The national GOP convention is under way in Cleveland, Ohio. Politics reporter Jim Brunner is sending frequent updates from the event. Follow along live.
This is a live account from Day 1 of the convention. Go here for live updates from Day 2.
READ THE STORY FROM DAY 1: State’s anti-Trump delegates in failed rebellion
The basics:
- The 2016 Republican National Convention runs July 18-21 in Cleveland, Ohio. A simple majority of the 2,472 delegates is needed to win a presidential nomination.
- GOP leaders approve convention rules by voice vote, reject demands for roll call vote.
- Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee, despite rumblings of a rebellion.
- Large protests are expected during the course of the convention.
Update, 9:50 p.m.:
News outlets started reporting that two passages of Melania Trump’s speech Monday night matched nearly word-for-word the speech that first lady Michelle Obama delivered in 2008 at the Democratic National Convention. Here is the full story.
Update, 9:05 p.m.:
Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana was the last speaker Monday night. The congressman spoke to a largely empty hall because the program ran late and most of the crowd had left after Melania Trump’s headlining speech.
Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, said with a Donald Trump administration, “If we go to war, we’ll go to war to win.” He blamed Clinton for many of the country’s security challenges.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Update, 7:23 p.m.:
Trump just introduced his wife, Melania Trump, to the stage. She’s the night’s headliner and the first of several of Trump’s family members on the list of speakers this week.
In her remarks, Melania Trump recounted how she became a U.S. citizen and cited “the love in the Trump family.” She gave testimony to Donald Trump’s character, saying that she and her husband “love America very much” and that she, more than anyone, knows what she’s calling the “the simple goodness” of her husband’s heart.
“He does not give up,” she said of her husband’s attitude toward getting business projects finished. “He will never, ever let you down.”
She drew loud ovations for the speech, and immediately afterwards, Donald Trump greeted her on stage. Queen’s “We are the Champions” played as the couple exited the stage.
Melania Trump was not the last speaker of the night, though many members of the crowd left once she finished.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Update, 6:40 p.m.:
Colorado U.S. Senate candidate Darryl Glenn just spoke to the crowd. Meanwhile, Trump posted an Instagram video of his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, arriving at the arena with his wife, Karen Pence.
The Indiana governor will not give his speech until Wednesday.
Back inside, the sheriff of Milwaukee County in Wisconsin energized delegates by declaring, “Blue lives matter in this country.”
Sheriff David Clarke, a Donald Trump supporter, made the night’s most explicit reference to the recent deaths of two black men at the hands of police officers and the slaying of officers in Texas and Louisiana.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, though, received the biggest cheers of the night. He gave a forceful defense of law enforcement, saying that when police officers “come to save your life, they don’t ask if you are black and white, they just come to save you.”
Giuliani has been critical of those who protest against police, including those involved with the group Black Lives Matter.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Update, 5:40 p.m.:
The convention’s program Monday night had a strong focus on the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, an issue that Republicans have pressed for years against Clinton, claiming her negligence contributed to the Americans’ death.
Pat Smith, the mother of one of the four Americans killed in the attack, took the stage Monday night. She told the crowd she blames Clinton “personally” for her son’s death.
“If Hillary Clinton can’t give us the truth, why should we give her the presidency?” Smith said.
Update, 5:20 p.m.:
The first night session is underway. Melania Trump is the headliner. She’ll speak at the end of the evening’s festivities, and Trump is expected to introduce her.
The star of the TV show “Duck Dynasty,” Willie Robertson, was the first speaker Monday night.
He told the crowd of more than 2,000 delegates that Trump is the presidential candidate who will best support the military and the nation’s police officers. Robertson playfully criticized the news media, too, hitting them “for missing the Trump train.”
Television actor Scott Baio spoke soon after him, saying “our country is in a very bad spot” and that “we need Donald Trump to fix this.” He bashed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for feeling “entitled” to the presidency.
The former star of “Charles in Charge” and “Happy Days” is an outspoken advocate on social media for conservative causes.
Baio is one of the bigger stars among the speakers at the convention — part of what Trump has suggested would be “a showbiz convention.”
Retired Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell drew cheers and shouts of “thank you” from the crowd when he took the stage. He co-wrote the book “Lone Survivor” about a 2005 gun battle in Afghanistan, an incident that later was made into a movie.
Luttrell praised Trump’s commitment to the military and somewhat touched on the recent violence against police officers — telling delegates that the nation’s “next war is here.”
And in a reference to the Black Lives Matter movement, Luttrell said: “In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.”
— The Associated Press
Update, 5:10 p.m.
A judge has warned the Ohio college student who is charged with rushing the stage at a Donald Trump rally in March to stay away from the convention, despite the student’s request to attend.
Update, 3:30 p.m.
Susan Hutchison, the chairperson of the Washington State Republican Party and former TV reporter, said the convention will yield “fun drama to watch unfold” after the campaign season began with more than a dozen GOP candidates. But she said she was confident the party will coalesce by the end of the week.
“Times have changed. We have a very new and different kind of a candidate that we’re going to be putting forth at the end of this week,” she said. “I’m excited to see how it all comes together.”
Update, 2:48 p.m.
Anti-Trump delegates from Washington state were in the middle of a convention drama Monday afternoon, as they tried and failed to force a roll call, state-by-state vote on whether to change convention rules. It was the last gasp for the so-called “dump Trump” effort by some GOP dissidents.
Boos and shouts of “Roll call! Roll call!” erupted from supporters of the effort to alter the rules so that delegates would not be bound by the primary and caucus results from their states. The fracas came after GOP leaders first ruled that a voice vote had enough support to approve the rules – though that was not apparent from the loud votes from the “nay” side.
Then delegates asked for a roll-call based on petitions signed by members of several state delegations demanding the extra step. But RNC officials ruled the petitions had fallen short, saying some signatories had withdrawn. That was greeted with more chanting and objections from delegates from Washington and other rebellious states. Delegates from Colorado reportedly walked off the floor after the vote.
Eric Minor, a delegate from Gig Harbor and an outspoken critic of Trump, said what happened “was a complete sham.” Minor had spent the last couple days gathering signatures for the roll-call and said RNC officials had unfairly steamrolled the effort in the name of party unity. “It’s a disgrace. It’s a miscarriage of justice,” he said. Minor was mobbed by national media as he continued to inveigh against the RNC.
Minor said the RNC and Trump campaign officials were seen furiously lobbying dissident delegates to stand aside and halt the drama.
State Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, Trump’s Washington state director, dismissed the drama as overblown.
“Oh it’s all part of conventions. It’s exciting. I’ve never been in a convention in my life where everybody agreed on everything,” he said. “People want to have their voice heard – that’s fine.”
Update, 1:34 p.m.
Republican leaders have hastily approved rules that will govern the Republican National Convention — but approval came over the loud objections from anti-Donald Trump delegates.
The dissident delegates are pressing to hold a state-by-state roll call vote on the rules.
Instead, Rep. Steve Womack, who was chairing the proceedings, called a quick voice vote.
Update, 12:45 p.m.
Update, 12:35 p.m.
Update, 11:31 a.m.
Curious where the delegates from Washington state are sitting at the convention? The answer: waaay at the back, stage right. Here’s a larger version of the seating assignments.
And here’s the view from back there:
Update, 11:12 a.m.
ICYMI: Steven Colbert crashed the convention stage last night for a “Hunger Games” prank, mocking Donald Trump.
“Look, I’m not supposed to be here, but let’s be honest, neither is Donald Trump.” Colbert said as he was ushered off the stage.
— Seattle Times staff
Update, 10:10 a.m.
Update, 9:55 a.m.
Update, 9:09 a.m.
Update, 7:52 a.m.
Talk-radio host Michael Medved is speaking to Washington’s delegates, pleading for an end to what he says is constant negativity about the state of the U.S. “That talk of sweeping disaster is toxic,” he says, adding that Ronald Reagan didn’t run on “midnight in America.” He also said the media’s focus on bad news leads to calls for big government.
Medved also dipped a toe in our state’s gubernatorial race, saying he hopes former Port of Seattle commissioner Bill Bryant shocks the nation and beats “a truly incompetent and inept” incumbent Gov. Jay Inslee.
There hasn’t been much pro-Trump talk at the Washington GOP breakfast, but RNC member Jeff Kent got cheers when he said, “We have to defeat Hillary Clinton.”
— Jim Brunner
Update, 7:20 a.m.
I’m at the Washington GOP delegation breakfast, where I got a shout-out from Washington State Republican Party chair Susan Hutchison, who said I report for The Seattle Times “of deepest, darkest Seattle.”
It’s not all Washington Republicans here, though:
— Jim Brunner
Update, 6:10 a.m.:
The convention kicks off today amid a time of crisis and tumult at home and abroad, punctuated Sunday by the deadly shooting of three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Earlier this month, the slaying of a black man in Baton Rouge by white officers led to protests nationwide and heightened concerns about the state of race relations in America. President Barack Obama, responding to the shooting Sunday, noted that the incidents had come just before political conventions that tend to involve “overheated” rhetoric. Obama urged both parties to avoid “careless accusations” intended to score political points.
— The Associated Press
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Update, 6 a.m.:
As the Republican National Convention convenes in Cleveland this morning, some delegates from Washington state are still clinging to a long-shot hope they can halt the nomination of Donald Trump.
Eric Minor, a delegate from Gig Harbor, has been a ringleader in the national “dump Trump” movement. That effort suffered a major setback last week, when a party rules committee overwhelmingly rejected efforts to “unbind” delegates, freeing them to ignore the results of state primaries and caucuses. Trump crowed about that vote on Twitter, saying the “Never Trump” movement was finished.
Still, Minor says he and other anti-Trump renegades are not giving up. I caught up with Minor on Sunday afternoon in the lobby of the Middlesburg Heights hotel, where Washington’s GOP delegation is staying for the week. He was headed downtown to meet with others in the movement to plot their next steps. They’ll try to vote down the proposed rules when the convention officially convenes today.
“I absolutely want to make sure we remain unbound, because I am opposed to a Donald Trump nomination,” Minor said. He estimated at least a dozen, and as many as twenty or so, Washington delegates were supportive.
Such talk has been criticized as unrealistic and misguided by state party officials including state GOP chairman Susan Hutchison. State Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, who is Trump’s Washington campaign director, also dismissed the effort and predicted the GOP will unite behind their nominee, given the alternative.
Later in the evening, Minor kept at it, working delegates waiting in a long security line to get into a party at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with free food, beer and a concert by Three Dog Night. Minor was gathering signatures on a petition to demand a floor vote Monday on the convention rules.
He was rebuffed by former three-time statewide GOP candidate Dino Rossi, who said Minor and other “dump Trump” delegates need to get real or risk getting Democrat Hillary Clinton elected.
“Game over. This is a two-person race,” Rossi told Minor.
Trump “wasn’t my first second or third choice, he was my 17th choice, Bernie was my 18th and Hillary was my 19th,” Rossi said. “The bottom line is, there is no way I am going to help a corrupt habitual liar and a sexual predator back into the White House.”
Minor raised his eyebrows and suggested maybe the “habitual liar” description applied to Trump too. Rossi waved him off.
Other Washington delegates are not eager for a potentially embarrassing convention-floor fight, even if they did not support Trump in the primaries.
John Vasko, from Sammamish, had supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and said he still wants to hear more from Trump. Vasko said he liked Trump’s pick of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate. And come November, if the other option is Clinton, Vasko’s choice is clear.
“If I’m confronted with that choice, then it’s Trump for sure,” he said.
If the convention rules fight fails — a likely outcome — Minor said he might just hand over his delegate slot to an alternate because he wants no part in picking Trump to carry the GOP flag in November. Like many among Washington’s 44 national GOP delegates, Minor is a conservative and supported Cruz for president.
Minor said he can’t support Trump in November, even if that means a Clinton victory. He recited a quote from founding father Alexander Hamilton that has become a rallying cry for the Never Trump movement: “If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures.”
— Jim Brunner