Trump and mike pompeo from jerusalem. Just before things got started tonight, we got word that one of tonights speakers had been pulled from the program. Maryann mendoza was scheduled to appear in i a video. She shared an antisemitic video today. Chuck todd is at his post. Youve been listening for about an hour and a half now, the second night of the republican convention. What themes are emerging. I would say theres a little less red meat so far. Tonight youre seeing another similar theme. Theres another focus, particularly show casing what President Trump has done with criminal justice reform. You know, both campaigns, guys, tell me that there is a chance that donald trump could overperform with africanamerican men. A its a concern of the Biden Campaign and its a focus of the trump campaign. A lot of this targeting here is something we talked about last night, trying to cut against this narrative that the president has been stoking racial tensions. Theyve been trying to heal this because they see it as a way back in for suburban voters. I will say this. I do think, just like hes had problems when he appoints people to office, theyve had a vetting issue. Their small distractions with speakers, controversial things theyve tweeted or said, but it seems as if this is becoming a distraction. And theres enough of these distractions and step on the messages theyre hoping to get out. Let me turn to hallie jackson. She has reporting on what well be hearing from Melania Trump a short time from now. What can you tell us, ally . This is a big moment and big deal speech for the first lady, expected to be one of her longest speeches shell deliver from the newly renovated rose garden. President trump was spotted there a couple minutes ago taking a look at the set up. You see about 100 chairs in a socially distant fashion. This is going to be a positive and uplifting campaign. The first lady be talk about her be best campaign and tangible ways to expand that over the next four years if her husband is ree ekt willed. Shell talk about the pride she has in her husband and his accomplishments. Melania trumps task is to humanize President Trump. She wants to make him relate able to suburban voters. Theres pressure on Melania Trump. She doesnt often step into the spotlight in this way. One of the last times she did at the 2016 national convention, there was a fire storm over remarks she made that were from a Michelle Obama speech. Im told every word tonight is authentic. Weve seen the power of incumbency tonight. The president pardoned someone, part of the Convention Event earlier. Well hear from mike pompeo from gentlem jerusalem as he conducts work around the world. Andrea mitchell is with us. Andrea, what did you learn about what pompeo is going to say. There is unprecedented because there is a law against federal employees doing politics on the job. There has not been a secretary of state to seek at a Convention Since world war ii because theres policies, theres tradition. Theres also a stage one regulation that was reiterated last december and signed by mike pompeo just last july 24th, a month ago, to all employees saying that they should, theyre barred from politics on the job. And even when they are off duty, especially if theyre overseas. Now, he is actually in bahrain tonight, but he taped this in jerusalem from the rooftop of a Historic Town and behind him is the holy city, both arab and jewish, the israeli sites as well. This is an important backdrop for a strong evangelical message, strong message on defending Foreign Policy of President Trump, of course. But it is really unusual and this has inspired criticism from a lot of republicans, former diplomats, current diplomats, republicans who say it is really bad precedent. The idea as laid out in this policy is that there is one u. S. Government at a time and politics have nothing to do with it. The old saying is politics stop at the waters edge. The state Department Says he did it on his down time yesterday and no government money was spent, but its the appearance and what it projects to countries around the world. If youre just watching, well let our viewers know that the top right is the rnc feed. Its the video feed coming to us in this virtual convention. 2020 has a lot of things unprecedented, and add this to the list. We are awaiting the speech by eric trump, the president s second son. The convention has had an array of speakers on economy, religious freedom, abortion. Lets take a look at what was just said. President trump became the first president to talk about the importance of religious freedom at the United Nations, giving hope to people of faith around the world. I now support President Trump because he has done more for the unborn than any other president. This is a fight for freedom versus oppression, for opportunity versus stagnation, a fight to keep america true to america. Theres the housing boom. S, theres an auto boom, a manufacturing boom, a Consumer Spending boom. Stocks are in record territory. A vshaped recovery is pointing to better than 20 growth in the second half of this year. And nbc news Senior Business correspondent Stephanie Ruhle joins us with more. Stephanie, we heard larry kudlow and his remarks talking about this v recovery happening, suggesting that really every sector is moving forward. What do we know . Lester, we know that before covid hit, the economy was strong. It was growing. And then corona happened, and it put us in a health and economic crisis. And the thing is, lester, neither are over. While were living in corona, nothing is booming. Were in a recovery. Thanks to the government trying to get us back on our feet, were in a fragile and selective recovery. Just think about it. When they set Interest Rates so low, yes, its cheaper to go out and buy a car, and buy a house. We can borrow money cheap. When you think about the stock market, its not all sectors doing well. Look close. Its the tech behemoths that are carrying the market and they dont need to recover. Theyre thriving in the time of corona. Larry kudlow and the president has a difficult needle to thread here because while some areas are improving, we still have 30 Million People without jobsment weve got 80,000 Small Businesses that have closed permanently. This is a complicated time. So, its tough to say all boats are rising. A lot of boats continue to suffer, at least while weve got covid here. Stephanie, thanks. Also joiping us tonight is rich lowery, editor and contributor. Hi there. The perception before this convention was republicans and president were having a hard time figuring out what sticks in criticizing joe biden. Do you think that is republicans are finding their voice, finding their point of attack here . Well, i think they have made some progress on multi fronts. And one reason it seems a little scatter sought approach last night. And tonight theyre trying to do multiple things. They want to warm up President Trumps image including by highlighting accomplishments. They want to shore up and base. And they want to take joe biden down a notch. And the main attack on biden is, as the speaker said tonight, earlier this week, he was wholesome to the left, he has a radical agenda that americans should reject. And i think so far well see what awaits us in the next hour or so. But the story of this night is the canny political use of nonpoliticians to deliver really political messages. Theres a Congressional District in maine thats hard fought in matters a lot. Got someone from maine. Minnesota potentially could be a swing state. Trump just narrowly lost it last time. We heard from someone from minnesota. And we also heard some really excoriating critiques of joe biden from these ordinary americans. I think its been effective. That would be like watching the convention with your battleground out, you can color in many of those key states. Exactly. What you are seeing in the top white is actually tape of the president conducting a natural zags ceremony. He granted a pardon during this convention, now doing nationalization ceremonies. Chuck, for all the talk that the polls favor joe biden right now, we all know its early, well see what happens. The power of incumbency an incumbent president is hard to beat. Yes, theres a reason its only happened twice in the last 100 years. Its quite difficult. And you saw the different ways i mean, rich is right. I mean, and so are you. You saw we had two speakers from wisconsin, that Congressional District, you see the map here. This is the most competitive map that we have now that i put here. This narrows the country down to just six states. Three of the six closest states that we think are the most competitive, arizona, North Carolina and florida in the south, pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan in the north. And pretty much Everything Else stays what it was in 2016, trump carried all six of these states. He doesnt need all six of them, but he does need quite a few of them. Lets give biden michigan and pen en. Look what happened. Biden sat 269 and trumps got a problem. This isnt the easiest path that he has. But one does exist for him, right . You can see him. He does florida and he does North Carolina, which hes done before, and he pulls off, say, wisconsin, okay, then hes got to hold arizona. And then he needs one more of these, michigan or pennsylvania, or hes got to get this one Congressional District in nebraska. The point is this. Theres a path for the president. Its not an implausible path. Its just a narrow one. Is there such a thing as a convention bounce anymore . Oh, not anymore. I think we discussed this before. I will say this, if i were the president , the best he should hope for out of this convention is if just his job rate could go up a little bit. For an incumbent president , thats the number to watch the most. If that number goes north of 45 in the next couple of months, donald trump has a reasonable if not good chance of reelection. If he cant get that job rating north of 45, if hes not getting that 47, 48 job rating, hes not going to win the election. I think its an awful big risk to be ignoring the virus as much as theyve been ignoring it tonight. We shall see what this night holds. We do know that eric trump, the second son of donald trump, is going to speak any moment now. Melania trump, its her night tonight, and ivanka later in the week. Were expecting eric trump to take the podium any minute now. Thats right. Eric trump will be among those who make the personal case for President Trump, in addition to the first lady who is going to be speaking a little bit later. And Tiffany Trump who spoke earlier this evening. He is one of the trump executives at the trump organization. He will talk about donald trump the father, the businessman, and also the president. I am told hes going to talk about the fact that his father built a movement and in the same way that this country was built, the democrats are now trying to tear it down. That is the messaging im told that youll hear from him. Expect him also to take sharp aim at Vice President joe biden including overhis Foreign Policy and china in particular. Now, the president s children played a Critical Role in his election in 2016, really some of his top and most aggressive surrogates. And we are seeing that in this election cycle as well. They, in fact, ramped up their outreach in the midst of covid through Virtual Campaign events and fundraising. They also energized the base and potentially reach out to younger voters, savanna. Thank you. Appearing on tape provided by the rnc some of these things are on tape. Some are live. This happens to be tape. This is eric trump now who will deliver his remarks before this convention. Good evening, america. When i stood on this Convention Stage four yearsing a, no one fully understood the historic change that was about to take place. We could all feel it. Something was happening. A movement was forming just below the surface. The forgotten man and woman were preparing to rise up. Our movement followed the pattern of so many that came before us. First we were ignored, then we were laughed at. Then they fought us. And then, together, we won. From that moment forward, america came first. America started winning again. America became respected again. With every movement, theres a countermovement. In the view of the radical democrats, america is a source of the worlds problems. As a result, they believe the only path forward is to erase history and forget the past. They want to destroy the monuments of our forefathers. They want to disrespect our flag, burn the stars and stripes that represent patriotism and the American Dream. They want to disrespect our National Anthem by taking a knee while our armed forces lay down their lives every day to protect our freedom. They do not want the pledge of allegiance in our schools. Many of them dont want one nation under god. The democrats want to defund and disrespect our Law Enforcement. The democrats want an america where your thoughts and opinions are censored when they do not align with their own. President reagan said freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. It must be fought for, and it must be protected. This is the fight that we are in right now, and it is a fight that only my father can win. My father ran not because he needed the job because he knew hardworking people across this great country were being left behind. The media mocked these patriots in the flyover states in which they lived. They ignored the trump flag. They ignored the millions of maga banners and farms painted in red, white and blue. The silent majority had no one fighting for them in either party. Their socalled leaders were bowing to china, bribing iran, and spending more time worried about how they would be received by the elites in paris than how families would provide in pittsburgh. My father pledged to every american in every city, state and town that he was going to make America Great again. And so began the Great American comeback. Almost immediately tarxes were slashed, regulations were cut, and the economy soared to new heights, heights never seen befored. Wages went through the roof. Unemployment went through the roof, especially for black americans, hispanic americans and women. Lights were turned back on in abandoned factories across our country. Trillions of dollars were repatriated back to the United States which has been sitting in foreign land for far too long. Once again, america became the envy of the world. And with that renewed strength came leverage. The president demanding that our allies pay our fair share for defense of the western world. My father rebuilt the Mighty American military, adding new jets, aircraft carriers. He increased wages for our incredible men and women in uniform. He expanded our military Defense Budget to 721 billion per year. America was no longer weak in the eye of the enemy. The moment President Trump ordered special forces kill a deadly terrorist, the day the moab was drobed, al baghdadi, soleimani, dead. Issue after issue, the economy, the wall, the military, trade deals, tax cuts, Supreme Court justices, va hospitals, prescription drugs, school choice, right to try, moving the embassy to jerusalem, peace in the middle east, never ending wars finally ended, promises made and promises for the first time were kept. Most politicians spend their entire careers in washington, d. C. And get absolutely nothing accomplished. For example, joe biden. Joe biden is a politician who has been in government for 47 years. Hes a career politician whos never signed the front of a check and does not know the slightest thing about the American Worker or the american business. The engine which fuels the greatest economy the world has ever known. The same politician who has been a total pushover for communist china and someone who would be a giant relief for terrorist who have now spent years running, hiding and being taken out by the most talented military known to man. Joe biden has pledged to raise taxes by 4 trillion. 82 of americans will see taxes go up significantly. Biden has pledged to stop border wall construction and give amnesty and health care to all illegal immigrants. Biden has pledged to defund the police and take away your cherished second amendment. My father, on the other hand, delivered the largest tax cuts. If you do not have a border, you do not have a country, and well always support Law Enforcement and your right to keep and bear arms. Every day, my father fights for the american people, the forgotten man and woman of this country, the ones who embody the american spirit, which is unlike anything else in the world. It built the new york city skyline. It built the hoover dam. And soon, under my fathers leadership, it will send americans to mars. The american sphere can be felt in the majesty of the grand canyon, the shadows of mt. Rushmore, and the stillness of the air in gettysburg. It can be seen in the wide eyed wonder of every american child as they take their first breath in the greatest country the world has ever known. It defeated fascism. It defeated communism. An