Ivanka Trump takes the stage on final night of RNC

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Republican National Committee

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed, speaking of Democrats, “They want to … take away your Second Amendment rights.” 

Facts First: This needs context. While some on the left have advocated repealing the Second Amendment, leadership in the Democratic Party does not support this. Democrats do broadly support a range of gun control measures.

For instance, the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, has proposed to "end our gun violence epidemic and respect the Second Amendment, which is limited."

Along with banning the "manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines," Biden’s plan includes mandating that people who own assault weapons either sell them to the federal government or properly register them with the authorities, along with other measures. 

In 2019, House Democrats passed a gun control bill to extend the time allowed for federal agents to review background checks and to require that all gun sales go through background checks.  

Democrats certainly support more strict gun control measures than Republicans. 

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton. Republican National Committee

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton said, “Joe Biden let ISIS terrorists rampage across the Middle East. President Trump eliminated ISIS’s leader — and destroyed its caliphate.”

Facts First: Trump did preside over the destruction of ISIS’s so-called “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria and the killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. However, Trump doesn’t deserve sole credit for the liberation of the caliphate: the US was part of a multinational coalition President Barack Obama launched in 2014, and Kurdish forces did much of the ground fighting. In addition, it’s not true that the Obama administration simply let ISIS roam free. Though the caliphate was indeed established under the Obama administration, Obama and Biden also presided over significant progress in retaking that territory.

It’s fair game for Cotton to fault the Obama administration for ISIS’s rise, though it’s worth noting the group emerged out of the instability following the invasion launched by Republican President George W. Bush. However, it’s inaccurate to suggest Obama and Biden did nothing about ISIS once it was formed. 

IHS Markit, an information company that studied the changing the size of the caliphate, reported two days before Trump’s 2017 inauguration that the caliphate shrunk by 23% in 2016 after shrinking by 14% in 2015. “The Islamic State suffered unprecedented territorial losses in 2016, including key areas vital for the group’s governance project,” Columb Strack, senior analyst and head of the IHS Conflict Monitor, said in a statement at the time. 

Under Trump, the military did kill ISIS leader al-Baghdadi. 

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton argued that the United States is safer under President Donald Trump’s leadership and that Joe Biden “would return us to a weak and dangerous past” if elected president. 

Taking a knee has become a form of protest against racial injustice and police brutality in America. Former NFL quarterback turned activist Colin Kaepernick in 2016 sparked controversy by sitting, then kneeling, during the National Anthem before games to protest the police shootings of Black men and racial injustice in America. 

Earlier this year, protests erupted across America after George Floyd, a Black man, died after a White police officer kneeled on his neck.

As the protests were sweeping America, Cotton wrote a controversial op-ed for the New York Times in June titled, "Send In the Troops," which argued the Insurrection Act could be invoked to deploy the military across the country to assist local law enforcement with unrest sparked by Floyd’s killing.

Times staffers from both the opinion section and the newsroom, which operate separately from one another, publicly dissented. The Times later said that the op-ed did not meet its standards. 

Alice Johnson. Republican National Committee

Alice Johnson highlighted criminal justice reform with her own deeply personal story of how the President profoundly impacted her life during remarks Thursday at the Republican National Convention.

A first-time nonviolent drug offender, Johnson served 21 years in an Alabama prison after she was convicted on charges of conspiracy to possess cocaine and attempted possession of cocaine, according to the nonprofit Can-Do, which advocates for clemency for non-violent drug offenders.

President Donald Trump commuted Johnson’s sentence in June 2018 after Kim Kardashian West pleaded her case during an Oval Office meeting.

Trump, Johnson said, “saw me as a person.”

Months later, Trump signed the First Step Act, criminal justice legislation that was one of the few bills to pass with overwhelming bipartisan support.

“It was real justice reform,” Johnson said of the First Step Act, “And it brought joy, hope and freedom to thousands of well-deserving people. I hollered, ‘Hallelujah!’ My faith in justice and mercy was rewarded. Imagine getting to hug your loved ones again. It’s a feeling I will never forget. And to think, this first step meant so much to so many.”

Since her release, Johnson has appeared at multiple political events and attended the 2019 State of the Union address as Trump’s guest.

“The nearly 22 years I spent in prison were not wasted. God had a purpose and plan for my life. I was not delayed or denied, I was destined for such a time as this,” she said.

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Outlining reasons why Americans should vote for President Donald Trump, White House social media director Dan Scavino said, “You know the President cannot be bought.” 

Facts First: Trump has refused to release his tax returns, preventing the public from gaining a clear picture of his financial interests – including details of any outstanding debts.  

Trump is the first President since Watergate not to divest his business interests while in office and the first President in decades not to release his tax records, which would offer the public a truer picture of his income and net worth. 

His annual financial disclosures, which are self-reported and are not vetted by federal ethics officials, give only a veiled view into the President's finances. 

You can read more about Trump’s finances here. 

Marsha and Carl Mueller. Republican National Convention

During an appearance at the Republican National Convention tonight, Marsha and Carl Mueller spoke about and Kayla, their daughter, who was kidnapped and killed by ISIS.

The mission to kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named Operation Kayla Mueller, after their daughter.

In 2012, Kayla traveled to the Turkey/Syria border to work with the Danish Refugee Council and the humanitarian organization Support to Life, which assisted families forced to flee their homes.

She was taken hostage by ISIS in Aleppo, Syria, in 2013 after she visited a Spanish MSF (Doctors Without Borders) hospital. The family confirmed Kayla's death in 2015 but her body has not been recovered.

Some context: Al-Baghdadi was killed in October 2019 after a US military raid was conducted in northwest Syria.

"Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead," Trump said at the White House, calling the ISIS leader's removal "the top national security priority of my administration."

The President said a US special operations forces mission went after the ISIS leader and there were no US deaths during the operation.

Several ISIS fighters and companions of Baghdadi were killed, including two women wearing suicide vests and three children. Trump would not provide a specific number of casualties, only describing those targeted on scene as "more dead than alive." Eleven children were moved out of the house and are uninjured, the President said.

The death of Baghdadi marks the culmination of a years-long hunt to find one of the most wanted terrorists in the world and the man who declared a so-called Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria in 2014. But it also comes as the US military is pulling back in Syria, a move analysts warn could allow for an ISIS resurgen

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Ann Dorn. Republican National Committee

Ann Dorn, the widow of a retired police officer who was killed during violence in St. Louis, on Thursday condemned violent protests.

“Violence and destruction are not legitimate forms of protest. They do not safeguard Black lives; they only destroy them,” Dorn said in filmed remarks for the Republican National Convention.

Dorn’s 77-year-old husband, David Dorn, was killed when he responded to an alarm at the pawnshop during the early morning hours of June 2, the St. Louis Police Department said. The retired officer was providing security for the store. About 55 businesses in the city were burglarized and had property damage that night, city Police Chief John Hayden told reporters at the time. 

The looting and destruction followed protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, the Black man who was killed after a White police officer kneeled on his neck.

Dorn’s comments come as protests rage in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Blake, a Black man, was shot in the back by police on Sunday as he tried to enter his vehicle. He survived the shooting but his father said Blake is paralyzed from the waist down, although he is unsure if the paralysis is permanent.

Fighting back tears, Dorn recounted the moment she was told her husband had been killed.

“I relive that horror in my mind every single day,” Dorn said. “My hope is that having you relive it with me now will help shake this country from this nightmare we are witnessing in our cities and bring about positive, peaceful change.”

She praised President Donald Trump and said Trump has “offered federal help to restore order in our communities.”

“In a time when police departments are short on resources and man power, we need that help. We should accept that help. We must heal before we can effect change, but we cannot heal amid devastation and chaos,” Dorn said. 

“President Trump knows we need more Davids in our communities not fewer. We need to come together in peace and remember that every life is precious," she said.

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Rudy Giuliani. Republican National Committee

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and one of President Trump’s lawyers, derided the state of Democrat-run cities across the US, pleading to voters, “Don’t let Democrats do to America what they did to New York.” 

“New York City, once described as America’s Crime Capital, had become by the mid-1990s America’s safest large city. Now today my city is in shock,” Giuliani, who embraced tough-on-crime policing practices as mayor, said at the Republican convention. 

Giuliani’s remarks fit into a larger theme of the convention, with several speakers arguing that anti-police brutality demonstrations that escalated to violence are the fault of Democrats. 

Giuliani called Joe Biden “a Trojan Horse with Bernie (Sanders), (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), (Nancy) Pelosi, Black Lives Matter and his party’s entire Left Wing just waiting to execute their pro-criminal, anti-police, socialist policies.” 

“These continuous riots in Democrat cities gives you a good view of the future under Biden,” he warned, later adding, “It is clear that a vote for Biden and the Democrats creates the risk that you will bring this lawlessness to your city, to your town, to your suburb.” 

Giuliani said protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police were created out of a “truly just cause,” but that Democrats got in the way. 

“They had a President to beat and a country to destroy, and although an agreement on action against police brutality would be very valuable for the country, it would also make President Trump appear to be an effective leader. They could have none of that,” he said. “So, Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA sprang into action and in a flash, they hijacked the protests into vicious, brutal riots.” 

“For President Trump, and for us Republicans, all Black Lives Matter and the lives of (LeGend), Brandon and Davell matter to us,” Giuliani added, referencing the names of children who were the victims of violent crime.

“There is no question that this awesome job of restoring safety at this time, cannot be done effectively from your basement, Joe,” Giuliani continued. “There is also no question that President Trump will fight with all his strength to preserve the American system of government and our way of life.”

Until this year, convention speeches were delivered inside sealed arenas. If protests occurred, they were out of sight and well out of mind.

President Trump’s outdoor speech Thursday from the White House South Lawn doesn’t provide those advantages, though a fortified security perimeter around the executive mansion will likely provide a wide buffer between him and expected protesters.

If they are seen or heard, they could help Trump illustrate a hardline “law and order” message that he’s been pressing in the wake of protests in Wisconsin earlier this week.

At least two groups have said they will convene near the White House during Trump’s speech. One has said they hope to “drown out” the President using loudspeakers and trucks.

Sound from protests has previously carried over the White House fence to where the President is speaking, including when a group of truckers blared their horns during a Rose Garden event.

More notably, the sound of flash bangs could be heard from the Rose Garden as Trump spoke ahead of his fateful walk across Lafayette Square to St. John’s Church in June.

Ahead of Trump’s speech on Thursday, temporary fencing was erected around the perimeter of the White House grounds, almost entirely encasing the property. It mimicked the barricades that were positioned around the White House during that week in June, when Trump at one point was rushed to an underground bunker.