***Livewire*** Night Three of the Republican National Convention

The third night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will formally introduce the nation to former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.

Vance is scheduled to speak last tonight, and the Rust Belt populist will be introduced by his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, who met the Ohio senator and Marine veteran when they both were students at Yale Law School. Chilukuri Vance, a trial lawyer and native of San Diego, California, was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Other speakers tonight include Donald Trump, Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, Peter Navarro, Kellyanne Conway, Gov. Doug Burgum (ND), and Gov. Greg Abbott (TX).

But the main attraction tonight is the Hillbilly Elegy author himself. Vance is expected to talk about his background and Trump’s vision for the country.

The Trump-Vance campaign got in a good troll of the Biden-Harris campaign today, when they issued the following statement in response to a question about scheduling the vice-presidential debate:

We don’t know who the Democrat nominee for Vice President is going to be, so we can’t lock in a date before their convention. To do so would be unfair to Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, or whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate.

And speaking of the Democratic Party nominee, he reportedly has tested positive yet again for COVID.

The Democratic National Committee is moving ahead with plans to nominate President Joe Biden via a virtual roll call in the first week of August, despite continued calls for him to step aside as the party’s nominee and a recent AP-NORC poll showing that nearly two-thirds of Democrats want him to withdraw. The latest defector is California Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Adam Schiff (aka “Pencil Neck”), who released a statement Wednesday urging Biden to “pass the torch.”

“While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” Schiff said in the statement. “And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.”

Schiff, a close ally of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, joins nearly two dozen other House and Senate Democrats in calling for Biden to step aside. But, as Schiff’s statement acknowledges, the choice is “Biden’s alone.” He secured his party’s nomination, and they can’t boot him unless he agrees to go. And a man who got elected to the Senate at age 30 and spent nearly half a century clawing his way to the Oval Office is unlikely to cede power no matter how muddled his brain might be and no matter how many “rambling” Zoom calls get leaked to the media.

New revelations continue to emerge about Saturday’s assassination attempt against Trump. Breitbart’s Kristina Wong has been chronicling the latest revelations, including a disturbing timeline of events. We now know, for example, that the shooter was spotted over 30 minutes before he opened fire and that local police counter-snipers, who were stationed inside the building the shooter used rather than on top of the roof, saw the shooter with his rangefinder scoping out the rooftop and relayed this information to the command center. In fact, the would-be assassin had reportedly “raised suspicions” hours before the shooting because of his rangefinder, but amazingly he was somehow allowed to scale a roof with a rifle.

But for now, all eyes are on Milwaukee. And in newsrooms everywhere the debate is about whether it should be “J.D.” or “JD” — with or without the periods. Vance’s bestselling book cover lists his name as “J.D.,” but the senator’s social media pages list it both ways. Puck News asked the senator himself today and was told that he likes it as “JD” without the periods. But old habits are hard to break, so until I see how it’s written in the biography section of the White House website, I’ll stick with “J.D.”

Follow Breitbart News for live updates below, all times Pacific.

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8:32 p.m. PT

Before we close out this livewire, we have more news of the leaks coming from the Democratic Party’s sinking ship. CNN reports that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “privately told President Joe Biden in a recent conversation that polling shows that the president cannot defeat Donald Trump and that the president could destroy Democrats’ chances of winning the House.”

And earlier today, there was this story about Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY):

… And Chuck quickly issued this non-denial denial:

8:26 p.m. PT

And this son of Ohio makes a special promise to the Rust Belt: “I promise you one more thing — the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and every corner of our nation” that “I will never forget where I came from.”

Well, this daughter of the Motor City says, “Go, J.D.”

And, amusingly, the band plays “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow”… which those of you of a certain age will recall was the anthem of Bill Clinton’s feel-good 1992 campaign. (I always loved the song and was annoyed that the Clinton’s co-opted it.)

8:15 p.m. PT

He debunks the claim that America is just “an idea.” It’s also a physical place with a shared history and future. And he shares some of his history.

He says:

When I proposed to my wife, we were in law school, and I said, Honey, I come with $120,000 worth of law school debt, and a cemetery plot on a mountainside in eastern Kentucky. That cemetery plot in Eastern Kentucky is near my family’s ancestral home. Like a lot of people, we came from the mountains of Appalachia into the factories of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This is Kentucky coal country, by the way, one of the 10 poorest counties in the entire United States of America.

They are very hardworking people, and they’re very good people, and they would give you the shirt off their back. The media call them privileged and look down on them. But they love this country, not only because it’s a good idea. But because in their bones, they know that this is their home, and it will be their children’s home, and they would die fighting to protect it. That is the source of America’s greatness.

He explains that this generational continuity is more than just an “idea;” it’s what makes a homeland that people hold dear.

8:13 p.m. PT

He talks about how young people today say they can’t afford a home on an average American salary. And he explains how this happened.

“Wall Street barons crashed the economy and American builders went out of business. As tradesmen scrambled for jobs, houses stopped being built. The lack of good jobs led to stagnant wages. Then Democrats flooded the country with illegal immigrants. So, citizens had to compete – with people who shouldn’t even be here – for precious housing,” he says. “Many of the people that I grew up with can’t afford to pay more for groceries, more for gas, more for rent, and that’s exactly what Joe Biden’s economy has given them. So prices soared and dreams were shattered.”

“And China and the cartels sent fentanyl across the border, adding addiction to the heartache,” he says, but then adds that that is “not the end of the story.” Now he lays out what a Trump-Vance administration will do.

“President Trump’s vision is simple: we won’t cater to Wall Street,” he says. “We’ll commit to the working man. We won’t import foreign labor; we’ll fight for American citizens.”

“We will build factories again, put people to work making real products for American families, made with the hands of American workers,” he continues. “Together, we will protect the wages of American workers—union and non-union alike—and stop the Chinese Communist Party from building their middle class on the backs of our hard-working citizens.”

8:07 p.m. PT

He says, that his message tonight is also “about single moms like mine, who struggled with money and addiction but never gave up. And I am proud to say that tonight my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober. I love you, mom.” And his mother, Beverly Aikins, who is seated near Trump, stands up. She’s in tears. Very moving.

He tells another story about his Mamaw, who was quite a character. He says when they went through her things after she passed away, they discovered that she had 19 loaded handguns around the house, which she kept at the ready for protection.

8:02 p.m. PT

He talks about the difficulties of America’s forgotten communities like the one he came from:

As always, America’s ruling class wrote the checks; communities like mine paid the price. For decades, that divide between the few, with their power and comfort in Washington, and the rest of us only widened. From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the great recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again.

He says that Trump “represents America’s last best hope to restore what – if lost – may never be found again.”

He then gives a shout out to all of the forgotten men and women — the autoworkers in Michigan, the factory workers in Wisconsin, the energy workers in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

7:59 p.m. PT

He tells the story of how his “Mamaw” raised him, how he enlisted in the Marines. And when he mentions the fact that he went to Ohio State, there are more jokes about the Ohio/Michigan rivalry (and the Ohioans and Michiganders alike love this.)

And here he is talking about fighting to bring back American factories.

7:55 p.m. PT

J.D. now gives his backstory. Interestingly, he frames his life story by the catastrophic decisions made by Joe Biden during Biden’s 50-year political career.

He says:

I grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands, and loved their God, family, community, and country with their whole hearts. But it was also a place that had been cast aside and forgotten by America’s ruling class in Washington.

When I was in the fourth grade, a career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good American manufacturing jobs to Mexico.

When I was a sophomore in high school, a career politician by the name of Joe Biden gave China a sweetheart trade deal that destroyed even more good middle class jobs.

And when I was a senior in high school, Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq.

And at each step of the way, in small towns like mine in Ohio, or next door in Pennsylvania, or in Michigan and other states across our country, jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war.

And he notes that Trump, a private citizen at the time, was right on all of these issues — NAFTA, China in the WTO, and the forever war in the Middle East. This is brilliant. He is laying out how these policies gutted the Rust Belt, outsourced our jobs, and sent our children to die in foreign wars.

7:47 p.m. PT

And here’s J.D.! When the crowd chants “Ohio,” he jokes about the Ohio/Michigan rivalry by saying that they need to “chill” with the Ohio chants because “we have to win Michigan too.” (That put a smile on this native Michigander’s face.)

He reminds the delegates that this could have been a day of mourning. He talks about how Trump was able to stand defiant against an assassin’s bullet and also call for unity.

He says, “My message to my fellow Americans is: shouldn’t we be governed by a party that is unafraid to debate ideas and come to the best solution?” And he says that  the GOP is “committed to free speech and the open exchange of ideas.” And with that, he officially accepts the Republican nomination as vice president.

7:40 p.m. PT

Now the main attraction. Next, we will meet Usha Chilukuri Vance who will introduce her husband, and he’ll give is speech accepting the vice presidential nomination.

Usha jokes that she doesn’t know what more she could say to introduce J.D. because he already was the subject of a Hollywood film. She talks about how she met him and says that he was “the most interesting person I knew.” She says that his main ambition was to be a father and build a stable family. She explains her background growing up in San Diego as the daughter of immigrants from India. She gives wonderful humanizing anecdotes about her husband. Very charming. It will be interesting to see how the Democrat Media Complex attacks this couple. Good luck with that, MSNBC.

7:17 p.m. PT

Don Jr. picks up his speech now and talks about the assassination attempt on Saturday. He remembers American hero Corey Comperatore, the firefighter who died protecting his family in Saturday’s shooting. He calls Trump “an American lion” (that moniker is definitely sticking). And says America saw his father’s true character at that moment, and he compares it to America’s spirit.

He explains the law-fare tactics waged against his father. “They say they hate Vladimir Putin, but it sure seems like they spend a lot of time copying his playbook,” he says.

Don Jr. leads the crowd in a chant of “Fight, fight, fight!”

7:11 p.m. PT 

Now the fun begins! Here comes MAGA favorite Donald Trump, Jr. This is a treat. He is introducing his eldest daughter and President Trump’s eldest granddaughter, Kai Madison Trump.

She gives great anecdotes about her “grandpa.” This is charming and very humanizing. It’s a side of Trump that the public never sees. And Trump in the audience is just beaming at his granddaughter with pride. “Grandpa, you are such an inspiration, and I love you,” she says.

She says the media makes her grandpa seem like such a different person, but she knows the real man and that he will fight for the country.

Kai just became a star with that speech.

7:02 p.m. PT

Next up is a hero from our Greatest Generation. William Pekrul, a 98-year-old World War II veteran and a “proud Wisconsinite,” a husband, and a father of 11 children. He received two Bronze Stars and a Silver Star for his service storming the beaches on D-Day, and he says that “America is still worth fighting for.”

He says, “America is much more than just an idea. America is our home.” This starts a chant of “USA!”

He says he kissed the ground and thanked God when he returned home from war. He gets a big cheer when he says that if Trump was the commander-in-chief again, he would re-enlist and “storm whatever beach” the country asked him to.

6:45 p.m. PT

Next up, we will be hearing from Shabbos Kestenbaum, the Harvard graduate who filed a lawsuit accusing Harvard of failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitism, and also the family of Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli who was taken hostage in Gaza.

6:43 p.m. PT

Meanwhile, over on MSNBC, Joy Reid is complaining that Donald Trump was “given nine seconds” to take a “photo op” during the assassination attempt he survived on Saturday.

“Donald Trump is an elderly man, who, for whatever reason, was given nine seconds to take an iconic photo op during an active shooter situation. Weird situation. We’ll figure that out one day,” Reid said.

6:26 p.m. PT

And now we hear from Christy Shamblin, Cheryl Juels, Herman Lopez, and Alicia Lopez, who are relatives of the service members who were killed in the Kabul airport bombing during Biden’s disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Christy Shamblin says Trump’s kindness at Bedminster helped her and that he carried the weight of her loss with her for those few hours.

Cheryl Juels calls out Biden for claiming that disastrous withdrawal was a success.

Alicia and Herman Lopez say that Joe Biden has not even said the name of their son Hunter who died on Biden’s watch. Alicia talks about the “silence” at their dinner table and also “the deafening silence” from the Biden administration that won’t give them the transparency or answers about what happened in Afghanistan. Herman talks about how Biden’s idea of consoling the families when he met them at Dover was to talk instead about his own son.

Herman now reads out the names of all the 13 service members lost and the delegates in the audience repeat all the names with them. There names are:

• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas
• Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23, of Roseville, California
• Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, 31, of Utah
• Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee
• Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20, Jackson, Wyoming
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California
• Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan William-Tyeler Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska
• Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario, 25, Lawrence, Massachusetts
• Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, 22, Logansport, Indiana
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20, of Wentzville, Missouri
• Navy Hospital Corpsman Max Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio

There is not a dry eye in the crowd hearing these Gold Star parents. The crowd chants, “Joe must go.”

6:17 p.m. PT

The RNC is now showing a video of the families of the service members who died in the Afghanistan withdrawal. Biden looking at his watch when they brought the bodies of the young men and women home is a wound to these families.

6:08 p.m. PT

Next up is Florida Rep. Michael Waltz, a former Green Beret, who talks about the difference between Trump and Biden’s foreign policies. He has fun dunking on Biden’s plan to build “electric tanks” for the military. He says that the only colors that matter in a fox hole are “the red, white, and blue” — not the color of your skin. He slams the debacle of Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and how Biden ignored the families of the 13 service members killed. He says that Trump, on the other hand, welcomed the families to Bedminster and spent six hours with them. Waltz says that Trump, if elected, will give these families the answers and accountability they need to understand what happened in Afghanistan that day. He recounts how Trump actually helped these families heal with the warm reception he gave them that day at Bedminster.

5:59 p.m. PT

Kimberly Guilfoyle, conservative commentator and fiancée of Donald Trump Jr., makes the sign of the cross when she says that God’s protection was with Trump on Saturday. She says that Trump left Biden a country in good condition and all Joe had to do was “take a nap” and leave it alone.

“Joe Biden cannot lead America. He cannot even lead himself off the stage,” she says.

5:58 p.m. PT

And here comes the Big Guy! Trump makes his entrance to James Brown’s “This Is a Man’s World.”

What a difference from poor Joe’s stumble up Air Force One’s stairs today.

Speaking of Joe… CNN is now reporting that, according to a “senior Democratic adviser,” Biden is now more “receptive” to leaving the ticket. He has reportedly gone from saying “Kamala can’t win” to now asking his aides “if Kamala can win.”

But Joe’s White House spox was quick to smack down this story. So, make of this what you will.

5:49 p.m. PT

Next up, we hear from Afghanistan War veteran and former Army Green Beret Scott Neil. He was with the first American service members to deploy to Afghanistan after 9/11. He talks about the repeated deployments he and his fellow vets made during the 20 year war on terror. He is now a small business owner in Kentucky where he is a bourbon distiller. He talks about how he “recoiled” in horror at seeing what happened during Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal and hearing from people who were left behind.

5:44 p.m. PT

Next up is retired Staff Sgt. David Bellavia, veteran and co-founder of Vets for Freedom. Trump awarded Bellavia the Medal of Honor for his service in Fallujah during the Iraq War. He talks about the damage Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal has had on military recruitment. He says the Biden-Harris foreign policy has weakened America.

5:40 p.m. PT

Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, one of the young MAGA members of Congress, talks about Biden’s misuse of the U.S. military in wars that are not in America’s interest. She recounts the sacrifices made by military families like her own.

5:32 p.m.

Former Trump White House senior aide Kellyanne Conway talks about how Trump had working moms in top positions in his administration.

5:26 p.m. PT

Next up, South Dakota Gov. Dough Burgum, who was on the short list for Trump’s VP, takes the stage. He talks about a topic he knows very well: energy development. He says Biden’s “war on energy” has hurt every American, and he recounts the inflationary consequences of stifling energy development. He talks about how Biden’s electric vehicle mandates help China, which dominates the market for EV batteries.

He says four more years of Biden will usher in an era of “brown outs and black outs.” But he says “unleashing energy dominance is our path back to prosperity.” He quotes Teddy Roosevelt’s famous axiom to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” He says that energy development will be “the big stick that Trump will carry” by selling energy to our allies instead of buying it to our enemies.

He gives a shout out to rural America and tells everyone that with Trump you will be able to keep your gas-powered vehicles.

5:21 p.m. PT

Trent Conaway, the mayor of East Palestine, Ohio, talks about the disaster his town faced with the train derailment. He says that Biden and Harris didn’t care because the people of East Palestine weren’t “Hollywood elites or Wall Street billionaires.” Trump came to East Palestine, he explains, and bought water and brought everyone McDonald’s. After a year Biden finally made a brief visit to East Palestine and quickly left. He says we need to elect Donald Trump as a leader who actually cares about communities like East Palestine.

5:18 p.m. PT

Sarah Phillips, petroleum engineer and energy advocate, enters to chants of “Drill, baby, drill.” She was at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and says it was a terrifying experience and she thanks God that Trump was spared. She talks about Trump’s believe in American energy development.

(Side note: as a former speechwriter for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, it always gives me a smile to hear young conservatives cribbing Palin’s exact words from 15 years ago. This sort of borrowing is the highest form of flattery.)

5:14 p.m. PT

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott talks about the difficulty governing the state that shares the largest border with Texas with a federal administration that has gutted the Trump border policies. He says that 11 million illegal migrants — which is more than the entire population of Michigan and twice the population of Wisconsin — have entered the U.S. since Biden took office.

Abbott talks about his fight with the Biden administration when Abbott ordered the Texas National Guard to put up the razor wire that the Biden administration bizarrely removed. He says that when Biden and Harris refused to come to the border to see the problem they created, he “took the border to them” by busing illegal immigrants to D.C. and sanctuary cities across the country. “And those buses will continue to roll until we finally secure our border,” Abbott says.

He says we need to elect Trump to “restore order at the border” and “rid our streets of crime and chaos” and “secure our nation” by returning Trump to the White House.

5:06 p.m. PT

Sue and Jim Chilton, fifth generation ranchers from Arizona whose ranch is right on the border, talk about what Biden’s open border has done to them. Jim talks about the violent drug cartels and the crossings on their ranch that have increased five-fold since Biden took office. Sue talks about how their house was broken into twice and border patrol agents have been shot by drug smugglers on their ranch and migrants have died of dehydration trying to cross a dangerous border. She says the smugglers are bringing lethal drugs into the country that are killing Americans. Jim says, “Walls work. We must elect Trump to finish the wall and stop the cartels.”

I must say, as corny as it might sound, I love hearing from these “everyday Americans” — which is how the RNC describes them on the official schedule.

4:57 p.m. PT

David Lara, an Hispanic small business owner from a town directly on the U.S.-Mexico border. He says, “We are the front lines of Biden’s border crisis.” He recounts the “chaos and crime” that his town has suffered through. He talks about how the drug cartels use school children as mules. He says that Biden and Harris have done nothing to stop this, but Trump, he says, actually visited the area and cared. He says, “American Latinos for Trump” in English and Spanish.

4:50 p.m. PT

A former border patrol agent and former ICE Acting Director Tom Homans, a regular on Breitbart radio, takes the stage. Homan, a native of New York, talks about how he was the first ICE director to actual come up through the ranks as a border patrol agent. He talks about Trump’s record of actually working to secure the border, unlike his predecessors. He vows that Trump will designate the cartels terrorist organizations, telling the cartels “You’re done!”

4:49 p.m. PT

Texas Rep. Rep. Monica De La Cruz talks about the problems of Biden’s open borders, particularly for Hispanic communities along the border.

4:39 p.m. PT

Peter Navarro gets a rock star welcome. The economist and former Trump director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing was just released from federal prison where he was serving a sentence for refusing a congressional subpoena. In an interview today with Breitbart News, Navarro explained the injustice of his sentence, which he recounts now to the delegates. He even jokes about getting a MAGA tattoo in prison.

“If they can come for me, if they can come for Donald Trump, they can come for you,” he says.

He gets huge applause when he says, “They did not break me, and they will never break Donald Trump.” He says if you don’t think this could happen to you, “they are already coming for you.”

Navarro recounts how his fiancee told him, “We got this” on the day he went to prison. He invites her onto the stage with him and explains that “these lawfare jackals” who “put people in jail” and also “fire figurative and now literal bullets” don’t consider what it means to people’s families who suffer with them.

He ends by saying, “I’m Peter Navarro. I want to prison, so you won’t have to.” What a convention speech!

4:30 p.m. PT

Former Ambassador to the Vatican Callista Gingrich speaks of Trump’s commitment to freedom of religion. She’s followed by her husband, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

4:22 p.m. PT

Florida’s Rep. Matt Gaetz says, “We saw people in the witness protection program more than we saw unscripted Joe Biden.” And he dings New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, who was found guilty yesterday in his federal bribery trial.

Speaking of Biden, he is looking very frail this evening in this video of him boarding Air Force One.

4:16 p.m. PT

Congressman and Dr. Ronny Jackson from Texas is up next. He talks about his service as a doctor and combat vet and White House physician for both  Presidents Obama and Trump. He speaks of how Trump took a bullet last Saturday. And he speaks of how important it is to have a president who is healthy enough to serve. “And let’s not kid ourself that Father Time has been kind to Joe Biden,” he says.

He calls out Joe Biden’s family and staff for covering up his health issues and not encouraging him to step aside for the good of the country. And he hammers Vice President Kamala Harris for “putting party before country” in not being honest about Biden’s decline. He says that Harris is “as unfit in character as Joe Biden is in body and mind.”

4:10 p.m. PT

South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, wearing enormous cross earrings, introduces herself as “Nancy don’t call me Pelosi Mace.” She seems to be shouting into the microphone, which is a habit of speakers who think they need to project their voice to address the convention hall instead of just letting the microphone do the work for them and just speak to audience at home (who are the real people you want to speak to).

3:55 p.m. PT

And the night kicks off with a lovely rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. The speakers in the first half hour will be Rep. Brian Mast (FL), Rep. Nancy Mace (SC), Rep. Ronny Jackson (TX), former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL), and former Ambassador Callista Gingrich.