You made it. You made it. Thank you for joining us tonight. You made it. It's the last night, it's the final night of the 2024 Republican National Convention, which has been held this week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Incidentally, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is located in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, a county that was won by Democrat Joe Biden by more than 40 points in the last election. And that gives you sort of the opening irony and opening, I guess, an appropriate framing in terms of how strange so much of this week has been, not only what it's been like in terms of the proceedings, but what it's been like in context, what this night means. Tonight, the republican convention comes to its conclusion as the Republican Party's president presidential nominee gives his acceptance speech, and he is giving this acceptance speech. I think it cannot be overstated. He is giving this acceptance speech in truly unique, even bizarre circumstances. I mean, there's no nicer way to say this, but he is a felon, recently convicted of 34 felony criminal charges, now awaiting sentencing for those charges, facing up to four years in prison. I he's also under indictment in other jurisdictions, not only a multi count RICO criminal indictment under Georgia state law, but also a multi count federal criminal indictment in DC district court in Washington.

Happily for the nominee, but just adding to the weirdness of it for all the rest of us, at this moment, he is no longer facing multiple additional felony federal charges in Florida under the Espionage act. But that's only thanks to a shock ruling from a judge he appointed in his last days in office. That shock ruling is now being appealed, which means if the appeal by prosecutors is successful, we might expect that the nominee will end up federally indicted under the Espionage act again. In addition to the other charges, he is still facing the espionage act. Charges, of course, relate to bizarre revelations about him hoarding and hiding hundreds of classified documents, including very classified documents, at his home in Florida after his presidency, even after federal authorities let him know that he had these documents when he should not have and he needed to give them back. The charges of which he was already convicted in New York, derive from him using the family business he inherited from his father to cover up payments herepublican presidential nomination this evening. That itself a notable and unusual circumstance. When Donald Trump left the presidency in January 2021, he did not attend the inauguration of his successor. That itself unique in american history. Trump left in his wake the worst incidents of political violence the country has ever seen in a presidential transition. The only time we havent had a peaceful transition of power from one president to the next, arguably ever, arguably since the civil war. The criminal charges that are still pending against the Republicans presidential nominee, the ones in Georgia and Washington, they relate to his refusal to leave office after he was voted out. They relate to the violent coup attempt that he launched, the mob of his supporters that tried to physically stop Congress from certifying the results of the election in which he was voted out of office.That election, I remind you, was not close. Donald Trump lost his reelection bid by more than 7 million votes and by more than 70 electoral votes. And that electoral failure is emblematic of his performance as the republican party's leader. Yes, he did get elected to the presidency in 2016, but then, under his leadership, the Republican Party lost the House. The Republican Party lost the Senate. The Republican Party lost the White House when he, as president, really was voted out of office resoundingly after just one term, leaving the country in the grips of a crippling COVID pandemic which would go on to kill more than a million americans, mitigated only by the advent of effective vaccines, which he mostly now denigrates and disavows. He also left the country with his Supreme support bans that eliminate exceptions for rape and incest, that's a 90% oppose. So the people that are for those seven to 10% issues part of it that brings back the role, the complicity of the Republican Party is, they all know this also. And January 6 happens because Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy say, let him cry it out. We know he lost, you know, but let him cry it out. So he cries it out. And there's the first ever violent, you know, they end the american tradition of peacefulTrump rally. But with some speech sort of woven through, I just think.You got to.Look at that and think like, it's really important if you're on the pro democracy part of the country to stop him from getting back into office. But that should be a doable thing.Lawrence.So the concept of conventions in the television age has been prime time. There are three powerful hours of primetime in television, eight, nine, and ten. And the job of the final night of the convention was to make sure that the presidential nominee was on between ten and eleven, the final hour of prime time, because that actually reaches across the country more strongly than any of the other hours of prime time, given the way our time zones. He got on at 1030, which means 30 minutes of his speech was in primetime, and then he went on for another hour after that. And so that is a complete failure of convention scheduling that people have been working with, you know, since the 1960s that you're supposed to try, not try to observe. You must observe. And, and Donald Trump watching that guy. The adjective Donald Trump has for guys like that is low energy. He's the one who invented that to describe Jeb Bush. That was a very low energy Donald Trump. That was not. You have to be a Donald Trump worshiper to hang in for the whole 90 minutes to listen to all of it.This is the speech in which you're trying to get people who you don't already have. I don't see how that this speech could have done that.Join, to paraphrase Eric Kilmore Maga, is this your king? If Joe Biden had given a rambling, shambling, all over the place speech like that, elected Democrats would be demanding that the 25th Amendment be invoked immediately. They would and you're undecided, I don't know who these people are, but you may tune in and think, maybe the other guy was in the debate.Is there one else?What? Is that other guy in the debate? Yeah, that. That was one thing, because it was meandering, it was strange, it was hard to follow. Hannibal Lecter was included. That's what I wanted.I can see why Fox doesn't show it. I mean, why Fox doesn't show its rallies anymore. And I think for most Americans, they don't experience the rallies. There's a roving group of people who go to each of the rallies, so they experience this. Tim Alberta tweeted, the reporter from Tim Alberta tweeted, I'm standing 10ft from the stage in a sea of die hards and some are getting restless, checking phones, stealing glances at the teleprompter, whispering about when it will be over. And by the way, I googled because we had time, I mean, plenty of time to google the longest video Castro speeches. So he didn't quite get there. 4 hours and 20 seconds at the UN in 1960. He has time and 7 hours and ten minutes at the communist party conference in Havana in 1986. Shorter than that.The asides used to be the best part of the Trump scooches, and now they're the greatest liabilities.Let's go to Steph Rule, who is in. Stephanie Rule, who is in. In Milwaukee this evening, was able to see it at the arena. Stephanie, what do you got? What did you think?I mean, this was sort of extraordinary. You know, we could sit here and we can go line by line fact checking Donald Trump, all that he said about the economy, I would just say there was all sorts of gross exaggerations with regard to immigrants are stealing our jobs, and he had the greatest economy ever.Neither.None of those things are true. What's interesting is it was a long, long, rambling speech, much, much to criticize. I just heard joy talk about Tim Alberta saying people were definitely checking their phones, seeing where we were on the teleprompter, and people in the room began to get bored. I'd be curious to see when and if we hear any Republicans because critical of the speech in the way night and every night during the Republican National Convention. Our coverage continues now with the hosts of the weekend on MSNBC, Alicia Menendez, Simone Sanders Townsend, and, of course, Michael Steele. Stay with us.

republican presidential nomination this evening. That itself a notable and unusual circumstance. When Donald Trump left the presidency in January 2021, he did not attend the inauguration of his successor. That itself unique in american history. Trump left in his wake the worst incidents of political violence the country has ever seen in a presidential transition. The only time we havent had a peaceful transition of power from one president to the next, arguably ever, arguably since the civil war. The criminal charges that are still pending against the Republicans presidential nominee, the ones in Georgia and Washington, they relate to his refusal to leave office after he was voted out. They relate to the violent coup attempt that he launched, the mob of his supporters that tried to physically stop Congress from certifying the results of the election in which he was voted out of office.

That election, I remind you, was not close. Donald Trump lost his reelection bid by more than 7 million votes and by more than 70 electoral votes. And that electoral failure is emblematic of his performance as the republican party's leader. Yes, he did get elected to the presidency in 2016, but then, under his leadership, the Republican Party lost the House. The Republican Party lost the Senate. The Republican Party lost the White House when he, as president, really was voted out of office resoundingly after just one term, leaving the country in the grips of a crippling COVID pandemic which would go on to kill more than a million americans, mitigated only by the advent of effective vaccines, which he mostly now denigrates and disavows. He also left the country with his Supreme support bans that eliminate exceptions for rape and incest, that's a 90% oppose. So the people that are for those seven to 10% issues part of it that brings back the role, the complicity of the Republican Party is, they all know this also. And January 6 happens because Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy say, let him cry it out. We know he lost, you know, but let him cry it out. So he cries it out. And there's the first ever violent, you know, they end the american tradition of peacefulTrump rally. But with some speech sort of woven through, I just think.You got to.Look at that and think like, it's really important if you're on the pro democracy part of the country to stop him from getting back into office. But that should be a doable thing.Lawrence.So the concept of conventions in the television age has been prime time. There are three powerful hours of primetime in television, eight, nine, and ten. And the job of the final night of the convention was to make sure that the presidential nominee was on between ten and eleven, the final hour of prime time, because that actually reaches across the country more strongly than any of the other hours of prime time, given the way our time zones. He got on at 1030, which means 30 minutes of his speech was in primetime, and then he went on for another hour after that. And so that is a complete failure of convention scheduling that people have been working with, you know, since the 1960s that you're supposed to try, not try to observe. You must observe. And, and Donald Trump watching that guy. The adjective Donald Trump has for guys like that is low energy. He's the one who invented that to describe Jeb Bush. That was a very low energy Donald Trump. That was not. You have to be a Donald Trump worshiper to hang in for the whole 90 minutes to listen to all of it.This is the speech in which you're trying to get people who you don't already have. I don't see how that this speech could have done that.Join, to paraphrase Eric Kilmore Maga, is this your king? If Joe Biden had given a rambling, shambling, all over the place speech like that, elected Democrats would be demanding that the 25th Amendment be invoked immediately. They would and you're undecided, I don't know who these people are, but you may tune in and think, maybe the other guy was in the debate.Is there one else?What? Is that other guy in the debate? Yeah, that. That was one thing, because it was meandering, it was strange, it was hard to follow. Hannibal Lecter was included. That's what I wanted.I can see why Fox doesn't show it. I mean, why Fox doesn't show its rallies anymore. And I think for most Americans, they don't experience the rallies. There's a roving group of people who go to each of the rallies, so they experience this. Tim Alberta tweeted, the reporter from Tim Alberta tweeted, I'm standing 10ft from the stage in a sea of die hards and some are getting restless, checking phones, stealing glances at the teleprompter, whispering about when it will be over. And by the way, I googled because we had time, I mean, plenty of time to google the longest video Castro speeches. So he didn't quite get there. 4 hours and 20 seconds at the UN in 1960. He has time and 7 hours and ten minutes at the communist party conference in Havana in 1986. Shorter than that.The asides used to be the best part of the Trump scooches, and now they're the greatest liabilities.Let's go to Steph Rule, who is in. Stephanie Rule, who is in. In Milwaukee this evening, was able to see it at the arena. Stephanie, what do you got? What did you think?I mean, this was sort of extraordinary. You know, we could sit here and we can go line by line fact checking Donald Trump, all that he said about the economy, I would just say there was all sorts of gross exaggerations with regard to immigrants are stealing our jobs, and he had the greatest economy ever.Neither.None of those things are true. What's interesting is it was a long, long, rambling speech, much, much to criticize. I just heard joy talk about Tim Alberta saying people were definitely checking their phones, seeing where we were on the teleprompter, and people in the room began to get bored. I'd be curious to see when and if we hear any Republicans because critical of the speech in the way night and every night during the Republican National Convention. Our coverage continues now with the hosts of the weekend on MSNBC, Alicia Menendez, Simone Sanders Townsend, and, of course, Michael Steele. Stay with us.

support bans that eliminate exceptions for rape and incest, that's a 90% oppose. So the people that are for those seven to 10% issues part of it that brings back the role, the complicity of the Republican Party is, they all know this also. And January 6 happens because Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy say, let him cry it out. We know he lost, you know, but let him cry it out. So he cries it out. And there's the first ever violent, you know, they end the american tradition of peacefulTrump rally. But with some speech sort of woven through, I just think.You got to.Look at that and think like, it's really important if you're on the pro democracy part of the country to stop him from getting back into office. But that should be a doable thing.Lawrence.So the concept of conventions in the television age has been prime time. There are three powerful hours of primetime in television, eight, nine, and ten. And the job of the final night of the convention was to make sure that the presidential nominee was on between ten and eleven, the final hour of prime time, because that actually reaches across the country more strongly than any of the other hours of prime time, given the way our time zones. He got on at 1030, which means 30 minutes of his speech was in primetime, and then he went on for another hour after that. And so that is a complete failure of convention scheduling that people have been working with, you know, since the 1960s that you're supposed to try, not try to observe. You must observe. And, and Donald Trump watching that guy. The adjective Donald Trump has for guys like that is low energy. He's the one who invented that to describe Jeb Bush. That was a very low energy Donald Trump. That was not. You have to be a Donald Trump worshiper to hang in for the whole 90 minutes to listen to all of it.This is the speech in which you're trying to get people who you don't already have. I don't see how that this speech could have done that.Join, to paraphrase Eric Kilmore Maga, is this your king? If Joe Biden had given a rambling, shambling, all over the place speech like that, elected Democrats would be demanding that the 25th Amendment be invoked immediately. They would and you're undecided, I don't know who these people are, but you may tune in and think, maybe the other guy was in the debate.Is there one else?What? Is that other guy in the debate? Yeah, that. That was one thing, because it was meandering, it was strange, it was hard to follow. Hannibal Lecter was included. That's what I wanted.I can see why Fox doesn't show it. I mean, why Fox doesn't show its rallies anymore. And I think for most Americans, they don't experience the rallies. There's a roving group of people who go to each of the rallies, so they experience this. Tim Alberta tweeted, the reporter from Tim Alberta tweeted, I'm standing 10ft from the stage in a sea of die hards and some are getting restless, checking phones, stealing glances at the teleprompter, whispering about when it will be over. And by the way, I googled because we had time, I mean, plenty of time to google the longest video Castro speeches. So he didn't quite get there. 4 hours and 20 seconds at the UN in 1960. He has time and 7 hours and ten minutes at the communist party conference in Havana in 1986. Shorter than that.The asides used to be the best part of the Trump scooches, and now they're the greatest liabilities.Let's go to Steph Rule, who is in. Stephanie Rule, who is in. In Milwaukee this evening, was able to see it at the arena. Stephanie, what do you got? What did you think?I mean, this was sort of extraordinary. You know, we could sit here and we can go line by line fact checking Donald Trump, all that he said about the economy, I would just say there was all sorts of gross exaggerations with regard to immigrants are stealing our jobs, and he had the greatest economy ever.Neither.None of those things are true. What's interesting is it was a long, long, rambling speech, much, much to criticize. I just heard joy talk about Tim Alberta saying people were definitely checking their phones, seeing where we were on the teleprompter, and people in the room began to get bored. I'd be curious to see when and if we hear any Republicans because critical of the speech in the way night and every night during the Republican National Convention. Our coverage continues now with the hosts of the weekend on MSNBC, Alicia Menendez, Simone Sanders Townsend, and, of course, Michael Steele. Stay with us.

part of it that brings back the role, the complicity of the Republican Party is, they all know this also. And January 6 happens because Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy say, let him cry it out. We know he lost, you know, but let him cry it out. So he cries it out. And there's the first ever violent, you know, they end the american tradition of peacefulTrump rally. But with some speech sort of woven through, I just think.You got to.Look at that and think like, it's really important if you're on the pro democracy part of the country to stop him from getting back into office. But that should be a doable thing.Lawrence.So the concept of conventions in the television age has been prime time. There are three powerful hours of primetime in television, eight, nine, and ten. And the job of the final night of the convention was to make sure that the presidential nominee was on between ten and eleven, the final hour of prime time, because that actually reaches across the country more strongly than any of the other hours of prime time, given the way our time zones. He got on at 1030, which means 30 minutes of his speech was in primetime, and then he went on for another hour after that. And so that is a complete failure of convention scheduling that people have been working with, you know, since the 1960s that you're supposed to try, not try to observe. You must observe. And, and Donald Trump watching that guy. The adjective Donald Trump has for guys like that is low energy. He's the one who invented that to describe Jeb Bush. That was a very low energy Donald Trump. That was not. You have to be a Donald Trump worshiper to hang in for the whole 90 minutes to listen to all of it.This is the speech in which you're trying to get people who you don't already have. I don't see how that this speech could have done that.Join, to paraphrase Eric Kilmore Maga, is this your king? If Joe Biden had given a rambling, shambling, all over the place speech like that, elected Democrats would be demanding that the 25th Amendment be invoked immediately. They would and you're undecided, I don't know who these people are, but you may tune in and think, maybe the other guy was in the debate.Is there one else?What? Is that other guy in the debate? Yeah, that. That was one thing, because it was meandering, it was strange, it was hard to follow. Hannibal Lecter was included. That's what I wanted.I can see why Fox doesn't show it. I mean, why Fox doesn't show its rallies anymore. And I think for most Americans, they don't experience the rallies. There's a roving group of people who go to each of the rallies, so they experience this. Tim Alberta tweeted, the reporter from Tim Alberta tweeted, I'm standing 10ft from the stage in a sea of die hards and some are getting restless, checking phones, stealing glances at the teleprompter, whispering about when it will be over. And by the way, I googled because we had time, I mean, plenty of time to google the longest video Castro speeches. So he didn't quite get there. 4 hours and 20 seconds at the UN in 1960. He has time and 7 hours and ten minutes at the communist party conference in Havana in 1986. Shorter than that.The asides used to be the best part of the Trump scooches, and now they're the greatest liabilities.Let's go to Steph Rule, who is in. Stephanie Rule, who is in. In Milwaukee this evening, was able to see it at the arena. Stephanie, what do you got? What did you think?I mean, this was sort of extraordinary. You know, we could sit here and we can go line by line fact checking Donald Trump, all that he said about the economy, I would just say there was all sorts of gross exaggerations with regard to immigrants are stealing our jobs, and he had the greatest economy ever.Neither.None of those things are true. What's interesting is it was a long, long, rambling speech, much, much to criticize. I just heard joy talk about Tim Alberta saying people were definitely checking their phones, seeing where we were on the teleprompter, and people in the room began to get bored. I'd be curious to see when and if we hear any Republicans because critical of the speech in the way night and every night during the Republican National Convention. Our coverage continues now with the hosts of the weekend on MSNBC, Alicia Menendez, Simone Sanders Townsend, and, of course, Michael Steele. Stay with us.

Trump rally. But with some speech sort of woven through, I just think.

You got to.

Look at that and think like, it's really important if you're on the pro democracy part of the country to stop him from getting back into office. But that should be a doable thing.

Lawrence.

So the concept of conventions in the television age has been prime time. There are three powerful hours of primetime in television, eight, nine, and ten. And the job of the final night of the convention was to make sure that the presidential nominee was on between ten and eleven, the final hour of prime time, because that actually reaches across the country more strongly than any of the other hours of prime time, given the way our time zones. He got on at 1030, which means 30 minutes of his speech was in primetime, and then he went on for another hour after that. And so that is a complete failure of convention scheduling that people have been working with, you know, since the 1960s that you're supposed to try, not try to observe. You must observe. And, and Donald Trump watching that guy. The adjective Donald Trump has for guys like that is low energy. He's the one who invented that to describe Jeb Bush. That was a very low energy Donald Trump. That was not. You have to be a Donald Trump worshiper to hang in for the whole 90 minutes to listen to all of it.

This is the speech in which you're trying to get people who you don't already have. I don't see how that this speech could have done that.

Join, to paraphrase Eric Kilmore Maga, is this your king? If Joe Biden had given a rambling, shambling, all over the place speech like that, elected Democrats would be demanding that the 25th Amendment be invoked immediately. They would and you're undecided, I don't know who these people are, but you may tune in and think, maybe the other guy was in the debate.Is there one else?What? Is that other guy in the debate? Yeah, that. That was one thing, because it was meandering, it was strange, it was hard to follow. Hannibal Lecter was included. That's what I wanted.I can see why Fox doesn't show it. I mean, why Fox doesn't show its rallies anymore. And I think for most Americans, they don't experience the rallies. There's a roving group of people who go to each of the rallies, so they experience this. Tim Alberta tweeted, the reporter from Tim Alberta tweeted, I'm standing 10ft from the stage in a sea of die hards and some are getting restless, checking phones, stealing glances at the teleprompter, whispering about when it will be over. And by the way, I googled because we had time, I mean, plenty of time to google the longest video Castro speeches. So he didn't quite get there. 4 hours and 20 seconds at the UN in 1960. He has time and 7 hours and ten minutes at the communist party conference in Havana in 1986. Shorter than that.The asides used to be the best part of the Trump scooches, and now they're the greatest liabilities.Let's go to Steph Rule, who is in. Stephanie Rule, who is in. In Milwaukee this evening, was able to see it at the arena. Stephanie, what do you got? What did you think?I mean, this was sort of extraordinary. You know, we could sit here and we can go line by line fact checking Donald Trump, all that he said about the economy, I would just say there was all sorts of gross exaggerations with regard to immigrants are stealing our jobs, and he had the greatest economy ever.Neither.None of those things are true. What's interesting is it was a long, long, rambling speech, much, much to criticize. I just heard joy talk about Tim Alberta saying people were definitely checking their phones, seeing where we were on the teleprompter, and people in the room began to get bored. I'd be curious to see when and if we hear any Republicans because critical of the speech in the way night and every night during the Republican National Convention. Our coverage continues now with the hosts of the weekend on MSNBC, Alicia Menendez, Simone Sanders Townsend, and, of course, Michael Steele. Stay with us.

and you're undecided, I don't know who these people are, but you may tune in and think, maybe the other guy was in the debate.

Is there one else?

What? Is that other guy in the debate? Yeah, that. That was one thing, because it was meandering, it was strange, it was hard to follow. Hannibal Lecter was included. That's what I wanted.

I can see why Fox doesn't show it. I mean, why Fox doesn't show its rallies anymore. And I think for most Americans, they don't experience the rallies. There's a roving group of people who go to each of the rallies, so they experience this. Tim Alberta tweeted, the reporter from Tim Alberta tweeted, I'm standing 10ft from the stage in a sea of die hards and some are getting restless, checking phones, stealing glances at the teleprompter, whispering about when it will be over. And by the way, I googled because we had time, I mean, plenty of time to google the longest video Castro speeches. So he didn't quite get there. 4 hours and 20 seconds at the UN in 1960. He has time and 7 hours and ten minutes at the communist party conference in Havana in 1986. Shorter than that.

The asides used to be the best part of the Trump scooches, and now they're the greatest liabilities.

Let's go to Steph Rule, who is in. Stephanie Rule, who is in. In Milwaukee this evening, was able to see it at the arena. Stephanie, what do you got? What did you think?

I mean, this was sort of extraordinary. You know, we could sit here and we can go line by line fact checking Donald Trump, all that he said about the economy, I would just say there was all sorts of gross exaggerations with regard to immigrants are stealing our jobs, and he had the greatest economy ever.

Neither.

None of those things are true. What's interesting is it was a long, long, rambling speech, much, much to criticize. I just heard joy talk about Tim Alberta saying people were definitely checking their phones, seeing where we were on the teleprompter, and people in the room began to get bored. I'd be curious to see when and if we hear any Republicans because critical of the speech in the way night and every night during the Republican National Convention. Our coverage continues now with the hosts of the weekend on MSNBC, Alicia Menendez, Simone Sanders Townsend, and, of course, Michael Steele. Stay with us.

night and every night during the Republican National Convention. Our coverage continues now with the hosts of the weekend on MSNBC, Alicia Menendez, Simone Sanders Townsend, and, of course, Michael Steele. Stay with us.