as well as cheers as she took to the stage in Milwaukee.
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Nikki Haley to address Republican convention
Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s former United Nations ambassador who tried and failed to challenge him for the Republican presidential nomination this year, has just taken the stage at the convention.
“My fellow Republicans, President Trump asked me to speak to this convention in the name of unity,” she began.
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The campaign of Democrat Ruben Gallego, who is running against Kari Lake for Arizona’s senate seat, denounced her false claim that he voted to allow undocumented immigrants to cast ballots in the upcoming election.
That vote never happened, and as a reminder, it is already illegal for those who are not citizens to participate in federal elections. One Brennan Center study found just 30 instances of suspected non-citizen voting out of 23.5m votes cast in the 2016 general election.
Hannah Goss, a spokesperson for Gallegos, said in a statement: “Kari Lake stood on stage and proved to everyone that she will say anything to get power – including lie to Arizonans to distract from her dangerous plan to ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest.”
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The theme of the Republican convention tonight is “Make America Safe Again”, and Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, repeated throughout his remarks stories of people killed by undocumented immigrants.
Left unsaid was the substantial evidence showing that undocumented people are less likely to commit crimes than US citizens.
“Today, as a result of Joe Biden’s presidency, your family is less safe. Your children are less safe. The country is less safe. But here’s the good news, we can fix it, and when Donald Trump is president, we will fix it,” Cruz said.
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Biden says only a 'medical condition' would get him to exit presidential race
Joe Biden said in an interview with Black Entertainment Television (BET) that only a “medical condition” would cause him to drop out of the presidential race.
According to excerpts of the interview published by CBS News, which has yet to air, Biden was adamant he will be the Democratic candidate in November. Asked what it would take for him to drop out, Biden said: “If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if the doctors came to me and said you’ve got this problem, that problem.
“But I made a serious mistake in the whole debate and, look, when I originally ran, you might remember it, I said I was gonna be a transitional candidate. I thought that I would be able to move from this, to pass it on to somebody else. But I didn’t anticipate things getting so, so, so divided.”
Biden added:
Quite frankly, I think the only thing age brings is a little bit of wisdom. And I think I’ve demonstrated that I know how to get things done for the country, in spite of the fact we were told we couldn’t get it done. But there’s more to do, and I’m reluctant to walk away from that.
The full BET interview will air on Wednesday.
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After Donald Trump took his seat, a video played accusing Joe Biden of undermining border security, and allowing dangerous people into the country.
“President Trump had our borders secure, our families safe, and he’ll do it again,” the voiceover said.
Then, Texas senator Ted Cruz came on stage and declared: “God bless Donald J Trump!”
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Trump arrives on Republican convention floor
Donald Trump has returned to the floor of the Republican national convention.
Still wearing a bandage on his right ear, Trump walked out of a tunnel leading to the Fiserv Forum’s backstage, pumping his fist and clapping his hands. All eyes in the crowd were on him as he climbed the steps to the VIP section, where he pointed at the crowd and shook hands with officials awaiting his arrival.
He is now standing next to JD Vance in the VIP section.
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Following his address to the NAACP, Joe Biden spoke at an economic summit in Las Vegas later on Tuesday evening, razzing Trump over the former president’s beliefs on climate change, and promising to take on corporate greed.
Speaking at the summit, Biden touted his administration’s plan to build 2m new homes, and talked about infrastructure projects, including the under-construction Las Vegas-to-Los Angeles train line.
Biden, who appeared more energetic than he has recently, contrasted his efforts with Trump’s: “Remember how Trump promised infrastructure week? Every week for four years? He didn’t build a damn thing!”
Biden warned that Trump would “terminate” the Affordable Care Act, which aims to provide affordable health insurance to those otherwise without it, before telling the crowd that he was “taking the biggest action ever on climate”, while “Trump says he doesn’t believe climate change is real”.
“Maybe he should step out here in Vegas where it’s 120 degrees!” Biden quipped.
The appearance in Las Vegas followed an address to the NAACP earlier on Tuesday, where Biden said it was “time to outlaw” the AR-15 rifle – the assault weapon that has been used in multiple mass shootings, including the assassination attempt on Saturday.
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Trump's vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, arrives at convention
JD Vance, the Ohio senator whom Donald Trump yesterday named as his running mate, just stepped onto the convention floor.
Trailed by a Secret Service detail, Vance walked through the crowd, then climbed into the VIP seating, where he’s greeting members of Congress and other top Republicans waiting there.
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As Donald Trump’s campaign coalesces around immigration as a top issue, Republican activists and lawmakers have begun elevating fears of non-citizens voting in US elections.
Such claims – although baseless – found expression in the Save Act, a bill introduced in the House this spring that would require voters to show proof of citizenship before casting a ballot.
Proponents of the measure often claim that while there are few documented cases of non-citizens voting in federal elections, a proof-of-citizenship requirement would nonetheless prevent fraud.
During his speech at the RNC Tuesday night, Florida senator Rick Scott went further, claiming that it was “easy for Democrats” to rig elections; they did it by allowing “all the non-citizens to vote”, he said.
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I just spoke with Joe Neglia from Tempe, Arizona, who was mobbed by reporters on the floor of the convention as he wore a makeshift paper bandage over his right ear – a tribute to what Donald Trump wore last night when he arrived on the convention floor.
“It’s just in sympathy with Donald Trump,” he said. “I saw that man get shot, I thought that man has almost given his life for his country, he deserves some respect for that. So I thought I’ll start a fashion trend here.”
He wasn’t the only one making a fashion statement on the floor of the convention. Barbara Finger was wearing one of the classic Wisconsin cheeseheads. She said she bought it at a famous Green Bay Packers game in 2004 that went into overtime.
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Johnson declares US is in 'struggle between two completely different visions of who we are'
Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, told the Republican national convention that the United States is locked in an existential battle between two political parties with very different ideas of what the country should be.
“We are no longer just in a battle between two opposing political parties. We are, but it’s not just R’s versus D’s anymore. We’re now in the midst of a struggle between two completely different visions of who we are as Americans and what our country will be,” he said.
“The Republican party stands for the foundational truce that made America the greatest nation in the history of the world. We are the most free, the most powerful, the most benevolent nation that has ever been. It’s not even close.”
His description of the Democrats will not surprise you, if you’ve heard Johnson speak before:
The radical, woke progressive left has disdain for those principles, all right? They have a very different vision for what America should become. They want to tear down those foundations and remold us into some sort of borderless, lawless Marxist socialist utopia. We’re here to say, not on our watch. We will not allow that to happen.
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Steve Scalise, the House majority leader, was wounded in a 2017 shooting targeting Republican lawmakers practicing for a baseball game.
He referenced that experience in his address to the convention, in light of Trump’s own injury on Saturday, when a gunman opened fire at his rally in Pennsylvania.
“Lastly, I need to say something about Saturday’s attempt on President Trump’s life. Many of you know I was the survivor of a politically motivated shooting in 2017. Not many know that while I was fighting for my life, Donald Trump was one of the first to come console my family at the hospital,” Scalise said.
“That’s the kind of leader he is – courageous under fire, compassionate towards others. Let’s put Donald Trump back in the White House this November, so we can make America great again.”
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House Republican chair touts role in downfall of college presidents following antisemitism furor
In her speech to the convention, New York representative Elise Stefanik, who chairs the GOP conference in the House of Representatives, took credit for the ousting of university presidents following a hearing she convened on antisemitism last year.
The committee hearing, held about two months after Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, led to the resignation of University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill, and of Harvard University president Claudine Gay, who also faced accusations of plagiarism.
“Who saw that congressional hearing with the college presidents of so-called elite universities? Oh, wait, they are former presidents,” Stefanik asked.
Stefanik continued:
You know, I asked one simple question at that hearing. It was not a political question, it was a moral question, and that was this: does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university’s code of conduct? And one after the other, after the other said, it depends on the context. Let me tell you, America knows it does not depend on the context.
President Trump will bring back moral leadership to the White House, condemning antisemitism and standing strong with Israel and the Jewish people.
Here’s more on that contentious hearing:
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Hung Cao, the candidate for senate in Virginia, began his speech by banging repeatedly on the podium.
It was unsettling, but that was the point: Cao said he was imitating the knock on the door from communist forces that his parents feared growing up amid the Vietnam war. He then got the crowd fired up, by saying immigrants must assimilate when they come to the US.
“Let me be very clear to everyone who comes here: don’t ask for the American dream if you’re not willing to obey the American laws and embrace the American culture,” Cao said, sparking chants of: “USA! USA! USA!”
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Sam Brown, the Republican running against Democratic senator Jacky Rosen in Nevada, suffered severe burns while serving with the army in Afghanistan.
He referenced the scars left by those burns in his speech to the convention:
Look at my face. This is the high cost of war. If Joe Biden stays in office, more service members will pay this price. He has brought our nation humiliation, defeat, and to the brink of more war. I’ve been through the fire, President Trump has been through the fire, but hope has not been extinguished. It is reignited, and we are more united than ever to save America’s future.
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Meanwhile, at least one convention attendee was caught wearing what looks like a replica of the bandage Donald Trump has on his ear after being struck by a gunman’s bullet at his rally on Saturday:
Spotted at the RNC pic.twitter.com/cpay5G9LKC
— The Recount (@therecount) July 16, 2024
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Jim Justice, the West Virginia governor poised to win the strongly Republican state’s open senate seat in November, captured the convention crowd’s heart by bringing his English bulldog, Babydog, on stage.
“Babydog’s got a prediction for everybody here, and here’s the prediction: Babydog says we will retain the House, the majority in the House. We are going to flip the United States Senate and overwhelmingly, we’re going to elect Donald J Trump and JD Vance in November,” Justice said.
Justice is running for the seat left open by Joe Manchin, the Democratic-turned-independent senator who, before retiring, was a major thorn in the side of Joe Biden during negotiations that led to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.
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GOP turns spotlight on candidates for crucial Senate seats on second night of convention
In addition to getting Donald Trump back in the White House, Republicans really want to retake the majority in the US Senate in the November elections, and have dedicated much of the convention tonight thus far to promoting their candidates for crucial seats.
In addition to Kari Lake, who is vying for Arizona’s open senate seat, the convention has heard from Eric Hovde, the party’s candidate to beat incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin. Here’s what Hovde told the crowd:
Tammy Baldwin called the Biden administration the most successful in generations. Can you believe that one? I mean, seriously, this shows how detached she is from everyday Wisconsinites. It doesn’t have to be this way. Under President Trump, family budgets were more secure, our border was secure, our world was secure. Where Biden and Baldwin have failed, President Trump and I will get the job done.
Next up was Bernie Moreno, the Republican candidate to beat Sherrod Brown in Ohio. Brown is a top target for Republicans this year, since Ohio has become increasingly conservative over the past decade. In his speech, Moreno described himself as a child of Colombian immigrants who is seeing his American dream destroyed by Democratic policies:
I love America, and I’ve lived the American dream. I married my best friend, raised a family, built successful businesses and created thousands of jobs for hard-working Americans. But the American dream that I lived is under attack from Joe Biden and his enablers in the Senate like Sherrod Brown.
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Earlier in the day, Chris LaCivita, the co-manager of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, gave an extremely confident assessment of the state of the race, underscoring how good the campaign feels about its chances.
“We have nearly 20 paths to get to where we need to get,” he said at a brunch hosted by Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service in downtown Milwaukee. “They have one, maybe two,” he continued, referring to the Biden campaign.
LaCivita, who spoke for about an hour as anti-abortion protesters could be heard outside, said the campaign would deploy JD Vance, Trump’s newly minted running mate, across the country.
“As young as he is, he’s going to be everywhere,” he said. “We have a very, very aggressive schedule for him. He communicates I think really well.”
LaCivita also distanced Trump from Project 2025, the Heritage Campaign’s [sic] extensive and radical plan to reshape the federal government in a possible second Trump term.
“The left is all of a sudden focused on this Project 2025 crap, which we had been attacking relentlessly for months,” he said. “Then the boss was like: ‘OK, I’ve had enough,’ because apparently he wanted to start nuclear testing again, but no one told him.
“A lot of my friends in the media love to find somebody that used to work for Trump or had a cousin who worked for Donald Trump who’s come up with a policy that they’re gonna let the aliens walk around.”
He also said that Americans didn’t need Project 2025 to know what Trump would do as president: “I always tell people, if you want to know what a Trump second term would look like, just look at the first.”
He also described efforts to remove Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee as a “coup” and said campaign messaging wouldn’t change much if a new nominee took over the Democratic ticket. There has been some reporting that the Trump campaign strongly favors Biden staying in the race
Asked about his hopes for a second debate, LaCivita said “can’t wait” and that the campaign wanted a third debate to be added to the schedule.
He also didn’t share much about what Trump will say in his speech on Thursday.
“Should be a great show, that’s for sure,” he said. “Not a whole lot of doubt about that.”
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Kari Lake media attack welcomed by loud applause in convention hall
Kari Lake was welcomed to the stage at the Republican national convention with loud applause – which grew even louder as she attacked the journalists in the arena.
“Hello, America! Welcome, everybody who’s watching at home, and welcome, everybody in this great arena tonight. We love you all,” said Lake, who failed in her bid for Arizona governor in 2022, and is now running for its open senate seat.
“Actually, actually, wait a minute, I don’t mean that. I don’t welcome everybody … in this room. You guys up there in the fake news have worn out your welcome. You’ve worn it out,” she said, to another wave of claps.
Lake then moved on to attacking Joe Biden and Ruben Gallego, the Democratic representative vying to win Arizona’s senate seat.
“Americans are waking up to the truth about the disastrous Democrat policies pushed by Joe Biden and his favorite congressman, my opponent, Ruben Gallego,” Lake said.
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Before Kari Lake‘s speech at the Republican national convention tonight, her opponent in the Arizona Senate race, Democratic representative Ruben Gallego, released a new attack ad against her.
The ad highlights Lake’s baseless claims of election fraud in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race, which she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
“As Arizonans tune into the RNC convention, they’ll be reminded that Kari Lake will say anything to get power – even if it means lying to Arizonans and undermining our elections,” said Hannah Goss, Gallego’s spokesperson.
“Lake remains focused only on herself – not Arizona families – which is exactly why voters will reject her at the ballot box yet again this year.”
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Several Republican Senate candidates in key battleground states – including Kari Lake of Arizona, Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania and Eric Hovde of Wisconsin – will deliver remarks at the Republican national convention tonight.
The candidates will play a crucial role in Republicans’ plan to regain control of the upper chamber of Congress, and Senate Democrats’ campaign arm is already out with a statement attacking tonight’s speakers.
“Republicans’ roster of flawed Senate recruits offers something to repel every kind of voter,” said David Bergstein, communications director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “Nothing these candidates say on stage will change the fact that their ever-growing list of scandals, baggage and vulnerabilities make them unelectable in their states.”
A recent set of polls conducted by YouGov showed Democratic Senate candidates consistently running ahead of Joe Biden in battleground states, buoying the party’s hopes of maintaining their narrow majority in the upper chamber.
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Biden has reportedly consulted with Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School, following the supreme court’s July ruling that Trump has “absolute immunity” for official acts.
The Washington Post confirmed that Tribe had spoken to Biden, but Tribe did not confirm details of their discussion. Tribe did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for confirmation and comment.
In a Guardian opinion piece, Tribe endorsed supreme court reforms:
My main takeaways from this shameful decision are three: first, there is a compelling need for supreme court reform, including a plan to impose an enforceable ethics code and term limits and possibly create several added seats to offset the way Trump as president stacked the court to favor his Maga agenda; second, we should start planning for a constitutional amendment of the sort I have advocated in the New York Times to create a federal prosecutorial arm structurally independent of the presidency; and third, we need a constitutional amendment adding to article I, section 9’s ban on titles of nobility and foreign emoluments a provision expressly stating that nothing in the constitution may be construed to confer any immunity from criminal prosecution by reason of a defendant’s having held any office under the United States – and a provision forbidding use of the pardon power to encourage the person pardoned to commit a crime that the president is unable to commit personally.
Amending the constitution to address problems the supreme court creates needn’t take long. When the court prevented Congress from lowering the voting age to 18 in state along with federal elections in Oregon v Mitchell, it took under seven months for us to adopt the 26th amendment to repair that blunder. And the court can overturn its own egregiously wrong decisions quickly, as it did in 1943 when it overturned a 1940 ruling letting states force children to salute the flag against their religious convictions in West Virginia state board of education v Barnette. As Justice Felix Frankfurter once wrote: ‘Wisdom too often never comes, so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.’ Trump v United States isn’t just unwise. It’s a betrayal of the constitution. Overturning it should be an issue in this November’s election.
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Biden plans to announce support for supreme court ethics code, term limits - report
Joe Biden is planning to announce his endorsement for supreme court term limits and other major reforms of the country’s highest court, according to a report from the Washington Post.
The president is expected to soon call for legislation to establish an enforceable ethics code for the supreme court, and will weigh whether to call for a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad immunity for presidents and other constitutional officeholders, the Post reports, citing anonymous sources.
The report has not yet been independently verified by the Guardian. If Biden does announce support for such reforms, it would be a radical shift for a president who has previously resisted calls from progressive lawmakers to reform the supreme court.
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JD Vance’s close ties to the fossil fuels industry and eagerness to please Donald Trump pose a major threat to Americans and the planet, environmental advocates have warned.
The Republican nominee for vice-president, a wealthy venture capitalist who was elected to the US Senate in 2022, went from voicing concern about the climate crisis before running for political office to voting to roll back environmental protections and to repeal landmark climate legislation boosting renewables and electric vehicles.
“The selection of JD Vance as a potential vice-president is a dangerous step backward for climate action in the United States,” said Cassidy DiPaola, spokesperson for Fossil Free Media’s Make Polluters Pay campaign. “Senator Vance’s record shows a clear pattern of prioritizing fossil fuel interests over the urgent need to address the climate crisis.”
The Ohio senator – who once was a strident critic of Trump – has received $340,289 from the oil and gas industry in campaign contributions since 2019 and is among the top industry benefactors so far this election cycle, according to OpenSecrets, a campaign finance watchdog site.
“JD Vance not only flip-flopped on supporting Trump, he flip-flopped on climate,” said Stevie O’Hanlon, communications director for the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led environmental justice group. “Vance will empower Donald Trump to enact even worse damage on our planet in a second Trump administration.”
The Ohio senator has questioned the role of humans and fossil fuels in global heating, despite the overwhelming scientific consensus. “I’m skeptical of the idea that climate change is caused purely by man,” Vance told the American Leadership Forum during the Senate race, as he sought Trump’s endorsement.
In his home state, Vance has become an outspoken champion of hydraulic fracking, a highly polluting process that involves injecting water, sand and toxic chemicals into the ground to extract hard-to-reach oil and gas.
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On Tuesday, Republicans are expected to focus their attention on crime and immigration, as the theme of the day will be “Make America Safe Once Again”.
Immigration reform has become a rallying cry for Republicans, with Trump and his allies repeatedly and falsely accusing Biden of supporting “open borders”.
Trump has previously called for the deportation of 15 million to 20 million undocumented immigrants if he wins re-election, and Vance voiced his own support for mass deportation in an interview with the Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday.
“We have to deport people,” Vance told Hannity. “We have to deport people who broke our laws who came in here. And I think we need to start with the violent criminals.”
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Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio among speakers on day two of the Republican national convention
Welcome to our rolling coverage of US politics.
The Republican national convention is now under way with Donald Trump as the party’s official presidential nominee and Ohio senator JD Vance as his running mate. Tonight’s theme is “Make America Safe Once Again”. Speakers are expected to promote Trump’s vision for extreme crackdowns against immigrants at the US border, including mass deportations and detention camps.
Tonight, a number of Trump’s former foes, including Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, will address supporters at the RNC as the party strives to show unity following the attempted assassination of the former president last weekend.
Haley, who ran against Trump in the primaries and said the former president was unelectable and unfit for office, had not been expected to speak and two days ago said she had not been invited.
Mike Johnson, the House speaker, and Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who was passed over to be the Republican vice-presidential nominee, will also be speaking at the convention today.
The former first lady, Melania Trump, is expected to attend on Thursday, when her husband will formally accept his party’s presidential nomination, NBC reported, citing a senior Trump campaign official. She has been notably absent from the campaign trail, though she issued a statement on Saturday after the former president was shot in the ear in an assassination attempt.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is quietly moving ahead with plans to formally nominate Joe Biden as the party’s presidential candidate weeks before the Democratic national convention next month, according to a report. Party chiefs are moving to kill off efforts to force Biden from the party’s presidential ticket by rushing ahead with plans for convention delegates to vote electronically in a week-long roll call starting in late July, Axios reported.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate, said he is interested in filling the Ohio Senate seat occupied by JD Vance, if the Trump-Vance ticket wins in the presidential election this November and Vance, a US senator from Ohio, has to relinquish his seat. He was a peer of Vance’s at Yale Law School.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, running for the White House as an independent candidate, has apologized to Donald Trump after footage of a private phone call between the two was leaked online. In the video of RJK Jr standing with his phone talking to Trump, the former president can be heard discussing the assassination attempt on him at the weekend. Trump described the bullet that grazed his ear as feeling like “the world’s largest mosquito”. Trump can also be heard criticizing vaccines, with RFK Jr being known as a vehement anti-vaxxer, and telling Kennedy that “we’re going to win” the election in November.
Follow along for live coverage.
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