2020 Republican National Convention: Tuesday updates
First lady Melania Trump addresses the Republican National Convention from the Rose Garden at the White House on Tuesday. Credit: Getty Images / Alex Wong
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What happened:
- First lady Melania Trump made an upbeat case for a second term for President Donald Trump in the night's keynote, delivered from the White House Rose Garden. She cast her husband as the best hope for the country's future.
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo broke a long tradition of secretary of state nonpartisanship with a speech supporting the president's reelection. His convention address was recorded in Jerusalem during an official visit to the Middle East.
- Read these takeaways from the second night of the Republican National Convention.
- Kentucky teen Nicholas Sandmann assailed the media, saying he believes news outlets were driven by "anti-Christian, anti-conservative, anti-Donald Trump" bias in reporting on the viral video incident involving him.
Tuesday updates
Pence's backdrop: Lincoln's Indiana boyhood home
Vice President Mike Pence is the star of a video that aired during the Republican National Convention featuring the stories of six Americans whose lives have been helped by the Trump administration.
The nine-minute video, titled “Lincoln,” was filmed last week at President Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home in Lincoln City, Indiana. Pence delivers a tribute to Lincoln, the first Republican president, before holding casual conversations with everyday Americans.
Pastor Aaron Johnson praised President Donald Trump’s support of opportunity zones, and Judge Cheryl Allen, the first Black woman to be elected to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, outlined her belief that Trump is committed to improving minority communities.
Jordan McLinn, who suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, thanked Trump for signing the federal version of the “Right to Try” law in 2018.
Jack Hughes and his mother, Sarah, discuss how they used school vouchers to enroll Jack in a parochial school that better suited his learning needs.
And Lidia Brodine, a naturalized American originally from Honduras, talk about how the Paycheck Protection Program helped save her family’s new security business from folding once the pandemic hit. — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RNC speaker pulled after anti-Semitic messages
A speaker who had been scheduled to address the second night of the Republican National Convention has been pulled from the lineup after directing her Twitter followers to a series of anti-Semitic, conspiratorial messages.
Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh says, “We have removed the scheduled video from the convention lineup and it will no longer run this week.”
Mary Ann Mendoza had been scheduled to deliver remarks Tuesday night to highlight the president’s fight against illegal immigration. Mendoza’s son was killed in 2014 in a head-on collision by a man who was under the influence and living in the U.S. illegally.
She and and other parents whose children have been killed by people in the country illegally have labeled themselves “Angel Moms” and have made frequent appearances at the White House and Trump campaign events.
Mendoza had apologized for the tweet, writing that she “retweeted a very long thread earlier without reading every post within the thread” and said it “does not reflect my feelings or personal thoughts whatsoever.”
A Republican familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity cited controversy as the reason for pulling Mendoza. The Republican wasn't authorized to speak about the matter publicly. — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.