What Went Down On Night 2 Of The RNC

A presidential pardon at a party convention is a norm violation, for those keep track.

Trump signed a modest criminal justice reform bill in 2018. I mentioned the other night that I think part of the reason to feature so many black people is to appeal to white moderate voters and even conservative white voters who want the party not to be cast as racist. I think that electoral dynamic in part explains this focus on Joe Ponder. But criminal justice reform is one of those issues which the GOP has long been trying to use to demonstrate centrism and also appeal to Black people.

Mary Ann Mendoza, who was scheduled to appear tonight, has been dropped from the schedule, and it’s unclear whether the campaign will address it tonight. She was lined up to tell her story as an “angel mom” whose son died after getting hit by a drunk driver who was an undocumented immigrant. Her absence is likely connected to a tweet she made earlier today, where she linked to a QAnon-supporting conspiracy theorist who made anti-Semitic claims about the Rothschilds, the famous Jewish banking family from Germany. This is just the latest intermingling of QAnon with the GOP. Earlier this month, Trump declined to denounce the conspiracy theory when asked about it after a QAnon backer, Marjorie Taylor Greene, won the Republican nomination in a safe Republican congressional seat in Georgia.