Critic's Notebook: Republican Convention Launches With Fear-Mongering and Shouting

Leonard Cohen’s estate said it is exploring legal action following the unauthorised use of the revered singer-songwriter’s music at the Republican National Convention.

Ted Johnson Donald Trump’s acceptance speech on the South Lawn of the White House capped a week of moments that likely will be a lasting legacy of the 2020 Republican National Convention: The blurred lines it created between official government and partisan business.The convention showed Trump’s determination to shatter norms for the purpose of reality TV like stunts and dramatic backdrops, even if it already has yielded ethics complaints.From the standpoint of using the White House as a set, it

Leonard Cohen fans were not impressed Thursday after his song “Hallelujah” was played twice during the Republican National Convention.

Of course he had to have a crowd. The definitive image of the fourth and final night of the 2020 Republican National Convention was President Donald Trump standing at the White House’s South Lawn in front of 1,500 adoring loyalists, packed tightly together, mostly without masks.

Facing a national moment fraught with racial turmoil and a deadly pandemic, President Donald Trump accepted his party's renomination on a massive White House South Lawn stage Thursday night, boasting of helping African Americans and defying his own administration's pandemic guidelines to address a tightly packed, largely maskless crowd.

Leonard Cohen fans were not impressed Thursday after his song “Hallelujah” was played twice during the Republican National Convention.

Ted Johnson, Dominic Patten “Trump said he didn’t like POW’s who were captured, implied my father was burning in hell after he died and constantly trashed him while he was fighting brain cancer. This is how they have lost all decent people.” Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.Launch dates for broadcast, cable and streaming programsUp-to-date lists for broadcast, cable and streaming seriesPandemic-proof vs.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThroughout the weeklong broadcast of the Republican National Convention, speakers argued that Donald Trump was not in fact the person we’d seen for nearly four years as our president and for longer as a presence on social media and in the national psyche — that he was gentle, loving, kind, generous.

Ted Johnson Donald Trump will deliver scathing criticism of Joe Biden in his Republican National Convention acceptance speech on the South Lawn of the White House. That’s a given.The bigger question is whether Trump will address the unfolding crisis in Kenosha, WI, and how he frames the police shooting death of Jacob Blake.

Ted Johnson As Donald Trump prepares to give a norm-shattering acceptance speech on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday, government watchdogs are filing ethics complaints alleging that other moments from the Republican National Convention may have been in violation of a key ethics law.On Thursday, Citzens for Responsibility and Ethics In Washington requested a investigation of Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf for his participation in a convention moment on Tuesday, a

Ted Johnson Kamala Harris added her voice to the effort by Democrats to rebut Donald Trump’s expected attacks in his acceptance speech on Thursday, as she blasted the Republican Convention week as an exercise in trying to give the president an ego stroke.“Unlike the Democratic convention, which was very clear eyed about the challenges we are facing and how we will tackle them, the Republican convention is designed for one purpose, to soothe Donald Trump’s ego, to make him feel good,” she said in

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticStephen Colbert didn’t watch a minute of last night’s Republican National Convention, and feels all the better for it.“I know by not watching the RNC I didn’t do my job tonight,” the host of CBS’ The Late Show said in an intense monologue last night (watch it above).

Dominic Patten, Ted Johnson If the most unobtrusive man in America thought tonight was his moment in the spotlight at the Republican National Convention, Mike Pence learned the hard way that Donald Trump always gets the last word.As the powerful Hurricane Laura moved closer and closer landfall in Texas and Louisiana, Trump’s vice president seemed like an afterthought on Wednesday as the boss came onstage to upstage him without uttering a word.Speaking live to a small audience at Fort McHenry in

Ted Johnson, Dominic Patten Kellyanne Conway, the soon-to-depart senior adviser to President Donald Trump, addressed the Republican Convention by praising her boss for putting women in senior leadership positions.“President Trump helped me shatter a barrier in the world of politics, by empowering me to manage his campaign to successful conclusion,” she said in her speech from the Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.He said that Trump “has elevated women to senior positions in business and in

Ted Johnson, Dominic Patten Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.Launch dates for broadcast, cable and streaming programsUp-to-date lists for broadcast, cable and streaming seriesPandemic-proof vs.

A diverse collection of Donald Trump's allies — his family, swing-state farmers and even a convicted bank robber — cast the president as the best hope for America's future Tuesday night as Republicans embraced a more optimistic tone on the second night of their scaled-down national convention.

Dominic Patten Senior Editor, Legal & TV CriticDonald Trump began the first day of the 2020 Republican Convention ranting against CNN, MSNBC and even his beloved Fox News.

Ted Johnson, Dominic Patten As the Republican National Convention rolled out speaker after speaker in the Mellon Auditorium in Washington, one figure stood out for sheer effort to reach the highest octave: Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former TV personality who is helped lead the party’s fundraising efforts.To a nearly empty auditorium, Guilfoyle bashed Democrats as “socialist” and “radicals,” and said, “They want to destroy this country, and everything we have fought for and hold as dear.

President Donald Trump turned a surprise opening-day appearance at his party’s scaled-down national convention into an opportunity to question the integrity of the fall election, even as his aides promised a diverse and uplifting message once the evening program shifted back to Washington, D.C. for prime time.