华盛顿——梅兰妮·特朗普对受新冠肺炎影响的家庭表示同情，她说这是一个“看不见的敌人”，挑战了美国，但却把美国人民团结在一起。
在周二晚上共和党全国代表大会的黄金时段演讲中，第一夫人说她“被美国人在如此陌生和可怕的环境中走到一起的方式所感动。”
她说，她的丈夫“将不会休息，直到他做了他能做的一切”来阻止“无形的敌人”冠状病毒爆发。
特朗普还谈到了她在全国各地发生自然灾害后观察到的“人类美好的一面”，指出一条共同的主线是“坚定不移地互相帮助的决心。”
第一夫人在新装修的玫瑰园发表了讲话，她的丈夫站在观众席的最前面，也是最中心的位置。
观众席的座位间隔约2英尺，而不是医生建议的最小间隔6英尺，以避免冠状病毒的传播。家人和朋友区的大多数人都没有戴口罩。
——
关于周二的共和党全国代表大会，你需要知道以下几点:
—梅兰妮·特朗普美国之夜:共和党大会明星第一夫人
——庞贝警告外交官避免政治；他会在RNC演讲
——特朗普的观众没有拜登的多；总统欢迎美国有线电视新闻网
——2019年华盛顿抗议RNC的视频中的少年
——
跟随美联社在https://apnews.com/Election2020的选举报道
——
以下是正在发生的其他事情:
美国国务卿迈克·庞贝在共和党全国代表大会上发表讲话，支持唐纳德·特朗普总统连任，从而陷入了2020年总统竞选的核心。
这一讲话是在耶路撒冷对中东进行正式访问期间录制的，并于周二在RNC播出。
民主党人和其他人严厉谴责这一讲话，称其不恰当地违反了数十年的外交先例，也可能违反了联邦法律，该法律禁止行政部门员工在执行公务时公开参与政治活动。事实上，庞贝本人上个月才提醒国务院工作人员这些限制。
但是，尽管场地和观众非同寻常，而且可能存在问题，庞贝大约四分钟的演讲内容在他之前的国内外公开露面中不会有任何不合适的地方。
庞贝对共和党关于特朗普针对俄罗斯、中国和伊朗的“美国第一”外交政策的成功主张进行了标准的复述。他说他们让他的家人和所有美国人更加安全。他谈到了伊斯兰国实体哈里发的失败、特朗普的亲以色列议程以及总统坚决警惕中国共产党的“掠夺性侵略”。
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肯塔基州共和党司法部长丹尼尔·卡梅伦说，黑人选民并不像乔·拜登曾经暗示的那样铁板一块，他敦促其他人和他一起支持唐纳德·特朗普总统。
肯塔基州第一位黑人司法部长卡梅伦对着镜头说:“副总统先生，看着我。”我是黑人。我们不一样，先生。我没有被束缚。我的思想是我自己的。你不能告诉我如何投票，因为我的肤色。”
全国民调显示，拜登得到了绝大多数黑人选民的支持，不过卡梅伦指责这位民主党总统候选人在5月份的一次采访中说，如果一位黑人选民还没有做出决定，“那你就不是黑人。”
卡梅伦因处理黑人妇女布莱娜·泰勒被枪杀一案而受到公众的关注。今年3月，布莱娜·泰勒在家中被路易斯维尔警方击毙。活动人士一直敦促卡梅伦对参与杀害她的官员提起诉讼。
卡梅伦简短地提到了泰勒，但没有提到全国对黑人死于警察之手的强烈抗议，这引发了数月的示威、游行和一些暴力事件。
卡梅伦说:“这是德怀特艾森豪威尔将军，未来的共和党总统，谁说，'民主是一个制度，承认平等的人在法律面前。”无论你是布莱娜·泰勒还是大卫·多恩的家人，这些都是治愈我们国家创伤的理想。"
卡梅伦指的是多恩，一位77岁的退休圣路易斯警察队长，在明尼阿波利斯警方5月份杀害乔治·弗洛伊德后的抗议活动中被一名抢劫者开枪打死。
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唐纳德·特朗普总统在白宫主持了一个入籍仪式，周二晚上在共和党全国代表大会上播放了一段视频。
在特朗普的注视下，代理国土安全部部长查德·沃尔夫向五个人宣读了誓言。
随后，特朗普欢迎这五个人加入“伟大的美国家庭”，并向他们表示祝贺，说:“干得好。”
他告诉他们:“你们遵守规则，遵守法律，学习历史，信奉我们的价值观，证明自己是最正直的人。”
他说，作为美国公民，“没有比这更高的荣誉和特权了。”
这五名新美国公民来自玻利维亚、黎巴嫩、印度、苏丹和加纳。
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已故福音传道者葛培理的孙女说，唐纳德·特朗普总统是有信仰的选民的唯一选择，并补充说民主党候选人“没有给他们留下任何余地”。
西塞·格雷厄姆·林奇将奥巴马政府描绘成一个宗教自由“受到攻击”的政府但随着特朗普的当选，林奇说，“有信仰的人在白宫突然有了一个强烈的拥护者，”他引用了法官的任命，“他们尊重第一修正案。”
林奇星期二晚上在共和党全国代表大会上发表了讲话。她说，“拜登-哈里斯对美国的愿景没有给有信仰的人留下任何空间。”
后来，特朗普的女儿蒂芙尼(Tiffany)将一系列特征归功于她父亲的支持者，称“我们相信所有信仰都有宗教自由。”
特朗普一直在争取宗教选民，试图将民主党描绘成对宗教自由的威胁。特朗普的福音派主持每周祈祷电话。副总统迈克·彭斯——一个重生的基督徒，在与保守的福音派信徒结盟方面有着长期的记录——已经在几个战场州参加了一次以信仰为中心的旅行。
这场运动还吸引了罗马天主教选民和各种其他信仰的从业者。
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副总统迈克·彭斯是共和党全国代表大会期间播放的一段视频的主角，该视频讲述了六名美国人的故事，他们的生活得到了特朗普政府的帮助。
这段9分钟的视频名为“林肯”，于上周在亚伯拉罕·林肯总统童年时代位于印第安纳州林肯市的家中拍摄。在与普通美国人进行随意交谈之前，彭斯向第一任共和党总统林肯致敬。
亚伦·强森牧师赞扬了唐纳德·特朗普总统对机会区的支持，谢丽尔·艾伦法官是第一位被选入宾夕法尼亚高等法院的黑人女性，她概述了自己的信念，即特朗普致力于改善少数族裔社区。
患有杜兴肌营养不良症的乔丹·麦克莱恩(Jordan McLinn)感谢特朗普在2018年签署了联邦版的“审判权”法律。
杰克·休斯和他的母亲莎拉讨论了他们如何利用学校券让杰克进入一所更适合他学习需要的教会学校。
刘烨·布罗迪，一个来自洪都拉斯的归化美国人，谈论薪水保护计划如何帮助她家的新安全业务在大流行来袭时免于倒闭。
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一名肯塔基州少年因在林肯纪念堂决斗示威中与一名美国土著男子互动的视频而闻名，他说，美国必须团结在一位“号召媒体”的总统周围
周二，在共和党全国代表大会的第二天晚上，尼古拉斯·桑德曼抨击了媒体，声称没有人比唐纳德·特朗普总统更成为不公平媒体报道的受害者。
桑德曼断言，戴上“让美国再次伟大”帽子的简单行为使他成为网络和有线新闻网的目标。
桑德曼是帕克山科温顿天主教高中的学生之一，参加了2019年1月在华盛顿举行的反堕胎游行。他与内森·菲利普斯互动的镜头在网上广为流传，当时他正在参加一个支持印第安人权利的单独示威。
桑德曼和菲利普斯后来都表示，他们正试图缓和参加两次示威的三个不同团体之间的紧张关系。视频显示，桑德曼和菲利普斯站得很近，桑德曼盯着菲利普斯，有时还会微笑着看着菲利普斯唱歌和打鼓。
桑德曼后来解决了对美国有线电视新闻网和其他媒体的诉讼。
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威斯康辛州的一名奶农感谢唐纳德·特朗普总统的支持，并声称奶农正在“卷土重来”，尽管在关键的11月摇摆州，数百名其他奶农的情况并非如此。
克里斯·彼得森(Cris Peterson)周二在共和党全国代表大会上表示，特朗普帮助陷入困境的奶农，部分是通过“谈判新的贸易协议”，这些奶农在2016年受到了低牛奶价格的冲击
然而，根据美国农业部的统计，仅在2018年，威斯康辛州就有大约700家奶牛场倒闭，这一趋势伴随着一系列农民自杀事件。
其中一个因素是与墨西哥和加拿大重新谈判的贸易协定，该协定禁止向加拿大出口一种特定类型的牛奶，而这种牛奶是奶酪制作的一部分。该条款明显伤害了威斯康星州西南部的农民，特朗普赢得了该地区，但此后民主党人在该地区取得了胜利。
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一位原定在共和党全国代表大会第二天晚上发表演讲的发言人，在将她的推特粉丝引向一系列反犹太人的阴谋信息后，被从名单中除名。
特朗普竞选发言人蒂姆·默陶格(Tim Murtaugh)表示:“我们已经将预定的视频从大会阵容中移除，本周将不再播放。”
玛丽·安·门多萨原定于周二晚上发表讲话，强调总统打击非法移民的斗争。门多萨的儿子于2014年在一次正面碰撞中被一名非法居住在美国的男子撞死。
她和其他父母的孩子在美国被非法杀害，他们给自己贴上了“天使妈妈”的标签，并经常出现在白宫和特朗普的竞选活动中。
门多萨已经为这条微博道歉，她写道“之前她转发了一条很长的帖子，但没有阅读每一条帖子”，并表示这条微博“没有反映出我的任何感受或个人想法。”
一位熟悉该计划的不愿透露姓名的共和党人称，争议是拉门多萨的原因。共和党人无权公开谈论此事。
——美联社作家齐克·米勒和吉尔·科尔文
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一位反对堕胎的活动人士计划在共和党全国代表大会上发言，他此前曾倡导“家庭投票”，称妻子在做出与政治相关的决定时应该听从丈夫。
艾比·约翰逊将于周二在RNC发表演讲，这是虚拟聚会的第二个晚上。
5月，约翰逊在推特上写道，她“将支持恢复家庭投票”，随后解释说，如果配偶不同意，“那么他们将不得不决定一票。”在一个敬虔的家庭里，丈夫有最后的发言权。”
约翰逊曾为计划生育组织工作，多年前因一名怀孕13周的妇女堕胎而辞职后，她成为一名直言不讳的堕胎反对者。
她成立了一个部门，游说堕胎诊所的员工离开他们的工作岗位，一部以她的生活故事为基础的电影于去年上映。
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作为共和党全国代表大会第二天节目的一部分，唐纳德·特朗普总统强调赦免一名被判银行抢劫罪的内华达州男子。
在一段预计将于周二晚上播出的视频中，特朗普称乔恩·庞德的故事是“救赎力量的一个完美证明。”“思考”现在在拉斯维加斯领导一个项目，帮助前囚犯重返社会，名为“囚犯的希望”。
特朗普鼓吹刑事司法改革，作为他接触黑人和福音派选民的一部分。
周二早些时候，白宫发布了一段赦免视频，视频显示总统在玩味和他妻子的注视下签署了文件。
这位退休的联邦调查局特工逮捕了玩味，后来成为他最好的朋友之一，他也和特朗普和玩味一起出现。
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一位来自佐治亚州的共和党国会提名人被邀请参加共和党全国代表大会，她支持卡农阴谋论，并得到了唐纳德·特朗普总统对其初选胜利的祝贺。
马乔里·泰勒·格林周二在她的推特账户上发布了一张邀请函的照片。她写道，她“很荣幸和激动地被邀请参加周四晚上在白宫举行的特朗普总统的获奖感言。”
一位熟悉格林邀请的人说，这是合法的。此人未被授权就此事公开发言，并在匿名的情况下接受了美联社的采访。
特朗普称赞格林在本月初赢得初选后是“未来的共和党明星”。他赢得了非信徒的支持，他说:“我听说这些人热爱我们的国家。”
其他共和党人，包括副总统迈克·彭斯和共和党众议院领袖凯文·麦卡锡，都拒绝接受阴谋论。阴谋论的核心是一位匿名的高级政府官员，他分享了反特朗普的“深层国家”的信息，这个国家通常与撒旦崇拜和儿童性交易有关。
——美联社作家齐克·米勒
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在国务卿迈克·庞贝计划从耶路撒冷向共和党全国代表大会发表讲话之前，民主党人正在向他施压。
曾在国务院工作的民主党总统候选人乔·拜登的一名助手称庞贝周二的讲话“完全是可耻的。”助手比尔·鲁索说这是“滥用纳税人的钱。”
拜登的另一位高级副手凯特·贝丁菲尔德(Kate Bedingfield)抨击庞贝是唐纳德·特朗普总统的“跑腿小子”，称他有“多次公然利用自己的办公室达到明显的政治目的”的记录
国务卿们经常代表美国政府的议程出国访问，但庞贝在国外的一次党代会上的讲话是个例外。
鲁索嘲笑庞贝关于他将在私人时间向共和党大会发表演讲的解释。鲁索指出，演讲仍然是“公务旅行”的一部分，纳税人的钱“把他带到了那里”，并“为他的保护和他身边的“工作人员”买单。”
The Latest: First lady expresses sympathy for virus victims
WASHINGTON -- Melania Trump is expressing sympathy for families affected by COVID-19, an “invisible enemy” she said has challenged America but brought its citizens together.
In her prime-time Republican National Convention address on Tuesday night, the first lady said she has “been moved in the way Americans have come together in such an unfamiliar and frightening situation.“
She says her husband “will not rest until he has done all he can” to stem the “invisible enemy” of the coronavirus outbreak.
Mrs. Trump also talked about “the beautiful side of humanity” she has observed in the wake of natural disasters around the country, noting that a common thread “is the unwavering resolve to help one another.”
The first lady spoke from the newly renovated Rose Garden, where her husband was front and center in the audience gathered to hear her remarks.
The seats in the audience were about 2 feet apart, not the minimum of 6 feet apart that doctors had recommended to avoid spread of the coronavirus. Most of those in the family and friends section were not wearing masks.
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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TUESDAY'S REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION:
— Melania Trump's night: GOP convention stars first lady
— Pompeo warned diplomats to avoid politics; he'll talk at RNC
— Trump's audience doesn't match Biden's; president hails CNN
— Teen from video of 2019 Washington protest to address RNC
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Follow AP’s election coverage at https://apnews.com/Election2020
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has plunged into the heart of the 2020 presidential race with a speech supporting President Donald Trump’s reelection at the Republican National Convention.
The speech was recorded in Jerusalem during an official visit to the Middle East and aired Tuesday at the RNC.
The address was roundly condemned by Democrats and others as an inappropriate breach of decades of diplomatic precedent and a possible violation of federal law prohibiting executive branch employees from overt political activism while on duty. Indeed, Pompeo himself had reminded State Department staffers of those restrictions only last month.
But while the venue and audience were extraordinary and perhaps problematic, the content of Pompeo’s roughly four-minute speech would not have been out of place in any number of his previous public appearances either at home or abroad.
Pompeo delivered standard recitations of GOP claims about the successes of Trump’s “America First” foreign policy against Russia, China and Iran. He said they made his family and all Americans safer. He spoke of the defeat of the Islamic State’s physical caliphate, Trump’s pro-Israel agenda and the president’s determined vigilance to guard against the “predatory aggression” of the Chinese Communist Party.
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Kentucky Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron says Black voters are not monolithic, as Joe Biden once implied, and is urging others to join him in supporting President Donald Trump.
Cameron, Kentucky’s first Black attorney general, says directly to camera: “Mr. Vice President, look at me. I am Black. We are not all the same, sir. I am not in chains. My mind is my own. And you can’t tell me how to vote because of the color of my skin.”
National polls show Biden with support from the vast majority of Black voters, though Cameron chided the Democratic presidential nominee for saying during a May interview that if a Black voter is undecided, “then you ain’t Black.”
Cameron has come under public scrutiny for his handling of the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, who was fatally shot in her home by Louisville police in March. Activists have been urging Cameron to file charges against the officers involved in her slaying.
Cameron mentioned Taylor briefly, but not in terms of the national outcry over Black deaths at the hands of police that has fueled months of demonstrations, marches and some violence.
“It was General Dwight Eisenhower, a future Republican president, who said, ’Democracy is a system that recognizes the equality of humans before the law,” Cameron says. “Whether you are the family of Breonna Taylor or David Dorn, these are the ideals that will heal our nations wounds.”
Cameron was referring to Dorn, a 77-year-old Black, retired St. Louis police captain who was shot and killed by a looter during protests that followed the May killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd.
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President Donald Trump hosted a naturalization ceremony at the White House in a video that aired Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf administered the oath to five people as Trump looked on.
Afterward, Trump welcomed the five into the “great American family” and congratulated them, saying, “Great going.”
He told them: “You followed the rules, you obeyed the laws, you learned your history, embraced our values and proved yourselves to be men and women of the highest integrity.”
He says there is “no higher honor and no greater privilege” than being a U.S. citizen.
The five new U.S. citizens hailed from Bolivia, Lebanon, India, Sudan and Ghana.
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A granddaughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham says President Donald Trump is the only choice for voters of faith, adding that the Democratic ticket “leaves no room” for them.
Cissie Graham Lynch portrayed the Obama administration as one in which religious freedoms “were under attack.” But with Trump’s election, Lynch said “people of faith suddenly had a fierce advocate in the White House,” citing the appointment of judges “who respect the First Amendment.”
Lynch spoke Tuesday night during the Republican National Convention. She says the “Biden-Harris vision for America leaves no room for people of faith.“
Later, Trump’s daughter Tiffany attributed a litany of characteristics to her father’s supporters, saying “We believe in freedom of religion for all faiths.”
Trump has courted religious voters, seeking to portray Democrats as a threat to religious freedom. Evangelicals for Trump hosts weekly prayer calls. Vice President Mike Pence — a born-again Christian with a long track record in allying with fellow conservative evangelicals — has participated in a faith-centered tour in several battleground states.
The campaign also courts Roman Catholic voters and practitioners in a variety of other faiths.
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Vice President Mike Pence is the star of a video airing during the Republican National Convention featuring the stories of six Americans whose lives have been helped by the Trump administration.
The nine-minute video, titled “Lincoln,” was filmed last week at President Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home in Lincoln City, Indiana. Pence delivers a tribute to Lincoln, the first Republican president, before holding casual conversations with everyday Americans.
Pastor Aaron Johnson praised President Donald Trump’s support of opportunity zones, and Judge Cheryl Allen, the first Black woman to be elected to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, outlined her belief that Trump is committed to improving minority communities.
Jordan McLinn, who suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, thanked Trump for signing the federal version of the “Right to Try” law in 2018.
Jack Hughes and his mother, Sarah, discuss how they used school vouchers to enroll Jack in a parochial school that better suited his learning needs.
And Lidia Brodine, a naturalized American originally from Honduras, talk about how the Paycheck Protection Program helped save her family’s new security business from folding once the pandemic hit.
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A Kentucky teenager known for video of his interaction with a Native American man during dueling demonstrations at the Lincoln Memorial says the country must unite around a president “who calls the media out.”
Nicholas Sandmann assailed the media on Tuesday during the second night of the Republican National Convention, and contended that no one has been a victim of unfair media coverage more than President Donald Trump.
Sandmann asserted that the simple act of wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap made him the target of network and cable news networks.
Sandmann was among the students from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, participating in an anti-abortion march in Washington in January 2019. Footage of his interaction with Nathan Phillips, who was participating in a separate demonstration supporting Native American rights, spread widely online.
Both Sandmann and Phillips later said they were trying to defuse tensions among three separate groups participating in both demonstrations. Video of the encounter showed Sandmann and Phillips standing very close to each other, with Sandmann staring, and at times smiling, at Phillips as Phillips sang and played a drum.
Sandmann later settled lawsuits against CNN and other media outlets.
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A Wisconsin dairy farmer is thanking President Donald Trump for his support and claiming dairy farming is “roaring back,” though that’s not the case for hundreds of other farmers in the pivotal November swing state.
Cris Peterson said Tuesday at the Republican National Convention that Trump helped struggling dairy farmers, socked by low milk prices in 2016, in part by “negotiating new trade deals.”
However, in 2018 alone, roughly 700 Wisconsin dairy farms went out of business, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics, a trend accompanied by a spate of farmer suicides.
Among the factors was the renegotiated trade pact with Mexico and Canada, which blocked the export of a specific type of milk to Canada integral to cheesemaking. The provision hurt farmers notably in southwest Wisconsin, a region Trump won but where Democrats have posted victories since.
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A speaker who had been scheduled to address the second night of the Republican National Convention has been pulled from the lineup after directing her Twitter followers to a series of anti-Semitic, conspiratorial messages.
Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh says, “We have removed the scheduled video from the convention lineup and it will no longer run this week.”
Mary Ann Mendoza had been scheduled to deliver remarks Tuesday night to highlight the president’s fight against illegal immigration. Mendoza’s son was killed in 2014 in a head-on collision by a man who was under the influence and living in the U.S. illegally.
She and and other parents whose children have been killed by people in the country illegally have labeled themselves “Angel Moms” and have made frequent appearances at the White House and Trump campaign events.
Mendoza had apologized for the tweet, writing that she “retweeted a very long thread earlier without reading every post within the thread” and said it “does not reflect my feelings or personal thoughts whatsoever.”
A Republican familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity cited controversy as the reason for pulling Mendoza. The Republican wasn’t authorized to speak about the matter publicly.
— AP writers Zeke Miller and Jill Colvin
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An anti-abortion activist scheduled to speak during the Republican National Convention previously advocated for something called “household voting,” saying wives should defer to their husbands on making decisions related to politics.
Abby Johnson is slated to address the RNC on Tuesday, the virtual gathering’s second night.
In May, Johnson wrote on Twitter that she “would support bringing back household voting,” later explaining that, if spouses were to disagree, “Then they would have to decide on one vote. In a Godly household, the husband would get the final say.”
Johnson previously worked for Planned Parenthood, becoming a vocal abortion opponent after saying she quit years ago following an abortion of a woman who was 13 weeks pregnant.
She founded a ministry that lobbies abortion clinics employees to leave their jobs, and a movie based around her life story was released last year.
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President Donald Trump is highlighting the pardon of a Nevada man convicted of bank robbery as part of the second day of programming at the Republican National Convention.
In a video expected to air Tuesday night, Trump says that the story of Jon Ponder is a “beautiful testament to the power of redemption.” Ponder now leads a program in Las Vegas that helps former prisoners reenter society, called Hope for Prisoners.
Trump has trumpeted criminal justice reform as part of his outreach to Black and evangelical voters.
The White House released a video of the pardon earlier Tuesday, which shows the president signing the document as Ponder and his wife look on.
The retired FBI agent who had arrested Ponder and went on to become one of his best friends also appears with Trump and Ponder.
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A Republican congressional nominee from Georgia who supports the QAnon conspiracy theory and was congratulated by President Donald Trump on her primary victory has been invited to the Republican National Convention.
Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a photo of the invitation to her Twitter account on Tuesday. She wrote that she was “honored and thrilled to be invited to attend President Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday evening at the White House.”
A person familiar with Greene’s invitation says it is legitimate. The person was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Trump praised Greene as a “future Republican Star” after she won her primary earlier this month. He has courted the support of QAnon believers, saying, “I heard that these are people that love our country.”
Other Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence and Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, have rejected the conspiracy theory, which centers on an alleged anonymous, high-ranking government official known as “Q” who shares information about an anti-Trump “deep state” often tied to satanism and child sex trafficking.
— AP writer Zeke Miller
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Democrats are unloading on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ahead of his planned address to the Republican National Convention from Jerusalem.
An aide to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden who has worked for the State Department calls Pompeo’s Tuesday speech “flat out disgraceful.” Aide Bill Russo says it's “an abuse of taxpayer money.”
Another top Biden deputy, Kate Bedingfield, blasts Pompeo as President Donald Trump’s “errand boy” and says he has a record of “repeated and blatant use of his office for overtly political purposes.”
Secretaries of state regularly travel abroad on behalf of a U.S. administration’s agenda, but Pompeo’s speech to a party convention from foreign soil is an outlier.
Russo mocks Pompeo’s explanation that he will address the GOP convention on personal time. Russo notes that the speech is still part of “official travel” and that taxpayer money “got him there” and is “paying for his protection” and for the “the staff on the ground” with him.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and says Pompeo’s move “violates his own policy.” Booker referred to Pompeo’s “memos and instructions” sent recently to his department’s employees.
