What Went Down On Night 2 Of The RNC

The Hatch Act, which I just mentioned, is a federal law that prohibits government officials from campaigning on the job or in their official capacity. Trump, as president, is not subject to the Hatch Act, so he’s allowed to deliver his RNC speech from the grounds of the White House. (Pence, as vice president, is also not covered by it.) But any other federal employee is, which makes all of the White House-adjacent events very dicey. It is also the reason that Pompeo, a diplomat, is being attacked for delivering his speech while in Jerusalem. All of this is somewhat theoretical, though, since although House Democrats are investigating Pompeo’s appearance, any enforcement of the Hatch Act would have to come from the executive branch — which seems very unlikely to happen, especially since an independent agency has repeatedly concluded that Trump aides like Kellyanne Conway have violated the Hatch Act, and there haven’t been any consequences.

Maine is a lot more conservative that you might think. Here’s a dispatch from when I went waaaaay up north in 2016.

Jason Joyce, a lobstahman from Maine, is speaking now. Fishermen are a significant part of the famous “white working class” up here in New England — they were furious about the environmental protections put in place by the Obama administration.