Republican National Convention 2016 Days 1 through 3

As Day 4 of the Republican National Convention begins, we’re posting news and analysis over here.

Below you’ll find our news feed from the first three days of events in Cleveland.

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Indiana Gov. Mike Pence hit all the standard notes for a high-profile political address Wednesday night: introducing himself to unfamiliar voters, extolling his running mate and making an explicit appeal to independent and Democratic voters.

That typical approach has been in short supply at the GOP nominating confab in Cleveland, with its outsized focus on base-pleasing issues like Benghazi and speakers whose anti-Hillary Clinton rhetoric is matched only by the audience’s preferred chant of “Lock her up!�

Adding to the unreality was Sen. Ted Cruz’s non-endorsement of Donald Trump just an hour before Pence took the stage, prompting a chaotic backlash from attendees.

But Pence appeared unfazed by the clamor, smoothly delivering a recitation of Trump’s attributes and promising a capable team to win the White House in November.

Donald Trump supporter Michael Der Manouel, a California delegate from Fresno, is not happy with Sen. Ted Cruz.

“Everybody believed he was building to a point in his speech where he would endorse Donald Trump, and he couldn’t bring himself to do it, and the convention expressed its displeasure,� Der Manouel told The Times.

“He couldn’t bring himself to do what Reagan did in ’76, and it’s very disappointing,� he said. “We’re going to move forward without all of these guys who reneged on their endorsement pledge. We’re going to move forward without them.�

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

The third night of the convention was supposed to belong to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s running mate.

No one anticipated that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, giving a surprisingly restrained speech, would nevertheless fail to endorse Trump, infuriating convention delegates.

“To those listening, please, don’t stay home in November,� said Cruz, in his typically languid debater’s cadence. “If you love our country, and love your children as much as I know you do, stand, and speak, and vote your conscience; vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.�

That’s when the booing began, the Twitter volume went to 11 and, it seemed, no one could speak of anything else.

Lost in the noise: Pence’s perfectly serviceable speech.

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence blows a kiss to his wife as he speaks during the third day of the Republican convention.

(Mary Altaffer / Associated Press)

In her Wednesday night convention speech, retired astronaut Eileen Collins lamented the fact that the last time the U.S. launched astronauts on American soil was more than five years ago, imploring leaders to “do better than that.�

She called for “leadership that will make America’s space program first again,� but skipped a line in her prepared remarks that would have endorsed newly-minted Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Earlier this week, Collins told Mashable that her speech was not meant to be political.

“This is a chance I could not pass up: We can raise awareness of how the U.S. human space program has slowed over the years,� Collins said in a statement to the website.

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents may have knocked on the doors of several Cleveland-area activists Wednesday morning, resuming a controversial checkup practice that put the local civil rights community on edge in the weeks leading up to the Republican National Convention, a legal advocacy group said.

In a statement issued Wednesday night, the Ohio chapter of the National Lawyers Guild alleged the FBI conducted a series of “raids� and may have entered a home without a warrant, continuing a practice that disturbed local demonstrators earlier this summer.

“It’s been a consistent theme throughout all of these visits that law enforcement are looking for links and relationships among activists or people known to be activists around the Cleveland area and around the state of Ohio and also in some other locations outside of the state,� said Jacqueline Greene, co-coordinator of the guild. “Ultimately they’re on an information-fishing expedition. The purpose of these visits is to intimidate and chill First Amendment expression.�

National activists with Black Lives Matter and Campaign Zero have also said they received unnerving visits from the FBI in the weeks leading up to the nominating conventions, according to the Washington Post.

Greene said her office had also reviewed video that appeared to show FBI agents and officers entering a home without consent.

Asked about the incident Wednesday night, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said he was not sure if his officers were involved in any door knocks, as some are on loan to the local FBI office. He said he generally supports the tactic.

“We’re not accusing them of anything,� Williams said. “We’re going around and talking to them.�

The FBI said earlier this year that the visits were simply about ensuring safety during the convention, but local organizers have criticized the tactic as intimidation.

FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson said the FBI and police officers from Elyria, a Cleveland suburb, conducted interviews this week “in response to investigative leads.�

“The occupants were interviewed outside the residence and no arrests were made,� Anderson said in an e-mail to The Times. “Law enforcement will continue to respond to investigative leads to ensure the security of the RNC.�

9:10 p.m. Updated with a response from the FBI in Cleveland.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sought Wednesday night to get the Republican National Convention back on track after disharmony erupted in full, prime-time view when delegates booed Sen. Ted Cruz for declining to endorse nominee Donald Trump.

Veering from his prepared remarks, Gingrich told the thousands of delegates and guests that they had misunderstood Cruz when he urged Americans to “vote your conscience.�

Gingrich said that Cruz had actually urged voters to abide by their conscience and vote any candidate who will uphold the Constitution. In the presidential contest, Trump is the only candidate who would do so, Gingrich said.

“So to paraphrase Ted Cruz, if you want to protect the Constitution of the United States the only possible candidate this fall is the Trump-Pence Republican ticket,� he said.

Gingrich, whom Trump passed over as his running mate, also hailed Trump for being generous in allowing his GOP primary rivals to speak without requiring an endorsement.

“Please, don’t stay home in November,� Ted Cruz said to convention-goers. “If you love our country and if you love your children as much as I know you do, stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.�

Delegates chanted at him to endorse Donald Trump, and the phrase “vote your conscience� appeared to infuriate the crowd. Anti-Trump forces had unsuccessfully sought to make rules changes that would have unbound delegates and allowed them to “vote their conscience.�

The lack of endorsement by Cruz, who mentioned Trump’s name only once, was not surprising.

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When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker addressed the Republican convention Wednesday, it was as if a memo had gone out from party headquarters that the time had come to step up the effort to unify the party behind Donald Trump.

The first two nights of the convention had resulted in start-and-stop progress. Lots of pro-Trump voices. Few new converts. Convention crowds that began to thin toward the end of the evening.

Walker, in some ways, was a prime messenger, thanks to his own discomfort over Trump.

If Walker -- a onetime Trump rival, who endorsed Trump only to walk it back later -- could vote for the ticket, so could so many other Republicans who preferred someone else.

The former presidential hopeful argued his case the way so many Republicans are doing it – not so much a vote for Trump as a vote for the alternative to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

He made a point of not just naming Trump but also including the vice presidential nominee, Mike Pence, who many believe will help persuade conservatives who are cool to Trump to fall in line with the GOP ticket.

“Hillary Clinton is the ultimate liberal Washington insider. If she were any more on the ‘inside,’ she’d be in prison,� Walker said.

“America deserves better than Hillary Clinton,� he said. “That is why we need to support Donald Trump and Mike Pence to be the next president and vice president.�

“Let me be clear: A vote for anyone other than Donald Trump in November is a vote for Hillary Clinton,� he said.

The speech was full of Walker’s sensible Midwestern passion, and it roused the crowd. After House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s address the night before, it was among the few speeches that gave prime time the feel of a traditional convention otherwise filled with B-list actors and Trump’s business allies.

Walker may have lost his chance to be the one onstage as the GOP nominee.

But on Wednesday, he did his part to salvage the Republican Party in the age of Trump.

Watch the full speech:

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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks at the Republican National Convention.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is giving the biggest speech of his life tonight.

If you are looking for a preview of what the man can do to a crowd it helps to look at the speech he gave to the Family Research Council Values Voter Summit in September 2010.

Pence, then a congressman, was so well received he won the straw poll there, beating out former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and eventual 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Speaking shortly before Republicans won back a majority in Congress, Pence jabbed at then-speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and promised the crowd not to compromise with Democrats.

“I am here to say House Republicans are back in the fight and they are back in the fight for conservative values on Capitol Hill,� he told a rapturous crowd.

The crowd ate up the Republican red meat Pence offered throughout about the nation being trapped in “bondage� to big government.

But Pence also managed to maintained a light touch.

He put the crowd in stitches, joking that while MSNBC said Republicans would win “just a couple of seats� in the House, Fox News said “Republicans will win all 435 seats in the Congress.�

Pence used one of his common lines -- “I am a conservative but I am not in a bad mood about it.� -- that he has repeated on television since Trump selected him as his running mate.

Pence also flashed his socially conservative bonafides that made him attractive to a Trump campaign looking to broaden its appeal to the right wing.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell must remain the policy of the United States Armed Forces,� he said.

Watch:

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It was a speech to fire people up, and included marching orders.

“We should all, even all you boys with wounded feelings and bruised egos, and we love you, we love you, but you must honor your pledge to support Donald Trump now,� Laura Ingraham told delegates at the convention.

Watch the full speech:

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Laura Ingraham, conservative commentator, speaks at the Republican National Convention.

His support of Donald Trump has fluctuated in recent months.

Ahead of his state’s April primary, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker endorsed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who at the time was seen as the strongest candidate to derail Trump’s quest to become the Republican nominee.

Trump’s response?

He said that countries like Mexico and China had taken jobs away from Wisconsin and that immigrants in the country illegally were burdening the state’s taxpayers. Trump blamed it on a lack of leadership by Walker, whose own presidential bid last year faltered after only a few months.

“I wouldn’t do this, except that he endorsed this guy Cruz, and Cruz would be a terrible president,� Trump told Wisconsin Republicans at the time.

But the effort to assail Walker, who is popular among Republicans in his state after staving off a 2012 recall spearheaded by Democrats, was not a formula for victory. Trump ended up losing to Cruz in the primary by 13 percentage points.

As Trump has mended some relationships with establishment figures, the one with Walker remains complicated. Though the governor plans to make clear in his speech Wednesday night his support for Trump over Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, he’s wavered in his applause of the billionaire businessman.

During an interview with a local Wisconsin television station last month, Walker, who had initially said he would support the GOP nominee, backtracked.

“It’s just sad in America that we have such poor choices right now,� Walker said, a direct jab at Trump and Clinton.

Walker’s comments came on the heels of Trump’s inflammatory statements about a Latino judge overseeing a fraud lawsuit against the now-defunct Trump University.

Yet in recent weeks, Walker has not been as vocal in his criticisms of Trump. In fact, after Trump announced the selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence last week as his running mate, Walker offered plaudits.

“The Mike Pence decision this week to me is a sign that this is somebody who is actually thinking about how to govern,� Walker said of Trump in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

For Walker, who some political observers believe is eyeing another presidential run in 2020, it was a step toward unity.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Cleveland police arrested 17 people on suspicion of assaulting officers and failure to disperse after a U.S. flag was set on fire outside the Republican National Convention on Wednesday afternoon, but legal observers are disputing the police narrative of the incident.

Police Chief Calvin Williams said two people have been booked on charges of felony assault after they pushed and punched police who were trying to extinguish the fire outside the entrance to the Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday. Fifteen other protesters face various misdemeanor charges, including failure to disperse, he said.

Police had no plans to stop Revolutionary Communist Party members from burning the flag, which is a legal but controversial form of protest, and Williams said officers only moved in because several protesters’ clothes caught on fire.

But Jocelyn Rosnick, co-coordinator of the Ohio Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, said 10 legal observers on the scene did not see any of the protesters’ clothes aflame and contended that no dispersal order was given.

She also noted that officers are required to give multiple dispersal orders before making arrests.

“Flag burning as a means of speech is protected. It has been argued in a number of court cases all the way up to the Supreme Court,� Rosnick said.

Officers moved in seconds after the flag caught fire. One could be heard yelling, “You’re on fire, stupid� at a protester as he sprayed a fire extinguisher. A Times reporter who was standing feet away from officers when the flag was set on fire did not hear a dispersal order, however.

All 17 people arrested were adults involved in the protest. Williams said police were only at the scene to prevent clashes between members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, which organized the flag-burning protest, and counter groups who had come to stop them, including “Bikers 4 Trump.�

“There were people on the corner that were basically saying, ‘Why are you guys doing this?’ and the whole area got kind of amped up,� the chief said.

A city police officer and an Ohio state trooper were treated for minor injuries at the scene. None of the protesters whose clothes police said caught fire required medical treatment for burns, Williams said.

Until a few hours ago, Florida-based Trump supporter Michelle Van Etten, who is speaking in a prime-time convention spot Wednesday night, was described on the RNC website as a “small business owner� who “employs over 100,000 people.� The U.S. Small Business Administration advises that most small businesses employ 500 people or fewer.

But when questions were raised about how Van Etten was billed on the speaker list, she clarified the facts: She doesn’t have any employees at all.

“I don’t employ,� she told the Guardian, adding that she sells products for Youngevity, a Chula Vista-based company that sells nutritional supplements, makeup and jewelry.

On a profile written for her Youngevity site, Van Etten describes the company as a “network marketing company� and says her business strategy “involves converting satisfied online product purchasers into business builders.�

A brochure on the company’s website says, “The power of the Youngevity compensation system is in duplication. If we assume that 13 of your new distributors achieve the same results as you, your override compensation would exceed $10,000 per month!�

The company’s products are also peddled by radio host and self-described “aggressive constitutionalist� Alex Jones and actress Marilu Henner.

A LinkedIn profile that appears to belong to Van Etten lists her as “Senior Vice Chairman Marketing Director� for Youngevity.

In an interview with Fortune, Youngevity Chief Financial Officer David Briskie said Van Etten is not an executive with the company, but is free to identify herself that way among her distribution network. Van Etten is an independent contractor who is paid a commission on sales, Briskie told the publication.

By 5 p.m. Wednesday, the GOP convention website had changed Van Etten’s speaker biography to say she “runs an international multi-million dollar network marketing business with an organization of customers and distributors of over 100,000 people.�

Reached by phone, Van Etten told The Times her bio on the GOP website “was not correct.�

“That’s why there was a retraction,� she said.

Van Etten declined to comment further.

Harold Hamm of Continental Resources, says “climate change is not a problem, it’s Islamic terrorism,� in his speech to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 20.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

On Wednesday Reuters reported that Donald Trump will consider Harold Hamm, chief executive officer of oil and gas giant Continental Resources, as Energy secretary should he become president.

In 2012 Hamm chaired Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s Energy Policy Advisory Group, attacked President Obama’s policies on oil and gave almost $1 million to a super PAC supporting Romney, according to Politico.

Hamm isn’t new to politics. Reuters reported that in 2009 Hamm formed a lobbying group to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, fearing it would flood his company’s territory with Canadian oil.

But Hamm dropped his opposition after the pipeline’s operator agreed to add an extension that would pick up his company’s oil and take it to refineries, according to the report.

Hamm backed Trump in April.

“He is someone who is not beholden to special interests and has the fortitude to make tough decisions,� he said at the time. “With a slew of onerous regulations now threatening to cripple American business, the next president of the United States must have the courage, determination and intelligence to disrupt politics as usual.�

Country singer Chris Janson joined G.E. Smith’s house band on stage tonight at the Republican National Convention.

Janson was in the middle of playing his band LoCash’s song “Love this Life� when he stopped to address the delegates dancing on the floor.

“Let me hear you if you’re proud to be from the U.S.A.!�

Then he broke from his band to play the chorus from “Born in the U.S.A.� Chants of “U-S-A� followed.

Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 hit is often deemed a patriotic song, despite its antiwar origins.

The song is a criticism of the Vietnam War and the U.S. government, and if you know it, you’ll recognize the lyrics that surround the catchy chorus:

Here’s the playlist (so far) from the convention.

In her speech Wednesday night at the GOP convention, astronaut Eileen Collins urged investments to “make America’s space program first again.�

Collins herself has seen a few firsts in her career.

She was the first female pilot of an American space shuttle, and in 1999 became the first woman commander of a U.S. shuttle mission.

Before becoming an astronaut, Collins was a career military pilot and trained at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma. She also worked as an instructor pilot at Travis Air Force Base in California from 1983 to 1985.

She was picked for the astronaut program after attending pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base.

She’s also terrified of roller coasters.

Florida Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, who will speak at the Republican National Convention Wednesday, has drawn scrutiny for soliciting a political campaign contribution from Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump when her office was considering joining an investigation into Trump University.

The Associated Press reported last month that a Trump family foundation gave a $25,000 donation to a political group supporting Bondi’s reelection after she solicited the contribution.

The donation alone appeared to be a violation of rules governing political activities by charities.

The timing of the contribution also raised questions: The check arrived four days after Bondi said her office was considering joining a New York state probe of Trump University.

Her office declined to join the suit against Trump after the check came in, citing insufficient grounds to proceed.

The news made waves because Trump has been open about what he expects when he makes political contributions.

“I give to everybody,� he said in an debate last August. “When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. And that’s a broken system.�

Bondi was highlighted in a 2014 New York Times investigation that uncovered lobbyist spending on meals, trips and other contributions for several state attorneys general.

In Cleveland, the stagecraft is sleek, anodyne and less traditional. There are no Obama-style Greek columns for Donald Trump. Nor has he revived the domestic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright the way Mitt Romney did during the 2012 GOP convention in Tampa, Fla.

Instead the set is a shotgun marriage of Star Trek and Macbook modern, with perhaps a touch — in the rounded stairs, lighted from below — of Art Deco. A dark oval stage is flanked by a pair of canted silver walls, between which hang several giant video boards.

The goal seems to be a series of smooth surfaces to which none of the more direct ad hominem verbal attacks or accusations of plagiarism might stick — a slate that can be wiped clean whenever a change in tone or direction is wanted. Call it Teflon minimalism.

For those of us watching on phones, tablets and television screens, this gap between the nostalgic and often aggressive rhetoric of the speeches and the sleek, vague futurism of the set design has been among the convention’s most striking elements.

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At the Republican National Convention, many of the speakers have something in common: They aren’t politicians. Instead, they are friends or business associates of nominee Donald Trump.

Take Wednesday night speaker Phil Ruffin.

The billionaire owns the Treasure Island Resort & Casino in Las Vegas and worked with Trump to develop the Trump International Hotel. Ruffin has developed properties across the U.S., including in California.

He was on hand when Trump was campaigning in Las Vegas this February.

He has also stumped for Trump in his native Kansas.

“He’s a brilliant businessman, one of the best I’ve ever seen,� Ruffin told members of the Wichita Pachyderm Club in downtown Wichita, according to the Wichita Eagle. “If he ever offers you a partnership, take the deal.

“Right now he’s offering a partnership for the country: Trump and the country. He would do a great job. … He’d make a great president.�

Conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham is expected to address the need to “restore respect across all levels of society� in a night themed “Make America First Again.�

Ingraham, who said she would not choose between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump during the primaries, has taken to rallying conservatives behind Trump in recent days.

On Twitter, she’s criticized Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who dropped out of the race in May, for not attending the convention in his home state.

Ingraham told the New York Times in May that the anti-Trump effort within the Republican Party was “a little juvenile.�

“There are a lot of purists out there who, if they don’t get everything checked off on their little bucket list,� then they say “take your pail and go home,� she told the newspaper. “Come to the real world.�

On Twitter, Ingraham cited a flag-burning protest and subsequent arrests outside the convention hall Wednesday, saying she’d address “this level of disrespect� in her prime-time remarks.

The White House released a long statement Wednesday afternoon praising Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, for responding to a suspected case of Zika.

The statement recounted a phone call between the two men earlier in the day in which Obama touted an additional $5.6 million being sent to Florida from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “The president recognized Florida’s strong record of responding aggressively to local outbreaks of mosquito-borne viruses like Zika, and offered federal support and technical assistance.�

It was a nice bipartisan moment, expressing how state and federal officials can make government work across party lines. Right?

Well, here’s an excerpt of the speech Scott plans to deliver at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night.

“Today, America is in terrible, world-record-high debt. Our economy is not growing. Our jobs are going overseas. We have allowed our military to decay, and we project weakness on the international stage. Washington grows while the rest of America struggles. The Democrats have not led us to a crossroads; they have led us to a cliff.�

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

See more in this photo gallery.

Al Baldasaro, right, a New Hampshire state representative who appeared often at Donald Trump events this year.

(Richard Drew / Associated Press)

Hillary Clinton’s campaign warned of a dangerous escalation in negative rhetoric directed toward her after a Donald Trump supporter called for the presumptive Democratic nominee to be “shot for treason.�

“Donald Trump’s overtaking of the Republican Party — and his constant escalation of outrageous rhetoric — is in danger of mainstreaming the kind of hatred that has long been relegated to the fringes of American politics where it belongs,� Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri said in a statement.

“This week at the Republican convention, we’ve seen the clearest embodiment yet of this dangerous phenomenon,� she added.

Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire state representative who appeared often at Trump events this year, told a radio interviewer Wednesday that the former secretary of State should be tried for treason for her handling of the 2012 attack on Benghazi, Libya, and for mishandling classified material over her private email account.

“This whole thing disgusts me. Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason,� he said in comments noted by BuzzFeed.

He repeated the incendiary comments to the NH1 network, while stipulating that he was speaking for himself and not for Trump’s campaign.

“My military mind believes it’s treason,� said Baldasaro, who says he is a military veteran. “Once you’re found guilty, normally it’s a firing squad.�

Clinton has not been charged with a crime, no less convicted of one.

The Trump campaign responded that the business mogul does not agree with Baldasaro’s statement.

But the Republican National Convention has been a showcase for sensational anti-Clinton comments, most notably repeated calls — often encouraged by headline speakers — to “Lock her up.�

At least a dozen GOP staffers from California’s delegation to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland are experiencing vomiting, cramps and diarrhea, and the dreaded norovirus is being blamed for their gastrointestinal misery.

Erie County Health Department officials have been called to the scene of the delegation’s quarters at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio, about 60 miles from the convention site, and have collected fecal samples to confirm the diagnosis.

Norovirus is the most common cause of diarrheal episodes globally and one of the leading causes of food-borne disease outbreaks in the United States.

Treated with rest and fluids, its symptoms of severe gastroenteritis generally wane after two or three days. But it claims the lives of 212,000 annually worldwide, mostly children and the elderly living in low- and middle-income countries.

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The man who set fire to an American flag outside the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, touching off a struggle between police and protesters, did the same thing outside the convention in 1984, according to a statement issued by the group that organized the protest.

The Revolutionary Communist Party has claimed Gregory Lee Johnson was the man who lit the flag on fire about 4 p.m. outside Quicken Loans Arena. Johnson was the plaintiff in a 1989 Supreme Court case that invalidated restrictions that criminalized burning flags in the U.S., the group said.

Johnson also burned a flag outside the GOP convention in Dallas in 1984, according to the statement.

Several people were arrested as police used fire extinguishers and pepper spray to stop the protest just seconds after the flag was scorched. The Revolutionary Communist Party had announced the protest earlier in the week, drawing the attention of a number of groups attempting to stop them.

A dozen protesters emerged from a tightly packed crowd near Quicken Loans Arena, donning black T-shirts bearing the group’s name and chanting “America Was Never Great� before setting fire to the flag.

At least six people were seen being led away by police in zip-tie handcuffs. In its statement, the Revolutionary Communist Party said 14 people were arrested. On Wednesday evening, the Cleveland Police Department said 17 arrests were made.

Two officers sustained minor injuries, police said.

It has been a long time since Richard Milhous Nixon has found such love.

Law and order, the mantra that elected Nixon president in 1968, has become a central focus of Donald Trump’s convention. In the midst of Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter and All Lives Matter, dueling but not incompatible perspectives, varying in emphasis but capable of being reconciled, comes the ghost of Nixon, in the form of Trump, rallying what he hopes are majorities to shout down and shut up the voices of grievance.

Like Nixon, Trump is a modern-day incarnation of poor besotted Thomas Hobbes, railing against a world he thought a bleak and forlorn home to a multitude whose lives were nasty, brutish and short. Donald Trump, bless his soul, is standing firm against the darkness. His anger makes Trump grate again.

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(AFP/Getty Images)

Donald Trump, newly minted as the Republican presidential nominee, was about to land on the shores of Lake Erie in a helicopter — and nobody knew where to look.

Journalists, penned in on a field near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, pointed their cameras in all directions, making sure they had every possible angle.

Unlike the raucous rallies filled with fans that have propelled his candidacy, Trump’s arrival in Cleveland, advertised as closed to the public, was all about his media horde — a relationship that has been rancorous, but undeniably mutually beneficial.

The elaborately staged proceedings left no question as to who was calling the shots.

Every time a helicopter passed, heads snapped skyward. But fears that Trump would somehow sneak past were unfounded. As his private jet swooped past, the blaring soundtrack suddenly switched from the Rolling Stones to the operatic swells of Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma.�

But where to look next? From the south, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, strolled in, flanked by family. Overhead, from the east, a Trump-branded helicopter circled and then reversed course.

With each new sight — of an aircraft, a Trump family member, the man himself — the media gaggle dutifully pivoted to capture it. They shot photos and videos. They tweeted and Periscoped. They looked up and down, turned left and right — the collective herky-jerky dance of covering the quintessential cable news candidate.

Finally, Trump emerged from the chopper, greeted Pence and strode to a grassy field, family in tow. He spoke uncharacteristically briefly. No questions, no news made.

But no matter. The double-aerial landing got wall-to-wall coverage on television, Trump reinforced his reputation for showmanship, and the news media got another chance to practice the choreography of covering Trump.

From left, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump on the convention floor

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The four eldest children of Donald J. Trump have become the unlikely stars of the show in Cleveland.

It’s not even really what they have said or will say; it’s simply who they are.

Their father can be uncouth; they are refined. He can be a bully; they are unfailingly polite. He often rambles and digresses; they stick to their scripts.

In this, they are following the recent tradition of other candidates’ children, including Mitt Romney’s five sons, and Chelsea Clinton.

In two presidential campaigns, 2008 and 2012, the Romney brothers’ job was to humanize a father who struck some as robotic and rehearsed.

In 2008, Clinton was selling her mother as more capable and experienced than her upstart opponent, Barack Obama. Like her mom, Chelsea was a bit rigid on the trail, but she was poised. When college students asked her about Monica Lewinsky, she replied, “I do not think that is any of your business.�

(Contrast those political offspring to a star of the 2008 presidential campaign, Megan McCain, then a free-spirited 23-year-old who posted photos of herself jumping on hotel beds as she blogged about life on the trail, complete with music playlists.)

In an impressive national debut Tuesday night, 22-year-old Tiffany Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter with second wife Marla Maples, shared a couple of meager anecdotes about her father.

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Warning: Graphic images and language.

A dozen people changed into T-shirts bearing the Revolutionary Communist Party name shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

The group set a flag on fire after chanting “America Was Never Great,� before Cleveland police officers moved in with a fire extinguisher.

“You’re on fire, stupid,� one police officer yelled as he moved in on the group.

To the east of the convention entrance, several protestors chanted, “What’s the problem? The whole damn system.�

Several people were seen wrestling with police, and a few were led away in zip-tie handcuffs, with at least six moved to a police transport van. Jocelyn Rosnick, executive director of the Ohio chapter of the National Lawyers Guild told the Times up to 20 arrests may have been made, though the Cleveland Police Department has not confirmed the number.

The protest was announced earlier in the week. Firefighters were on the scene and Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams reported that the entrance to the Republican National Convention had been shut down by police before it was later reopened. The police department reported at least two officers were assaulted.

Crowd members were split over the incident.

“It’s freedom of speech. It’s the purest form of free speech,� said Martha Conrad, an attorney from Chicago who said she would offer to represent those arrested.

“It’s disrespectful. People fought and died for that flag,� countered Jeff Jagels, 15, of Dayton.

The scene has been tense for at least an hour. Minutes before the protest, a religious group that had been spotted around Cleveland earlier in the week said it could burn a gay pride flag instead of the American flag. And a U.S. Marine carrying an American flag was swarmed by media and later escorted away by police after cameras circled him.

A sign outside Cleveland Municipal Courtroom D says NO LO TERING. The “I� has fallen off, sadly. “Is there anyone here scheduled for a protection order hearing?� a court worker asked the young men and women waiting in the rather soviet hallway.

Nope. This morning, a group of activists sat outside Courtroom D, not loitering, but awaiting judgment.

Municipal court is maybe the closest thing protesters have to a stern church: hard benches, rules that cannot be broken and a rather stiff penalty for skipping attendance. Jails and municipal courts often form the crucial backstage to all the protests you see on Twitter and TV, the place where the system takes in arrested activists, parks them behind bars and then spits them out after a fine, or, more rarely, jail time.

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Hours before Ted Cruz was to address the Republican National Convention, the second-place finisher in the nomination contest gave no indication he would endorse GOP nominee Donald Trump.

“In an amazing campaign field of 17 talented, dynamic candidates, we beat 15 of those candidates. We just didn’t beat 16,� Cruz told hundreds of supporters gathered at a riverside restaurant on Wednesday.

Just then, Trump’s plane flew overhead as the nominee returned to Cleveland ahead of the convention’s third night. The crowd booed and Cruz laughed.

“That was pretty well-orchestrated,� he joked, before continuing. “Let me say to the men and women here, I don’t know what the future is going to hold.… What I do know is everyone has an obligation to follow our consciences, to speak the truth, and the truth is unchanging, to defend liberty.�

“There’s a lot of talk about unity,� he said. “The way to see unity is for us to unite behind shared principles.�

Cruz pointed to his campaign’s accomplishments in the 2016 campaign: winning nearly 8 million votes, 12 states and nearly 600 delegates; raising 1.8 million donations; and amassing 326,000 volunteers.

All of which could lay the groundwork for a future presidential campaign, which was clearly the hope of many of the supporters.

As Cruz was talking, a man yelled, “God’s not done with you yet!� and the crowd chanted “2020! 2020! 2020!�

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz blamed Donald Trump for stoking “an anti-Semitic environment� within the Republican Party.

“The anti-Semitism that is threaded throughout the Republican Party today goes right to the feet of Donald Trump, their dangerous and abhorrent nominee,� Wasserman Schultz said on a call with reporters Wednesday.

Among other incidents, Wasserman Schultz pointed to Trump’s tweet of an illustration of Clinton next to a six-pointed star with the words “most corrupt candidate ever!� over a background of $100 bills. The image had first appeared on a white supremacist message board. Wasserman Schultz also referenced Trump’s initial reluctance to disavow an endorsement from David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

Trump argued in a Facebook post that the star was similar to a sheriff’s star, not the Jewish Star of David. He said a faulty earpiece was the reason he didn’t immediately disavow Duke.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Donald Trump ultimately landed at his Cleveland rally on a similarly styled Trump helicopter. He was greeted by vice presidential pick Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Pence’s wife and his own adult children. Pence will speak at the convention tonight, and Trump is scheduled to join him on stage.

Paul Ryan’s speech to the Republican National Convention was far and away the best thus far.

That must be because Ryan had an actual purpose – a purpose, I mean, other than to spout a few platitudes in the hope that no one would remember you had once praised Donald Trump on television. (That was manifestly the case with Sens. Tom Cotton and Roger Wicker, among others, on the convention’s first night.)

Ryan’s purpose was to recommend Trump’s candidacy without in any way praising the candidate, or, in other words, to endorse Trump in the abstract without praising the man – indeed, almost without mentioning him at all.

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California GOP officials said Wednesday they were optimistic a highly contagious virus that led to the quarantine of at least a dozen staff members was contained.

“We’ve had no new outbreaks for the last 24 hours, which makes me feel like all of our efforts to fight it … have worked,� executive director Cynthia Bryant told the delegation at its breakfast meeting. “So knock on wood and say a prayer.�

The staff members had come down with what was confirmed to be norovirus, which causes stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhea. They could not leave their hotel rooms until they had been symptom-free for 24 hours. The affliction is generally short-lived but can be dangerous and even fatal, especially for the elderly and the young. Erie County health officials have been involved in testing for and monitoring the outbreak.

The 550-member delegation was warned of the outbreak by the state GOP early Tuesday and advised to avoid shaking hands with others, to wash hands frequently, to avoid sharing food and to not use the delegation buses if they had any symptoms.

No delegates, alternates or guests had reported any signs of the virus, Bryant said.

Conservative author and TV personality Ann Coulter warned California Republicans on Wednesday that the nation could become like California if Donald Trump is not elected president in the fall.

“Trump’s slogan is make America great again. Hillary’s slogan is make America California without the nice beaches, without the good stuff,� Ann Coulter told the state’s delegates at a breakfast meeting.

“You’re always ahead of the curve,� Coulter said. “You sent us two of our greatest presidents, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. And now a Republican can’t get elected statewide in California. That is because of immigration. This is why Trump’s campaign is absolutely crucial.�

Coulter, who was applauded by the Californians, contended the influx of immigrants over the past four decades had given Democrats an edge, and that the Republican establishment betrayed its base of supporters on immigration and trade issues.

“We all know there are certain flaws with our candidate,� she said, laughing. “It’s not like we looked around the country and said, ‘I know who we need to run. Let’s get a reality TV star who has never held elected office.’ No. He’s the only one who will speak for Americans.�

Earlier, Omarosa Manigault, Trump’s newly named director of African American outreach, told the crowd that Trump had changed her life by casting her in the first season of “The Apprentice.�

“Donald Trump really in that first season taught America that we can work hard, that we can accomplish whatever we put our minds to, and most importantly, sometimes folks aren’t going to like you,� she said.

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Social media lit up Monday night as some on Twitter pointed out that Melania Trump’s prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention sounded strikingly similar to Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech.

The in-house staff writer did it.

After more than two days of evasion, denials and contradictory explanations, the Trump campaign released a statement Wednesday – “to whom it may concern� – ascribing the plagiarized passages in Melanie Trump’s convention speech to a scribe working for his corporate operation.

“In working with Melania Trump on her recent first lady speech, we discussed many people who inspired her and messages she wanted to share with the American people,� said Meredith McIver, who described herself as a longtime and admirer of the Trump family. “A person she always liked is Michelle Obama.�

By McIver’s account, Melania Trump read her some passages from Obama’s speech at the 2008 Democratic convention and they inadvertently made their way into the final draft that she delivered Monday at the GOP’s gathering in Cleveland.

“This was my mistake and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as Mrs. Obama,� McIver said. “No harm was meant.�

She said she offered her resignation to Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, as well as his family, but it was rejected. “Mr. Trump told me that people make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grow these experiences.�

McIver’s account was one of several explanations offered by the Trump campaign and its representatives, including denial that any plagiarism had taken place. Before the controversy erupted, Melania told NBC she had written virtually the entire speech by herself.

Far from laying the matter to rest, the statement reignited the issue, which overshadowed the convention for a second straight day and sparked a new round of finger-pointing at Trump’s barebones political operation and its repeated stumbles.

The government needs to do more for the “hardworking men and women who built the great nation we live in,� not members of minority groups who have status as a “protected class,� Donald Trump Jr. said Wednesday.

The Republican presidential nominee’s eldest son, whose speech at the GOP convention Tuesday drew praise, also criticized his father’s detractors within the party. Some delegates who opposed Trump during Tuesday’s roll call “look like idiots,� Trump Jr. said.

“I don’t think anyone would ever accuse us of being appeasers� of the opposition, Trump said of his family. Still, he agreed that his father’s decision to pick Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate was, to some extent, an effort to placate restive conservatives within the party.

Describing a vice presidential selection process in which he and his siblings Eric and Ivanka served as chief advisors to his father, Trump said that they had chosen Pence over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie mostly because “it made sense to have someone to counterbalance my father.�

“We don’t need two Donald Trumps up there,� he said, referring to the outsize personalities that his father, Gingrich and Christie share.

Speaking to a large crowd at a breakfast sponsored by the Wall Street Journal, the younger Trump said he has thought about following his father’s path into politics, although not until his five children are older.

“I’d love to be able to do it,� he said.

He described himself, jokingly, as a “Fifth Avenue redneck,� referring to his love of guns and the outdoors, and he made clear that he shares some of the views and blunt expressions that have distanced his father from minority voters.

Responding to a question about the rise of “identity politics� on the political left, Trump said that the “hardworking men and women who built the great nation we live in, they’re the only people who aren’t protected anymore; they’re the middle class.�

Currently, he said, the government benefits people who can show “they’re one-sixty-fourth of some protected class.�

That has to stop, he said, adding that members of the middle class “are the people we actually have to start catering to. Those are the people that are forgotten.�

“We have to take care of the problems we have, but we also can’t forget the people who built this nation. The hardworking middle, who pay taxes, the middle class.�

We’re halfway through the four-day GOP convention in Cleveland and after last night’s festivities, it’s official: Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for president.

Tonight, we’ll hear from Trump’s pick for his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Also slated to speak are several of Trump’s primary foes, including at least one who still harbors future presidential ambitions.

Here are the highlights of tonight’s schedule of speakers:

• Gov. Mike Pence, the Republican vice presidential nominee.
• Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, one of Trump’s fiercest primary rivals
• Other 2016 runners-up: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (appearing via video) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
• Trump’s son Eric
• Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who was a finalist for Trump’s VP pick

8:51 a.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly listed Ivana Trump as a speaker.

Turns out that even the leader of “Brexit� finds Donald Trump a bit too much for British political sensibilities.

Nigel Farage, the brash former leader of the United Kingdom’s Independence Party, is visiting the GOP convention in Cleveland, and marveled Wednesday at the tone of the American political debate.

“Some of Donald Trump’s comments are pretty out there,� said Farage, the chief proponent of Britain’s divisive campaign to exit the European Union.

“To say that you would ban all Muslims coming into America ... I can see what he’s trying to do; he’s trying to reach voters who feel frustrated and, perhaps, a little bit scared,� Farage said at a breakfast hosted by the McClatchy news organization in Cleveland.

“Occasionally, the style of it, it makes even me wince a little bit.�

The British politician, whose Brexit campaign is often compared to the outsider revolt underway in Republican politics this election year, said he’s not about to tell Americans how to vote.

Though it’s no surprise his politics align with Republicans, who invited him to Cleveland, Farage is no fan of President Obama.

“It’s a big mistake for foreign politicians to tell people how to vote,� he said, referring to Obama, weeks before the vote, laying out the consequences from the U.S. view if Britain voted to leave the EU.

“Obama came to the United Kingdom during the Brexit debate. … He came to our county. He was rude to us; he told us what we should do, and he led to a big Brexit bounce.�

He added, “Although I have to say, I wouldn’t vote for Hillary if you paid me.

“There is that sense of entitlement,� he said about Clinton.

Farage is a bit of a political tourist making his way through the GOP convention and U.S. politics.

And even the leader of the Brexit campaign that shocked the world had the capacity to be surprised by what he saw in Cleveland — particularly the protests outside the hall.

“It was interesting seeing some of the language displayed on those protest cards — in particular on subjects around gay marriage, etc. — which in the United Kingdom would be hate crimes,� he said.

“There were some big cultural differences.�

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, asked on Wednesday what it’s like to meet with Donald Trump, described the GOP presidential nominee as “inquisitive.�

And there’s one question Trump asks again and again.

“Every time he meets with me, he asks me...’Can I win California?’� said McCarthy, a Republican from Bakersfield, at an event hosted by Politico’s Playbook.

McCarthy said he replies: “Well, I don’t think so. It’s pretty difficult.�

That’s an understatement. California is one of the deepest blue states in the country. It hasn’t backed a Republican for the White House since George H.W. Bush won in 1988.

The Trump team insists they’ll play well in Democratic-friendly terrain like Connecticut, Oregon and New Jersey, and that Trump will campaign in blue states.

That has made veteran GOP strategists worry the Trump campaign will pull resources from pivotal swing states like Ohio, Florida and Colorado.

But McCarthy put a positive spin on Trump’s preoccupation with California, saying it illustrates the businessman’s pluck.

“He’s probably the most confident person I ever met,� McCarthy said. “I like people who are willing to take a risk.�

McCarthy likened Trump to California’s own mold-breaking politician -- the Governator.

During his gubernatorial run, Arnold Schwarzenegger had “the biggest rallies you’ve ever seen,� McCarthy said, noting both Trump and the former California governor would play the same song at their events: Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.�

Both celebrities-turned-politicians were tapping into “the frustration that nothing was happening� for many Americans, McCarthy said.

Fittingly, McCarthy noted, Schwarzenegger -- who endorsed Ohio Gov. John Kasich during the Republican primaries -- is taking over Trump’s storied “The Apprentice� franchise on TV.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson expounded Wednesday on a rather unusual claim he made during his GOP convention speech — that Hillary Clinton has ties to Lucifer.

Yes, the devil.

Carson, himself a former candidate who now backs GOP nominee Donald Trump, laid out an elaborate thesis during his prime-time address Tuesday that began with Clinton’s study of Saul Alinsky, a community organizer who advocated disruptive tactics to bring about change. His methods were the subject of Clinton’s college thesis.

“We all have people who are our mentors; we all have people we admire,� Carson said on CNN’s “New Day.� “As a college student at Wellesley, she was on a first-name basis with Saul Alinsky.�

In Alinsky’s book “Rules for Radicals,� he employs Lucifer as a rhetorical tool to make a provocative point.

“The first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer,� Alinsky wrote.

The book was published in 1971, two years after Clinton wrote her thesis at Wellesley, “There’s Only the Fight: An Analysis of the Alinsky Model.�

Carson suggested Alinsky’s ideas still shape Clinton’s thinking.

“It’s very interesting how it uses controlled anarchy in order to change us from a democratic republic to a socialist society,� Carson said of Alinsky’s book.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie doubled down on his criticism of the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation Wednesday, after he staged his own mock trial of Clinton during prime time at the Republican convention.

Christie, a former U.S. attorney in New Jersey, again slammed FBI Director James Comey and his handling of the investigation into the former secretary of State’s use of a private email server. The FBI concluded that there was not enough evidence to recommend that prosecutors pursue charges, but Christie said Comey should have forced Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch to make the decision on whether to prosecute.

“He should have just laid out the facts privately, quietly and made the attorney general make this call,� Christie said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.�

Lynch had said she would accept the recommendation of career prosecutors in the case after it came to light that she met former President Clinton on the tarmac at the Phoenix airport in June. But Christie argued that Comey unsuccessfully tried to fill a position as a prosecutor. And in his scenario, Hillary Clinton would have faced charges.

“She should be convicted. Yeah, absolutely,� he said.

Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination by harnessing the dour mood of GOP voters put off by the nation’s political class. Now, as he turns to the general election, he faces the challenge of incorporating something he has mostly omitted to this point — an overarching, positive vision for the nation.

His best opportunity to date will come during his Thursday night convention address. Hillary Clinton will have the same opportunity — and the same demand — one week later.

For Trump and his fellow Republicans, crafting an appealing argument requires a deft touch. They must persuade even parts of the country that have benefited under President Obama that what they say would be his third term — under Clinton — would be untenable. That requires a heavy dose of negativity.

But history suggests that shifting gears toward an upbeat message is also a necessity.

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Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio)

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press))

Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio spent this week building houses with Habitat for Humanity, motivating young campaign volunteers and kayaking with wounded veterans on the Cuyahoga River.

Sen. Marco Rubio was home in Florida, stumping for votes before investigating mold contamination in a federal courthouse in Pensacola.

And Sen. Kelly Ayotte was busy in New Hampshire fighting the scourge of opiate addiction crushing the state.

As the Republican Party gathers in Cleveland to nominate Donald Trump as their candidate for president, some key lawmakers are steering clear of the GOP convention.

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On Tuesday, the theme of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland was “Make America Work Again� but the subtext was “We Hate Hillary Clinton.�

Once again the festivities were fueled by the festering personal rage that unites so many disparate groups in reality television, and once again the evening sparkled with oratorical oddities. The president of Ultimate Fighting Championship spoke, as did a professional golfer and former “Celebrity Apprentice� contestant and yet another cast member of “The Bold and Beautiful,� as well as some of Trump’s children.

On Tuesday, however, the lineup also included several of the GOP luminaries who did not decide to skip the convention altogether.

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We hope you’re enjoying our convention liveblog this week. If you’re coming to us for the first time or are a loyal reader, you may not know that we have a daily politics newsletter.

The email blast is free and rounds up the important political stories of the day, both at the national level and here in California. And we try to have a little fun with it, too.

Here’s today’s.

You can sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox Monday through Friday.

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Relive the highlights of the second night of the Republican National Convention.

Ray Whitehouse and Cleon Arrey present the evening in less than 3 minutes:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spoke forcefully Tuesday night about Hillary Clinton’s record. Though the night’s theme was “Make America Work Again,� Christie chose to focus on the presumptive Democratic nominee, putting her on trial for the audience.

They responded favorably, chanting, “Lock her up! Lock her up!�

Watch:

Anyone who follows the @VPLive account associated with Vice President Joe Biden’s travels might have been surprised this evening when it started tweeting videos tagged with the Republican National Convention hashtag #RNCinCLE.

Several went out. The tweets were quickly deleted, but the vice president’s account did not offer an explanation.

A Twitter spokesperson told The Times that the tweets were accidentally sent by someone in Cleveland -- a mishap due to a technical error.

Twitter had previously worked with the @VPBidenLive account during Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Summit in June, using what’s called “Twitter mirrors.� The devices are essentially iPads that allow people to take and send photos through Twitter using an official hashtag. They’ve been used during the Oscars, MLB All-Star game and political events.

The Biden account was not properly logged out today, and that’s how these @GOPConvention tweets ended up on the official vice presidential feed. It’s not because Biden was hanging out with actor Tim Daly and Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who once shouted “You lie!� at President Obama.

The Twitter spokesperson says the Biden team knows about the situation.

Mike Memoli contributed to this report.

Another day, another speech by a member of the Trump family — and another round of plagiarism charges coursing through social media.

The Daily Show’s Twitter account seemed to pounce first when it pointed out lines from Donald Trump Jr.’s speech that seemed to be identical to words first used in a May article by F.H. Buckley in The American Conservative called “Trump vs. the New Class.�

Within 45 minutes The Daily Show’s tweet had been retweeted 9,900 times.

In his speech, Donald Trump’s son said:

“Our schools use to be an elevator to the middle class, now they’re stalled on the ground floor. They’re like Soviet-era department stores that are run for the benefit of the clerks and not the customers, for the teachers and the administrators and not the students.�

From Buckley’s article:

“What should be an elevator to the upper class is stalled on the ground floor. Part of the fault for this may be laid at the feet of the system’s entrenched interests: the teachers’ unions and the higher-education professoriate. Our schools and universities are like the old Soviet department stores whose mission was to serve the interests of the sales clerks and not the customers. “

The relevant part of Trump’s speech begins at the eight-minute mark here:

In response, Buckley took to Twitter to defend the younger Donald Trump, saying the speech “wasn’t stealing.� He later told Business Insider he was, in fact, a writer for the convention speech.

James Fallows, former chief speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter, responded to the hubbub on Twitter and in a piece for The Atlantic:

“You don’t recycle, without attribution, things you’ve written and let someone else present them as his or her own words,� Fallows wrote. “At least I haven’t done it myself or previously known of people doing this.�

(Robyn Beck/Associated Press )

Donald Jr. gave a stirring speech Tuesday night that sparked immediate speculation about his own political future.

The younger Trump’s address was far more detailed than the traditional policy speeches his father usually delivers.

In addition, Trump Jr. spoke of “my father, my mentor, my best friend, Donald Trump� as a businessman who “hung out with guys on the construction sites, pouring concrete and hanging Sheetrock.�

Watch:

The theme of the second night of the Republican National Convention is “Make America Work Again.�

In June, the U.S. economy added 287,000 jobs, the highest increase in job growth in eight months.

The unemployment rate has declined steadily since reaching a high of 10% in October 2009, becoming 4.9% in June. It increased slightly from a 4.7% unemployment rate in May.

Participation in the labor force is down overall since 2008 but has remained between 62% and 63% since 2014.

Still, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito used Tuesday night to go after presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on the U.S. workforce.

“We know [Clinton] will double down on an economic agenda that’s led to the lowest workforce participation in decades,� she said.

(Steve Helber / Associated Press)

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Va.) assailed Hillary Clinton during her prime time speech at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night, alluding to the former secretary of State’s comments earlier this year about putting coal miners out of work.

Since 2001, use of coal has gradually declined, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Still, the issue of coal is important to many voters in the country.

In May, The Times’ Michael Finnegan explored the clash between Donald Trump and Clinton over coal.

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(Earl Gibson III / WireImage)

The Republican National Convention lineup has featured several television stars, and tonight soap opera actress Kimberlin Brown will close out the festivities on Day 2.

Brown, 55, hop-scotched between roles on shows including “General Hospital,� “Port Charles� and “One Life to Live.�

Best known for her role as daytime villain Sheila Carter on “The Young and the Restless,� Brown later joined “The Bold and the Beautiful.�

More recently, Brown has hosted a Design Network show called “Dramatic Designs� in which she helps homeowners with interior design projects.

The GOP convention website describes Brown as a small business owner, and she and her husband own an avocado farm in Southern California.

It doesn’t appear either of them have contributed to federal or state political campaigns in the past.

UFC President Dana White spoke in support of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, telling the supportive crowd, “Donald Trump is a fighter and I know he will fight for this country.�

White recounted how after his close friend and former UFC Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta purchased the company in 2001 for $2 million, Trump was supportive of staging UFC fights at his property in Atlantic City.

Tuesday, the deep appreciation for that early support was noted in White’s speech, which began minutes after House Speaker Paul D. Ryan confirmed Trump as the Republican nominee.

“I’m sure most of you are wondering, ‘What are you doing here?’� White said. “I am not a politician. I am a fight promoter. But I was blown away and honored to be invited here tonight and I wanted to show up and tell you about my friend, Donald Trump — the Donald Trump that I know.�

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The view from inside the hall: The first half of Tuesday evening’s program has been, to borrow a Trumpism, strangely low-energy. House Speaker Paul Ryan formally declared Trump and Pence the nominees to brief cheers from a partly empty floor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell got booed, twice. Even a brief video appearance by Trump himself drew only moderate enthusiasm. But, to be fair, this was always going to be the least exciting program for the mostly pro-Trump delegates: a parade of congressional leaders, most of whom endorsed Trump only reluctantly.

The evening’s theme was supposed to be GOP plans to create jobs -- “Make America Work Again� -- but most speakers barely touched on it. Instead, most of them, from McConnell to Ryan, focused on criticizing Hillary Clinton.

“The Clinton years are way over; 2016 is the year America moves on,� Ryan said. McConnell drew a lusty cheer when he promised that the Senate will continue to block Obama’s attempt to fill Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court. “That honor will go to President Donald Trump next year,� he said.

Ryan finally roused the pro-Trump crowd to its feet with as close to a full-throated endorsement of the nominee as he’s given. “Whaddya say we unify this party?� he said. “Let’s win this thing.� And Christie drew ecstatic cheers -- plus chants of “Lock Her Up!� and “Guilty!� -- when he presented what he said was “the prosecutor’s case against Hillary Rodham Clinton.�

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy backs Donald Trump, but he hasn’t been anywhere near the forefront of the Trump movement.

A speaking role at the Republican convention was not a role he was initially expecting to have.

That might help explain why he barely mentioned Trump, now the GOP nominee, in his prime-time address.

“I have good news — in just 112 days — it’s over,� said the Republican from Bakersfield.

“We have listened and you have told us — enough.�

House Republicans have other issues on their minds, namely preserving their majority in Congress, particularly with an unpopular nominee at the top of the GOP ticket. McCarthy is a powerhouse fundraiser and political strategist working on that goal.

“Together, by electing a Republican Congress, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, we can build a better America.�

Congress. Trump. In that order.

(Patrick Semansky / Associated Press)

Among Donald Trump’s most trusted advisers are his children.

And on Tuesday night, Donald Trump Jr. and Tiffany Trump are taking the stage at the Republican National Convention to address the nation, offering insights into the man who just became the official nominee of the Republican Party. Ivanka and Eric Trump are also set to speak at the convention later in the week.

The elder Trump frequently boasts about his children on the campaign trail — appreciation they plan to reciprocate in their convention addresses.

“These won’t be typical child-of-candidate speeches,� Donald Trump Jr., 38, told the Wall Street Journal. “We will talk about him as a father, but I don’t foresee a lot of the joking and the fluff we have grown so accustomed to from prior conventions.�

While the Republican nominee criss-crosses the country speaking to supporters, Donald Trump Jr., Eric and Ivanka run his real estate company.

Ivanka Trump, 34, who will speak at the convention on Thursday night, has, according to her father, overseen the conversion of the Old Post Office building in Washington, D.C., into a high-end hotel. It’s scheduled for completion this fall.

Tiffany Trump, 22, the Republican nominee’s youngest daughter, recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in sociology and urban studies.

We hold this truth to be self-evident, that Melania Trump borrowed thoughts and words from Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech Monday night.

No, wait.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that when Melania Trump uttered words that sounded exactly like Michelle Obama’s words, she didn’t do her husband any favors.

Hey, did I just plagiarize the Declaration of Independence and the opening sentence of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice�?

Nope.

Those words are so famous, so clichéd even, that they don’t need to be attributed because everyone knows who wrote them.

But what about lifting less famous turns of phrase?

What about what happened Monday night, after a guy named Jarrett Hill, who has a YouTube channel on home design, noticed that Melania Trump’s convention speech sounded an awful lot like the one delivered by Michelle Obama in Denver in 2008?

He noted that two passages in particular used parallel language to describe parallel thoughts.

Did Melania Trump — or her speechwriters — do something wrong? Did borrowing Obama’s words cross the line? Or was it all just an embarrassing coincidence?

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House Speaker Paul D. Ryan found himself presiding Tuesday over a presidential convention that nominated a Republican who could not be more different from him in style and substance.

“Democracy is a series of choices,� the Wisconsin congressman said in a prime-time speech from the convention in Cleveland. “We Republicans have made ours. Have we had our arguments this year? Sure we have.�

With Donald Trump now the nominee, Ryan used his own prime-time address to to try to bring the party together, focusing largely on the risk of electing Hillary Clinton rather than the promise of Trump, whom he scarcely mentioned.

“So what do you that say we unite this party, at this crucial moment when unity is everything?�

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Three top congressional leaders addressed convention delegates Tuesday in prime time. They offered different messages, but all pushed a similar goal -- keeping Republicans in control of Congress.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy have less to worry about given large GOP majorities. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s party is in real jeopardy of losing the chamber this fall.

Listen to how each man framed the contest as a need to shore up their ranks.

And consider the message Sen. Roger Wicker, who leads the Republican Senate campaign arm, telegraphed yesterday at the convention:

“When Donald Trump is elected president he will determine the future of the Supreme Court and he will lead our troops as commander in chief.... He and Vice President Mike Pence will need a Republican Senate to get that job done.�

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Sen. Roger Wicker, who leads the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, talks about how Donald Trump would work with Congress.

Donald Trump appeared briefly on screen to address convention delegates tonight, marking the second evening in a row he’s been a presence at the party.

He told the crowd he’ll join his vice presidential nominee Mike Pence Wednesday night, and of course he’ll formally give an acceptance speech Thursday night.

That means convention-goers will get four nights of Trump in a row.

Donald Trump just can’t stay away from his convention.

From New York, he sent a video message Tuesday shortly after delegates delivered him the GOP nomination.

“Today has been a very, very special day, watching my children put me over the top,� he said.

“Getting the party’s nomination, I’ll never forget it. It’s something I will never, ever forget.�

But the convention in Cleveland is just the start, he said. “This is a movement, but we have to go all the way.�

“Most importantly we’re going to make America great again.�

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is known as a skilled tactician, if a cautious politician.

But on Tuesday, the Kentucky Republican showed the punch he packs behind the Southern pleasantries and penchant for home-state bourbon.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve been around a while.

And I’ve been around the Clintons more than anybody should ever have to,� McConnell opened.

“A couple years ago, Bill and Hillary camped out in my state telling anybody who’d listen why they ought to vote against me,� he said. “Tonight I’m here to return the favor.�

McConnell has long wanted the position he now holds as the Senate majority leader, and he once famously said his goal was to make President Obama a one-term president.

“I’ve had my differences with Barack Obama, but l will give him this: At least he was upfront about his plans to move America to the left,� he said. “Not Hillary.�

Clinton, he said, has a “tortured relationship with the truth.�

He said: “I am here to tell you Hillary Clinton will say anything, do anything and be anything to get elected president. And we cannot allow it.�

McConnell was initially slow to warm to Donald Trump, but once it was clear Trump would become the nominee he cautiously embraced him.

“With Donald Trump in the White House, Senate Republicans will build on the work we’ve done,� he said.

Not McConnell’s first choice for the GOP nominee, but the one he’s ready to negotiate with.

Chris Cox of the NRA went after Hillary Clinton as someone who would not protect the 2nd Amendment if she is elected president.

He kept his remarks brief, focusing more on the type of Supreme Court justice Clinton would appoint than specific claims about gun violence.

Here’s some context for the topic. Violent gun deaths in the United States have hovered between 10,000 to 13,000 over the last 15 years.

(Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)

In his speech before the convention Tuesday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke of the importance of Republicans winning the White House in November, particularly as it relates to Supreme Court nominees.

“Let us put justices on the Supreme Court who cherish our Constitution,� McConnell said.

In May, Donald Trump released a list of 11 judges he might pick as Supreme Court nominees.

They are:

• Steven Colloton: An Iowa judge appointed by President George W. Bush in 2003. He previously worked as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa and was a clerk for former Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
• Allison Eid: A Colorado Supreme Court justice since 2006 and former solicitor general for the state of Colorado who clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas.
• Raymond Gruender: Appointed in 2004 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in Missouri by President George W. Bush. A former federal prosecutor in Missouri.
• Thomas Hardiman: A federal judge on the 3rd Circuit of Pennsylvania who was appointed by Bush in 2003. Hardiman, the first in his family to attend college, graduated from Notre Dame University.
• Raymond Kethledge: A Michigan federal appellate judge for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Appointed by Bush before his departure from office in 2008. Kethledge was previously in private practice and worked as a corporate attorney.
• Joan Larsen: Sits on the Michigan Supreme Court and was a professor at the University of Michigan School of Law. She clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia, whose death has left a vacancy on the Supreme Court.
• Thomas Lee: A justice on the Utah Supreme Court since 2010 and a former faculty member at Brigham Young University Law School. Son of former Reagan-era Solicitor Gen. Rex Lee and brother of Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).
• William Pryor: A Bush appointee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Alabama. Took Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’ place as state attorney general when he entered the Senate.

• David Stras: A justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court since 2010. Previously worked as a legal scholar at the University of Minnesota Law School and clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas.

• Diane Sykes: A federal appellate judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th District, appointed by George W. Bush in 2004. A former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice.

• Don Willett: A justice on the Texas Supreme Court since 2005 who was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry. Willett has publicly mocked Trump on Twitter in recent months.