The Republican National Convention continues on Wednesday, and Vice President Mike Pence is tonight’s headliner. Other speakers will include: Second Lady Karen Pence; Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Joni Ernst (R-IA); South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem; Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and Lee Zeldin (R-NY); Ric Grenell; Kellyanne Conway; Congressional candidates Madison Cawthorn (NC) and Burgess Owens (UT).
Tonight’s theme is “Land of Heroes.”
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for live updates.
All times Eastern.
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11:30 PM: MSM piling on Trump-Pence right after Pence’s speech:
11:25 PM: On CNN, Jake Tapper immediately rips Pence for “whitewashing” the administration’s Coronavirus record.
10:32 PM: From Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, Pence ready to deliver his speech. Pence says it is an honor to speak from the hallowed grounds of Fort McHenry that inspired our national anthem. Pence rips Democrats for spending four days attacking America and talking about a “season of darkness.” He says while Biden sees a season of darkness, “we see American greatness.” Pence says in this challenging times, we need a president who actually believes in America.
Pence says his prayers are with the families in the path of Hurricane Lara. He says for four years, he has seen Trump get up from unrelenting attacks to fight for the American people before saying he humbly accepts the nomination to serve four more years as vice president of the United States.
He says Trump sees America as a nation that has done more good than any other and a nation that deserves far more gratitude than grievance.
Pence talks up Trump’s military accomplishments, including the Space Force and reforming the VA.
He now there are four recipients of the Medal of Honor, six recipients of the Purple Heart, and a Gold Star mother along with Wounded Warriors in the audience. Pence rips Biden for criticizing Trump for ridding the world of two terrorists. He says it’s no surprise because Biden even opposed the mission to hunt down Osama bin Laden. He says no wonder a Secretary of Defense said Biden has been wrong on nearly every national security issue for the last four decades.
Pence now talking about moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and the Israel-UAE peace deal before talking about the conservative judges Trump appointed.
On the economy, Pence says Trump “kept his word and then some.” Tax cuts. Rolling back red tape. Unleashing American energy and fighting for free and fair trade.
Pence says America became a net exporter of energy for the first time in 70 years while unemployment rates for African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans hit record lows.
And then, he says, the Coronavirus struck from China. Pence says before the first case spread, Trump suspended travel from China and that saved American lives and “bought us invaluable time” to combat the Coronavirus.
Pence says nobody who needed a ventilator was denied one and talks up the administration’s economic recovery plan.
He says Biden said that “no miracle is coming,” but Biden doesn’t understand that “America is a nation of miracles.” He says America is on track to have a Coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year.
Pence says we’re not just opening up America again but we’re also opening up America’s schools. He says his wife Karen is returning to her classroom next week. He thanks teachers for being there for the kids.
Pence asks voters as we open the country back up to ask themselves: “On November 3rd, ask yourself: Who do you trust to rebuild this economy? A career politician who presided over the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression? Or a proven leader who created the greatest economy in the world?”
He says we need four more years of Trump in the White House to bring America back.
Pence says he and Trump will always support peaceful protests but rioting and looting are not peaceful protests and tearing down statues is not free speech. He says Biden didn’t say one word last week about the violence and chaos engulfing the cities. Pence says he wants to be clear: “The violence must stop.”
Pence says we will have law and order on the streets of America for Americans of every race, creed, and color.
Pence says the he and Trump know that “the men and women that put on the uniform of law enforcement are the best of us.”
Pence says the American people know that you do not have to choose between supporting law enforcement and African-Americans. He says the Trump administration has done both since day one.
Pence says Biden thinks America is systemically racist and law enforcement has an implicit bias against people of color, and he will double down on the policies that are causing violence all over America.
“The hard truth is you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” he says before saying the Trump administration will always stand with the thin blue line and will never defund the the police–not now, not ever.
Pence asks what Biden is a transition to–he says Democrats didn’t talk much about agenda and he doesn’t blame them. Pence notes that Bernie Sanders said that many of the ideas he fought for are now mainstream. He says at the root of their agenda is that America is driven by envy and the federal government must be involved in every aspect of our lives to “correct America’s wrongs.”
“Their agenda is based on government control,” Pence says. “Ours is based on freedom.”
Pence rips Biden for wanting to give free health care and lawyers to illegal immigrants.
Pence says Biden supports taxpayer-funded abortion right up to birth, and Biden will be a “Trojan Horse” for the radical left.
Pence says this election is not so much whether America will be more conservative or liberal. He says the choice is whether America remains America, whether we live to our children and grandchildren a country grounded in our highest ideals… or whether we will leave a country that has fundamentally transformed into something else. He says the election is between “freedom and opportunity” and “socialism and decline.”
Pence closes by talking about the toughness that runs in our national character that invading forces learned on approach to this fort on September 1814. Against fierce and sustained bombardment, our young country was defended by heroes, not so different from those with us tonight. The enemy was counting on them to quit. But they never did. Fort McHenry held. And when morning came our flag was still here.
My fellow Americans, we are going through a time of testing. But if you look through the fog of these challenging times, you will see our flag is still there.”
“From these hallowed grounds, American patriots in generations gone by did their part to defend freedom. Now it’s our turn.
So let’s run the race marked out for us. Let’s fix our eyes on Old Glory and all she represents, fix our eyes on this land of heroes and let their courage inspire, let’s fix our eyes on the author and perfector of our faith and freedom, and never forget that ‘where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.’ That means freedom always wins,” Pence says.
Trump joins him on stage as the Trace Adkins performs the National Anthem.
He says he leaves inspired and more convinced that Americans will re-elect Trump so they can “make America great again, again.”
10:19 PM: Ric Grenell said during the presidential debates four years ago only one candidate (Trump) said what everyone was thinking inside re: American foreign policy.
“He called America’s endless wars what they were: A disaster,” he says. “The media was shocked, because Donald Trump was running as a Republican. And yet he said out loud what we all knew. That American foreign policy was failing to make Americans safer.”
Grenell says that “after the end of the Cold War, Democrats and Republicans in Washington bought into the illusion that the whole world would start to resemble America. And so they started to pursue unlimited globalization.”
“They welcomed China into the World Trade Organization. They engaged in nation-building in Afghanistan, and tried to export democracy to Iraq. They signed a nuclear deal with Iran, and a global climate agreement in Paris,” he says. “But they didn’t ground any of it in the interests of the average American. So for decades, while Washington politicians built a global system, American wages stagnated. Our great cities and industries were hollowed out. Entire communities were devastated, and our manufacturing plants were shipped off to China. That’s what happened when Washington stopped being the capital of the United States, and started being the capital of the world.”
He says he saw Trump charm Merkel and tell other leaders he didn’t fault them for outmaneuvering America’s past leaders but it stops with him.
He says Trump has not started any new wars and even convinced Democrats of China’s threat.
“The Washington elites want you to think this kind of foreign policy is immoral. And so they call it nationalist,” he says. “That tells you all you need to know. The DC crowd thinks when they call Donald Trump a nationalist, they’re insulting him. As if the American president isn’t supposed to base foreign policy on America’s national interests.”
He says while Obama-Biden sent an airplane with cash to Iran, Trump “also sent an aircraft in the middle of night to deal with Iran. But that plane was on a different mission – an air strike to take out the head of Iran’s terror machine who plotted the deaths of Americans.”
After ripping Obama-Biden for spying on Trump officials and the Russia collusion hoax, Grenell explains Trump’s “America First” foreign policy: America First does not advance the interests of one group of Americans at the expense of any other. It has no bias about red or blue, educated or not educated, urban or rural. America First is simply the belief that politicians should focus on the equality and dignity of every American. nd that this duty is fulfilled by promoting the safety and wealth of the American people above all else. That’s America First. That’s the Trump Doctrine. And that, my friends, is four more years.”
10:15 PM: Clarence Henderson, who participated in the Woolworth sit-ins, says he was born on the wrong side of the tracks, doesn’t have a birth certificate, never attended integrated schools, is a civil rights activists…and is a Republican who supports Donald Trump.
“If that sounds strange to you, learn your history,” he says. “It was the Republican Party that passed the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery; it was the Republican Party that passed the 14th Amendment giving black men citizenship; and it was the Republican Party that passed the 15th Amendment giving Black men the right to vote.”
He adds that “there are African-American voters all over the country who the media is trying to convince to conform to the same old Democratic talking points. You know what that’ll get you? The same old results.”
He jabs Biden: “Joe Biden had the audacity to say if you don’t vote for him ‘you ain’t black.'” Well to that, I say, if you do vote for Biden, you ain’t smart!”
He says Trump’s policies show his heart and show that he cares about Black lives. He says Trump has done more for Blacks in four years than Biden has done in 50.
10:12 PM: Sam Vigil says there is a hole in his heart since his wife Jackie, who was killed in her driveway, was taken from him.
“Albuquerque, where we live, is one of the most violent cities in the country. Fewer than 50 percent of homicides are solved. It is a sad irony that Jackie immigrated to the U.S. for a better life than her native Colombia only to be gunned down in her own driveway,” he says. “For over eight months, there were no arrests and no leads in connection with Jackie’s murder. The police were overwhelmed. They needed help.”
He says helped arrived with President Trump and the FBI took over Jackie’s case. He says they arrested four men in a matter of days and the fifth, the suspected killer, is an illegal alien with a criminal record.
“He had been deported in September and had come back in October to terrorize our community,” he says.
“I am extremely grateful to President Trump and the FBI for their efforts to deliver justice for Jackie and all the other innocent victims of violent crime. I am honored to support the President because he is supporting us,” he adds. “I know he will never stop fighting for justice, for law and order, and for peace and security in our communities.”
10:05 PM: Lara Trump says never in a million years did she think she would be on that stage tonight or with the last name Trump. She talks about meeting the Trumps for the first time: “Any preconceived notion I had of this family disappeared immediately. They were warm and caring, they were hard workers, and they were down to earth. They reminded me of my own family. They made me feel like I was home.”
She also testifies about seeing so many women executives in the Trump organization.
“So, it didn’t surprise me when President Donald Trump appointed the most women to senior level positions of any administration in history. The Secretary of the United Nations, Secretary of the Air Force, the first female CIA Director, the first African American female director of the Fish and Wildlife service and countless ambassadors, just to name a few,” she says. “Under President Trump’s leadership women’s unemployment hit the lowest level since World War II. 4.3 million new jobs have been created for women — in 2019 alone, women took over 70% of those new jobs. Female small business ownership remains at an all-time high. And 600,000 women have been lifted out of poverty, all since President Trump took office.”
She says Trump did this not to gain a vote or check the box but because it was the right thing to do.
She says this is an election if we decided if we “keep America America.”
In recent months, we’ve seen weak, spineless politicians cede control of our great American cities to violent mobs. Defund the police is the rallying cry for the new, radical Democrat Party. Joe Biden will not do what it takes to maintain order. To keep our children safe in our neighborhoods and in their schools. To restore our American way of life,” she says. “We cannot dare to dream our biggest dreams–for ourselves or for our children –while consumed by worry about the safety of our families. President Trump is the law and order president–from our borders to our backyards.”
10:00 PM: House candidate Burgess Owens says he was raised in the South during the days of KKK and Jim Crow. He says after losing everything after his NFL career, he decided he could feel sorry for himself or get to work and he did by working as a chimney sweeper. He jabs Biden for saying you ain’t black if you don’t vote for him says that now, more than ever, “we need leaders who stand by their principles and won’t compromise their values for political opportunities. Now, more than ever, we need leaders who will stand up to the lawlessness supported by the radical left.”
He says business ownership among people of color have hit record highs while Trump has been in office and he is just getting started.
“I’m running for Congress because we don’t need more career politicians. We need a few more chimney sweeps,” he says. “We need more leaders like President Trump who understand the freedoms that make up the fabric of America.”
9:57 PM: Sen. Ernst says the establishment media ignored the Iowa derechos because Iowa is still flyover country. She credits Trump for visiting Iowa and putting the devastation on the national media’s radar. She says she can’t recall a ticket that was more hostile to farmers than Obama-Biden unless you count Biden-Harris.
“The Democratic Party of Joe Biden is pushing this so-called Green New Deal. If given power, they would essentially ban animal agriculture and eliminate gas-powered cars. It would destroy the agriculture industry, not just here in Iowa, but throughout the country. When the pandemic hit, President Trump heard us in our call for assistance for our farmers. Knowing we have an ally in the White House is important.
Folks, this election is a choice between two very different paths,” she says. “Freedom, prosperity, and economic growth, under a Trump-Pence administration. Or, the Biden-Harris path. Paved by liberal coastal elites and radical environmentalist. An America where farmers are punished, jobs are destroyed, and taxes crush the middle class.”
9:50 PM: Rep. Zeldin says the post-9/11 generation “huge shoes to fill following in the footsteps of veterans like those of our nation’s greatest generation who once put humanity on their shoulders and saved the world.” He speaks about how his two-week-old twin daughter went into septic shock and praise the Trump administration for supporting frontline workers with PPE.
“For our nation to be even stronger, more prosperous, safer, freer and more secure than ever before, to make our country greater than ever, we must re-elect President Trump,” he says. We are the land of the free, because of the brave, and we are the land of opportunity right now, because we have a President who wants to empower the best of who we are, to be the best of what we can be.”
9:47 PM: Chen Chuangcheng says the CCP is the enemy of humanity and is terrorizing its own people and threatening the well-being of the world.
“The US must use its values of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law, to gather a coalition of other democracies to stop the CCP’s aggression. President Trump has led on this and we need the other countries to join him in this fight. A fight for our future,” he says.
9:44 PM: Jack Brewer, a former NFL player and Democrat, says his child said “all lives matter” and he figured out what so many still have not. He rips Biden for misrepresenting Trump’s very fine people words about Charlottesville. He says he knows what racism looks like and rips the media for not giving Trump enough credit for what he has done for the black community.
9:41 PM: Madison Cawthorn discusses the car accident that left him in a wheel chair and gave him a one percent chance of surviving. He mentions George Washington, Abe Lincoln, James Madison all changed the world in their twenties.
“While the radical left wants to dismantle, defund, and destroy, Republicans, under President Trump’s leadership, want to rebuild, restore and renew,” he says. He says political forces today “want to usher in the digital dark ages, a time of information without wisdom and tribalism without truth. National leaders on the left have normalized demagoguery and a radicalized identity politics that rejects” Martin Luther King’s dream that draws people from across the world to the United States.
He says be a radical for our republic for which he stands and then, with assistance, stands.
9:33 PM: Rep. Stefanik talks about how she represents the cradle of the American revolution. She mentions the Battle of Saratoga and the Miracle on Ice on Lake Placid. She says she has lived the American Dream and talk about how she comes from a small-business family and was the first in her family to graduate from college and became the youngest Republican woman to serve in Congress.
“I am honored to support President Trump for re-election because I know that he is the only candidate who will stand up for hardworking families and protect the American Dream for future generations,” she says. “Since his first day in office, President Trump has fought tirelessly to deliver results for all Americans, despite the Democrats’ baseless and illegal impeachment sham and the media’s endless obsession with it. I was proud to lead the effort standing up for the Constitution, President Trump, and most importantly the American people. This attack was not just on the President, it was an attack on you–your voice and your vote.”
She says more women are running for Congress as Republicans because they “understand that this election is a choice between the far-left Democratic socialist agenda versus protecting and preserving the American Dream.”
9:30 PM: Michael McHale, the president of the National Association of Police Officers, says good officers need to know that their elected leaders have their backs. He says chaos results when leaders make the conscious decision not to support law enforcement. He says Biden has been taken over the by the radical left and Harris has supported legislation to further restrict police that would make America’s streets more dangerous. He makes the case that Trump-Pence is the pro-law enforcement candidate.
9:24 PM: Legendary college football coach Lou Holtz talk about his poor upbringing in a one-bedroom house in West Virginia. He says his parents taught him to never blame anyone else but there are politicians, professors, protesters, and Trump’s naysayers who like to blame others for all of their problems and don’t have pride in America.
“When I was an Army officer, I served with so many great Americans who embraced their responsibility to our country. I am so proud of their sacrifice and the opportunity it has provided for so many millions,” Holtz says. “America remains the land of opportunity no matter what the other side says or believes.”
He says Trump has his trust because he is the most pro-life president in history. Hold says the Biden-Harris ticket “is the most radically pro-abortion campaign in history. They and other politicians are Catholics in Name Only and abandon innocent lives. President Trump protects those lives.”
9:21 PM: Sister Dede Byrne talks about her untraditional journey to religious life. She joined the Army as a medical student at Georgetown in 1978 to pay for tuition and devoted 29 years to the military, serving as a doctor and surgeon in places like Afghanistan and the Sinai Peninsula.
She says that “while we tend to think of the marginalized as living beyond our borders, the truth is, the largest marginalized group in the world can be found in the United States. They are the unborn.”
“As Christians, we first met Jesus as a stirring embryo in the womb of an unwed mother and saw him born nine months later in the poverty of the cave. It’s no coincidence that Jesus stood up for what was just and was ultimately crucified because what he said wasn’t politically correct or fashionable,” she says. “As followers of Christ, we are called to stand up for life and against the politically correct or fashionable today. We must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb. In fact, the laws we create define how we see our humanity. And we must ask ourselves, what are we saying when we go into a womb and snuff out a powerless, voiceless life.
She continues: “As a physician, I can say unequivocally life begins at conception. While what I have to say may be difficult for some to hear, I am saying it because I’m not just pro-life, I’m pro-eternal life and I want all of us to end up in heaven together some day.”
She says she is here because Trump is the most pro-life president the country has ever seen while Biden-Harris is the most anti-life ticket ever.
9:05 PM: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany talks about why she decided to get a mastectomy and how Trump called to check on her after he operation. She said she had only met Trump on a few occasions but she knows him well now.
“The same way President Trump has supported me, he supports you. I see it every day,” she says. She says she has heard Trump say the hardest part of his jobs is writing letters to the loved ones of fallen soldiers.
McEnany where says Trump will fight for an America where “God is cherished” and “not taken out of our schools, removed from our Pledge, and erased from our history.”
8:58 PM: Next up is Tera Myers to talk about education freedom and her child with Down’s Syndrome. She says she is thankful Trump values the life of the unborn. She says Trump did not dismiss her son and showed him he valued him and gave him an equal seat at the table. She thanks Trump for their work on education freedom.
8:52 PM: Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg says Trump only cares about what is “right for America” when making foreign policy decisions.
“When President Donald Trump took office, decades of failed foreign policy had crippled us. He faced wars without end in sight, creation of failed states like Libya and Syria, a past that allowed a terrorist caliphate to grow, and leadership in Washington that allowed our military to atrophy while we spent trillions of dollars abroad instead of investing at home,” Kellogg says. “President Trump has reversed the decline of our military and restructured our national security strategy. With historic investment and vision, our military is now better equipped, better resourced and better manned than any military in the world.”
Kellogg also says Trump “demolished the terrorist ISIS caliphate in the Middle East and eliminated its leader, al-Baghdadi, one of the world’s most brutal murderers” while taking “decisive action against Iranian terrorist mastermind Qasim Soleimani—a man responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American servicemen in Iraq.”
He also says Trump is no hawk, wisely wielding the sword when required and believing in seeking peace instead of perpetual conflict. He then praises Trump’s peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. He says this week, Afghan officials will start peace negotiations with the Taliban to end America’s longest war.
8:49 PM: Rep. Crenshaw says America has a long history of “duty” and “our enemies fear us because Americans fight for good, and we know it gives us strength. And when our heroes are trusted and equipped, then freedom prevails.”
He talks about the defeat of ISIS and the cowering of Iran being the result of America believing in heroes and her might.
“America is a fabric woven from the threads of history’s best stories, best attributes, and greatest ideas. The American spirit reflects the oldest and most important virtues: self-sacrifice, courage, tolerance, love of country, grace, and passion for human achievement,” Crenshaw says. “We can decide right now that American greatness will not be rejected nor squandered. As the American founding was grounded in individual liberty, so will be our future.”
8:43 PM: Sen. Blackburn says America is a nation of heroes and, in times of difficulties we’re reminded that they are all around us. She says she wants to talk about another type of hero, the types Democrats don’t want to recognize because they don’t fit into their narratives–law enforcement officers.
“Leftists try to turn them into villains. They try to ‘cancel’ them. But I’m here to tell you that these heroes can’t be cancelled.
Tennessee is full of them—after all, we’re the volunteer state,” she says before saying her dad served in the Army in WWII.
“I’m reminded of him whenever I see compassion and selflessness in others,” she says. “When I see law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every single day to keep our communities safe, in spite of the hatred thrown at them. When I see the heroes who volunteer to serve our country, putting their lives on the line for our freedom.”
She says the common thread between them is that they don’t believe the country owes them anything; they believe they owe their country.
“As hard as Democrats try, they can’t cancel our heroes. They can’t contest their bravery, and they can’t dismiss the powerful sense of service that lives deep in their souls,” she says. “So they try to defund them —our military, our police, even ICE — to take away their tools to keep us safe.”
Blackburn says Biden and Harris and their “radical allies try to destroy these heroes, because if there are no heroes to inspire us—government can control us.”
“They close our churches, but keep the liquor stores and abortion clinics open. They say we can’t gather in groups at church, but encourage protests, riots, and looting in the streets,” she says before adding that if Democrats had their way, “they would keep you locked in your house until you become dependent on the government for everything.”
“That sounds a lot like Communist China to me —maybe that’s why Joe Biden is so soft on them,” she says, adding that Pelosi has said China has preferred Biden.
8:41 PM: Scott Dane, a logger and trucker from Minnesota, says he represents a way of life and logging has been been part of the great American story from the beginning. He says the last time Joe Biden was in office, “Minnesota lost over half of its mills, thousands of jobs, and experienced nearly a decade of decline. The administration just didn’t seem to care. In 47 years in Washington, Joe Biden hasn’t done anything for the timber industry.”
He says under Trump, “we’ve seen a new recognition of the value of forest management in reducing wildfires. And we’ve seen new support for our way of life—where a strong back and a strong work ethic can build a strong middle class.”
“We want to build families where we’re raised and stand by communities that have stood by us,” he says. “We want that way of life available for the next generation and we want our forests there too.”
8:31 PM: Night three opens with a prayer from Rabbi Aryeh Spero, president of the Conference of Jewish Affairs. After the pledge of allegiance, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem say she is here tonight because America is an exceptional nation founded on equality, freedom, and opportunity. She says our founding principles are under attack and this election is between a man who believes in these ideals and someone who doesn’t and hasn’t built anything. After citing James Madison extensively, she says Americans will not be a subclass of experts. Noem rips the violence of the mobs and says the people who can’t afford to flee are left to fend for themselves.
“From Seattle and Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs. The violence is rampant. There’s looting, chaos, destruction, and murder. People that can afford to flee have fled. But the people that can’t, Good, hard-working Americans are left to fend for themselves,” she says. “The Republican Party’s commitment to individual rights and self-government is as necessary today as it was in 1860 when we won our first presidential election.”
8:05 PM: “Land of Heroes” night to begin soon.