Day 2 Of The RNC: The Nomination, The My Little Pony Defense, And The Salem Witch Trials

Trump kids, Chris Christie, and Lucifer, together at last.

Read more here.

Writer F.H. Buckley told BuzzFeed News a passage in Trump's speech bore a resemblance to his previous writing because he wrote it.

Read more here.

Sajid Tarar, the founder of American Muslims for Trump, closed the second day of the Republican National Convention with a prayer calling for leadership and American strength against terrorism.

but after Tarar took the stage, someone in the convention hall shouted, "No Islam," reporters on the floor said.

Tarar closed his prayer with an "amen" and referenced the Prophet Mohammed's words, linking them to the importance of embracing leaders who have strong values.

"The values of our leader must reflect the values our forefathers set in stone at [America's] inception," Tarar said.

— Claudia Koerner

Donald Trump's son delivered a powerful speech after his sister Tiffany, praising his father for the grit and work ethic he passed on to his children.

Donald Trump Jr., who followed his father's steps as a businessman, said that the Republican presidential nominee was the kind of person who considered the word "impossible" a challenge.

"I've seen it time and time again, that look in his eyes when people say it can't be done," Trump Jr. said. "People told him he couldn't possibly succeed in politics. For my father, impossible is just the starting point."

Trump Jr. is a New York delegate who earlier in the night announced the state's votes to send his father over the threshold to clinch the nomination.

In his speech, he lauded his father for what he said was an unconventional approach to hiring people, saying he often looked beyond Ivy League backgrounds.

Trump, he said, "promotes people based on characters, street smarts, and work ethic," adding that most of the top executives in his company began their careers in blue collar jobs.

Trump then entrusted those same executives to mentor his children like Trump, Jr.

"We're the only children of billionaires as comfortable in a D10 Caterpillar as we are in our own cars," he said.

—Tamerra Griffin

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Addressing a fractured Republican Party Tuesday night, Speaker Paul Ryan brought the convention floor to its feet with an anxious call for party unity.

"Next time there's a State of the Union address, I don't know where Joe Biden and Barack Obama will be," Ryan said. "But you'll find me right there on the rostrum with Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump."

Ryan used broad strokes to describe the GOP's agenda, taking care not to highlight the wide array of policy disagreements between him and the Republican nominee. He spoke of "building a 21st-century military," reforming the health care system so that it "operates by free choice and not by force," and of finding "a better way of dealing with persistent poverty."

Read more on what Ryan had to say here.

—McKay Coppins

Chris Christie used his speech at the Republican National Convention to lead the crowd along what he himself billed as a public indictment Hillary Clinton's character.

"Let's do something fun tonight," the New Jersey governor and former federal prosecutor said after walking up to the podium. "Since the Justice Department refuses to allow you to render a verdict, I'm going to present the case now on the facts against Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Christie then went on to list a series of developments that had been "infected by her flawed judgement."

"I ask you this, Hillary Clinton as a failure for ruining Libya and creating a nest for terrorist activity by ISIS, answer me now, is she guilty or not guilty," he said.

"Guilty!" the crowd roared.

Chris Christie used his speech at the Republican National Convention to lead the crowd along what he himself billed as a public indictment Hillary Clinton's character.

"Let's do something fun tonight," the New Jersey governor and former federal prosecutor said after walking up to the podium. "Since the Justice Department refuses to allow you to render a verdict, I'm going to present the case now on the facts against Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Christie then went on to list a series of developments that had been "infected by her flawed judgement."

"I ask you this, Hillary Clinton as a failure for ruining Libya and creating a nest for terrorist activity by ISIS, answer me now, is she guilty or not guilty," he said.

"Guilty!" the crowd roared.

Christie had other questions, honing in on the overthrow of Muamma Gadhafi in Lybia, the rise of Boko Haram, the Iran nuclear deal, and the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi.

"Is she guilty or not guilty?" Christie asked the crowd each time after summarizing each incident.

The crowd at the Republican National Convention yelled out "guilty" each time.

"Oh, believe me, we're not done yet," Christie said.

At times, the crowd also chanted, "Lock her up!"

"Now, time after time after time, the facts and just the facts lead you to the same verdict," Christie said. "We cannot promote someone to commander in chief who has made the world a more violent and dangerous place with every bad judgement she's made."

—Salvador Hernandez

Chris Christie's speech to the Republican Convention on Tuesday turned into a mock trial for Hillary Clinton, with many cheers of "lock her up" from the crowd.

A lot of people said the crowd's enthusiasm and yelling for Clinton to be jailed reminded them of the Salem witch trials.

The similarities, people said on social media, were a little disturbing.

Read more of the reaction here.

—Stephanie McNeal

The 22-year-old daughter of Donald Trump talked of how her father's contagious desire for excellence was one of just many qualities that would make him a great president.

Tiffany Trump, a recent college graduate, said that while she was "new to the convention scene," she was "confident in the good man America has come to know" throughout his campaign.

"He draws out the talent and drive in people," she said. "That's a good quality to have in a father, and better yet, the president of the United States."

She also talked about her father encouraging her from a young age to be the best she could be.

"He wrote notes on my report cards, which referred often to sentiments from teachers on how she acted in and out of the classroom," Tiffany Trump said.

Determination, she added, ran in her family.

"If you do what you love, hold nothing back, and never let fear of failure get in the way, then you've pretty much figured out the Trump formula," she said.

—Tamerra Griffin

CLEVELAND — The final — no, really — floor challenge to Donald Trump's nomination went down with barely a whimper on Tuesday night.

But this was not a happy arena nominating a consensus choice. The divisions tearing the party apart were obvious even as Trump's nomination vote proceeded, and some anti-Trump delegates worked up until the last minute to at least throw a wrench into a process that the RNC wanted to go according to plan. Delegates from Washington, D.C. and Alaska made an effort to make their votes to candidates other than Trump count, but failed in the process.

There were boos and even some crying from the floor. "We maybe small in number but our votes matter," said Kristie Babcock, a Trump delegate from Alaska who wanted votes for other candidates to also count.

"Every vote has to count," she insisted with tears in her eyes.

Read more from the convention floor here.

—Rosie Gray and Tarini Parti

Pedestrians and police officers alike gawked Tuesday evening as two men carried AR-15 style rifles briskly down East 9th Street, one wearing a white kufi on his head, the other a blue kaftan.

"It's freaking people out," said Micah Naziri, with some satisfaction, of the combination of his gun and the skull cap.

The most intense reaction, he said, came when a man threatened to smear bacon on his face. He was not, he said, tempted to shoot him.

The gun, Naziri said, was "a conversation starter." But he was also carrying it to make a tacit threat in response to Donald Trump's promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

"If you're going to go door-to-door rounding up 11 million people, there's a lot of people who wouldn't let that happen," said Naziri, a PhD student who writes for the radical Counter Current News.

Cameron, who manages a Hardee's restaurant in Dayton, Ohio, said he was carrying as a protest against police killing black men.

"In the black community, we have to start arming ourselves," he said.

At the corner of St. Clair, three Michigan State Troopers held up their phones in wonder, filming the men go by.

—Ben Smith and Shani Hilton

CLEVELAND — An analysis for BuzzFeed News by conservative, Spanish-language news watchdog MRC Latino found that networks' recent coverage of Trump describe his vice presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, as anti-immigrant and ultra-conservative.

Adrian Carrasquillo reported MRC's analysis, and quoted MRC's Jorge Bonilla saying that "Trump found someone that was equally against the undocumented" community.

That segment highlighted Pence's congressional record, including his support for a wall along the border and reporting undocumented immigrants who are treated at hospitals.

Univision recently led with reports that Trump may have regretted selecting Pence as his running mate.

"It was about what I expected," Bonilla said. "Trump's vice president was going to be cast as anti-immigrant no matter what, like Diaz-Balart said, 'the nominee is the nominee.'"

Read more about the MRC analysis here.

—Adrian Carrasquillo

House Speaker Paul Ryan focused his speech almost entirely on his opposition to Democrats and Clinton and on Republican ideals, mentioning Trump's name only a few times during the entire address.

-Stephanie McNeal

In a brief, recorded address, Trump said his nomination was something he would never forget and said that he and his supporters had set an election record.

"Together we've achieved historic results with the largest vote total in the history of the republican party," he said. "This is history, but we have to go all the way."

He said that he would speak more about the nomination on Thursday, when he will give his acceptance speech.

Trump — who asked the crowd, "are you having fun?" — said he would take care of "our great veterans," build strong borders, get rid of ISIS, and "restore law and order among so many other things."

He also acknowledged his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.

"It's an honor to run on a ticket with Mike Pence who is an incredible man and who will make a great, great vice president," he said. "We are going to win the state of Ohio, and also, of course, we are going to win the presidency and bring real change and leadership back to Washington."

"This is going to be a leadership, by the way, that puts the American people first," he added.

—Tamerra Griffin

The NRA's Chris Cox seemed to encourage Americans to rely on themselves for their personal protection rather than wait for police to respond to emergencies.

He began his speech by asking the viewers to imagine a rather horrifying scenario.

"Imagine a young mother at home with her baby, when a violent predator kicks the door in," he said. "He's a three-time loser who was released from prison early because some politician wanted to show their compassion."

Cox said that while the mother could call 911, the cops might not get there in time.

"The police will do their best to get there quickly, but their average response time is 11 minutes," he said.

Cox declared that the better option would be for the mother to instead fight back.

"So the question is, should she be able to defend herself with a firearm in her own home?" he asked. "Of course." -Stephanie McNeal

Republicans delegates on Tuesday officially nominated Donald Trump for president.

The roll call vote at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland went relatively smoothly; BuzzFeed News' Rosie Gray reported that the nomination proceeded "with very little fuss."

While some delegates still voiced their disdain for Trump votes, the candidates was able to clinch the at least 1,237 delegates needed in short order.

BuzzFeed News' Tarini Parti tweeted that several DC delegates were upset that their votes for Marco Rubio and John Kasich went to Trump, but were hesitant to call the system unfair.

Ohio cast its votes for Kasich amid some boos, Parti reported.

Michigan and New York passed on their turns to cast a vote in the first round. New York's pass was expected, and New York delegate Donald Trump, Jr. later cast the vote to send his father over the threshold.

Utah cast its 40 votes for Senator Ted Cruz, but due to the results of a tense battle over convention rules last week, those votes were counted as votes for Trump by the committee.

Considered the bedrock of conservatism, Utah has been caught in an anti-Trump movement, BuzzFeed News' Jim Dalrymple reports.

An Alaska delegate took exception with the way the state's votes were counted.

"We cast 12 votes for Senator Cruz, and 11 votes for Donald Trump, and five for Marco Rubio," the delegate said.

Republican National Committee chairperson Reince Priebus later clarified that state rules say votes can only be cast for candidates who are still running; thus, they all went to Trump.

After all the votes were in, Speaker of the House Paul Rya announced that Trump had won the nomination.

"Accordingly, the chair announces that Donald Day Trump, having received a majority of these votes entitled to be cast at the convention, has been selected as the Republican party nominee for president of the United States," he said.

Trump is expected to give an acceptance speech on Thursday.

—Tamerra Griffin

BuzzFeed News' John Stanton tweeted several videos and images of an unfurling clash between anarchist protesters and Cleveland police officers.

At one point during the demonstration, one activist was hit in the head by an officer who was using his bicycle to break up the crowd.

Stanton reported that some officers wore masks to hide ear pieces.

"Let's be kind," one officer urged people amid the chaos.

The RNC did a mic-check on Tuesday for some its biggest speakers, like Sen. Ron Johnson, and it was a lot of fun.

—Katherine Miller

Amid the hustle and bustle of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, delegates took some time to unwind through dance.

See more of the action here.

—Stephanie McNeal

While some attendees at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland want to "Make America Great Again," librarian Jonathan Harris wants to make America read again.

Harris, a branch manager for Portage County District Library, has been handing out books to protestors and RNC attendees alike since Monday. He is doing so not to support any candidate, but to promote the importance of public funding for libraries (and literacy, of course).

Read more about Harris' mission here.

—Jarry Lee

BuzzFeed's political podcast No One Knows Anything spoke to several Republicans about party unity in the midst of the convention, revisiting the question of what it means to be affiliated with the GOP these days.

No One Knows Anything host and BuzzFeed News reporter Evan McMorris-Santoro interviewed Rachel Hoff, the first openly gay delegate on the platform committee, about trying (and ultimately failing) to get positive LGBT language added to the platform.

"There did seem to be a concerted, organized, and, in some senses to me, surprisingly resolute effort to keep any positive reference to LGBT out of the platform," Hoff said.

"I think, way more importantly, the message that it sends to the LGBT community around the country is 'Please don't vote for us,'" she added.

Listen to the full podcast here.

A short demonstration led by religious groups was quickly broken up by police officers in downtown Cleveland's Public Square.

BuzzFeed News' Jim Dalrymple tweeted several photos and videos of the brief protest, which he reported was not "especially explosive."

At one point, the group chanted the phrase "Police lives matter."

A live video posted by BuzzFeed News' John Stanton shows police officers attempting to break up the large crowd, and repeatedly yelling at demonstrators to move back.

Stanton noted that the officers in the square were not wearing name tags.

The demonstration did not last long, and eventually police officers managed to break the crowd up into smaller groups.

Cleveland Police Commander Brian Heffernan told BuzzFeed News that officers would let everyone stay in the square "now that they've stopped fighting."

Nonetheless, large groups of officers remained on the scene in riot gear.

Shortly Cleveland Police spokesperson said on the department's Periscope that officers had responded to "two large scale protests pretty much at the same time" in Public Square.

The spokesperson added that Cleveland police were joined by other officers from around the country at the square.

LAS VEGAS — A childhood memory came to mind for Hillary Clinton after hearing about the fanfare and chaos that overtook the first day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

"Last night in Cleveland was surreal," she told thousands of labor activists here on Tuesday at a convention for AFSCME, the country's largest trade union of public employees. "I kept thinking, what's this like? And then I thought, you know, when I was a little girl, I went to see when they reissued it the movie the 'Wizard of Oz.'"

"And there were similarities," Clinton said. "Lots of sound and fury, even a fog machine! But when you pull back the curtain, it was just Donald Trump with nothing to offer to the American people."

Clinton, on a two-day swing through Ohio, Minnesota, and Nevada, was flying west during RNC's first night of primetime speeches. At the AFSME convention, her first event on Tuesday, she argued that the GOP convention had so far only offered attacks, not solutions.

"They had about eight hours of speeches yesterday. They spent most of their time attacking me and President Obama, rather than making any kind of argument about the future we want to build for our country," Clinton said. "You know, we can do a lot better than that."

—Ruby Cramer

Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer on Tuesday quoted My Little Pony in a bid to prove Melania Trump's convention speech did not plagiarize First Lady Michelle Obama.

Speaking on CNN to Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday, Spicer accused the Hillary Clinton campaign of pushing the plagiarism allegations for political gain. (The similarities in the speeches were first highlighted on Twitter by Jarrett Hill, an independent journalist not affiliated with the Clinton campaign).

Spicer said he had googled the phrase "You work hard for what you get in life" from Melania Trump's speech and found similar things uttered by singers John Legend and Kid Rock.

"Melania Trump said, 'The strength of your dreams and willingness to work for them," he continued. "Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony said, 'This is your dream. Anything you can do in your dream you can do now.'"

Watch the full exchange (including the My Little Pony clip) here.

—David Mack

At least 12 GOP convention staffers in Cleveland, Ohio, have been quarantined after showing symptoms possibly related to norovirus — a very contagious virus causing vomiting and diarrhea — Jim Brulte, the California delegation chairman, told BuzzFeed News Tuesday. "Our staff arrived ahead of the delegation and evidently one of the staff brought with them a virus," Brulte said. "She infected her husband who was another member of our staff." At least 12 staff members of the California delegation showed symptoms consistent with norovirus, according to Brulte. All 12 will remain quarantined until they are symptom-free for at least 24 hours, he said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes norovirus as "a very contagious virus that can infect anyone." Symptoms include diarrhea, nausea, and stomach pain.

Read the full story here.

— Tasneem Nashrulla

In a radio interview about whether he might serve in Donald Trump's administration, Ben Carson said he was offered the post of surgeon general by President Obama's administration.

"You know George W. Bush offered me that position. The Obama administration, before they found out who I really was, offered me that position. No, I'm not interested." Andrew Kaczynski is a political reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.

Listen to the interview here.

–Andrew Kaczynski

In a 1995 interview, Mike Pence echoed then President Bill Clinton's call in denouncing the "promoters of paranoia" on the radio and singled out one radio host for promoting "one world government" conspiracies about the North America Free Trade Agreement. Pence made the comments in an issue of the Howley Political Report uncovered by BuzzFeed News. He was responding to Clinton's remarks in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. "I think President Clinton is right in that vein. We have rights in America. In tandem with those rights we have responsibility," Pence said. "Whatever type of journalist we are, whether it be in the entertainment business, or as professional journalists, we always have the consequences of the way we present fact and information.

Read the full story here.

–Andrew Kaczynski

Some prominent Iowa Republicans said they were disappointed and frustrated after a headliner speech from Sen. Joni Ernst, a rising star in the party, was pushed back out of prime time on Monday night, leaving her speaking to a half-empty convention arena. Ernst's speech was meant to be a big breakout moment for the freshman senator, but instead, it attracted far less notice than her supporters hoped for, taking place late in the night after both Melania Trump and retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn. The incident is yet another fault line in a convention that has been marked by division among Republicans. "I don't get angry very often but I was disappointed," Gov. Terry Branstad told reporters at a luncheon for the Iowa delegation on Tuesday.

Read the full story here.

–Rosie Gray

The Republican Party wants the next president and Congress to resolve the nation's encryption debate.

How, exactly, the GOP might go about accomplishing that remains a mystery, but in the Party's platform document released Monday, Republicans nodded to a contentious and ongoing policy dispute pitting law enforcement officials against much of Silicon Valley — one likely to shape the right of private citizens to communicate without government interference.

Echoing officials from the Justice Department and FBI under Obama, the GOP framed the widespread use of secure communication tools as part of a novel security dilemma.

The privacy protections offered by encryption "have become crucial to the digital economy," the Party said. But, at the same time, "such innovations have brought new dangers, especially from criminals and terrorists

The GOP's non-committal stance on encryption also reveals tensions between the party and its candidate, Donald Trump, who called for a boycott of Apple in February as the company battled the FBI in court over an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.

Read more here. —Hamza Shaban

Corey Lewandowski, who was fired last month from his role as the campaign manager for Donald Trump, told CNN on Tuesday that someone, perhaps even the new campaign chief, should be fired for the controversy surrounding Melania Trump's plagiarized speech.

"Somebody, a staff person who should be held accountable," he said. "I agree with [Republican National Committee chairman} Reince Priebus: Whoever wrote the speech should be made accountable and fired."

"I know what it's like to be fired from the Trump campaign," he added.

Lewandowski, who is now a paid CNN contributor, agreed that the incident showed disorganization and sloppiness inside the Trump campaign.

He said a senior person, perhaps even new campaign manager Paul Manafort, would have reviewed the speech and should be held accountable.

"When I was the campaign manager, the buck stopped with me, and I'm sitting here with CNN now. At the end of the day, when you're the convention manager, you're in charge of the convention. There is no detail too small, particularly when you are looking at and scrutinizing the GOP nominee's wife to give the largest speech in front of 35 million people, there is no detail you should overlook."

"You don't need to apologize. You need accountability. I've been held accountable in this campaign. Other people should be held accountable," Lewandowski said.

—David Mack

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — Ohio Gov. John Kasich spoke to a room of Michigan's delegates to the Republican convention for 25 minutes Tuesday morning, holding himself up as a standard bearer for the Republican Party and vowing to campaign for Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk and New Hampshire Sen. Kelley Ayotte. He promised to come to Michigan.

"We'll take it!" someone squealed.

But when a throng of reporters gathered planning to ask the former presidential candidate about what he didn't address — what he made of attacks from the Trump campaign, and whether he'd ever be endorsing Trump, etc. — a spokesperson from the Michigan Republican Party informed them that Kasich had left the building.

Cameras instead turned to delegates and the Michigan party chair Ronna Romney McDaniel.

Kasich spoke passionately about support for police officers. He said the party needs to get better at spreading its message to younger people and voters of color, and about how Ronald Reagan had inspired him. "Young people gravitate to where they feel there is somebody who has strength and is a leader...and has ideas and can get them to believe that having big dreams can work out and can come true."

He didn't once, however, mention Donald Trump.

Kasich's absence from the convention and lack of an endorsement has been a point of contention in recent days from Trump and his campaign, who have accused Kasich of being "petulant."

—Darren Sands

Did Melania Trump crib parts of Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech when delivering her own convention speech last night?

The answer from the Trump campaign and a top surrogate: maybe only a little.

At a press conference on Tuesday, campaign manager Paul Manafort said the speech touched on universal themes.

"These are themes that are personal to her, but personal to a lot of people depending on the stories of their lives," he said. "Obviously, Michelle Obama feels very much similar sentiments towards her family."

He alleged the Hillary Clinton campaign was the first to focus on the alleged plagiarism.

"When Hillary Clinton is threatened by a female, the first thing she does is try to destroy the person," he said.

—David Mack

On the Today show, Christie said he could not make a case for plagiarism.

"Not when 93% of the speech is not like Michelle Obama's speech and they expressed some common thoughts," Christie told Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie. Calling the first day of the convention "the worst day" he said that the delegates and the media needed "a controversy to talk about."

"I know Melania and I think she worked very hard on that speech and a lot of what I heard last night sitting on the floor sounded very much like her and the way she speaks about Donald all the time," Christie said. "Having been friends with them for 14 years, that sounded like her to me last night. I think what's most important is that the American people gets a picture of how she feels about her husband and what their relationship is like."

— Tasneem Nashrulla

Read the fully story here.

— Alan White

Despite striking similarities between Melania Trump's speech from Monday night to one that Michelle Obama delivered in 2008 at the Democratic convention, the Trump campaign maintains that there was no plagiarism.

"What she did was use words that are common words," Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said Tuesday on New Day.

He said that it was "crazy" to think that she would copy from Obama's speech knowing that she was speaking in front of 35 million people and that her words would be scrutinized.

"To think that she would do something like that, knowing how scrutinized her speech was going to be last night is just really absurd," Manafort said.

–Jessica Simeone

Just a few miles from where Republicans were officially electing Donald Trump as their nominee for president, Sen. Rob Portman and his guest speakers didn't mention their party's presumptive nominee at all in their remarks. Portman — along with Sen. Joni Ernst and Newt Gingrich — was speaking at his "mini-convention." Each talked about the senator's work addressing local issues such as opioid abuse and protecting Lake Erie. Both Ernst and Gingrich were also slated to speak at the Republican National Convention, but on Monday afternoon, they tailored their remarks just to Portman and the importance of Republicans winning the toss-up Senate race in the state. When asked about the omission of the party's nominee, Portman reminded reporters he had praised Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump's vice presidential pick, and repeated his support for the nominee. "I've met with (Trump) a couple of times. I think he's got the right ideas on some of the major issues," he said after the event at Cuyahoga Community College.

Read the full story here.

–Tarini Parti

Anti-Trump delegates staged their last stand on the convention floor on Monday — and came up short, prompting minutes of televised disruptions and confusion in the aftermath as delegates tried to determine exactly what happened. Their goal was to force the convention to hold a roll call vote that they hoped would reject convention rules, which include clauses requiring delegates to vote for the candidate to which they're bound — and, just as importantly, would become a live televised showcase of anti-Trump discontent.

Different tallies have emerged of how many states pulled out. BuzzFeed News spoke to delegates who said they weren't certain about which states — if any — had withdrawn from the effort to force a roll call vote on rules. Some delegates questioned whether any states had actually withdrawn, suggesting that the RNC and Trump forces could have lied. BuzzFeed News was initially told that the three states whose petitions had been withdrawn were Iowa, Minnesota, and Alaska. Some delegates named Washington, D.C., Minnesota and Maine, from what they had heard, as the three that had withdrawn. Several Iowa delegates confirmed to BuzzFeed News that Iowa's petition had been added to the list and later some people had removed their signatures, taking their petition out of the running.

Read the full story here.

–Rosie Gray and Tarini Parti

Melania Trump delivered a rare speech on the first night of the Republican National Convention about her husband Donald Trump, which shared an almost identical section to first lady Michelle Obama's Democratic convention speech in 2008. The presumptive Republican nominee's wife discussed the work ethic instilled in her by her parents, treating people with respect, and wanting a better future for children — which were all apparently things she took from Michelle Obama's address.

Read the full story here.