RNC live updates: Donald Trump appears at Republican National Convention

Andrew Feinberg reports from Milwaukee:

Days after a gunman came within inches of assassinating former president Donald Trump, Democrats are ditching the temporary pause in campaigning that they instituted after the Saturday shooting.

The party is now going all-in on plans to highlight what spokespeople describe as the extreme proposals favored by the ex-president and his allies.

At a press conference in Milwaukee, just a short walk from where Republicans officially nominated the twice-impeached convicted felon as their party’s standard-bearer for the third consecutive election, President Joe Biden’s deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters the attempt on Trump’s life wasn’t changing how they are going after the former president and his new running-mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance.

Skylar Baker-Jordan is a regular contributor to The Independent.

DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement regarding today’s Republican National Convention theme — “Make America Safe Once Again”.

Convicted felon Donald Trump represents nothing more than empty words and broken promises when it comes to creating safer communities and securing our border.

The facts speak for themselves: Donald Trump doesn’t care about making America safer – he cares about what helps him politically. He oversaw a murder rate that skyrocketed by nearly 30 percent in a single year, repeatedly proposed defunding law enforcement, and he shamelessly ordered congressional Republicans to tank the toughest, fairest bill to secure the border in decades for his own political gain. Every single congressional Republican voted against President Biden’s funding for more police officers in the ARP. Trump is even promising to pardon violent insurrectionists who stormed our Capitol and attacked law enforcement. Put simply, Trump’s extreme and out-of-touch Project 2025 agenda will leave the American people less safe.

Under President Biden, violent crime has plummeted, as his administration has boosted law enforcement, taken action to improve border security, and delivered the most significant federal bipartisan gun safety legislation in decades. That’s the type of decisive action and leadership the American people demand from their president.

Rather than the content of her speech, it was Britt’s delivery that got social media users talking once again, with many likening it to her “breathy,” intense rebuttal at the State of the Union.

Rachel Sharp has the story.

With the Republican National Convention underway in Milwaukee this week, the Democratic National Committee has announced $15m in direct expenditures to battleground state parties – helping fund campaign ground game and infrastructure.

These investments will help allow the Democratic campaign to open more field offices and hire more staffers.

So far, the campaign has 217 field offices across battleground states and employs more than 1,100 staffers with four months still to go before the election.

“As the RNC showcases the extreme Project 2025 agenda of the Trump-Vance ticket, the DNC is focused on reaching voters in battleground states … Trump’s extreme agenda makes this the most consequential election of our lifetime. That’s why Democrats are leaving nothing to chance, investing heavily on the ground to ensure Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win this election,“ said Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison.

“This election is going to come down to operation and turnout in the battleground states, and that’s why we’ve made the largest-ever investment into battleground state parties at this point in the cycle. We’re going to win this election by engaging voters community-by-community, block-by-block, door-by-door. These investments show that commitment in action.”

Here is the full schedule of speakers for day two of the convention.

6:08PM – 6:55PM – SENATE CANDIDATE HOUR

• Kari Lake (AZ)
• Eric Hovde (WI)
• Bernie Moreno (OH)
• Mike Rogers (MI)
• Dave McCormick (PA)
• Jim Banks (IN)
• Governor Jim Justice (WV)
• Sam Brown (NV)
• Tim Sheehy (MT)
• Hung Cao (VA)
• Senator Rick Scott (FL)

7:07PM – 7:27PM – HOUSE LEADERSHIP

• Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY-21), House Republican Conference Chair
• Rep. Tom Emmer (MN-6), House Majority Whip
• Rep. Steve Scalise (LA-1), House Majority Leader
• Speaker Mike Johnson

7:33PM – Vivek Ramaswamy

7:48PM – Savannah Chrisley, Reality TV Star

8:09 PM – Randy Sutton – Founder & Chairman, Board of Wounded Blue & Retired Law Enforcement Officer

8:18 PM – Nikki Haley, Former Ambassador to the United Nations

8:24 PM – Governor Ron DeSantis (FL)

8:43 PM – Michael Coyle

9:07 PM – The Morin Family

9:11 PM – Madaline Brame

9:14 PM – Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (AR)

9:20 PM – Dr. Ben Carson, 17th U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

9:33 PM – Senator Marco Rubio (FL)

California Democrat Rep Adam Schiff — who is running for the state’s vacant Senate seat — warned donors in the Hamptons on Saturday of a wipeout for the party if President Joe Biden remains in the race as the nominee at the top of the ticket, The New York Times reports.

Citing two sources with direct knowledge of Schiff’s remarks, the outlet reports the congressman as saying not only would the party lose the White House, but most likely the Senate and any opportunity to take back the House of Representatives.

“I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose,” Schiff at the fundraiser, a person with access to a transcription of a recording of the event told the Times. “And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House.”

There are private concerns within the Democratic Party about the prospects for down-ballot candidates if Biden remains in the race, but few are voicing their fears in public. There had been a small but growing number of people calling for him to step aside but that has dropped off in the days since the attempt on the life of Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Biden insists he will remain the party’s nominee.