Second night of GOP midterm convention begins with JD Vance set to deliver keynote address
Back with his comically large gavel, Joe Gruters – the Republican National Committee chair – kicked off the second night of the GOP midterm convention.
Gruters noted that today is the one year anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s death – the conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder who was shot and killed while speaking at a campus event in Utah.
“He [Kirk] believed in America, in freedom, in young people’s courage to stand up and fight for the country they love. He didn’t just join a movement; he built one,” Gruters said. “Let’s honor Charlie and let’s be more like Charlie Kirk.”
Later today, we’ll also hear from vice-president JD Vance, who’ll deliver the keynote address. Donald Trump will also speak again, but assured last night’s audience in Dallas that he doesn’t plan to speak for that long.
“I’m going to be just sort of getting up here and saying, good luck. We love you all,” he said at the end of his nearly two-hour speech on Wednesday.
Key events
Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, has walked on stage in Dallas to rapturous applause.
“We are just 54 days out from the most consequential midterms of our lifetime,” he said, while acknowledging the killing of Charlie Kirk a year ago, and the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
While Cruz is using his time to heap praise on Donald Trump, this is a far cry from the same lawmaker who called the now-president a “serial philanderer”, an “amoral pathological liar” and a “braggadocious, arrogant buffoon” on the 2016 presidential campaign trail, when Cruz ran for the Republican nomination that Trump eventually won.
Prosecutor leading DoJ investigation into Trump political enemies resigned – report
The prosecutor in charge of leading a justice department investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against the Republican president has stepped down from his position, according to the Associated Press.
“I did in fact resign,” Joe diGenova told the AP, calling it an “honor and a privilege” to serve Trump and the justice department.
DiGenova declined to comment on the circumstances of his departure, which came just five months after he was brought back to the DoJ to oversee the investigation targeting former government officials who, over the last decade, have scrutinized Trump in various criminal inquiries.
On stage now is Lisa McClain, House Republican conference chair and representative from Michigan.
McClain is using her time to repeat many of the same fear-mongering talking points about the upcoming midterms that we heard on night one. She’s particularly focused on slamming the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in her state, Abdul El-Sayed, who she says wants to “release violent criminals back into your communities”.
McClain also zeroed in on El-Sayed campaigning with Hasan Piker, the progressive Twitch streamer, during Michigan’s Democratic primary, where El-Sayed was forced to answer for Piker’s past comments on Israel and September 11. In 2019, as part of a broader critique of American foreign policy, Piker said the US “deserved” the terror attacks. However, he later apologised for the remark.
“My mom has a saying: ‘You are who you hang with’,” McClain said, adding that the November elections are a choice “between common sense and communist crazy”.
Trump says Congress would not need to approve $5,000 midterm pledge
In an interview with CBS News on the second night of the GOP midterm convention, Donald Trump said that he doesn’t think that Congress would need to approve the $5,000 checks that he wants to cut should Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in November.
A reminder that this pledge comes with a price tag that is well over $1tn.
“The country is doing so well, we’ve taken in trillions of dollars in tariffs and other things,” the president said, again inflating the revenue generated from the duties he’s implemented. What’s more, any money generated from tariffs is deposited to the US treasury, and then allocated by Congress through legislation.
Trump repeated to CBS News that the money given to US citizens would need to be spent in the US, but didn’t explain how that would be tracked.
Palantir founder and Trump ally pushes back against $5,000 midterm incentive
Joe Lonsdale, the founder of Palantir and major GOP donor, has pushed back against Donald Trump’s pledge to offer $5,000 to US citizens if Republicans win the midterm elections in November.
Lonsdale said that while he is “in favor of winning the midterms, and love much about this admin”, he is “strongly against bread and circus bribes” in a post on X.
Ryan Mackenzie, the Republican congressman running in a competitive re-election race for a Pennsylvania district he flipped red in 2024, took the stage at the American Airlines arena today.
Mackenzie avoided speaking about any contentious Trump administration policies, and instead focused on tax relief, border security and slamming Bob Brooks, a union leader and Mackenzie’s progressive opponent in his November contest.
“When we hear about the decision between common sense and crazy, it’s not rhetoric. It’s not a slogan. You need to think about the real effects that it has in a district like mine in Pennsylvania and all across the country,” Mackenzie added.
The fight for Pennsylvania’s seventh congressional seat –which encompasses the Lehigh valley – is one of the most competitive House races in the country, according to the Cook Political Report.
We’re getting more pictures of protests in the streets of Dallas on the second night of the GOP midterm convention.
There are several signs against the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. In particular, those killed by federal agents during Donald Trump’s crackdown in Minnesota.
Trump spends National Medal of Honor ceremony attacking James Talarico
Adam Gabbatt
Reporting from Dallas
It was a simple enough assignment. Donald Trump attended the National Medal of Honor museum on Thursday for an event where he was supposed to give an address that would celebrate medal recipients, then sign a bipartisan bill that would lead to a monument being installed on the National Mall.
Instead, the US president used his speech to attack James Talarico, the Texas Democratic candidate for Senate; to list fantasy figures about foreign investment in the US; and to muse about how Washington DC is cleaner than it used to be.
Trump, who seemed drained after his address at the Republican midterm convention on Wednesday night, also used the supposedly politically neutral event to once again tear into the appearance of Ken Paxton, his handpicked candidate for Senate.
“I’m not sure if I like your look. I’m not sure if I like the way you dress. I don’t like the way you talk,” Trump said, imagining a conversation between himself and Paxton in a rerun of criticism he had used a day earlier. “But you’re the greatest attorney general.”
Trump went on to dub Talarico “Talafreako”, and to hail the self-stated success of his tariffs. He also claimed that “close to $21tn” had been invested in the US since he became president, something CNN factcheck described as a “fictional economic figure”.
There are 65 living recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor, which is awarded to military service members “who distinguish themselves through conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty”.
Trump suggested there should be 66.
“What I really want is I want for myself the Congressional Medal of Honor,” said Trump, who famously was exempted from the draft for the Vietnam war after a doctor diagnosed him with bone spurs. “I would give it to myself; I have no problem, but I’m not allowed to.”
Trump later clarified that he was joking. The ceremony, honoring what Trump said was an “incredible” level of bravery, was brought to a close by the blasting of the song YMCA by the Village People, who, to be fair, did have a (pretend) soldier, Alex Briley, in their original lineup.
Beto O’Rourke says he won’t seek 2028 Democratic presidential nomination
David Smith
Reporting from Dallas
Beto O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman and Democratic presidential candidate, has ruled out another bid for the White House in 2028. But he has thoughts on who might run.
“There’s obvious people: Gavin Newsom’s been running for the last 20 years for the presidency in 2028,” O’Rourke, 53, told a roundtable hosted by Bloomberg News in Dallas on Thursday. “I’ve been watching some of what Pete Buttigieg has been doing: he’s so freaking intelligent and amazing and connecting with people and answering questions on Fox News. JB Pritzker was just here: he certainly seems to be running.
“My son is 19 years old and has grown up around politics and therefore doesn’t like it and doesn’t really engage, but to get a text from him, ‘Hey dad, do you know this Jon Ossoff guy? I just saw one of his speeches.’ To see him get excited: if you’re a parent and your kid gets excited about something, it means something. I think that’s awesome,” he said.
O’Rourke added: “In the same way that some of these folks are obvious in their intentions, I can’t really tell what Kamala [Harris] is doing or wants to do. I think she’s amazing. I think that’s a decision for her to make. But I do think 2028 primary election voters are going to be watching what the contenders did in 2026 when everything was on the line, so I think every one of those people we just talked about, they’re being measured from the future right now by what they’re doing at this moment.”
There is an old saying that every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. What does O’Rourke see now? “I see someone who’s so glad that they got it out of their system,” he quipped.
Second night of GOP midterm convention begins with JD Vance set to deliver keynote address
Back with his comically large gavel, Joe Gruters – the Republican National Committee chair – kicked off the second night of the GOP midterm convention.
Gruters noted that today is the one year anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s death – the conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder who was shot and killed while speaking at a campus event in Utah.
“He [Kirk] believed in America, in freedom, in young people’s courage to stand up and fight for the country they love. He didn’t just join a movement; he built one,” Gruters said. “Let’s honor Charlie and let’s be more like Charlie Kirk.”
Later today, we’ll also hear from vice-president JD Vance, who’ll deliver the keynote address. Donald Trump will also speak again, but assured last night’s audience in Dallas that he doesn’t plan to speak for that long.
“I’m going to be just sort of getting up here and saying, good luck. We love you all,” he said at the end of his nearly two-hour speech on Wednesday.
‘That’s how desperate he is to hold on to power’: Newsom calls Trump’s $5,000 midterm pledge ‘pathetic and sad’
Gavin Newsom has called Donald Trump’s $5,000 incentive to US adults if Republicans retain control of Congress “pathetic and sad”, while speaking to reporters in California today.
The former governor added: “Pathetic because it’s just bullshit. And sad that he has to go in front of people and bribe them. I mean, that’s how desperate he is to hold on to power. He knows his presidency is de facto over as we know it this November. He’s going to do everything he can to rig the election, and in the absence of that he wanted to buy everybody off.”
