Tonight, Republicans are holding the third night of their national convention in Milwaukee after officially nominating convicted felon Donald Trump for president and his loyal lackey J.D. Vance as his Vice President. The lineup for the third night features just as many MAGA extremists as the last two nights – including more members of Trump’s inner circle, 2020 election deniers, and people who have refused to condemn political violence. Despite promoting a new tone, MAGA Republicans continue to show with speaker after speaker that they are more interested in helping Donald Trump than bringing the country together.
Donald Trump Jr.
Donald Trump Jr. Profited Off His Father’s Presidency and Protected His Business Interests. Throughout Trump’s presidency, his son Donald Trump Jr. used his position to make sure the Trump family personally profited off the presidency. Before he was elected President, Trump pledged “No new deals will be done during my terms in office.” Despite this pledge, Trump’s kids inked hundreds of millions of dollars worth of new business deals abroad — while taxpayers covered the security costs of each business trip to a host of countries including the United Arab Emirates, India, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom. Trump Jr. has been fiercely loyal to his father and his business, protecting him during his business fraud trial in New York by “not recalling” certain aspects of the case or business practices on 54 separate instances during testimony. His fiancé, former prosecutor and Trump campaign surrogate Kimberly Guilfoyle, is also speaking tonight.
Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND)
Doug Burgum Is A Trump Loyalist and Anti-Choice MAGA Election Denier. Doug Burgum is just another MAGA election denier. He echoed Trump’s lies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, insisting there were unspecified “irregularities.” He has continued pushing the big lie years later, refusing to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election, instead telling reporters, “People should be held accountable for their actions.” Burgum is a Trump loyalist who indicated he would support the former president regardless of his conviction or involvement in the January 6 insurrection. He is also an anti-abortion extremist. He praised the MAGA Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and signed a near-total abortion ban into law in North Dakota.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX)
Abortion Extremist Governor Greg Abbott Supported Trump’s Lies About The Election And Has Relentlessly Pursued Non-Existent Voter Fraud Claims In Texas. In the days after the 2020 election, Texas Governor Greg Abbott refused to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory and supported Attorney General Ken Paxton’s meritless lawsuit seeking to throw out electoral votes in four key states won by Biden. Since then, Abbott has waged a relentless public war against “voter fraud” in a state that Trump won by six points. Under pressure from Trump and his allies, Abbott launched a “forensic audit” of the 2020 election and allocated $4 million in taxpayer funds for audits. The audit found no major issues with the 2020 vote. Abbott signed legislation restricting voting rights, leading to record rejection rates for ballots in the primary, and appointed an attorney who represented Trump in a Pennsylvania lawsuit challenging the election results as Secretary of State. He also signed a draconian abortion ban into law banning abortions after six weeks and allowing private citizens to sue providers and patients.
Kellyanne Conway
Kellyanne Conway Is A Member of Trump’s Inner Circle Who Repeatedly Broke the Law While Working In The White House. Kellyanne Conway is a MAGA insider and member of Trump’s inner circle. She lived in Trump Tower for nearly a decade in the 2000s and served as Trump’s 2016 campaign manager. She then joined as a senior counselor in the Trump administration alongside far-right extremist Steve Bannon before joining Fox News as a contributor in 2020. She is known for spreading lies dubbed “alternative facts,” even manufacturing a fake massacre, and was recommended for removal from federal service by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel during the Trump administration for violating the Hatch Act on multiple occasions by using her official capacity for political purposes.
Peter Navarro
Ex-Con Peter Navarro Is A Member of Trump’s Inner Circle Who Went To Jail To Protect Trump From The January 6 Committee Investigation. Peter Navarro is a former Trump advisor who is appearing before the RNC on his first day out of prison. Navarro served throughout Trump’s administration from his inauguration until his exit. After the 2020 election, he spread Trump’s false claims about voter fraud and actively schemed with far-right extremist Steve Bannon to coordinate an effort to overturn the 2020 election on January 6. In 2022, the January 6 Committee subpoenaed him for documents and testimony, and he was later indicted, convicted, and imprisoned for four months on contempt of Congress charges for refusing to comply with the investigation into the violent insurrection.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC)
Moderate-Turned-MAGA Conspiracy Theorist Nancy Mace Is Just Another Trump Loyalist. Nancy Mace formerly posed as a balanced moderate while pushing MAGA conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines (including complaining about “occasional heart pain that no doctor can explain”) as a subcommittee chair. She has given up that facade and has fully pivoted to the right. Mace supported Trump allies and insurrectionists after the January 6 insurrection, repeatedly voting against holding Trump’s MAGA inner circle accountable. She has also spread conspiracy theories about the Republicans’ so-called whistleblowers and likened investigations into former President Trump to those of a “banana republic.” After Trump’s conviction, Mace escalated her rhetoric even further, accusing the Biden administration of breaking the U.S. justice system. She refused to denounce white supremacy, leaned into abortion bans, and has opposed contraception protections, promoting partisan stunts instead of addressing South Carolina interests.
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX)
Ronny Jackson Was A January 6 Participant And Continues To Espouse Conspiracy Theories About COVID-19 and the 2020 Election. Rep. Ronny Jackson is one of Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters in the House. Jackson tweeted in November 2020 that he would have Trump’s “BACK against anyone who tries to steal this election.” Jackson voted against certification of the Electoral College, which he described as being part of a three-step scheme to “throw out the fraudulent vote” and “take our country BACK.” Jackson accused Democrats of “trying to silence us by dismissing what we know to be true: President Trump won a second term.” Years after the 2020 election, Jackson still regularly tweets misinformation and conspiracy theories about it to his over 320,000 followers. On January 6, Jackson attended Trump’s rally on the Ellipse and tweeted, “We’re out here FIGHTING FOR TRUMP and for our election integrity! American Patriots have your BACK Mr. President! We will FIGHT for YOU and we will fight for OUR country!” Later, during the violent attack on the Capitol, members of the Oath Keepers militia texted each other about providing “protection” for Jackson because he had “critical data to protect.” The January 6 committee sent a letter to Jackson in May 2022 asking for his cooperation in investigating the attack, but Jackson has refused, calling the investigation a “ruthless crusade” against Trump. Jackson is a relentless Trump defender, co-sponsoring a 2022 resolution to “expunge” Trump’s second impeachment, endorsing a separate non-binding resolution in 2024 proclaiming that “former President Donald J. Trump did not engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or give aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” and traveling to New York to back Trump in his criminal trial. He’s also a COVID-19 conspiracy theorist who suggested that the omicron variant was a “hoax” by Democrats.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)
Matt Gaetz Is One Of The Most Extreme MAGA Republicans In The House. Rep. Matt Gaetz has maintained his status as one of the most extreme subcommittee members, employing a convicted war criminal as a legislative aide covering military policy, as well as a self-described “raging misogynist” as counsel. He voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election and signed a brief supporting Texas’s lawsuit seeking to throw out the election results in key states. The scandal-plagued Gaetz is one of Donald Trump’s biggest defenders, embracing every conspiracy theory about the 2020 election. In December, he told a Turning Point USA rally he was “joining the fighters” and would object to certification of the Electoral College. On January 6 immediately after the attack on the Capitol, Gaetz went to the House floor and claimed that the people who breached the Capitol were actually “members of the violent terrorist group Antifa.” In 2022, Gaetz co-sponsored a resolution to “expunge” Donald Trump’s second impeachment over the events of January 6. According to testimony to the January 6 committee, Gaetz was one of the members of Congress who sought a pardon from Trump for his role in attempting to overturn the election. Gaetz is under ongoing investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor and drug abuse. Gaetz invited an accused murderer to lead the pledge at the first House Judiciary Committee hearing of the new session of Congress, and he nominated Donald Trump for Speaker of the House after Kevin McCarthy’s expulsion. In 2024, Gaetz traveled to New York to back Donald Trump in his criminal trial and tweeted an allusion to the Proud Boys “standing back and standing by” while he was there and also sponsored a non-binding resolution in February 2024 proclaiming that “former President Donald J. Trump did not engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or give aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” In retaliation for Trump’s investigations by law enforcement, Gaetz has repeatedly called to defund law enforcement agencies like the FBI, DOJ, and ATF, despite previously denouncing calls to defund the police as “dangerous and deadly.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL)
Anna Paulina Luna Called For “Decertifying” The 2020 Election In Arizona, Asked For “Leniency” In Sentencing For A Far-Right Oath Keeper Convicted Of Participating In January 6. Anna Paulina Luna was first elected to Congress in 2022. Luna has claimed that the 2020 election was “compromised” because a glitch from Dominion Voting Systems’ machines flipped votes to Biden. Luna has also called for the “decertification” of Arizona election results based on the sham Maricopa County election audit. Luna recently introduced a resolution to award Donald Trump the Congressional Gold Medal for his “fearless leadership” and has also written a letter asking a judge to take “leniency” when considering the sentence of Jeremy Michael Brown, a Tampa Bay man who attacked the Capitol on January 6 with the extremist Oath Keepers group. She has refused to denounce white supremacy and was exposed for inconsistencies in her personal narrative, claiming Jewish heritage despite family members denying claims of a Jewish upbringing. Luna is also a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, which has pushed a budget proposal to defund the FBI, and proposed eliminating the position of FBI director. She has personally defended former President Trump after several of his indictments and has already endorsed Trump’s campaign. Luna traveled to New York to back Donald Trump in his criminal trial and was one of 65 Republican members of Congress to endorse a non-binding resolution in February 2024 proclaiming that “former President Donald J. Trump did not engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or give aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL)
Michael Waltz Supported Efforts To Overturn The Election. Rep. Michael Waltz is a MAGA election denier who signed a brief supporting Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton’s lawsuit in 2020 challenging the electoral results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, calling the suit “very legitimate, very thorough.” Waltz claimed the lawsuit was not a means to overturn the election, but rather a way of “restoring confidence in our elections process by working through our judiciary.” Waltz was one of 65 Republican members of Congress to endorse a non-binding resolution in February 2024 proclaiming that “former President Donald J. Trump did not engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or give aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”