Election Live Updates: Trump appears at RNC with 6 former hostages
The Republican National Convention got underway Monday as the GOP formally nominated President Donald Trump for a second term in the White House.
President Donald Trump appeared at the opening night of the Republican National Convention in a taped video with six former hostages freed during the Trump administration.
The overall theme of the convention, "Honoring the Great American Story," will highlight "the promise and greatness of America" and Trump's "leadership and what he has planned for the future," a Trump campaign official said.
Each night will also have a sub-theme; on Monday, it was "Land of Promise."
Speakers on Monday:
Senator Tim Scott (R-SC)
House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (LA-01)
Representative Matt Gaetz (FL-01)
Representative Jim Jordan (OH-04)
Former Ambassador Nikki Haley
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel
Georgia State Representative Vernon Jones
Amy Johnson Ford
Kimberly Guilfoyle
Natalie Harp
Charlie Kirk
Kim Klacik
Mark and Patricia McCloskey
Sean Parnell
Andrew Pollack
Donald Trump, Jr.
Tanya Weinreis
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Tim Scott, Congress's only Black Republican senator, delivers RNC's coveted closing speech on night 1
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott says he is living the American dream and cites "the evolution of the Southern heart" as the reason he, as a Black man, was able to win a primary election against a son of Strom Thurmond.
Scott, the only Black GOP senator, was the closing speaker at the Republican National Convention on Monday. He recounted growing up in a single-parent household and failing out of ninth grade before finding a mentor and becoming a small-business owner.
The senator says any insinuation that America has gone backward is false. He talked about his 2010 primary win against Paul Thurmond, son of the segregationist senator, in a congressional race.
He says, "In an overwhelmingly white district, the voters judged me not on the color of my skin but on the content of my character." He says, "We live in a world that only wants you to believe in the bad news, racially economically and culturally polarizing news."
Scott says America isn't "fully where we want to be." But he says, "I thank God almighty we are not where we used to be."
Trump Jr. name-calls Biden in fiery RNC speech
Donald Trump Jr. is ridiculing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden with name-calling in a fiery speech to the televised Republican National Convention.
But more broadly, President Donald Trump's eldest son is painting his father's opponent for the presidency as part of a movement aimed at stripping the nation of its most basic freedoms.
"In the past, both parties believed in the goodness of America," the younger Trump says. "This time, the other party is attacking the very principles on which our nation was founded," citing freedom of thought, speech, religion and the rule of law.
Mocking Biden's past meetings with Chinese leaders as vice president, he calls the Democrat "Beijing Biden" and pokes at his decades in the Snate and previously unsuccessful presidential bids by calling him "The Loch Ness Monster of the swamp."
Haley says 'America is not a racist country'
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is recounting how states like her native South Carolina have rebounded from racist violence, saying, "America is not a racist country."
During the first night of Republicans' national convention, the former South Carolina governor said Monday that, "in much of the Democratic Party, it's now fashionable to say that America is racist."
Referencing the 2015 shooting of nine Bible study attendees by a white man at a historic Black church in Charleston, Haley noted that South Carolina didn't erupt into the violence seen after some shootings of Black Americans in other cities.
St. Louis couple, in RNC speech, defend show of weapons
A white St. Louis couple criminally charged for waving guns during a Black Lives Matter protest outside their home made their case in their opening night speech of the Republican National Convention Monday.
"Democrats no longer view the government's job as protecting honest citizens from criminals, but rather protecting criminals from honest citizens," Mark and Patricia McCloskey said in prepared remarks that broke from the optimistic vision for America organizers promised.
They added: "Make no mistake: No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats' America."
Black lawmaker touts support for Trump
A Black Democratic lawmaker in Georgia's state legislature says he's supporting President Donald Trump because they've made improvements benefiting the Black community.
During the opening night of Republicans' convention Monday, state Rep. Vernon Jones said "all hell broke loose" when he announced his support for Trump. But Jones said he stands by his decision in part because Trump has backed initiatives including increased funding for HBCUs, criminal justice reform and "the most inclusive economy ever."
Jones says, "The Democratic Party does not want Black people to leave the mental plantation" on which they've toiled. He added, "Black voices are becoming more woke and louder than ever."
Andrew Pollack speaks at the 2020 RNC
Andrew Pollack, a Long Island native whose daughter was killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, spoke at the 2020 National Republican Convention.
Jordan recounts Trump call with grieving family
Ohio congressman Jim Jordan is describing an empathetic moment he shared with President Donald Trump, part of an effort that aides said is aimed at presenting a side of the president many Americans don't see.
At the Republican National Convention on Monday, Jordan recounted a phone conversation with Trump as the Ohioan was en route to visit his grieving family after Jordan's nephew died in a car accident.
Jordan says he asked Trump if he'd like to say hello to the boy's father.
Jordan adds: "For the next five minutes, family and friends sat in complete silence as the president of the United States took time to talk to a dad who was hurting. That's the president I know.
RNC chair McDaniel says she's a 'real housewife'
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel is scoffing at Democrats' choice of actor Eva Longoria to host one night of their convention, suggesting they couldn't find a "real housewife."
McDaniel dismissed Longoria, a star of "Desperate Housewives," on Monday as a "famous Hollywood actress who played a housewife on TV." McDaniel said, "I'm actually a real housewife and a mom from Michigan."
It echoed a comment made by Trump last month when he warned "The Suburban Housewives of America," in a tweet that a Joe Biden presidency would "destroy your neighborhood." He warned of an "invasion" and said he had scrapped a program to allow "low income housing" in the suburbs. But McDaniel herself is an executive with a full-time job running a nationwide political organization with a multimillion-dollar budget.
Kirk says Trump guarding 'Western civilization'
The president of the pro-Trump organization Turning Point USA is calling the president "the bodyguard of Western civilization."
Kirk said at the start of the evening portion of the Republican National Convention on Monday that President Donald Trump had reclaimed the U.S. government "from the rotten cartel of insiders that have been destroying our country."
He says, "We may not have realized it at the time, but this fact is now clear: Trump is the bodyguard of Western civilization."
He added that Trump was "elected to defend and strengthen the American way of life."
Cardinal Timothy Dolan conducts prayer at the 2020 RNC
Cardinal Timothy Dolan conducts the prayer in New York City with the Statue of Liberty visible in the background during the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Donald Trump Jr., girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle to speak at RNC
The president's son Donald Trump Jr. will take the Republican convention stage Monday to encourage voters to support four more years of his father's presidency.
The eldest Trump son will use his platform at the 2020 RNC to talk about "the strong economy built by his father and how 'Trump's America is a land of opportunity -- a place of promise,'" according to a statement released by President Donald Trump's campaign.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump Jr.'s girlfriend, will share her own experience as the daughter of immigrants, according to the campaign's website.
TikTok sues Trump administration over US ban
TikTok has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the government's pending ban of the popular video-sharing app, the company announced Monday. The company said in a statement that the executive order announcing the ban, signed by President Donald Trump earlier this month, has the potential to strip the rights of its community "without any evidence to justify such an extreme action, and without any due process."
Trump says virus is fading
President Donald Trump says without evidence that the coronavirus is fading, a claim that he has been making for months. In the toss-up state of North Carolina, Trump spoke on a tarmac in Fletcher to several hundred cheering supporters - the majority not wearing masks - after he addressed delegates at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte. Trump says the nation will "put this horrible incident coming from China behind us and we will have the vaccines very soon, but it's going to be fading, and it is starting to fade."
More than two dozen former GOP lawmakers endorse Biden on 1st day of RNC
On the first day of the GOP convention Monday, Democratic nominees Joe Biden and Kamala Harris picked up support from 27 former GOP members of Congress, including former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump before and after retiring in 2018 -- in the latest act of defiance from Republicans against the sitting president who represents their party.
Trump makes surprise appearance at RNC, casts doubt on election integrity
The Republican Party formally nominated President Donald Trump for a second term in the White House on Monday, and then Trump delivered a long speech in which he cast great doubt on the integrity of the election he was nominated to compete in.
2020 VOTE RESOURCES
Voter registration, information and resources from Vote.org
League of Women Voters of the City of New York
Board of Elections in New York City
NY Voter Registration and Poll Site Search
ABC News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
