Trump turns serious, rolling the dice on a policy-packed speech

CLEVELAND –  Donald Trump wasted no time in making a lofty promise at the Republican convention:
"The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon--and I mean very soon--come to an end," and the day he is sworn in, "safety will be restored."
He cannot keep that promise, of course, but it's not meant to be taken literally. Like so much in the Trump persona and candidacy, he promises greatness, details be damned, and his supporters respond to the aspirational bluntness.
If I had to pick a signature line in the oration that roused the crowd here in Cleveland, it would be this, about "people who work hard but no longer have a voice. I am your voice."
It was an attempt to fuse his loud, rough-edged and sometimes divisive voice with the needs of ordinary folks.
What seemed so ludicrous to so many a year ago, that this bombastic billionaire and New York street fighter would be accepting the Republican nomination, also created for him a special challenge. A man who loves to riff and joke and feed off the energy of crowds, he was reading the ultimate scripted speech. There was little levity and only a few personal lines, about his parents and late brother. Trump was all business, and his mission was to persuade wavering voters that he has the depth and discipline to run the country.

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In short, to pass the commander-in-chief test.
Trump larded the address with attacks on Hillary Clinton, calling her a "puppet" of big donors and ripping her record on such issues as trade. He denounced President Obama for "irresponsible rhetoric."
He hit his marks on such signature topics as immigration and terrorism.
But Trump also sounded notes that are muted for many Republicans. He spoke of nearly four in 10 African-American children living in poverty, and 43 million people on food stamps. He mentioned Ferguson.
And Trump even made a pitch to sway backers of Bernie Sanders, painting him as another victim of a rigged system--a Republican appealing to followers of a self-proclaimed socialist.
He was reading the ultimate scripted speech, and a very long one at that.
For Trump to win with an electoral map tilted against the GOP, he has to peel off enough Democratic and independent voters.
Given his high negatives, Trump's speech was about more than facts and figures. It was about earning trust, despite his lack of political experience.
As the pundits pick apart the speech and replay the sound bites, he may or may not get a bump in the polls. But this was the businessman's best shot, with his biggest audience, to close a deal that at the moment remains in doubt.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

Ivanka Trump tells GOP convention her father will fight for working people

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, cast her father as a "fighter" for working people, particularly working women, in her remarks to the Republican National Convention Thursday night.
 Ivanka, a senior executive in her father's business, the Trump Organization, noted that the company has more female than male executives.
Then, matching a campaign promise by presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, she vowed her father would "fight for equal pay for equal work and I will fight for this too, right alongside him."
Ivanka, Trump's older daughter and the last of four Trump children to speak at the convention, sought to underscore her father's personal warmth beneath the public persona. She recalled playing with "Legos and erector sets" in her father's office, as well as his efforts to help ordinary people suffering from hardship.
"He would talk to them and then draw on his extensive network to find them a job or get them a break," she said. "And they would leave his office, as people often do after being with Donald Trump, feeling that life could be great again."
Ivanka is expected to be a key surrogate for her father in the general election campaign, particularly as he tries to make up ground against Clinton among women. A Fox News poll taken last month showed Clinton leading Trump by 19 points, 51 percent to 32 percent, among women

Trump claims GOP nomination, tells struggling Americans 'I am your voice'

CLEVELAND –  Just over a year after Donald J. Trump descended his iconic escalator in Manhattan to announce he was joining a packed field of political veterans seeking the Republican nomination for president, the New York billionaire completed an astonishing and historic political ascent Thursday night in Cleveland, officially claiming his party’s nomination — and declaring to struggling Americans, “I am your voice.”
Trump electrified the convention crowd on closing night, with chants of “U.S.A.” frequently breaking out as the nominee vowed to put “America first.” He used the speech to align his campaign squarely on the side of struggling American workers of all political stripes, as he moved to broaden his appeal beyond the Republican base that largely decided the primaries.
“Every day I wake up determined to deliver for the people I have met all across this nation that have been ignored, neglected and abandoned. … These are people who work hard but no longer have a voice,” Trump said. “I am your voice.”
And he delivered a tough law-and-order message throughout, declaring from the convention floor in Cleveland, “Safety will be restored” under a Trump presidency.
“America will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced,” Trump vowed.
He described the nation at a “moment of crisis,” citing terror attacks, violence against police and “chaos in our communities” including rising inner-city crime. “I will restore law and order to our country,” he said, while vowing to crack down on illegal immigration.

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Trump’s highly anticipated speech -- at 75 minutes, the longest convention acceptance address since 1972‎ --  amounts to his closing argument before Clinton and the Democrats get their turn starting Monday in Philadelphia. As much as Republican leaders bashed the presumptive Democratic nominee in Cleveland, Democrats are likely to be just as tough on the Republicans at their convention.
The next big step for Clinton, though, will be to name her running mate, a decision that could come as early as Friday.
But before the attention turns to Clinton, Trump got in his final shots.
The businessman closed his address by turning rival Clinton’s “I’m with her” campaign slogan on its head.
“I choose to recite a different pledge. My pledge reads, I’m with you,” Trump said.
He blasted Clinton’s foreign policy record as secretary of state – citing the bloody tumult in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya – saying her legacy is “death, destruction, terrorism and weakness” and a “change in leadership” is needed.
“Hillary Clinton’s legacy does not have to be America’s legacy,” he said.
And defending his aversion to political correctness, he said for anyone who wants to hear “the corporate spin, the carefully crafted lies, and the media myths, the Democrats are holding their convention next week -- go there. But here, at our convention, there will be no lies.”
Trump also cycled through his campaign promises, including the controversial calls to build a southern border wall and “immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.”
He added, “We don’t want them in our country.”
Trump vowed as well to protect LGBTQ citizens from terrorism like the Orlando club shooting. In a moment that allowed him to show his gay-rights support, Trump thanked the crowd for cheering that line: “It is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said.”
The speech caps a dramatic convention week marked by powerful displays of party unity but also tensions, flaring most recently when Ted Cruz withheld his endorsement Wednesday night.
The omission prompted boos from pro-Trump delegates, and the unrest continued into Thursday, when the Texas senator defended his decision before an audience of Texas delegates clearly divided over Cruz’s handling of the convention speech.
At the same time, Trump’s newly anointed running mate Mike Pence deftly set the stage for Trump’s big night, effectively making the conservative case for the billionaire businessman in his own nomination acceptance speech on Wednesday. The choice of Pence – a classic conservative with Midwestern roots – helped bring various factions of the party together even before the convention began.
Despite the Cruz commotion, top party leaders from House Speaker Paul Ryan to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus worked to heal divisions in the party over the course of the Cleveland coming-together.
“He’s brought millions of new voters to our party because he’s listening to Americans” anxious about the state of the country, Priebus said. “With Donald Trump and Mike Pence, America’s ready for a comeback after almost a decade of Clinton-Obama failures.”
Priebus claimed Republicans are the party with new ideas, while Democrats are the “same party doing the same old thing,” trotting out the “same old candidate” next week.
“Let’s stay united as Republicans,” Priebus said.
Members of Trump’s family also spent the week giving voters a glimpse into the tycoon’s more personal side, with daughter Ivanka introducing her father Thursday night. Appealing to women, she praised the businessman’s record supporting female employees at his organization. And touting her dad as a tireless fighter who can bring his work ethic and aptitude to the nation’s highest office, Ivanka asked all voters to put their faith in him.
“For more than a year, Donald Trump has been the people’s champion, and tonight he is the people’s nominee,” she said. “… When my father says he’ll make America great again, he will deliver.”

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Trump taps Latino lawmaker from Kentucky to deliver ‘hopeful’ message to Hispanics

Kentucky State Sen. Ralph Alvarado is an unlikely primetime speaker at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night.
The 46-year-old doctor of internal medicine became the first Hispanic to ever be elected to the Kentucky General Assembly in 2014. On Wednesday night, he will join Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz as the only Latinos to speak at the GOP convention.
“It’s a primetime spot,” Alvarado said. “It’s a bit surreal still for me.”
Alvarado calls himself a Reagan-ite , someone who was inspired by President Ronald Reagan as a child of immigrant parents who came to California in pursuit of the American Dream.
His father came to the U.S. from Costa Rica in 1963. He was sponsored by an epidemiologist friend from Berkeley, California and then went on to teach himself English from a dictionary while working as a clerk for 25 cents an hour.  Alvarado’s mother came from Argentina in 1967 for a college education.
As a child of two immigrant parents, Alvarado believes second, third and fourth generation Latinos do not care as much about immigration as the media would have them believe. Trump has famously pitched a strict immigration platform, highlighted by the need to build a wall. Despite the mogul's proposals, Alvarado is going to tell Latinos that Trump is better on immigration than his challenger Hillary Clinton.
“He talks about the wall, but he talks about a big beautiful door on the front of that wall,” Alvarado said. “He wants to widen the opportunity for legal immigration into the country.”
The Hispanic conservative knows that his job at the RNC is to deliver a hopeful message to America Wednesday-- but one particularly targeting Latinos, a voter group the Republican nominee is struggling with.  It’s a tough job considering many Latino groups and Spanish language media have denounced Trump for what they believe are racist and offensive comments.
“There have been comments that I can’t agree with,” Alvarado said. “There’s things that he said that none of us like to hear, obviously with the judge…I know a lot of those things come from frustrations.”
Alvarado believes Latino immigrants can relate to the Republican message of the American Dream and who will choose Trump over Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee who he says evokes corrupt Latin American governments.
“We have two distinct choices this year,” Alvarado explains.  “At this point we have somebody who is brutally honest, perhaps to a fault, and we have someone who is brutally dishonest and looks into the camera and looks at Americans at home and tells them complete lies and things that aren’t true, that commit crimes and are left off the hook.”
He believes the message of jobs, economic security and low taxes can resonate with Hispanic voters.
“Most of our families have left countries due to corrupt  governments due to, frankly, politicians that are flat out liars. We escaped that - that’s why those countries don’t succeed people leave their home countries for the hope of what America is."
Alvarado admits he’s feeling anxious but he’s ready to deliver a powerful and positive message.
“I’m just grateful for the opportunity,” he said.

Mystery surrounds sources of many Bill Clinton speaking fees

By all accounts, it was the most popular gala the Lady Taverners had ever held. Over 1,000 people packed the Park Lane Hilton in London on Oct. 30, 2009, with the crowd overflowing into the hallways, to listen to President Bill Clinton speak on the power of giving.
While Clinton’s speech helped raise a substantial sum for the prominent cricket charity, his staggering $290,000 speaking fee was not covered by the group, according to organizers. The fee also was not covered by “World Management Limited,” the marketing company Hillary Clinton listed as the payment source in her federal financial filings.
It was bankrolled by a wealthy British businessman named Robert Whitton—a name you won’t find included in the Clintons’ public disclosure forms.
A review by the Washington Free Beacon found that Hillary Clinton often listed small foreign speaking firms as the sources of her husband’s lecture payments in her Senate and State Department disclosures, even though the actual paychecks came from undisclosed third parties.

Pence rallies GOP to unite, accepts VP nod; Cruz withholds endorsement

CLEVELAND –  Mike Pence quickly accepted the Republican vice presidential nomination and then showed why Donald Trump picked him as his running mate, harkening to his Midwestern roots to appeal to GOP voters to unite against Hillary Clinton – rallying the faithful ahead of Thursday night’s crowning of Trump as the party standard-bearer.
The Indiana governor dubbed the presumptive Democratic nominee “America’s secretary of the status quo,” and called 2016 a “time for choosing.”
His address was the rally point Republicans were hoping would come from Trump’s ex-primary rival Ted Cruz, who faced angry boos from the crowd Wednesday night as he stopped short of an endorsement in his own prime-time speech.
Though Cruz congratulated Trump on his win, some delegates prodded him toward the end to throw his support behind the nominee, chanting “Trump, Trump” – Cruz paused, but closed his address with no endorsement. Cruz urged Americans to vote their “conscience,” without naming Trump.
Republican Party officials later told Fox News the speech was “classless.” One senior GOP operative said, "I'm speechless."
Technical glitches with the arena’s monitors also created some problems. But Trump soon entered the arena, his son Eric delivered a speech returning the focus to the party’s presidential nominee – and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich delivered a rousing address to set the stage for Pence.

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Gingrich even effectively delivered an endorsement on Cruz’s behalf. He told the restless crowd that since Cruz told Americans to vote their conscience for anyone who can uphold the Constitution, there’s only one choice.
“So, to paraphrase Ted Cruz,” Gingrich said, “if you want to protect the Constitution of the United States, the only possible candidate this fall is the Trump-Pence Republican ticket.”
Drawing a sharp contrast between Trump and Hillary Clinton, Pence then echoed the message of party leaders the night before: It’s Trump or Clinton in November, so pick a side.
“The choice couldn’t be more clear. Americans can elect someone who literally personifies the failed establishment in Washington, D.C., or we can choose a leader who will fight every day to make America great again,” Pence said.
He added, “It’s change versus status quo, and my fellow Republicans, when Donald Trump becomes president of the United States of America the change will be huge.”
Pence appealed to voters Wednesday to “resolve here and now that Hillary Clinton will never become president of the United States of America.”
Calling Trump the “genuine article” and a “winner” who “never backs down,” he also said Trump is the candidate to confront radical Islam, cut taxes, grow the economy, shrink the bureaucracy, enforce immigration law and appoint Supreme Court justices who will uphold the Constitution.
While Pence, met with chants of “We like Mike,” made an impassioned case for the billionaire businessman, all eyes were on Cruz Wednesday night amid speculation over whether the Texas senator would use the convention dais to formally endorse his former rival.
He didn’t. His only mention of Trump was to congratulate him.
It seemed toward the end he might be considering the crowd’s noisy appeals, but he concluded by saying, “We will unite the party, we will unite the country by standing together for shared values, by standing for liberty.”
Still, his speech included a few nods to Trump’s message, including a call to build a border wall. His appearance at all on the Cleveland stage represented a reconciliation of sorts, and even without an endorsement, he appealed to voters to get to the polls.
“To those listening, please, don’t stay home in November,” he said. “If you love our country … stand and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.”
The carefully worded speech was delivered at a time when Cruz is widely believed to be positioning himself for another presidential run, be it four or eight years down the road. He is no doubt mindful that a full-throated endorsement of Trump could haunt him in the next cycle – and it seemed unlikely by Wednesday morning he would deliver one, when Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort offered no expectation of that happening.
The non-endorsement reflected the nastiness of their own primary battle, one that saw Cruz and Trump square off all the way into May in a rivalry replete with name-calling and trash-talk.
Some delegates in the convention hall remained loyal to Cruz to the end, and he received the second-highest tally during the formal nomination proceedings Tuesday night.
Cruz centered his remarks Wednesday around what he called a “return to freedom.”
“Freedom means that every human life is precious and must be protected,” he said. “Freedom means Supreme Court Justices who don’t dictate policy, but instead follow the Constitution.”
Afterward, delegate reaction was mixed. One North Carolina delegate who spoke to FoxNews.com voiced disappointment with how Cruz was treated.
A Texas delegate said Cruz “hurt” the party by not endorsing.
A source close to Cruz responded to GOP officials who criticized the non-endorsement.
"It's not classless to compliment Trump for winning,” the source said. “It's not classless to highlight areas policy where they can work together like border security, trade or fighting ISIS. It's not classless to call on all his supporters to not stay home but turnout."
Another ex-primary candidate Marco Rubio made a brief appearance, via video message, right before Cruz spoke, saying, “The time for fighting is over.”
Former 2016 candidate and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker spoke shortly before Rubio, with the message, “America deserves better than Hillary Clinton.”

GOP officials rip Cruz for withholding Trump support, Gingrich gives endorsement on his behalf

Republican officials slammed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz Wednesday night after he failed to endorse presidential nominee Donald Trump during his convention speech.
One RNC official called Cruz's speech "classless," while a senior GOP operative on the convention floor told Fox News, "I could not believe it. I literally could not believe [Cruz] didn't endorse Trump. I'm speechless."
Cruz, a rival of Trump's during primary season, was booed off the stage after ignoring cries from delegates to formally back the party's presidential candidate.

Wow, Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didn't honor the pledge! I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak anyway. No big deal!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2016

The cacophany of noise and discontent was amplified when the nominee himself walked into the Quicken Loans Arena as Cruz was finishing his speech.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who spoke later in the evening, departed from his prepared text to attempt to recast Cruz's remarks as an endorsement of Trump.
Gingrich, a strong Trump supporter, noted what he described as the real estate mogul's "generosity" in allowing Cruz to address the delegates in Cleveland and said that the audience had "misunderstood" the point of the speech.

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"Ted Cruz said you can vote your conscience for anyone who will uphold the Constitution," Gingrich said. "In this election there is only one candidate who will uphold the Constitution.
"So to paraphrase Ted Cruz," Gingrich added, "the only way to protect that is to vote for the Trump/Pence ticket."
By contrast, Gingrich's prepared remarks included only a single mention of Cruz, saying that the Texas senator's remarks "made the key point that we need to elect the Trump-Pence Republican ticket."
A source close to Cruz's inner circle acknowledged to Fox News that the end of the speech "was tough, but sometimes standing for principle means getting booed."
"It's not classless to compliment Trump for winning," the source added. "It's not classless to highlight areas of policy where they can work together like border security, trade or fighting ISIS. It's not classless to call on all his supporters to not stay home, but turn out."