CLEVELAND (AP) – The Latest on the Republican National Convention in Cleveland (EDT):
12:06 p.m.
Newt Gingrich says last-ditch efforts by conservative delegates to block Donald Trump’s nomination at the Republican National Convention are “silly” and should stop.
Gingrich is among those that Trump considered to become his running mate and is the former House speaker.
Some outnumbered delegates are trying to force the GOP to make rules changes that would include letting delegates back any presidential candidate they’d like and weaken the power of Republican Party leaders.
The Georgia Republican says of that effort, “It’s silly. Trump carried 37 states. He’s going to be the nominee.”
Gingrich spoke to a reporter outside the convention center as delegates filed into the Quicken Loans Arena for Monday’s start of the convention.
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11:55 a.m.
Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan cheers for the Pittsburgh Steelers?
The speaker of the House is a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan and part owner of the publicly-owned team. But at a breakfast appearance before the Pennsylvania delegation Monday, Ryan was not afraid to pander to his audience, including dozens of ardent Pittsburgh Steelers fans.
“I want to win this election so darn badly that I am willing to do this!” Ryan shouted as he waved a yellow-and-black “Terrible Towel” waved by Steelers fans at NFL games. The crowd cheered wildly.
Ryan said he was relieved that the towels no longer are made in Wisconsin, as they were when he campaigned in Pittsburgh as the GOP’s vice presidential nominee in 2012.
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11:49 a.m.
Republicans are delicately thinking of the 2020 presidential campaign before Donald Trump even accepts the 2016 GOP presidential nomination in Cleveland.
Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton didn’t speak of the next presidential campaign during an address to about 100 Republican activists at a downtown convention center as the GOP convention opened. But some delegates present said they heard a potential 2020 candidate speaking.
Jane Page of Aiken, South Carolina, said the group is “really good at identifying candidates four, even six years out,” and added that Cotton, a freshman senator, is “impressive.”
Cotton, a 37-year-old former U.S. House member and combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, railed on Democratic President Barack Obama’s national security policies, and touted a more aggressive military policy.
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11:23 a.m.
Minnesota Republicans are backing a last-ditch effort that could hinder business mogul Donald Trump’s nomination for the president.
Republicans prepared to start their convention Monday, with an expected vote in the afternoon on the rules that will govern the week. Insurgent delegates have circulated a petition to force a state-by-state vote as part of their bid to deny Trump the nomination.
Minnesota delegate Matt Pagano confirmed a majority of the state’s 38 delegates supported a roll call vote. A majority of delegates from seven states must back the effort to force a roll call vote.
Minnesota handed Trump one of his worst finishes in an otherwise strong primary season performance this winter. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio won the state, and Trump finished third with 8 delegates.
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10:58 a.m.
Donald Trump’s campaign chief says the Bush family “is part of the past” and that they don’t reflect the current Republican Party.
The answer came in response to a question about former Presidents George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush decisions not to attend this week’s Republican National Convention.
Campaign chairman Paul Manafort told reporters on Monday that the campaign’s primary goal at the national convention this week was to unify the Republican Party, but he had harsh words for the members of Republican political royalty.
Manafort said, “Certainly the Bush family, we would have liked to have had them. They’re part of the past. We’re dealing with the future.”
Manafort described nominating conventions as “a healing time,” adding that by the end of the week, “by and large, it’s going to be a united Republican Party.”
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10:53 a.m.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he won’t run for president again as a sitting governor, like he did last year.
Walker told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland that if he runs for re-election in 2018 and wins, he would serve a four-year term. That would seem to preclude a second presidential run in 2020.
He says, “If I run again in 2018, it would be to serve a full term and not to run for another office.”
But Walker has stoked talk of him laying the groundwork for a future presidential run by meeting in Cleveland with delegates from early presidential voting states. He attended a breakfast with the Iowa delegation on Monday.
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10:39 a.m.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says “fears and concerns” about Democrat Hillary Clinton “are the most compelling things” that will unite Republicans behind Donald Trump.
Walker told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday from Cleveland that a central theme of his speech at the Republican National Convention there on Wednesday night will be that “America deserves better” than Clinton.
Walker has been a reluctant supporter of Trump, having urged his defeat after dropping out of the presidential race in September and endorsing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in Wisconsin’s primary. Walker says Monday that his concerns about Trump have been gradually easing.
He says he is “thrilled” with Trump’s selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate. Walker says that shows Trump is serious about governing.
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10:29 a.m.
Donald Trump’s campaign chair says he has “close to 20” states on his list of competitive general election battlegrounds.
Paul Manafort says that includes such states as Connecticut and Oregon, which he says are coming into play. Both states have voted for Democrats going back at least six elections.
Manafort says Trump has five or six pathways to getting the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. He also mentioned states including Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada and Virginia.
Trump has previously said he’s interested in flipping states like New York that have long been Democratic strongholds. However, Manafort says New York is not on his target list.
Manafort spoke at a Bloomberg breakfast.
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10:22 a.m.
Donald Trump’s campaign manager says the celebrity businessman will speak at the Republican National Convention Monday night to introduce his wife, Melania.
Paul Manafort said in a news conference that Trump and his wife would fly to Cleveland in the hours before Melania’s speech at the convention.
The GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting will introduce his wife onstage, Manafort said. Trump said earlier in the day on “Fox & Friends” that his wife will speak about her “love of the country” as an immigrant from Slovenia.
Melania Trump will be the first of several members of the candidate’s family who will speak at the convention to “paint a picture” of Trump’s character beyond what America “saw during the primaries,” Manafort said.
The couple will then return to New York.
Trump is slated to return to Cleveland on Wednesday. His acceptance speech is scheduled for Thursday.
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9:41 a.m.
Paul Ryan is ignoring Donald Trump and focusing on the House GOP agenda as he opens his visit to the Republican convention in Cleveland.
The House speaker used an appearance at his home-state Wisconsin delegation breakfast Monday to talk about a six-plank “better way” agenda he’s rolled out in Congress.
It deals with poverty, national security, health care and other issues. Ryan says the agenda is about “giving people a choice” in the election.
But the speaker made no mention of Trump as he spoke for more than 10 minutes. Ryan hesitated for weeks before endorsing the businessman.
Ryan will deliver a speech to the convention on Tuesday.
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9:25 a.m.
Republican Donald Trump is suggesting the man who killed two police officers and a sheriff’s deputy in Baton Rouge on Sunday had connections with “radical Islam,” despite early indications he had no known ties to any extremist groups.
In a phone interview with “Fox & Friends” Monday, Trump said former Marine Gavin Eugene Long “seems to be a member of that group also. It seems to be something going on there.”
A host interjected, saying the man belonged instead to the Nation of Islam.
Trump responded: “He is bad people … no question about it.”
It’s unclear whether Long was a member of either group.
Trump also appeared to blame people who knew the gunman for failing to turn him in, saying it was clear he “had a lot of hate.”
The attack comes less than two weeks after Alton Sterling, a black man, was fatally shot by police in the city.
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9:19 a.m.
Democrats are offering plenty of counter-programming this week while Republican leaders gather in Cleveland to nominate Donald Trump for president during the party’s widely televised convention.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is spending about $1 million on TV ads in Ohio this week, according to Kantar Media’s campaign advertising tracker. The commercials promote her as an experienced leader and portray Trump as divisive and dangerous.
Her campaign also put out a new digital ad Monday called “Confessions of a Republican.” In that spot, actor and longtime Republican Bill Bogert says of Trump, “This man scares me.” He adds: “I think the party is about to make a terrible mistake in Cleveland.”
Meanwhile, pro-Clinton ads await Cleveland area taxicab passengers. An in-cab ad by Priorities USA features people wearing Trump T-shirts while mouthing some of his quotes about women, including the line, “I view a person who is flat-chested as very hard to be a 10.”
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___ Ohio.
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