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Cruz cut off by Trump plane: ‘That was pretty well orchestrated’ – video
11.43pm BST
23:43
Trump at record-low with Latino voters
Sabrina Siddiqui
In the aftermath of defeat in the 2012 presidential race, the Republican party’s mandate was clear: make inroads with Latino voters, the fastest-growing bloc of the American electorate, or face the consequences at the ballot box, writes Guardian politics reporter Sabrina Siddiqui:
On Thursday, Donald Trump will instead formally accept the Republican nomination for president at the party’s convention in Cleveland with record-low approval ratings from Latino voters.
And even as Republican officials speak of ramping up outreach to the must-win demographic, the atmosphere is clearly affected by the real estate mogul’s unwavering line on immigration – from the unveiling of a Republican election platform, which emphasized the building of a border wall, to a speaking lineup that has included the parents of children killed by immigrants who entered the US illegally.
Many prominent Republicans fear Trump’s name at the top of the ticket in November poses a threat not simply for their prospects of winning the White House but also for holding on to majorities in Congress.
“I think we’re likely to have the largest turnout ever of Latino voters to stop Donald Trump,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster who has argued that the party’s 2016 nominee would need at least 40% of the Latino vote to secure victory.
“He’s going to have to do dramatically better than Mitt Romney did among white voters to counter the antagonism he’s created among Hispanics.” [...]
In a poll released just ahead of the Republican convention, Hillary Clinton held a 62-point advantage over Trump among Latino voters, leading 76% to 14%. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo survey also found that 82% of Latino voters viewed Trump unfavorably, compared with just 11% who viewed him positively.
Read further:
Related: Republicans fear Trump effect on Latino voters: 'We'll need another autopsy'
11.33pm BST
23:33
Farage: Obama 'helpful' in Brexit vote
David Smith
Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence party, has claimed that Barack Obama was unwittingly responsible for pushing Britain out of the European Union, reports Guardian Washington correspondent David Smith:
“I’m a huge fan of Barack Obama,” Farage said on Wednesday during a visit to the Republican national convention in Cleveland. “Without him we wouldn’t have won the referendum. He was very helpful.”
The US president visited London in April and made an impassioned plea to Britons to remain in the EU. The UK would be at the “back of the queue” in any trade deal with the US, he warned, speaking alongside David Cameron. The leave victory in last month’s Brexit referendum caught the White House by surprise.
Farage, speaking at a fringe event after meeting Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, suggested that Obama’s intervention had backfired and that politicians should not meddle in another country’s affairs.
“I shall always be grateful, eternally grateful to Obama because he came to our country, he was rude to us, he told us what we should do and he led to a big Brexit bounce of several points,” the leading Brexit advocate said. “So thank you, Obama, for helping us to win this referendum.
“The moral of the story is I shan’t say at the end of this week who I think you should vote for, although I have to say, I wouldn’t vote for Hillary if you paid me. Her sense of entitlement kind of puts me off.”
Related: Thanks, Obama: Nigel Farage says US president helped make Brexit a reality
11.29pm BST
23:29
Laura Benanti nails impression of Melania Trump speech – video
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23:23
Triptych terror.
morning everyone how was the convention last night pic.twitter.com/eamawfACVb
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Is audience appetite for Trump waning? Has the nation hit saturation? Trump surrogates had said that 35 million people were watching primetime television coverage of the convention.
In fact, audience for night two of the convention was about 5/6 the size of the audience that watched the Fox debate at the start of the spectacle, the NY Times’ Mike Grynbaum reports:
19.8 million people watched last night’s RNC — less than the 24 million who watched Fox’s GOP primary debate back in August.
11.10pm BST
23:10
Secret Service investigating Trump aide who said Clinton should be shot
The Secret Service is investigating a prominent Donald Trump supporter who said Hillary Clinton should be “shot for treason,” the AP reports:
Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback says the agency is aware of comments made by New Hampshire state Rep. Al Baldasaro. Hoback says the Secret Service “will conduct the appropriate investigation.”
Baldasaro said Clinton — a former secretary of state who’s the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee — should be “put in the firing line and shot for treason” over the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks tells NH1 News that Baldasaro doesn’t speak for the campaign.
(h/t @maraithe)
Updated
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Politicians: Janus-faced or what. Last night here in Cleveland, New Jersey governor Chris Christie had America’s most fervent Republicans on their feet yelling “Guilty!” and chanting “Lock her up!” as he “prosecuted” Hillary Clinton for “crimes” and misdeeds from Little Rock to Libya.
Politicians: Janus-faced or what. Last night here in Cleveland, New Jersey governor Chris Christie had America’s most fervent Republicans on their feet yelling “Guilty!” and chanting “Lock her up!” as he “prosecuted” Hillary Clinton for “crimes” and misdeeds from Little Rock to Libya.
But it emerges that Christie missed his chance to make a citizen’s arrest in February, when he ran into Clinton on a CNN set in New Hampshire. Instead of arresting her, he gave her one of his trademark hugs, and asked her to “say hi to the president.” Here’s video of a snapchat video circulated today by the Clinton campaign:
But it emerges that Christie missed his chance to make a citizen’s arrest in February, when he ran into Clinton on a CNN set in New Hampshire. Instead of arresting her, he gave her one of his trademark hugs, and asked her to “say hi to the president.” Here’s video of a snapchat video circulated today by the Clinton campaign:
Clinton campaign trolls Christie after anti-HRC speech last night, Snapchats video of very warm February encounter. pic.twitter.com/Y22PRXCWo7
Clinton campaign trolls Christie after anti-HRC speech last night, Snapchats video of very warm February encounter. pic.twitter.com/Y22PRXCWo7
as someone in the room when this occurred, i can tell you at least 1 Christie aide was v concerned this would happen https://t.co/HtO6yDVoui
as someone in the room when this occurred, i can tell you at least 1 Christie aide was v concerned this would happen https://t.co/HtO6yDVoui
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Updated
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10.35pm BST
10.35pm BST
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22:35
Meanwhile in Possum Trot
Meanwhile in Possum Trot
I stopped by Possum Trot, Kentucky today on our Town Hall tour. Great name. Last stop: Princeton, Kentucky! pic.twitter.com/a0vSSAU3pR
I stopped by Possum Trot, Kentucky today on our Town Hall tour. Great name. Last stop: Princeton, Kentucky! pic.twitter.com/a0vSSAU3pR
(h/t @timothymurphy)
(h/t @timothymurphy)
10.32pm BST
10.32pm BST
22:32
22:32
Trump disagrees with aide who wants Clinton executed
Trump disagrees with aide who wants Clinton executed
Donald Trump’s chief adviser on veteran’s issues on Wednesday declared that Hillary Clinton “should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.” (Earlier post here.)
Donald Trump’s chief adviser on veteran’s issues on Wednesday declared that Hillary Clinton “should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.” (Earlier post here.)
But that’s not how the candidate feels, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks has reassured the Washington Post:
But that’s not how the candidate feels, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks has reassured the Washington Post:
Trump spox Hope Hicks: "Mr. Trump and the campaign do not agree," that Clinton should be executed by firing squad. https://t.co/IWprpg2X1c
Trump spox Hope Hicks: "Mr. Trump and the campaign do not agree," that Clinton should be executed by firing squad. https://t.co/IWprpg2X1c
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10.28pm BST
10.28pm BST
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22:28
Gingrich: Melania Trump 'stunningly attractive'
Gingrich: Melania Trump 'stunningly attractive'
Former house speaker Newt Gingrich, who’s scheduled to speak tonight, has told CNN that Melania Trump’s plagiarism dabbling is not really a problem because, in part, “she is stunningly attractive.”
Former house speaker Newt Gingrich, who’s scheduled to speak tonight, has told CNN that Melania Trump’s plagiarism dabbling is not really a problem because, in part, “she is stunningly attractive.”
As Newt well knows, beauty gets you everywhere.
As Newt well knows, beauty gets you everywhere.
The Cut blog at New York Magazine captures the Gingrich statement:
The Cut blog at New York Magazine captures the Gingrich statement:
“Who cares? The fact is Melania gave a good speech, she is stunningly attractive, she’s stunningly articulate, [and] most of the people who are criticizing her can’t speak five languages. She’s a bright person, she introduced herself in a way that’s attractive, [and] she’s obviously very passionate about America.”
“Who cares? The fact is Melania gave a good speech, she is stunningly attractive, she’s stunningly articulate, [and] most of the people who are criticizing her can’t speak five languages. She’s a bright person, she introduced herself in a way that’s attractive, [and] she’s obviously very passionate about America.”
This is going well. https://t.co/GCosI4WF2t
This is going well. https://t.co/GCosI4WF2t
10.22pm BST
22:22
Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts has been elected president and started work in the Oval Office. Looks like the first 100 days in the Roberts presidency are going to be historic.
Actually, this is Dan on an Oval Office novelty set here at the Quicken Loans arena. No word on whether Trump has stopped by yet.
A photo posted by Dan Roberts (@danroberts73) on Jul 20, 2016 at 1:49pm PDT
10.17pm BST
22:17
Police have detained protesters in Public Square, and they report that two officers were “assaulted”:
Two officers assaulted. Minor injuries.
The Guardian’s Paul Owen sends video of the detained protesters:
9.51pm BST
21:51
Trump is batting back at today’s New York Times magazine report that he made a strong play for John Kasich to be his running mate.
The Times’ Robert Draper described an initial approach to the Kasich camp by Donald Trump Jr promising that Kasich could be in charge of foreign and domestic policy while Trump’s task would be to “make America great again.” The report described a phone conversation between Kasich and Trump in which they explored the idea.
Trump does not deny there were overtures but he does deny there was an outright offer made by him specifically to Kasich specifically. Which the Times report did not claim in the first place.
John Kasich was never asked by me to be V.P. Just arrived in Cleveland - will be a great two days!
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9.43pm BST
21:43
Protest 'activity' 'heats up'
The Guardian’s Oliver Laughland is on Public Square, where a Bob Marley cover band is facing off with apocalypse Christians, horse turds are fermenting and all signs point to circus:
Bob Marley cover band vs born again Christians #RNCinCLE https://t.co/eyvXjAHC7J
I think they call this a circus (corner of east 4 and prospect) #RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/uTvHxk6K6y
There is so much horse shit on floor and it's roasting in the heat 💩💩💩#RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/X0zMOiMkj8
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9.33pm BST
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Gaby Wood
Meredith McIver, the Trump staffer who today has described her writer’s role in l’affaire Melania, turns out to have been a presence in a 2007 profile of Trump by Gaby Wood.
Here’s a section of the profile, which warrants reading in full:
Time being money, Trump springs up to hand me some propaganda: glossy brochures featuring Trump Towers, Trump Palaces, Trump Plazas, Trump Hotels and Trump Golf Clubs all over North America - correction, the World.
‘I’ll get you a biography, too.’
Well, I mutter, I’ve read several of your autobiographies and ...
‘This’ll be a little easier for you. MEREDITH!’
Trump has what some of his employees refer to as an open-door policy; its main function seems to be that he can shout at them through it.
‘Would you get me a biography please!’
Meredith McIver, one of the assistants who doubles as his ghost writer, scuttles in with a few sheets of paper, on which a company bio is printed in bold and written in similar fashion: ‘A schoolboy’s dream ... a competitor’s challenge. Donald J Trump is the very definition of the American success story. In August 2006, Mr Trump was voted by the staff and writers of Business Week as one of the Top 10 most competitive business people on the planet.’
‘Today, I’m in all the papers,’ he says, confirming this spirit of competition. ‘You saw the amount of press? It was beyond belief - every major show, every everything. You check me on the internet I guess, do you? What - does your machine explode?’
Read the full piece here:
Related: Donald Trump: the interview
8.51pm BST
20:51
Trump adviser says Hillary Clinton should be shot
Donald Trump’s chief adviser on veteran’s issues on Wednesday declared that Hillary Clinton “should be put in the firing line and shot for treason,” the most extreme statement yet during a Republican national convention that has made the Democratic nominee the party’s top target.
Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire state representative and a New Hampshire delegate at the convention, made the comments on The Kuhner Report, a Boston-area radio show hosted by Jeffrey T Kuhner, a radio personality who styles himself as “Liberalism’s Worst Nightmare”.
“I’m a veteran that went to Desert Shield, Desert Storm,” Baldasoro said on Tuesday. “I’m also a father who sent a son to war, to Iraq, as a Marine Corps helicopter avionics technician. Hillary Clinton, to me, is the Jane Fonda of the Vietnam.”
Baldasaro went on to call Clinton “a disgrace for the lies that she told those mothers about their children that got killed over there in Benghazi. She dropped the ball on over 400 emails requesting back up security. Something’s wrong there.
“This whole thing disgusts me,” he concluded. “Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.”
Reached by the Boston Globe, Baldasaro stood by his comments “without a doubt”.
“When you take classified information on a server that deals with where our State Department, special forces, CIA, whatever in other countries, that’s a death sentence for those people if that information gets in the hands of other countries or the terrorists,” Baldasaro said. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s information for the enemy. In the military, shot, firing squad. So I stand by what I said.”
The comments, coming from a chief advisor for a signature issue of Trump’s campaign, are far from the only incendiary remarks directed at the former secretary of state during the Republican National Convention, where Clinton has loomed large. On Superior Avenue in downtown Cleveland, men hawking T-shirts reading “Trump This Bitch!” and “Hillary Sucks, But Not Like Monica” have done brisk business.
The anti-Clinton fervor has often dominated the primetime stage of the convention itself. During a highly charged speech on Tuesday night, New Jersey governor Chris Christie presided over arena-wide chants of “Guilty!” and “Lock her up!” as the former federal prosecutor argued in a mock trial “the case now, on the facts, against Hillary Clinton”.
Later that evening, former presidential candidate Ben Carson departed from his prepared remarks to imply that Clinton worshipped Satan.
“One of her heroes, one of her mentors was Saul Alinsky,” Carson said, referring to the father of grassroots organizing whose book, Rules for Radicals, Clinton once cited in a college thesis. In that book, Alinsky calls Lucifer “the very first radical”.
“Are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer?” Carson said. “Think about that.”
Updated
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8.19pm BST
20:19
Nigel M Smith
The rock band Third Eye Blind antagonized a crowd of Republican National Convention attendees during a charity concert at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Tuesday night.
During the Musicians on Call fundraiser, held to aid in bringing live and recorded music to patients in healthcare facilities, the singer Stephan Jenkins continually blasted the GOP by condemning Republican ideology (according to Billboard, he said he “repudiates” what the party now stands for) – and making remarks such as: “Raise your hand if you believe in science.” Clips uploaded on to social media show Jenkins exclaiming to booing audience members: “You can boo all you want, but I’m the motherfucking artist up here.”
The Musicians on Call event wasn’t officially affiliated with the RNC, but its sponsor, the Recording Industry Association of America, had emphasized in a press release that the gala was explicitly tied to the convention.
The actions of the group, best known for their 1990s alt-rock hit Semi-Charmed Life, don’t come as a huge surprise: four years ago, Jenkins penned a commentary piece for Huffington Post titled Why We Aren’t Playing at the RNC, in which he explained why his band didn’t accept an invitation to perform at a private party during the 2012 Republican convention because “they are, in fact, a party dedicated to exclusion”.
“The Republican party is on the wrong side of Lilly Ledbetter, fiscal responsibility, unions, civil rights, climate change, evolution, the Big Bang theory, stem cells, Medicare, and me, and that’s why we will let them be, in their government-funded event center, to sell their song and dance without me,” he wrote.
Updated
at 8.32pm BST
7.42pm BST
19:42
Jill Harth, woman who sued Trump over alleged sexual assault, breaks silence
Lucia Graves
A woman at the centre of sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump has spoken for the first time in detail about her personal experience with the billionaire tycoon who this week became the Republican nominee for president.
Jill Harth, a makeup artist, has stayed quiet for almost 20 years about the way Trump pursued her, and – according to a lawsuit she instigated – cornered her and groped her in his daughter’s bedroom.
After Trump mounted his campaign for the White House, details emerged of the 1997 complaint, in which Harth accused him of “attempted ‘rape’”.
She said she was quickly inundated with interview requests from major US television networks, but resolved not to speak about the events – until Trump publicly said in May that her claims were “meritless” and his daughter Ivanka gave an interview in which she said her father was “not a groper”.
Harth, who feels she has been publicly branded a liar and believes her business has suffered because of her association with the allegations, decided to speak out about her experience with Trump because she wants an apology.
In an hour-long interview at the Guardian’s New York office on Tuesday, Harth said she stands by her charges against Trump, which run from low-grade sexual harassment to an episode her lawyers described in the lawsuit as “attempted ‘rape.’”
She first met Trump in December 1992 at his offices in Trump Tower, where she and her then romantic partner, George Houraney, were making a business presentation. The couple wanted to recruit Trump to back their American Dream festival, in which Harth oversaw a pin-up competition known as American Dream Calendar Girls. Harth described that meeting as “the highlight of our career”.
But in other ways, it was something of a lowlight: Trump took an interest in Harth immediately and began subjecting her to a steady string of unwanted sexual advances, detailed by Harth in her complaint.
There was the initial leering in that first December meeting in Trump Tower, and the inappropriate questions after her relationship status. It continued the next night over dinner at the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room, where at a dinner with beauty pageant contestants she alleges he groped her under the table.
It culminated in January 1993, when Harth and Houraney were visiting his Florida mansion, Mar-a-Lago, to finalize and then celebrate the beauty pageant deal with a party.
After business concluded, Harth and Houraney were on tour of Mar-a-Lago along with a group of young pageant contestants – Trump wanted to “see the quality of the girls he was sponsoring”, Harth recalled – when he pulled her aside into one of the children’s bedrooms.
“He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again,” Harth recalled, “and I had to physically say: ‘What are you doing? Stop it.’ It was a shocking thing to have him do this because he knew I was with George, he knew they were in the next room. And how could he be doing this when I’m there for business?”
Related: Jill Harth, woman who sued Trump over alleged sexual assault, breaks silence
Updated
at 8.14pm BST
7.26pm BST
19:26
Donald Trump lands in Cleveland
Ben Jacobs
With the strains of the score to Air Force One playing in the background, as is his tradition, Donald Trump kept it short upon landing in Cleveland to be greeted by vice presidential nominee Mike Pence and his family.
Trump arrived yet again in Cleveland with a great fanfare, landing in his trip in his Trump helicopter on a grassy field adjacent to the Cleveland Browns stadium. With a swarm of hundreds of journalists from across the world cataloguing the turn of every helicopter blade, Trump emerged from his chopper accompanied by press secretary Hope Hicks and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, whom sources tell the Guardian has been acting as a de facto campaign manager in recent weeks.
The Republican nominee was greeted by his running mate Mike Pence as well as four of Trump’s five children. His wife Melania, who has been subsumed in a plagiarism scandal over her speech to the convention on Monday, was absent.
“We’re gonna win Ohio, we’re gonna make America great again,” Trump said. “I just want to introduce a man who has become a great friend of mine, a man who is going to make an unbelievable vice president of the United States, Mike Pence.”
Pence, taking the microphone, told Trump that “it is such an honor to join your family to welcome you to Cleveland.”
“I am convinced what begins in Cleveland will end in the White House! Thank you, God bless you, and welcome to Cleveland!”
Afterward, Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, who has yet to endorse Trump, was there to watch and observe.
“I’ve never been to one of these rallies before,” said Sanford. “Arriving by helicopter with Air Force One blaring in the background is so at odds with my personal style in politics which is rather low key and anything I’ve ever known and observed about politics in the state that I’m from which is a bit less ostentatious in form. So I’m watching and learning.”
Updated
at 8.11pm BST
7.20pm BST
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And now the Trumpcopter is doing repeat flybys pic.twitter.com/OKDEYuYXjc
