Image 01 Image 03

RNC Tag

The Republican National Committee (RNC) continues to break fundraising records as it hauled in $14.2 million in July. From CBS News:
The Republican National Committee raised $14.2 million in July -- the most it has ever raised in that month in a non-presidential year -- bringing its total haul for the cycle to $227.2 million. Despite historic odds and voter enthusiasm favoring Democrats, the RNC is finding record-setting support among its donors, according to numbers shared first with CBS News. The RNC raised more in July of this year than it did in 2010 and 2014 combined.

The Republican National Committee published a website that will fact check a book by former FBI James Comey. From Fox News:
The RNC’s new website is www.LyinComey.com, where the GOP plans to fact check Comey’s book and use “rapid response” to highlight any “misstatements” or “contradictions” in it, according to an RNC official.

Thursday, the Penn Board of Trustees along with the university's president published a letter to the Penn Community announcing their decision to revoke the honorary degree previously awarded to Steve Wynn, a former Penn Trustee and College alumnus. The university will also remove Wynn's name from Wynn Commons as well as a scholarship fund he created. The decision was unanimous. Wynn resigned from his post as RNC Finance Chair after allegations of sexual harassment.

Tom Perez and Keith Ellison run the DNC, and one of their jobs is to raise money. Any way you look at it, they are failing their party in this task. The DNC had a miserable year for fundraising in 2017.

The RNC has continued its dominance over the DNC when it comes to fundraising in 2017. The Republicans managed to raise $10.2 million in July compared to the Democrats' $3.8 million in July. One would think with all the negative media coverage of President Donald Trump and the GOP in Congress not repealing Obamacare the RNC would be the ones in trouble.

The FBI raided the Strategic Campaign Group (SCG) in Annapolis, MD Thursday, but refused to specify why it issued search warrants. Because SCG is connected to some of President  Trump's advisors, there's widespread speculation that the raid was related to the FBI's investigation into Russian associates. SCG's president Kelley Rogers told the Capital Gazette that the search pertained to work "the firm performed during the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial campaign of former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican."

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal published a report that then-Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) used campaign money to travel to the event where he mingled with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. There's a few problems with this assertion. Sessions used his campaign account to travel to the Republican National Convention...which is a campaign event for all of those politicians.

The Republican National Committee has chosen Ronna Romney McDaniel as its new chairwoman since President-elect Donald Trump took previous RNC chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff. McDaniel served as "chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party," where she helped Trump win the typical blue state over Hillary Clinton. Both Trump and Priebus gave McDaniel their blessing:
Priebus gave McDaniel a strong endorsement in his final address to the committee, calling McDaniel “the right woman to lead the RNC" and pointed to her ability to turn Michigan red in the election.

At last night's Congressional Black Caucus gala, Obama gave a speech in which he urged the black community to vote for Clinton in order to preserve his legacy and all the "progress we've made." The Hill reports:
President Obama called on the black community to show Hillary Clinton the same support it did for him in an impassioned speech at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation gala Saturday night. “We have achieved historic turnout in 2008 and 2012, especially in the African-American community. I will consider it a personal insult and an insult to my legacy if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election," he said. "You want to give me a good send-off? Go vote."

"If you care about our legacy, realize everything we stand for is at stake. All the progress we’ve made is at stake in this election.

A little levity to kick off your evening -- yesterday, the good folks of Bad Lip Reading released an abbreviated and hilarious rendition of Senator Cruz's controversial RNC speech. If you're not familiar with Bad Lip Reading, they dub over clips of all kinds (not just political) with nonsensical garble.

Welcome to our live coverage of the final night of this year's Republican National Convention! Primetime speeches kick off at 7:10 EST. Watch speakers live and see real time commentary from political media and LI authors. I'll be updating throughout the evening as the situation warrants. Full speeches can be found beneath the Twitter feeds as they're available.

The lineup:

This is now one of my top five favorite moments in convention speeches. Senator Cruz was given a prime time slot in Wednesday's Republican National Convention lineup. Cruz didn't encourage convention goers and watchers to vote Trump, rather to vote their conscience. When delegates realized he wasn't going to explicitly endorse Donald Trump, they began booing and jeering. Then, Donald Trump made an entrance before Cruz had finished his speech. That moment in all its glorious awkwardness:

Welcome to our live coverage of the third night of this year's Republican National Convention! Primetime speeches kick off at 7:30 EST. Watch speakers live and see real time commentary from political media and LI authors. I'll be updating throughout the evening as the situation warrants. Full speeches can be found beneath the Twitter feeds as they're available.

The lineup:

With all the money, all the resources, and all the graphic design talent at their disposal, the Trump campaign, in conjunction with the RNC's joint fundraising committee, decided to roll with TP2016. T.P. Which, given how the 2016 cycle has gone, I suppose is par for the course. Shortly after Trump tweeted confirmation he'd selected Indiana's Governor Pence as his running mate, the new logo graced a fundraising email and was slapped across the internet for all to see (and mock). The logo is rather...suggestive. At least to many a politico and casual observer.

John Heilemann, co-host of Bloomberg TV's With All Due Respect, surely leans left, but is generally a savvy political analyst in my book. But Heilemann went haywire with his prediction today. He suggested that violence in the streets of Cleveland would hurt Donald Trump's chances of being elected president. Really? If there are, as Heilemann said,"images of chaos and disorder" in the streets, wouldn't Americans tend to turn to Trump, who has cast himself as "the law and order candidate?" And violent anti-Trump protesters, whether or not they expressly say so, would be in essence urging people to support Hillary, not Trump. Are Americans likely to reward Hillary for the violent actions of her, at the very least, tacit supporters? Just as Trump's numbers went up when unruly protests shut down his rally in Chicago during the primaries, violence at the RNC would likely benefit Trump, in this Insurrectionist's opinion.

Following the horrific violence and murder of police officers in Dallas this week, conservative talk host Rush Limbaugh made a disturbingly plausible prediction on his show. Rush suggested that Dallas might just be the beginning of something and that the next targets could be the Republican National Convention and the Democratic Convention after that. The Washington Free Beacon reported:
After Dallas, Rush Limbaugh Predicts Republican and Democratic Conventions Will Be Attacked Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh predicted Friday that both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions later this month will be the next targets of an attack after the police killings Thursday night in Dallas.