The Daily 202: Trump puts fresh spin on ‘law and order’ during Republican convention

With that, the president launched into a 50-minute monologue that set the tone for the four-night convention, which he is stage-managing and will conclude Thursday night with a fireworks show over the Washington Monument.

After warning that Democrats are against guns, gasoline and God – in that order – the president accused his opponents of spying on him in 2016 and preparing to perpetrate massive voter fraud to win this November.

“They’re trying to steal the election,” the president said, offering no evidence. “Now we’re in courts all over the country, and hopefully we have judges that are going to give it a fair call. Because if they give it a fair call, we’re going to win this election. The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election.”

Moments later, Trump boasted about the number of friendly judges he has appointed, including Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. “Some presidents have had none,” he said. “I have had two in a relatively short period of time. I will tell you: The next one could have two, three, four and even five.”

Monday illustrated the extent to which Trump is counting on the courts as part of his broader reelection strategy and to drag out scrutiny of his personal finances. He has been known to turn often to the courts throughout his career: Attorney James Zirin called Trump the “Plaintiff in Chief” in a book by that name last year. He painted a portrait of the president, based on his role in 3,500 lawsuits, as someone who learned from his mentor Roy Cohn to see the law “not as a system of rules to be obeyed … but as a potent weapon to be used against his adversaries.”

Not long ago, conservatives professed to loathe litigiousness. In 2004, Republicans mercilessly mocked John Edwards for being a trial lawyer when Democratic candidate John Kerry put him on the ticket. On Monday, the GOP gave a prime-time platform to White personal injury lawyers.

Both face a felony charge for unlawful use of a weapon after brandishing guns toward Black protesters who were walking down their street toward a protest outside the home of the mayor of St. Louis.

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

Patricia McCloskey, his wife, accused Democratic candidate Joe Biden of wanting to “abolish” the suburbs by supporting a desegregation regulation aimed at enforcing the Fair Housing Act. “No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America,” she said, sitting on a couch in their large house in a gated community.

For more than two hours on Monday, the proceedings exuded this kind of grievance and apocalyptic rhetoric about Democrats. “They want to destroy this country and everything that we have fought for and hold dear. They want to steal your liberty, your freedom. They want to control what you see and think and believe, so they can control how you live,” said Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News personality who is on the Trump campaign’s payroll. “They want to enslave you to the weak, dependent, liberal, victim ideology, to the point that you will not recognize this country or yourself.” She described the current president as an emancipator.

“Joe Biden is basically the Loch Ness monster of the Swamp,” added Donald Trump Jr., who is dating Guilfoyle. “This election is shaping up to be church, work and school versus rioting, looting and vandalism. … Imagine the life you want to have, one with a great job, a beautiful home, a perfect family. You can have it! … It starts by re-electing Donald J. Trump.” 

Will there be a chicken in every pot, as well?

They spoke on Monday night from inside the Andrew Mellon Auditorium, which is just down the street from the Trump hotel in Washington. It is named after the financier who served as Herbert Hoover’s Treasury secretary while the country descended into the Great Depression.

That is also where Eric Trump, the president’s second-oldest son, is scheduled to speak during tonight’s program. A court filing that became public on Monday revealed that the Trump Organization has declined to hand over some documents that had been subpoenaed by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), and that Eric Trump has refused to be interviewed. She has been investigating for 18 months whether the company misled lenders and taxing authorities by improperly inflating the value of its assets.

“Eric Trump — now the day-to-day leader of his father’s company — agreed to an interview, and then canceled two days before, according to the filing. He has declined to set another date, citing ‘rights afforded to every individual under the Constitution’ to justify refusing the subpoena for an interview,” David Fahrenthold, Jonathan O’Connell and Joshua Partlow report. “In addition, James said, Trump’s company has declined to produce any documentation to show it had paid the proper taxes when one of its lenders forgave more than $100 million of debt on the Trump hotel in Chicago. James asked a New York state judge to order Eric Trump and the Trump Organization — which is based in New York — to comply with the subpoenas.”

Eric Trump responded to the filing by accusing James of politically motivated harassment. “How could I ever possibly trust the legitimacy of a subpoena sent by someone who publicly campaigned on taking down my father and using her office to harass our family,” he said in a statement. “She has called his presidency ‘illegitimate.’”

“The president is going to talk to you about law and order. That’s laughable. Virtually everyone who worked for his campaign has been convicted of a crime or is under indictment, myself included,” former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen said in a new ad, which he recorded for the Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century. 

Trump holds an edge on the crime issue, amid a summer of protests and the national racial reckoning that was set in motion by the killing of George Floyd in police custody on Memorial Day. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll published last week, which showed Biden ahead by 12 points overall, registered voters were asked whether things would be better, worse or the same under the Democratic candidate on five issues. Biden had significant advantages on responding to the coronavirus, race relations and health care. But, on the question of safety from crime, perceptions of what a Biden presidency might mean were not favorable: 25 percent said things would be better, and 32 percent said they would be worse.

This playbook worked for him in 2016. “Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities,” Donald Trump declared four years ago during his acceptance speech at the Republican convention in Cleveland. “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.”

This approach also worked in 1988 against Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis when then-vice president George H.W. Bush trailed by double digits. Biden, who competed with Dukakis for the Democratic nomination, has never forgotten the Willie Horton ad. That was one of the motivations for being so tough on crime during the early 1990s when he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Trump campaign seeks to yet again prey on people’s fears, rather than appeal to their hopes. “The woke-topians will disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home and invite MS-13 to live next door, and the police aren’t coming when you call,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

“I truly believe the safety of your kids depends on whether this man is reelected,” said Andrew Pollack, whose daughter was killed in the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

“Trump is the bodyguard of Western civilization,” said Charlie Kirk, who runs Turning Point USA, a pro-Trump student organization, in the opening speech of the evening program.

In her speech, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley alluded to taking down the Confederate flag from the state capitol after a 2015 massacre at a Black church in Charleston. But Haley, who went on to serve as Trump’s U.N. ambassador, never mentioned the flag itself. She only referred to it as a “divisive symbol.” Perhaps this is because the president has defended Confederate monuments. Indeed, other speakers decried taking down statues.

But the convention’s opening night was chock full of contradictions. Some speakers attacked Biden for the mass incarceration of African Americans while others attacked him for wanting to defund the police and let convicts out on the streets. This is part of a pattern: The Trump campaign is trying to have it both ways. In the same media markets, for example, commercials are attacking Biden during shows popular with Black audiences as too tough on crime while attack ads air on shows popular with Whites that portray the former vice president as too soft on crime. In fact, Trump’s budget proposed cutting funding for law enforcement while Biden has advocated for increased spending on police.

“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want a cultural revolution, a fundamentally different America,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said in the final speech of the night. “If we let them, they will turn our country into a socialist utopia.”

• Our fact-checkers liken the first night to “a fire hose of false or misleading claims,” mostly drawn from “Trump’s arsenal of falsehoods.” They dissect 19 of the most dubious claims.
• A video tribute to Trump during Monday’s program featured two stock photos that were taken in Thailand. One featured a woman holding a sign that said: “Thank You Doctors & Nurses.” The other showed a lab worker in a bodysuit next to a sign that says “Danger Covid-19 Biohazard,” per Michael Scherer. Last month, the Trump campaign ran a Facebook ad that misrepresented a photo from a 2014 pro-democracy protest in Ukraine as an example of “chaos and violence” on American streets.
• “The Democrats’ roll call showed America’s beauty and diversity,” writes fashion critic Robin Givhan. “The Republicans’ roll call … did not.”
• Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff in Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, launched a group called Repair 45, through which alumni of the administration will work to defeat the president. “Taylor said in a brief interview that he had at least two current administration officials helping his effort,” per Phil Rucker and Josh Dawsey. Meanwhile, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele joined the anti-Trump Lincoln Project as a senior adviser on Monday.
• First lady Melania Trump has spent days crafting her speech for tonight. She is searching for redemption after being accused of plagiarizing Michelle Obama when she spoke in Cleveland four years ago. “The Slovenian native is planning to praise her husband’s agenda and mention her own story of coming to America, emphasizing that she came to the country legally,” Jada Yuan, Mary Jordan and Dawsey report. “[But] she has helped her family members get legal status in America using the visa system Trump disparages as ‘chain migration.’”

“What started as a peaceful demonstration … swiftly evolved into chaos,” Jaclyn Peiser and Mark Guarino report. “Blake survived surgery and is in serious condition, his family said Monday. Monday evening’s demonstration started around 6:30 p.m. with a few hundred people gathered outside the Kenosha County Courthouse. The scene was peaceful, with the crowd chanting and holding signs. But as the citywide curfew neared, sheriff’s deputies appeared in riot gear. At 8 p.m., two military vehicles rolled to the corner of the square as police told the crowd to disperse. When no one budged, police unleashed tear gas, and protesters hurled water bottles and set off firecrackers.”

Blake’s shooting will get an independent investigation, thanks to a 2014 law. Instead of being investigated by the police department, Blake’s case is being reviewed by the Wisconsin Department of Justice, the result of a state law passed after the 2004 death of Michael Bell Jr., a Black man shot by Kenosha police in front of his wife and daughter, Kim Bellware reports. The law was championed by his father, Michael Bell, who on Monday walked throughout the streets of downtown Kenosha holding a picture of his son and reliving his own tragedy. Thanks to the law, heralded by activists nationwide as a way to hold police accountable, Wisconsin became the first state to require an independent investigation any time a police officer kills someone in the line of duty. Still, six years on, Bell and other reform advocates say the law doesn’t go far enough – few investigations since 2015 have led to charges against police who kill members of the public.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) called lawmakers into a special session to act on a package of bills on police brutality. The proposals would “ban police chokeholds and no-knock search warrants and make it harder for overly aggressive officers to move from one job to another,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Republicans control the legislature, and they don’t see eye to eye with Evers on criminal justice. Speaker Robin Vos (R) said he’s forming a task force on racial disparities, public safety and police policies, adding it typically takes months for such groups to develop any recommendations. 

Sports stars in the NFL, NBA and MLB sent a message after Blake’s shooting: “Stop killing unarmed Black people.” LeBron James, the New Orleans Saints’s Michael Thomas and the New York Mets’s Marcus Stroman were among the athletes who called for justice and an investigation. (Cindy Boren and Ben Golliver)

“Falwell agreed to resign from the school’s presidency and board of directors Monday but then reversed course, according to a statement from David M. Corry, the university’s general counsel, telling his attorneys not to tender the letter for immediate resignation,” Susan Svrluga, Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Michelle Boorstein report. “Opposition to his presidency had been growing but came to a dramatic head after two new reports about a young man Falwell and his wife befriended at a Florida pool, went into business with and who allegedly was sexually connected to the couple. One report painted Falwell as the victim of an obsessive affair, the other as an eager participant manipulating a naive young man. On Monday night, Falwell said that a Reuters report, which described him as having watched his wife having sex with another man, is false. …

“Reached by phone Monday night, Falwell said he was not resigning. He referred further questions to his public relations team, who did not comment. According to Corry, a resignation process had begun, and then broke down. … Falwell had been placed on paid leave Aug. 7 after he posted a provocative picture of himself and his wife’s assistant on social media. … Reuters quoted [Giancarlo] Granda as saying that from 2012 until 2018 he had a sexual relationship with Becki Falwell — one about which her husband knew all along.” [He had texts and other messages to back up his claims.]

• Flashback: Falwell said in November 2016 Trump offered him the job of education secretary during a meeting at Trump Tower before giving it to Betsy DeVos. Falwell said he turned it down for unspecified personal reasons.

“DeJoy told lawmakers Monday that the U.S. Postal Service would not undo some of the cost-cutting maneuvers he instituted earlier this summer to restore mail processing capacity before the November election, sparring with Democrats in a heated hearing before the House Oversight Committee,” Jacob Bogage, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Erica Werner and Chris Ingraham report. “Those moves, according to agency employees and postal experts, caused multiday delays in localities across the country, ensnaring ballots in midsummer primary elections, causing food to rot inside packages in Los Angeles and depriving residents in parts of Philadelphia of mail delivery for weeks at a time, among other slowdowns. … DeJoy told Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) that he contacted people close to Trump or his reelection campaign to ask that he stop discussing the Postal Service, as the president’s remarks harmed the agency.”

The Trump megadonor reiterated that nearly 700 high-speed mail sorting machines removed across in recent months would not be reinstalled; neither would dozens of blue collection boxes. Last month, DeJoy mandated that trucks that transport mail from processing facilities to distribution centers adhere to stricter schedules, leaving mail behind if they were running late or it had yet to be sorted. He also ordered that mail handlers depart for their routes sooner even if mail had not arrived. 

Here are a few of the key exchanges from the six-hour hearing:

• Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) asked: “Is your backup plan to be pardoned, like Roger Stone?” DeJoy declined to answer.
• Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) asked: “Will you put the machines back?” DeJoy answered: “I will not.”
• Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) cited machines from postal processing plants in her district that postal workers want restored. She displayed a photograph of one machine with its power cord dangling from the ceiling. Would DeJoy authorize plant managers to turn machines back on if local authorities think it’s necessary? “No,” he said.
• Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) asked DeJoy if he knew the price of multiple routine postage items. The only two items he could name were the price of a first-class stamp (55 cents) and the weight limit for priority mail (70 pounds).
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) asked DeJoy to provide the committee access to his calendar from the date he started as postmaster general in mid-June. DeJoy balked: “I don’t know. … I don’t want to set a precedent for my calendar to be submitted every two months.” Ocasio-Cortez told DeJoy the calendar was public record and suggested the committee might have to subpoena it.

“The assertion was breathtaking: Out of 100 people who suffered from the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, 35 were saved by the injection of antibody-rich plasma from people who had survived the disease. That’s how Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn described the blood product’s effectiveness on Sunday at a news conference at the White House, when Trump announced the agency was authorizing use of the plasma on an emergency basis to treat covid-19. … But the 35-out-of-100 claim wasn’t accurate,” Laurie McGinley, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Lenny Bernstein report. “The FDA commissioner appeared to have mixed up absolute risk and relative risk, which are basic concepts in economics and in the presentation of data from clinical trials. ‘I’m absolutely incredulous,’ said Peter Lurie, a former top FDA official and now the president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. On Monday night, Hahn in a tweet acknowledged he had misspoken during the news briefing about the findings of the convalescent plasma study… ‘The criticism is entirely justified,’ Hahn wrote.” 

• Tony Fauci told Reuters it’s “absolutely paramount that you definitively show that a vaccine is safe and effective” before granting emergency use authorization. “One of the potential dangers if you prematurely let a vaccine out is that it would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the other vaccines to enroll people in their trial,” Fauci said. 

“Circuit Court Judge Charles Dodson, in a 16-page decision, granted the request in a lawsuit filed by the Florida Education Association (FEA) to block the order issued July 6 by state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran compelling schools to reopen five days a week for families who did not want their children to do all virtual learning. Districts were threatened with loss of state funding if they did not comply,” Valerie Strauss reports. “But late Monday, state officials filed an appeal, which put a stay on the preliminary injunction. Lawyers for the FEA said they would file a motion to reinstate the judge’s ruling … The appeal by the state means that school districts cannot immediately move to change their reopening plans for starting the 2020-2021 school year without state permission.” 

Maskless crowds packed bars and lined up to enter house parties in college towns across the country over the weekend, raising further doubts about schools’ plans to bring students back to campus. In Tempe, Ariz., dozens of young people milled outside a house party near Arizona State University. In Iowa City, a reporter from the Gazette found most bars near the University of Iowa weren’t enforcing distancing rules. Pullman, Wash., saw an increase in cases among Washington State University students living off-campus. Many of the cases could be traced back to gatherings on the university’s Greek Row, according to the Seattle Times. Ohio State University suspended 228 students in one of its largest crackdowns on coronavirus violations. Classes haven’t even started, but the students were accused of violating rules on social distancing, mask-wearing and large gatherings, per Hannah Knowles.

• A handful of Ohio lawmakers are seeking to impeach Republican Gov. Mike DeWine – a member of their own party – over his handling of the pandemic, claiming the state’s mask mandate turned the state into a “hostile work environment.” (Hannah Knowles)
• The NFL said zero players tested positive for the virus after a weekend scare in which 77 positive tests turned out to be, according to the company running the program, “most likely false positive results.” (Mark Maske) 
• The Miami Dolphins plan to allow 13,000 fans at games in their Hard Rock Stadium. That’s not sitting well with Buffalo Bills Coach Sean McDermott, whose team is set to visit its division rival in Week 2. McDermott complained that different fan policies unlevel the playing field. Per orders from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), Buffalo is not permitted to have fans at its stadium. (Des Bieler) 
• D.C. urged visitors to use caution this week as the capital expects to host thousands for political and civil rights demonstrations. Organizers say a fireworks display on Thursday marking the end of the Republican National Convention could draw supporters and protesters. That will be followed by nearly a dozen demonstrations on Friday championing an overhaul of the criminal justice system. (Michael Brice-Saddler, Justin Moyer, Gregory Schneider and Dana Hedgpeth) 

“Few here in Texas’s lower Rio Grande Valley have been left untouched by the pandemic’s lethal reach, as the virus has ripped through the border region, infecting tens of thousands of people and killing more than 1,500 just in the months after Texas thought it had escaped the virus’s grip and started to reopen,” Arelis Hernandez reports. “The region of more than 1.2 million people in four counties accounts for approximately 15 percent of all of the state’s virus-related fatalities. Though the governor has surged resources here, the pandemic has plunged the Valley into a state of perpetual grief. ‘We just can’t take another emotional step,’ said Ivan Melendez, Hidalgo County’s health authority and a practicing doctor in McAllen. ‘There’s not been one day in the last three months that someone hasn’t asked me: ‘Did you hear who died?’’” 

• The CDC dropped the 14-day self-quarantine recommendation for international and out-of-state travelers. The CDC is now offering “after-travel” recommendations based on individual countries. A map of country-specific health information can be found on the CDC website. (Shannon McMahon)
• German researchers held a large indoor concert during the pandemic as part of a study to gather data on crowded indoor events. Researchers want to identify approaches that could allow concerts and other events to resume safely. All 1,400 audience members were fitted with masks and tested negative for the virus before attending. (Rick Noack)
• A sharp drop in cases in the Brazilian city of Manaus sparked questions over collective immunity. Manaus never imposed a lockdown or strict containment measures and virus cases dropped from 1,300 in May to fewer than 300 in August. (Terrence McCoy and Heloisa Traiano)
• Even though the virus has hammered Brazil, with 114,000 deaths and 3.6 million infections, President Jair Bolsonaro is getting more popular. For the first time in more than a year, more Brazilians approve of his performance than disapprove. (Terrence McCoy)
• KFC suspended its 64-year-old “Finger Lickin’ Good” ad campaign for markets outside the U.S. because of the pandemic. Use of the phrase in the U.S. has been paused since March. KFC said it would pause the use of “the most inappropriate slogan of 2020,” given hygiene messaging and preventing measures to curb the virus’s spread. (Hannah Denham)

“Covid-19 cases are proportionally higher and have spread faster in prisons than in the outside population, said Brendan Saloner, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who is studying the issue. Saloner told The Post federal public defenders contacted his team with troubling details from clients. ‘Their contention is that it’s worse in the [Bureau of Prisons] than in the state prisons,’ he said,” Kim Bellware reports. “‘It’s a complete disaster,’ said Rob Norcross, an inmate at the minimum-security satellite camp at FCI Jesup in Georgia. The bureau’s stated guidelines about sanitization and social distancing don’t comport with reality, Norcross said: Prison camp inmates are barred from using hand sanitizer, lack cleaning supplies and have nowhere they can move to to create space.” Kareen Troitino, a Miami Federal Correctional Institution prison guard, said he’s not sure how much more uncertainty his fellow prison workers can take; guards are eligible for retirement at age 50 and plenty are eyeing the door: “All I hear is, ‘As soon as I’m eligible, I’m out.’”

“Marco, the first of what was to be a double-hurricane threat to the U.S. Gulf Coast this week, fell apart Monday as it neared Louisiana, sparing the region — for a few days at least. Louisianans and Texans quickly turned their attention to Tropical Storm Laura, which poses a serious threat to each state as it churns northwest through the exceptionally warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico,” Ashley Cusick, Andrew Freedman and Jason Samenow report. “Computer models suggest that Laura will intensify into a large and dangerous hurricane before it makes landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday somewhere between New Orleans and Corpus Christi. Barring a major change, Laura could smash into the coast with sustained winds of more than 100 mph. Marco’s abatement was particularly appreciated during a trying time in New Orleans, with any need to evacuate complicated by the coronavirus. … In preparation for this week’s storms, New Orleans officials shuttered city hall and closed schools on Monday, many of which had just reopened. …  Several jurisdictions began issuing evacuation orders in Texas and Louisiana ahead of Laura’s arrival, including areas that have been hit hard in previous hurricanes, such as Galveston and Port Arthur, Tex.” 

“As temperatures cooled and winds calmed over the weekend, firefighters gained ground on the LNU Lightning Complex fire, burning across a fatigued wine country north of San Francisco, and the SCU Lightning Complex, which has been threatening the eastern outskirts of San Jose and cities as far south as Gilroy,” Scott Wilson reports. “But forecasts had predicted a new round of so-called dry lightning: thunderstorms that produce little if any rain but much electricity. By midday, though, those storm cells had blown past the Bay Area harmlessly and the National Weather Service canceled a ‘red flag’ fire warning for the region. … The fires have grown to be the second- and third-largest fires in terms of acreage burned in state history. … Firefighters from across the state, as well as the National Guard, have been stretched thin by the number of blazes, which have come well before the state’s traditional peak fire season in the fall.” 

“The decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers marks another reversal for the project, which had been blocked by the Obama administration, then revived by the Trump administration, only to be opposed again recently by members of Trump’s inner circle, including Donald Trump Jr., who enjoys fishing in the area that would be affected by the mine,” Juliet Eilperin and Jeff Stein report. “The Corps said the project as currently designed would not be allowed under federal law. While the Trump administration ‘supports the mining industry,’ the Pebble Mine proposal would be too damaging to the Bristol Bay region in southwest Alaska, the Corps said.” 

The National Park Service may have violated federal law by using taxpayer money for a slick campaign-style ad for Trump, according to watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The video, posted by the Interior Department, features an urgent musical score and dramatic images. It was meant to announce the passage of a new law related to national parks. The new law, however, is never identified.

The Missouri couple that made national headlines for pointing their weapons at Black Lives Matter protesters spoke during the Republican convention. They complained about the Marxist revolutionaries who they said threatened their house, which looks like this:

The former communications director for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) had this take on Kim Guilfoyle’s caffeinated speech:

A former top strategist for California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Guilfoyle’s ex-husband, piled on:

A Post reporter highlighted a few of the contradictions in Haley’s speech:

This is how Joe Biden’s granddaughter interpreted the first night of the GOP convention:

Trump’s deposed campaign manager, who was tasked with making videos for the GOP convention after being demoted, complained that Fox News was not airing said videos. Instead, Fox aired Tucker Carlson while cutting in and out of the convention:

Trump Jr. shared this picture of himself with Red Bulls and roses before he recorded his speech:

And Ocasio-Cortez credited her cross-examination skills to her experience as a bartender:

Stephen Colbert joked that the themes of this year’s Republican convention are “famine, pestilence, war and death”:

Trevor Noah said the GOP roll call was beautiful – “in a different kind of way”: