What happened on day two of the RNC?
What happened on day two of the RNC?
Brandon Livesay
Reporting from the conventionWe're wrapping up our live coverage for the night here at day two of the Republican convention in Milwaukee.
We saw a bevy of major Republicans lining up to heap praise on Donald Trump.
The two biggest names paying tribute were Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, who spoke one after the other. Mere months ago, both hoped this week would mark their own coronation as Republican presidential nominee.
But today they threw their support behind Donald Trump, who never entered a debate against his rivals on his way to securing the nomination.
We also heard from Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who tried to take on Trump in the 2016 race to be Republican nominee, and fell short.
Today the message from the party was clear: they are mobilised behind their candidate, and they seem confident.
We also saw more of JD Vance, who walked through the main arena at the convention in preparation for his big speech tomorrow.
Elsewhere in US politics, President Joe Biden appeared in Nevada at an event for the NAACP. He gave an energised speech that hit out against Trump's policies and character.
But he also had another blow to his own election campaign.
A Democratic campaign operative told the BBC that there were some who wanted to push for the party high command to take action, for example, by calling a vote of no confidence in the president.
As has become the norm in US politics, tomorrow is another busy day. And we'll be back to bring you the latest updates as they happen.
See you then.
Until then, we leave you with our wrap of Tuesday's action.
Donald Trump Jr praises JD Vance as VP pick
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from the conventionDonald Trump Jr had hoped his father would choose JD Vance as his running mate, he shared during an interview earlier today at an event held by media outlet Axios.
"Honestly I think he's just an American Dream story," he said of Vance, citing the senator's book Hillbilly Elegy.
Trump Jr approved of the work Vance had done in the US Senate, where he has emerged as a proponent of a more internet-savvy brand of conservatism.
"I see his actions in the Senate," Trump Jr said. "I've gotten to know him over the last few years".
He also believed Vance possessed "the youth, the vigour his ability to really prosecute the case" for Donald Trump's candidacy.
Tomorrow is a big day for Vance, when he will deliver his first speech to the party since he was picked to be Trump's running mate.
'Mine eyes have been opened!' says grieving mum
Earlier in the night, the Republican convention heard from the mother of a US Army veteran and father-of-three who was killed in the New York neighbourhood of Harlem in 2018.
The speech brought the RNC crowd to their feet as she rained rhetorical fire and brimstone on “soft-on-crime prosecutors”, who she said had turned US cities into “war zones”.
Four siblings were initially charged with murder and gang assault in the fatal stabbing of Madeline Brame's son, Hason Correa.
Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg reduced the severity of the case, sparing the four maximum sentences.
Bragg is the same district attorney that charged Trump with business fraud, this year securing the first criminal conviction of a former president.
Brame told the RNC: “The Democratic party that poor minorities have been loyal to for decades, including myself, right, they betrayed us, they stabbed us in the back!"
“But mine eyes have been opened!” she added, a line laden with religious overtones that electrified the Republican crowd.
Railing against Bragg, she said of Trump: “He’s been a victim of the same corrupt system that I have been and my family has been.”
The audience that was not in the room
Mike Wendling
Reporting from the conventionLara Trump made a “heart” gesture towards the former president after a very personal speech, peppered with anecdotes about family life and her own experiences and recollections.
Her intended audience was wider than those in the room - as she tried to appeal to voters who are on the fence or haven’t voted for her father-in-law in the past.
'Nothing prepares you for a moment like that'
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from the conventionGETTY IMAGESLara Trump, wife of the nominee's son, Eric Trump, says she had a different speech prepared until she saw Saturday's shooting.
"Nothing prepares you for a moment like that," she says. "Our family has faced our fair share of death threats, mysterious powders sent to our homes, tasteless and violent comments directed towards us on social media.
“But none of that prepares you, as a daughter-in-law, to watch in real time someone try to kill a person you love.
"None of that prepares you, as a mother, to quickly reach for the remote and turn your young children away from the screen so they're not witness to something that scars the memory of their grandpa for the rest of their lives."
That's a wrap from today's speakers
Brandon Livesay
Reporting from the conventionWe've heard from a long list of speakers here at day two of the Republican Convention in Milwaukee
Inside the arena they are having a prayer to finish the night. Trump is standing alongside his running mate, JD Vance.
Attention now turns to tomorrow, when Vance will have his moment in the party's spotlight and deliver his own speech.
Lara Trump raises fist in echo of father-in-law moments after shooting
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from the conventionGETTY IMAGESSeveral photos captured Trump with a bloodied ear, raising his fist after an attempted assassination on Saturday.
His team is certainly aware of how potent an image that instantly became.
Lara Trump reminds the crowd that after Trump came "millimeters from death" on Saturday, he raised his fist in the air. She then raises her arm and makes a fist - an invitation for the crowd to follow her lead.
They do. Several delegates raise their fists and chant "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
The chant had already happened spontaneously last night when Trump first appeared, but now it seems to have caught on. Ron DeSantis used the same chant earlier in his speech.
A lighter, less intense mood
Mike Wendling
reporting from the conventionGETTY IMAGESThe mood on the floor tonight is definitely less intense than last night.
Trump’s former rivals trooped to the stage and despite a few scattered boos seemed to be able to connect with the Maga base.
A stretch of speeches by families of crime victims whipped up anger at crime, but Trump loyalists Sarah Sanders, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio lifted the mood.
In the VIP box, Trump and his guests appear a little more relaxed after last night’s emotion.
RNC co-chair Lara Trump takes the stage
GETTY IMAGESLara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law who was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee earlier this year, is up now.
“I don’t feel like I have to ask this question, but is anyone in this room ready to send Donald Trump back to 1600 Pennsylvania avenue,” she says, pumping up the crowd.
“Our family has faced death threats… but none of that as a daughter-in-law can prepare watching someone try to kill someone you love,” she says.
She then thanks supporters for “their prayers and well wishes over the last 72-hours”.
Lara is one of two Trump loyalists to take up top leadership roles within the RNC recently. The other is the new chair Michael Whatley, a former party general counsel who championed Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud in the 2020 election.
Marco Rubio offers a unity message
Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who was floated as a contender to be Trump’s running mate - and shares a thorny history with the former president, is speaking glowingly of Trump.
He speaks about the attempt on Trump’s life.
“We were brought to the precipice of the abyss, and by the hand of God reminded of what truly matters in our lives and in our country," he says.
“It is our people who should always matter the most in everything we do - by giving voice to everyday Americans, President Trump has not just transformed our party, he has inspired a movement,” he told the cheering crowd.
"There is nothing dangerous or divisive about putting Americans first," he added, as chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A" broke out in the crowd.
Marco Rubio arrives on stage
Mike Wendling
Reporting from the conventionGETTY IMAGESFlorida Senator Marco Rubio is one of the final speakers scheduled tonight at the Republican convention.
He's just arrived on stage, wearing a red tie and an American flag pinned to his lapel.
Rubio says the Republican party has been transformed by Trump.
A small throng of Rubio supporters has moved just in front of the stage and chant his name as he starts speaking.
If you think elections are rigged, why vote?
Mike Wendling
Reporting from the conventionJust below the stage I ran into Charlie Kirk, the founder of campus group Turning Point.
The Trump campaign hopes this hardcore conservative group can turn out new supporters, and they’re pouring money into get-out-the-vote efforts. But there’s one big problem - Trump’s voter fraud claims.
If you think elections are rigged, why vote?
“That's an issue,” Kirk admits, but he thinks some states are better than others at securing elections.
“The problems are at the margins,” he says, adding: “I wish we did it like you do it in the UK” with hand-counted paper ballots.
Although Donald Trump has criticised early and postal voting, Kirk says Republicans will have to take advantage of all potential voting methods to win in November.
He points to his t-shirt, which reads: “VOTE EARLY”.
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