Republican convention live: Trump-Pence campaign to unveil vision

Donald Trump’s campaign reportedly offered the vice presidential slot to Ohio governor John Kasich, promising that he would be “the most powerful vice president in history,” only to have Kasich not only turn down the offer, but refuse to endorse Trump’s presidential bid entirely.

According to a New York Times Magazine report on the hunt for Trump’s running mate, Donald Trump, Jr. made the approach, telling a representative of Kasich’s that, as vice president, he would be in charge of both foreign and domestic policy, an expansion of the office’s powers that borders on the unconstitutional.

When asked what would be left for President Trump to be in charge of, the candidate’s son casually responded, “Making America great again.”

“Why so heavy-handed in trying to tie Hillary Clinton to Lucifer?” is a question that could only arise in the aftermath of a speech by Dr. Ben Carson.

In an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo this morning, retired pediatric neurosurgeon and onetime presidential nominee Ben Carson justified linking Hillary Clinton to the Dark Lord in his convention speech last night, calling Clinton’s stances on same-sex marriage and abortion “espoused by evil.”

“When you look at the principles that are espoused by Christ, by Christianity, and you look at what’s espoused by evil, and then you look at things like killing babies, you look at things like redefining marriage away from what the biblical definition is, I think that there’s pretty good consistency there,” Carson said.

Last night, Carson departed from his prepared remarks by mentioning the fact that Clinton once cited in her college thesis a book written by Saul Alinsky, in which the community organizer acknowledges Lucifer as “the original radical,” in Carson’s words.

“Now think about that,” Carson continued. “This is our nation where our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, talks about certain inalienable rights that come from our creator; a nation where our Pledge of Allegiance says we are one nation under God. This is a nation where every coin in our pockets and every bill in our wallet says ‘In God We Trust.’ So are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer?”

In the interview with Cuomo, Carson doubled down on his remarks.

“If she believed that at that time - and now you look at her actions - you look at what she advocates, the killing of babies, the dissolution of the traditional family, all these kinds of things - those are pretty consistent, quite frankly,” Carson said.

In a morning press briefing, Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort told reporters that the Republican party is officially making the “pivot to the general election” with the official nomination of Indiana governor Mike Pence as vice president.

“He will be talking about his record a little bit and why his background fills the criteria that Mr. Trump put out three months ago,” Manafort said of Pence’s planned remarks. “We feel he helps us to accelerate the unification of the party in a real meaningful way. We are confident that at the end of the night, the case will have been presented in such a way that tomorrow night... we will have laid the foundation for that.”

Republican National Convention chair Jeff Larson acknowledged that yesterday’s official nomination of during yesterday’s session, “we nominated Donald J. Trump to be our 45th president of the United States, and I think it went flawlessly - it was an open and transparent process that I thought was something that you’d look back a year ago and think, ‘well, that’s not gonna happen.’”

Manafort, meanwhile, plowed ahead through the agenda of the final two days of the convention, which he described as “more personal” than the “red-meat” offered by speakers during the first half of the convention.

“Tonight’s theme is ‘Make America First Again,’” Manafort said. “The goal tonight is to lay out some of the vision of the Trump-Pence campaign, and to define some of the problems the country faces because of the failed leadership of the Clinton-Obama administration.”

Manafort called Eric Trump’s anticipated speech “more personal” than the speech given by Donald Trump, Jr. last night, “and I think you’ll find an expansion in the understanding of the man as a result of Eric’s speech.”

Asked about the tone of the convention - likely Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton was likened to Lucifer last night by Dr. Ben Carson, shortly after New Jersey governor Chris Christie led an arena-wide chant of “lock her up!” - Manafort dismissed concerns that the RNC has become more anti-Clinton than pro-Trump.

“I think the tone of the convention is multiple tones - there is an anger among the delegates that is out there in America. People are frustrated by the failed leadership, difficult economic times,” Manafort said. “The tone that I saw was the joy in nominating the candidates for president and vice president who the delegation believes will be able to carry forward a new vision for America.”

Of the “lock her up” chant, Manafort said that the arrest and imprisonment of Clinton was likely what Christie was “probably advocating for in his speech.”

“Those aren’t Republican red-meat issues anymore,” Manafort said. “The Republican fears of past conventions have merged into America’s fears... the angst is broader than just Republicans.”

On Texas senator Ted Cruz’s planned address to the RNC tonight, Manafort said that “He’s still working on it.”

“He’ll talk about Hillary Clinton and the failures, how American cannot afford to have Hillary Clinton, [and] I think he’ll give updates on how he feels about Mr. Trump that will be pleasing to the campaign.”

Cruz has not yet endorsed Trump.

Good morning, and welcome to the Guardian’s campaign live blog, coming at you live from Cleveland, Ohio, the site of the long-anticipated Republican national convention, now in its third day.

After a day of campaign crisis over apparently plagiarized primetime remarks delivered by his wife the night before, Donald Trump celebrated his official accession to the Republican presidential nomination last night. A giant satellite image of the no-longer presumptive nominee was beamed into the arena, Oz-style, after Trump officially clinched the nomination.

“I am so proud to be your nominee for president of the United States,” Trump said. “Together we have received historic results, with the largest vote total in the history of the Republican party. This is a movement and we have to go all the way.”

But with another plagiarism scandal brewing over his son’s speech to the RNC and apparent concerns about the vast swaths of empty seats in the Quicken Loans Arena mezzanine during primetime speeches, the campaign still has a long way to go to realize the much-ballyhooed “convention bump” in polling that comes after what should be a candidate’s crowning achievement.

Trump’s presidential campaign is probably hoping to make a fresh start with the third day’s program. Today’s theme: “Make America First Again”, featuring a roster of speakers who focus on American exceptionalism. Beginning at 7pm EDT tonight, the primetime program speakers include radio host Laura Ingraham, former astronaut Eileen Collins, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz of Florida and Texas, Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, Eric Trump, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence.

We’ll have more on the full roster of speakers as the day progresses, but before events kick off with a presser from Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, here’s the news you need to know from the campaign trail:

• Mob justice has become an unofficial plank of the Republican party, after a barnburning primetime speech by New Jersey governor and former federal prosecutor Chris Christie prompted the RNC’s attendees to stand and chant “Lock her up! Lock her up!” in reference to Hillary Clinton. “I welcome the opportunity to hold her accountable for her performance and her character,” Christie told the crowd, before “prosecuting” Clinton on, among other things, her use of private email servers during her time as secretary of state.
• Former Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole – the only former Republican nominee to attend the RNC this week – told Katie Couric that Trump needs to make inroads with Latino voters. “I want him to go to New Mexico and meet with the governor and apologize for anything that may have been said … we need Latinos in our party, we need more women in the party, and I’ve raised it with him over the phone that I felt this is something that never should have happened and ought to be taken care of, and I had the feeling that he was working on it.”
• Fox News chief Roger Ailes is in negotiations with Rupert Murdoch to quit as chairman and chief executive of Fox News following a string of allegations of sexual harassment from some the channel’s highest-profile female news anchors. Ailes could collect as much as $40m in severance pay, according to a leaked copy of “separation agreement” published by the Drudge Report yesterday afternoon.
  
• As we predicted, Broadway star Laura Benanti appeared on The Late Show as Melania Trump to explain the cribbed notes that appeared in her speech to the RNC:

Caught up? Good – now on with the show …