LiveUpdated Aug. 26, 2020, 10:55 a.m. ET
Aug. 26, 2020, 10:55 a.m. ET
The president and other speakers blurred longstanding lines between government and electoral politics. Vice President Mike Pence is headlining tonight.
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A speech by the first lady touched on race relations as the White House was used for political purposes. It also was the first time a sitting secretary of state addressed a national political convention in at least 75 years.CreditCredit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
In an abrupt swerve from the dire tone of the Republican National Conventions first night, Tuesday featured President Trump and the various speakers including three of his family members painting his presidency as one of inclusion, mercy and harmony, in a grab bag night that seemed aimed at female and minority voters.
In videos recorded at the White House, Mr. Trump pardoned a Nevada man convicted of bank robbery and swore in five new American citizens, all of them people of color, in a miniature naturalization ceremony.
Where the convention on Monday emphasized predictions of social and economic desolation under a government led by Democrats, the speakers on Tuesday hailed the president as a friend to women and a champion of criminal justice reform. There was no effort to reconcile the dissonance between the two nights programs, particularly the shift from Mondays rhetoric about a looming vengeful mob of dangerous criminals into Tuesdays tributes to the power of personal redemption.
Tuesdays programming featured friendships between an F.B.I. investigator and a reformed criminal, a police officer and a drug addict. Anti-abortion activists praised the president for his steps to limit access to abortion. A dairy farmer from Wisconsin, a lobster fisherman from Maine and a mayor from Minnesotas Iron Range cast Mr. Trump as saving their economic livelihoods.
It was not clear whether this new appeal would change the minds of women, minorities and others who formed negative opinions of Mr. Trump over the last five years, amid the allegations of sexual assault against him, the appeals to racial bigotry and hard-line policies like a border crackdown that separated migrant families.
The coronavirus pandemic was largely confined to parenthetical comments within the speeches, until Melania Trump, the first lady, addressed it directly in the final speech Tuesday and extended her deepest sympathy to people who had lost loved ones. Like her husband, Mrs. Trump enlisted the trappings of the presidency for her remarks: She spoke from the White House Rose Garden.
I know many people are anxious and some feel helpless, Mrs. Trump said. I want you to know you are not alone.
Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin
In Charlotte, N.C., a hotel lobby TV broadcasted coverage of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.Credit…Travis Dove for The New York Times
Live (and taped) from Washington, its Tuesday Night.
The Trump presidency has always had the air of a variety show, with every announcement delivered with an eye for how it would appear to a television audience.
But never has a commander in chief wielded the powers of his office so openly at a political convention as President Trump during the second night of the Republican conclave.
With his partys leading lawmakers remaining mute, Mr. Trump used the second night of the convention to issue a pardon and help swear in five new citizens in the White House. That was before his current secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, delivered an endorsement speech from Jerusalem. The evening was topped off by Melania Trump, the first lady, who made the case for her husbands re-election from the Rose Garden.
Some Republicans said that Mr. Trumps dynamiting of the line between campaigning and governing was somewhat understandable in light of the coronavirus, which upended their plans to have the convention first in Charlotte, N.C., and then in Jacksonville, Fla.
But like so much else with this president, once he breaks longstanding political norms, it becomes far easier for his successors to do the same, particularly if they have the consent of their party.
Jonathan Martin
President Trump sought Tuesday to wrap himself in pro-immigrant sentiment even though his administration has waged a yearslong assault on the nations immigration system by presiding over a naturalization ceremony at the White House during the second night of the Republican National Convention.
Using the majesty of the White House for blatantly political purposes, Mr. Trump appeared during the conventions second hour as Hail to the Chief played and strode to a lectern where five immigrants were waiting to take the oath to become citizens.
Today, America rejoices as we welcome five absolutely incredible new members into our great American family, he told them in a 10-minute ceremony that had been taped in the afternoon.
It was not the first time Mr. Trump has presided over such a ceremony. But the willingness to use the trappings of presidential power during a campaign convention was a stunning departure from the past, in which prior presidents have avoided seeming to blur the lines between official actions and political activity.
And Mr. Trumps explicit claim that he loves and appreciates immigrants stands in stark contrast to his record over the past four years, during which he has repeatedly pursued anti-immigrant policies, often fueled by xenophobic language.
The president has largely blocked asylum seekers and refugees fleeing persecution, war and violence. He has built nearly 300 miles of border wall (though without persuading Mexico to pay for it, as he once insisted). He has made it harder for poor people to immigrate to the United States, imposed travel bans on predominantly Muslim countries, and separated migrant children from their parents at the border.
At times, he has used racist messaging, complaining that people from Haiti have AIDS.
That messaging was also at the heart of Mr. Trumps 2016 campaign, when he complained that Mexico was sending rapists and criminals to the United States. At the time, he vowed to build a border wall and used grim and threatening language about immigrants to instill fear in his supporters.
Michael D. Shear and Neil Vigdor
Vice President Mike Pence will be the star of the third night of the Republican National Convention, which will also include speeches from several prominent members of Congress.
Convention proceedings will begin at 9 a.m. Eastern time, but the big speeches will happen from 8:30 to 11 p.m.
- The Times will stream the convention every evening, accompanied by chat-based live analysis from our reporters and real-time highlights from the speeches.
- The official livestream will be available on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch and Amazon Prime.
- ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News will cover the convention from 10 to 11 p.m. every night; CNN from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.; MSNBC from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.; PBS from 8 to 11 p.m.; and C-SPAN at 9 a.m. and then at 8:30 p.m.
Whos speaking:
- Vice President Mike Pence
- Karen Pence, the second lady
- Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee
- Jack Brewer, a former N.F.L. player who made headlines earlier this year for calling Mr. Trump the first Black president
- Sister Dede Byrne, a surgeon, retired Army colonel and member of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary religious order
- Madison Cawthorn, the Republican nominee in North Carolinas 11th Congressional District
- Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trumps counselor
- Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas
- Scott Dane, executive director of the Associated Contract Loggers and Truckers of Minnesota
- Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa
- Richard Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence
- Clarence Henderson, who participated in the 1960 lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, N.C.
- Former Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Mr. Pences national security adviser
- Michael McHale, president of the National Association of Police Organizations
- Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota
- Burgess Owens, the Republican nominee in Utahs Fourth Congressional District
- Representative Elise Stefanik of New York
- Lara Trump, a campaign adviser to Mr. Trump and the wife of his son Eric
- Representative Lee Zeldin of New York
Maggie Astor
Cindy McCain, the widow of the Republican senator John McCain, appeared last week in a video at the Democratic National Convention detailing her husbands unlikely friendship with Joseph R. Biden Jr. She praised Mr. Biden, the Democratic nominee, for his willingness to reach across the aisle, calling it a style of legislating and leadership that you dont find much anymore.
Before the clip aired, Kelli Ward, the chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, who in 2016 lost a bitter Senate primary challenge to Mr. McCain, filmed her own video to share her thoughts on Mrs. McCains appearance. Well, I just say: Not a Republican, Ms. Ward asserted as her husband, wearing a red Make America Great Again hat, nodded alongside her.
Those dueling images the widow of Arizonas most popular Republican since Barry Goldwater lauding the Democratic presidential nominees character, and the state partys current leader denouncing her in response as a pretend Republican who wants to cause the destruction of this great nation succinctly reflected the political identity crisis currently unfolding in Arizona.
The partys rightward lurch in the Trump era has left a growing number of Republicans in the state disenchanted and caused Arizona, a longtime Republican stronghold, to suddenly resemble a battleground.
Thats in large part because of women: In 2018, 16 percent of Republican women broke with their party to help make Kyrsten Sinema the states first Democratic senator since 1995. Most strategists in the state believe President Trumps chances there in November hinge on bringing such voters back into the fold.
And if the tenor of the Republican National Convention is any indication early speeches on the partys commitment to protecting quiet neighborhoods, and a Wednesday lineup of prominent Republican women including Kellyanne Conway, Karen Pence and Joni Ernst Mr. Trump is beginning to agree.
In Arizona, Mrs. McCain serves as an avatar of sorts for many Republican women educated suburbanites, including lifelong party members who have perhaps felt alienated by the partys Trumpist turn. But Ms. Ward, a devout Trump loyalist who dabbles in the occasional conspiracy theory, more closely resembles the kind of voter the party is devoting its resources to instead.
It is the state-level iteration of Mr. Trumps national strategy, targeting core supporters even as Mr. Biden aggressively courts moderate Republican and independent women in states that were critical to the presidents success in 2016. And for now, at least in Arizona, Mr. Trumps approach is not working so well. Recent polls show Mr. Biden leading the president by as many as seven percentage points.
Elaina Plottread more
