What’s up at the RNC?: Law Street’s Day 2 Coverage

By Alec Siegel | July 20, 2016

This year, Law Street Media is attending both the RNC and DNC conventions, and bringing Law Street readers the inside scoop. We’ll be doing day-by-day rundowns and exclusive features. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat for even more content.

Here’s a look at the second day of the festivities, courtesy of Law Street reporters Kevin Rizzo and Alec Siegel:

There Was Some High Quality Merch for Sale

Ben Carson Talks About Hillary Clinton and the Devil

Tuesday night’s theme was “Make America Work Again” and although many speakers veered off topic during their remarks, Ben Carson may have also deviated from his prepared remarks. He appeared to make an association between Hillary Clinton, and well, the devil.

Carson notes that Clinton wrote her senior thesis on Saul Alinsky and he went as far as saying that Alinsky was a mentor of hers. As Politifact notes, Clinton did write her senior thesis about Alinsky and Alinsky’s book “Rules for Radicals” does include an epigraph referencing Lucifer, but the rest of the connection appears to be tenuous. Ultimately, Clinton disagreed with Alinsky’s goal of changing the system from outside, and as for Lucifer, I’m not really sure where Carson was going with that.

Here’s a clip from Carson’s speech:

Even More Plagiarism? Not Quite

Donald Trump Jr. gave the strongest speech of the night on Tuesday and possibly the strongest speech in the first two days of the convention. He invoked traditional Republican themes of hard work and the American Dream with a forceful eloquence that moved the crowd. However, just as plagiarism became the topic of conversation last night, one of Trump Jr.’s lines appears to have been lifted from a recent essay. But it’s a little more complicated than that. Here’s a tweet from the “Daily Show” pointing out the similarity:

👀 pic.twitter.com/QEftnTTwy3

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 20, 2016

As is the case for nearly every major speech (although possibly not Melania Trump’s), the speaker didn’t write the actual speech. Or they at least had some help from a professional speechwriter. That appears to explain what happened last night. And the essay that the piece was taken from? The speechwriter wrote that too. The author of the American Conservative essay said that he simply recycled his own material rather than copying someone else’s.

We Did Some Snapchat Evangelism

I explained Snapchat to a Texas delegate. He was rightly baffled. #RNCinCLE

— Alec Siegel (@beardedbard92) July 20, 2016

There Were a Ton of Protestors and Vendors and Local Flavor

Covered by a slice of shade under a small tree, a woman quietly practiced yoga. A sign at her side read: “Pro police, anti brutality.” In the middle of the square surrounding the monument, a man hawked “Trump whoopie cushions.” Another man–in a red, white and blue tie dye shirt and shoulder length hair–sat on the steps and strummed his guitar, a tin can at his side printed with the words, “make America free again.”

And on East 4th Street, an alleyway filled with restaurants and bars that juts out from the “Q,” people of all stripes expressed themselves in a myriad number of ways. One woman stood still and silent, in an olive green headscarf and a black shirt (“As-salamu Alaykum” printed on the front), next to a table selling tie dyed Trump t-shirts.

A young man walked his bicycle along the narrow street, under a blazing afternoon sun. A light blue crate was tied to the back of his bike, filled with books. “Make America read again,” he said as he paced the alleyway. Others held dueling signs promoting two wildly different (and at the moment, wildly trendy) societal systems: “I <3 Capitalism” and “Jesus was a Socialist.”

And Donald Trump Became the Official Republican Nominee

Regardless of what happens in November, this movement is real. The passion is palpable in Cleveland. #RNCinCLE

— Alec Siegel (@beardedbard92) July 20, 2016

Trump is officially the Republican nominee. This is not a drill #RNCinCLE

— Kevin Rizzo (@kevinrizzo10) July 19, 2016