The second day of the Republican National Convention kicks off Tuesday, July 19, at 5:30 pm.
The second night's theme is Make America Work Again, and many of the evening’s speakers, including Phil Ruffin, Michelle Van Etten, and Kerry Woolard, have direct business ties to Trump. This is also the evening that offers perhaps the highest quotient of conventional Republican Party politicians, including the party’s congressional leaders House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
It’s a high-stakes moment, because while Trump’s random business partners seem in most respects like people who wouldn’t address a presidential nominating convention they have a crucial role to play in the proceedings of testifying that Trump would do a good job as president. Trump, after all, has no record in public office to judge and hasn’t surrounded himself with a team of seasoned policy advisers. He does, however, seem to be pretty rich.
The challenge for this evening’s programming is to connect the dots between Trump’s riches, his governing abilities, and the GOP policy agenda in Congress. How does it all come together in a way that boosts incomes and living standards for average Americans?
How to watch:
C-SPAN is airing the convention, gavel to gavel. It also provides a live stream for web viewers.
CNN is doing 24-hour coverage of the convention, with its normal programs such as Wolf, The Lead, and The Situation Room airing from Cleveland.
CBS News and Twitter are teaming up to stream the convention live.
Finally, the RNC is streaming the proceedings live on YouTube, which you can see above.
The schedule:
Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus is scheduled to call the convention to order at 5:30 pm; you can read the full list of speakers, who are not given set times, here.
The event will proceed relatively rapidly into the main program of speakers, the most important of which will be:
- House Speaker Paul Ryan
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
- UFC president Dana White
- Businessman Andy Wist
- Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson
- Professional golfer Natalie Gulbis
- House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy
- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
- Tiffany Trump
- Donald Trump Jr.
- Dr. Ben Carson
- Businessman Phil Ruffin
- General manager of Trump Winery Kerry Woolard
- Michelle Van Etten of Women in Business for Trump
What to expect
Trump’s economic policy agenda is at odds with the mainstream approach of Republican Party elected officials in that he is sharply critical of free trade agreements that most Republican officeholders support. But on other topics, he is very much an orthodox conservative Republican who is running on a platform of tax cuts and rolling back environmental and financial market regulations.
The roster of speakers does not offer any particular indication that Trump’s protectionism will be emphasized — we don’t have a factory worker thrown out of a job by Chinese competition or anything like that.
Instead, we appear to be set for a true moment of rousing party unity.
The Republican Party’s congressional leadership will say that Barack Obama’s big government policies are wrecking the economy and Donald Trump can fix it with tax cuts and deregulation. Two of Trump’s kids will say that Obama’s big government policies are wrecking the economy and Donald Trump can fix it with tax cuts and deregulation. And people who’ve worked with Trump will say that Obama’s big government policies are wrecking the economy and Donald Trump can fix it with tax cuts and deregulation.
