Second day of GOP convention begins as Democrats criticize first

Republicans began their nominating convention Monday with denunciations of Democrats and warnings about a future controlled by "radical liberals," while praising Trump's stewardship of the country, including his handling of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 173,000 Americans.

Democrats on Tuesday responded to the first night of the Republican National Convention by saying the GOP fell short of its pledge to strike an optimistic and upbeat tone at the event.

"Last night was grim and spiteful and fear-inducing," Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said on a conference call organized by the Democratic National Committee. She added that there are many things to be concerned about, but "they all emanate out of the policies coming out of the White House right now."

Whitmer, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and representatives from the DNC and the Biden campaign also defended the Obama administration's record, made note of the number of Republicans who have endorsed Biden, criticized Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and denounced Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's decision to deliver a GOP convention speech from Jerusalem on Tuesday night.

"Donald Trump has distorted the Republican Party in a way that many people have run away from it," Booker said, criticizing what he called the "authoritarian culture" surrounding this year's GOP convention.

Of Pompeo's planned Jerusalem speech, Booker said there are some places "that are sacrosanct" and should not be used for partisan purposes.

Also criticizing the administration on Tuesday was a former top official at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who said the president offered pardons to officials if they would break laws for his benefit, reports of which Trump repeatedly has denied.

"It was April of 2019," Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff at the DHS, says in an advertisement designed to offer counter-messaging to the Republican National Convention. "We were down at the border, and the president said to the senior leadership of the Homeland Security Department behind the scenes we should not let anyone else into the United States. Even though he'd been told on repeated occasions that the way he wanted to do it was illegal, his response was to say, do it. If you get in trouble, I'll pardon you."

Taylor said the president told the staff, "the bins are full."

"The president offered to pardon U.S. government officials for breaking the law to implement his immigration policy," Taylor said in the new ad.

Taylor is among loosely affiliated Republican critics who are trying to stop the president's reelection. The president has said he does not know Taylor, who was in a number of Oval Office meetings, according to other officials. Other administration officials said the president's offer caused a ruckus at the time even as the president denied the story, first reported by The New York Times.

"Another Fake Story on @NBCNews that I offered Pardons to Homeland Securiy personnel in case they broke the law regarding illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. Of course this is not true. Mainstream Media is corrupt and getting worse, if that is possible, every day!" Trump wrote at the time.

Taylor is seeking to recruit other former Trump administration officials to come forward and tell damaging stories about the president and campaign against him. One of Taylor's goals is to win over swing voters by telling in-the-room stories about the president, hoping that will be more effective than aggressive invective.

He has launched a site called Repair45.org and says he has current administration officials helping him, though he declined to name them. A number of former Trump administration officials hold dim views of the president, but most of them have not come forward publicly.

Also on Tuesday, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's campaign announced the endorsement of eight former senior Republican presidential appointees and legal experts as it continued its push to show GOP support for the Democratic nominee. On Monday, the first day of the GOP convention, the Biden campaign announced the backing of more than two dozen former Republican members of Congress.

In another Washington move that crossed party lines, Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., announced plans Tuesday to introduce a bipartisan resolution, along with Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va., condemning QAnon, the conspiracy theory whose adherents believe Trump is battling a cabal of "deep state" saboteurs who worship Satan and traffic children for sex.

"Our aim is a fully bipartisan congressional repudiation of this dangerous, anti-Semitic, conspiracy-mongering cult that the FBI says is radicalizing Americans to violence," Malinowski wrote on Twitter.

The issue has taken on new urgency since Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has promoted the conspiracy theory, won her Republican primary in a deep-red district in Georgia, making her likely to enter Congress next year. Her victory prompted some Republicans to condemn QAnon, while the party's leaders, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, embraced her and initially avoided mention of her conspiratorial comments. McCarthy eventually spoke out, affirming in a Fox News interview last week that "there is no place for QAnon in the Republican Party."

Trump, meanwhile, praised QAnon believers as "people that love our country." Pressed about the deluded philosophy - "QAnon believes you are secretly saving the world from this cult of pedophiles and cannibals," as a reporter outlined for him - the president seemed to embrace that role for himself. "And we are actually, we're saving the world," he said.

QAnon took root on Internet message boards in fall 2017 with posts from a self-proclaimed government insider identified as "Q." The figure posted cryptic clues about Trump's impending conquest over the deep state, spawning an elaborate far-right worldview that came to absorb many other debunked ideas.

Despite new efforts to keep QAnon at bay, Congress may already have an adherent within its walls.

On Sunday, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., tweeted that child trafficking and the "deep state" - fixations of the QAnon movement - are "real" and that systemic racism is a "hoax." His office did not respond to a request for comment about whether his comments represented an endorsement of the baseless conspiracy theory.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the closing speaker on Monday night's convention program, said Tuesday that he is confident that mail-in balloting "will prove to work out just fine," striking a markedly different tone than Trump, who has repeatedly railed against the process and claimed without evidence that it could lead to widespread fraud.

Scott was pressed about whether his views differ from those of Trump during an appearance on NBC's "Today" show.

"I'm just saying how I feel about it, and what I think most Americans believe, which is that this process of mail-in ballots will prove to work out just fine," Scott said. "I think every single American should have the right to vote. How we do so is important. That we do so is more important. And I'm going to have confidence that all of the moving pieces will actually fit together and we'll have a very strong integrity-driven, character-driven election."

During an appearance Monday before GOP convention delegates in Charlotte, N.C., Trump continued to denounce states that plan to utilize widespread voting by mail, claiming it could lead to a "sham" election.

 

Trump will again make multiple appearances during Tuesday night's convention programming, and a small audience will be present for the first lady's speech, Trump campaign aides said as they previewed the night for reporters. Trump's appearances will not amount to major speaking roles.

Melania Trump is set to deliver the final speech of Tuesday night from the Rose Garden at the White House. A small audience will be present, and precautions will be taken in response to the novel coronavirus, Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said. Most speakers who have addressed the convention have done so without an audience.

In addition to other well-known speakers, Tuesday night's program will also highlight everyday Americans who support Trump's presidency, the campaign said.