Second night of Republican convention is under way: Live news | News

• • The Republican National Convention’s second night blended live in-person speeches with pre-recorded segments.

 

• • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke from Jerusalem about how Trump’s “America First” foreign policy has made the world safer, with a focus on Trump’s support for Israel.

 

• • First Lady Melania Trump, whose convention speech four years ago borrowed from Michelle Obama, spoke from a newly renovated White House Rose Garden.

 

• • Tiffany Trump and Eric Trump, two of the president’s children also made appearances.

 

There are the latest updates:

02:45 GMT – First Lady closes the evening from the Rose Garden

Melania Trump delivered the final speech of the second night of the Republican National Convention.

It was a rare political appearance for the first lady, urging support for her husband’s re-election.

She also addressed the coronavirus pandemic – a topic that had largely gone unmentioned during the convention.

“I want to acknowledge the fact that since March, our lives have changed dramatically,” she said, adding that the Trump administration would continue to work towards developing a vaccine.

“Donald will not rest,” she said, until there is a cure.

02:40 GMT – Pompeo speaks from Jerusalem

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo supported Trump’s re-election in a speech recorded in Jerusalem during an official visit to the Middle East.

“The president moved the US embassy to this very city of God, Jerusalem, the rightful capital of the Jewish homeland,” he said.

The address was roundly condemned by Democrats and others as an inappropriate breach of decades of diplomatic precedent and a possible violation of federal law prohibiting executive branch employees from overt political activism while on duty. Pompeo himself had reminded State Department staffers of those restrictions only last month.

Read more here.

02:20 GMT – Trump hosts naturalisation ceremony

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf administered the naturalisation oath to five people as Trump looked on.

Afterward, Trump welcomed the five into the “great American family” and congratulated them, saying, “Great going.”

“You followed the rules, you obeyed the laws, you learned your history, embraced our values and proved yourselves to be men and women of the highest integrity,” he said.

The five new US citizens hailed from Bolivia, Lebanon, India, Sudan and Ghana.

02:15 GMT – Trump’s youngest daughter defends her father

Trump’s youngest daughter Tiffany said her father is willing to put the country’s needs above his own.

“Fighting for America is something he will sacrifice anything for,” she said. “He dreams big dreams for our country – and he is relentless at achieving them.”

She also delivered an unexpected criticism of media, saying it deliberately manipulated of information.

“Rather than allowing Americans the right to form our own beliefs, this misinformation system keeps people mentally enslaved to the ideas they deem correct,” she said. “This has fostered unnecessary fear and divisiveness amongst us.”

02:00 GMT – Mike Pence stars in pre-recorded video

Vice President Mike Pence starred in a video featuring the stories of six Americans whose lives have been helped by the Trump administration.

The nine-minute video, titled, Lincoln, was filmed last week at President Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home in Lincoln City, Indiana. Pence delivers a tribute to Lincoln, the first Republican president, before holding casual conversations with everyday Americans.

01:35 GMT – High schooler says US must unite around Trump

A teenager known for video of his interaction with a Native American man during duelling demonstrations at the Lincoln Memorial says the country must unite around a president “who calls the media out”.

Nicholas Sandmann was among a group of students participating in an anti-abortion march in Washington in January 2019. Footage of his interaction with Nathan Phillips, who was participating in a separate demonstration supporting Native American rights, spread widely online.

“My life changed forever in that one moment. The full war machine of the mainstream media revved up into attack mode,” he said. “And do you know why? Because the truth wasn’t important. Advancing their anti-Christian, anti-Conservative, anti-Donald Trump narrative was all that mattered.”

Sandmann later settled lawsuits against CNN and other media outlets.

Read more here.

01:30 GMT – Dairy farmer thanks Trump

A Wisconsin dairy farmer thanked Trump for his support and claiming dairy farming is “roaring back”.

Cris Peterson said Trump helped struggling dairy farmers, socked by low milk prices in 2016, in part by “negotiating new trade deals.”

“By the end of 2018, we had a new state-of-the-art robotic milking facility that allows our cows to milk themselves three times a day,” she said, “at about the same time, President Trump’s economic boom began helping dairy farmers across the nation.”

01:20 GMT – Anti-abortion activist makes plea

Abby Johnson previously worked for Planned Parenthood, but became a vocal abortion opponent after she says she witnessed an abortion of a woman who was 13 weeks pregnant.

“For me, abortions real. I know what it sounds like; what it smells like. I’ve been the perpetrator … to these babies … to these women,” she said.

“I support President Trump because he’s done more for the unborn than any other president.”

She founded a ministry that lobbies abortion clinics employees to leave their jobs, and a movie based around her life story was released last year.

01:15 GMT – ‘A strong American cannot fight endless wars’

Senator Rand Paul said Trump opposed “endless wars” waged by the US, saying that the president had made good on his promise to end wars, particularly in the Middle East.

“I’m supporting President Trump because he believes as I do that a strong America cannot fight endless wars,” Paul said.

“We must not continue to leave our blood and treasure in Middle East quagmires.”

He then went on to say that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who had supported the Iraq War and other recent US interventions, would “choose war again”.

01:00 GMT – Lobsterman credits Trump for giving ‘voice’ to fishing farmers

A lobsterman, Jason Joyce, said he had not voted for Trump in 2016, in part because he was unsure whether the Republican candidate was conservative enough.

“I have to confess: I didn’t support Trump in 2016. Sceptical that he shared my conservative views, I expected him to flip flop on his campaign promises. But he has followed through on his promises.”

“As long as Trump is president, fishing families like mine will have a voice.”

 

Beautiful Maine Lobsters will now move tariff-free to Europe! For first time in many years. GREAT new deal by USTR levels playing field with Canada. Millions of $’s more in EXPORTS…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2020

00:55 GMT – Vice president of Navajo Nation praises Trump

Myron Lizer, vice president of the Navajo Nation, said President Trump had “made it a priority to repair the relationship” between the Navajo and the federal government.

“Our people have never been invited into the American dream,” Lizer said. “We’ve for years fought congressional battles with past congressmen and senators that were part of a broken system that ignored us. That is, until President Trump took office.”

00:50 GMT – Trump pardons bank robber

Trump signed a document that fully pardons Jon Ponder, a Black man who was convicted of bank robbery. Trump called it a “beautiful testament to the power of redemption”. Ponder now leads a programme in Las Vegas that helps former prisoners re-enter society, called Hope for Prisoners.

00:45 GMT – Speaker pulled after anti-semitic remarks

A speaker who had been scheduled to address the second night of the Republican National Convention has been pulled from the lineup after she directed her Twitter followers to a series of anti-Semitic, conspiratorial messages.

Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh says, “We have removed the scheduled video from the convention lineup and it will no longer run this week.”

Mary Ann Mendoza had been scheduled to highlight the president’s fight against undocumented migration. Mendoza’s son was killed in 2014 in a head-on collision by a man who was undocumented and was driving while under the influence.

00:40 GMT – Anti-abortion activist to speak

An anti-abortion activist scheduled to speak during the Republican National Convention previously advocated for something called “household voting”, saying wives should defer to their husbands on making decisions related to politics.

In May, Abby Johnson wrote on Twitter that she “would support bringing back household voting”, later explaining that, if spouses were to disagree, “Then, they would have to decide on one vote. In a Godly household, the husband would get the final say.”

 

Pro-aborts are SO scared of my speech tonight that will pull back the curtain of the barbaric reality of abortion, they are scrambling to try to find anything to detract people from my message. Well, guess what?? You can dredge up whatever old tweets you want. I’m still speaking.

— Abby Johnson (@AbbyJohnson) August 25, 2020

00:30 GMT – Second night kicks off 

The people closest to President Donald Trump – his family – are starring on the second night of the Republican National Convention.

First Lady Melania Trump is delivering Tuesday evening’s keynote address at the White House, while the president’s daughter Tiffany and son Eric will be featured, too.

 

Join us TONIGHT for the Republican National Convention – Night 2: Land of Opportunity! #RNC2020 pic.twitter.com/2cIKgAE25g

— Team Trump (Text VOTE to 88022) (@TeamTrump) August 25, 2020

00:10 GMT – Trump to highlight bank robber’s pardon at RNC

President Donald Trump is highlighting the pardon of a Nevada man convicted of bank robbery as part of the second day of programming at the Republican National Convention.

In a video expected to air Tuesday night, Trump says that the story of Jon Ponder is a “beautiful testament to the power of redemption”. Ponder now leads a programme in Las Vegas that helps former prisoners reenter society, called Hope for Prisoners.

22:15 GMT – Ratings fall short

Television viewership on the first night of the Republican National Convention fell short of the Democrats’ first night last week, according to Nielsen ratings.

About 15.8 million people watched the Republicans live on Monday night between 10 and 11pm (02:00-03:00GMT), down from roughly 19 million who tuned in for last Monday’s speeches by Senator Bernie Sanders and Michelle Obama. Almost half of that audience watched on Fox News, which brought in 7.1 million viewers – by far the biggest audience of the night.

22:00 GMT – Democratic legislators to probe Pompeo speech

The chairman of a Democratic-led US House of Representatives subcommittee announced an investigation into whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s appearance at the Republican National Convention breaks federal law and regulations.

“The Trump administration and Secretary Pompeo have shown a gross disregard not only of basic ethics, but also a blatant willingness to violate federal law for political gain,” Joaquin Castro, head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s oversight subcommittee, said in a statement.

 

.@SecPompeo‘s participation in the #RNCConvention during the course of official @StateDept work is not only unacceptable, but appears that it may also be illegal.

I’ve launched a @HouseForeign investigation. https://t.co/tJ6nvTsJsw

— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) August 25, 2020

Pompeo, who is travelling overseas, was to speak to the convention on Tuesday evening in a video recorded during a stop in Jerusalem, an appearance that has ignited an outcry by some former senior diplomats because it appears to break long-standing rules that bar senior political appointees from partisan political activities, including attending party conventions.

Catch updates from Monday night’s convention here.