Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Mike Pence, R-Ind., speaks during a luncheon sponsored by the American Conservative Union Foundation, Tuesday, July 19, 2016, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) (Associated Press) 
 
 Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Mike Pence, R-Ind., speaks during a luncheon sponsored by the American Conservative Union Foundation, Tuesday, July 19, 2016, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) (Associated Press) 
 
 CLEVELAND (AP) — The Latest on the Republican National Convention (all times EDT): 
 
 9:50 p.m. 
 
 Republicans are breaking out into chants of "lock her up" as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tries to impugn Hillary Clinton's character in his speech to the Republican National Convention. 
 
 Christie says as a former federal prosecutor, he wants to hold Clinton accountable for her actions. He says he's laying out what he says are facts about her to "a jury of her peers." 
 
 Guilty or not guilty — that's what Christie is asking his audience for a verdict about Clinton on her leadership on the Islamic State group, China, and an al-Qaida-linked group in Nigeria. 
 
 Each time, delegates are responding with boisterous chants of "guilty." 
 
 Republican activists repeatedly interrupted Chistie with shouts of — "Lock her up." 
 
 ___ 
 
 9:42 p.m. 
 
 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says Hillary Clinton lied to the nation about "her selfish, awful judgment." Christie — who fell short in his GOP presidential bid — says voters shouldn't elect Clinton as president and reward what he calls her incompetence. 
 
 Christie is firmly behind Republican nominee Donald Trump — and says he's been friends with Trump for 14 years. 
 
 Christie tells the Republican National Convention that Clinton's performance as secretary of state was dismal. He says voters should hold her accountable for failures in Libya, Syria and elsewhere. 
 
 Christie says Clinton also is responsible for a bad nuclear deal with Iran. 
 
 ___ 
 
 9:42 p.m. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says scandal follows Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton "like flies." 
 
 McConnell is using his speech to the Republican National Convention to rip into the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. 
 
 The Kentucky senator says he's spent more time around the Clintons than anyone should ever have to spend. 
 
 McConnell says he's disagreed with President Barack Obama, but that at least Obama was upfront about his intentions "to move America to the left." 
 
 ___ 
 
 9:40 p.m. 
 
 Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says Hillary Clinton is promoting a "new world order" that would allow the government in Washington to trample Americans' freedoms. 
 
 The retired neurosurgeon is set to tell delegates at the Republican National Committee that Clinton will push what he's calling "cancerous policies" that perpetuate poverty. 
 
 Carson says Clinton would appoint liberal Supreme Court justices who would cement those policies. 
 
 Carson — in excerpts of his prepared remarks — says Donald Trump would preserve the "ideals upon which this country was founded." 
 
 ___ 
 
 9:25 p.m. 
 
 House Speaker Paul Ryan says he'll be sharing the rostrum with "President Donald Trump" the next time there's a State of the Union address on Capitol Hill. 
 
 Ryan hesitated for a while before finally endorsing the businessman last month. The Wisconsin lawmaker tells the Republican National Convention that only by electing Trump and running mate Mike Pence does the country "have a chance at a better way." 
 
 He says Hillary Clinton represents a third term of what he's calling President Barack Obama's failed presidency. 
 
 ___ 
 
 9:20 p.m. 
 
 Republican congressional leaders are assuring party delegates that having Donald Trump in the White House will help achieve key GOP legislative objectives. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says Trump will sign bills to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law, build the Keystone pipeline and deny Planned Parenthood any federal money. 
 
 McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan also are delivering broadsides against Hillary Clinton and her fellow Democrats. 
 
 McConnell says Clinton has "a tortured relationship to the truth." 
 
 Ryan says Clinton represents a third term of Obama's presidency instead of the "clean break from a failed system" that many Americans want. 
 
 The Wisconsin Republican says next week's Democratic convention will be a "four-day infomercial of politically correct moralizing." 
 
 ___ 
 
 9:05 p.m. 
 
 Donald Trump says he's proud to be the Republican presidential nominee. 
 
 Trump is offering his first words to the party convention after being declared the nominee. He says in a video played in the convention hall that he's honored to have Mike Pence as his running mate and that the Indiana governor will make a "great, great vice president." 
 
 Trump says he'll appear with Pence in Cleveland on both Wednesday and Thursday. He says they'll win Ohio and the presidency. 
 
 Trump is promising to bring "real change and leadership" to Washington. 
 
 ___ 
 
 8:20 p.m. 
 
 Mystery solved at the GOP convention. 
 
 The question is why all 19 delegates from the District of Columbia were awarded to Donald Trump. 
 
 Florida Sen. Marco Rubio won the district's convention during the primary season and Ohio Gov. John Kasich came in second. Trump didn't win any delegates back in March. 
 
 But party rules in the district say that if only one candidate's name is placed into nomination at the national convention, then all 19 delegates go to that candidate. 
 
 Trump was the only candidate to be nominated at the convention. 
 
 ___ 
 
 8:15 p.m. 
 
 Mike Pence has been nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate — and Donald Trump's running mate. 
 
 The Indiana governor was declared the nominee by acclimation — meaning no formal roll call vote is needed. That ruling came from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as he presided over the party's convention. 
 
 McConnell says Pence has the "overwhelming support of this convention" to be the next vice president. 
 
 Indiana Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb — who put Pence's name in nomination — says Pence has overseen record investments in education and eliminated red tape for businesses. He says under Pence's leadership, more Indiana residents are working and the tech sector is experiencing "explosive" growth. 
 
 ___ 
 
 8:10 p.m. 
 
 House Speaker Paul Ryan has formally declared Donald Trump the winner of the Republican presidential nomination. 
 
 Ryan says Trump received 1,725 delegates in the state-by-state roll call. Ryan says Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was the runner-up with 475 delegates. Ohio Gov. John Kasich came in third with 129 votes, followed by 113 for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. 
 
 Fifth-place went to physician Ben Carson with seven delegates, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush with three delegates and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul with two delegates. 
 
 ___ 
 
 8:05 p.m. 
 
 Donald Trump is celebrating his big achievement Tuesday night: officially becoming the Republican nominee for president. 
 
 Trump has posted a tweet that it was "such a great honor" after the roll call of the states at the Republican National Convention gave him the number of delegates needed to become the GOP's nominee. 
 
 He added: "I will work hard and never let you down! AMERICA FIRST!" 
 
 Trump is set to formally accept the nomination during a Thursday night speech at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. 
 
 ___ 
 
 8 p.m. 
 
 Donald Trump may officially be the Republican nominee, but that didn't stop at least one state from taking exception to the way its votes were counted during Tuesday night's presidential roll call at the GOP convention. 
 
 The Alaska delegation is disputing how its votes were recorded and requesting a formal poll of its delegates. But House Speaker Paul Ryan has declared that Alaska's 28 votes are going to Trump — who already had more delegates than he needed to win. 
 
 The dispute appeared to be over Alaska state party rules that say a candidate loses his or her delegates if the candidate's campaign is no longer active. 
 
 All of Trump's challengers suspended their campaigns when it became clear the New Yorker would win the nomination. 
 
 ___ 
 
 7:55 p.m. 
 
 Not every Republican activist is so excited now that Donald Trump has clinched the party's presidential nomination. 
 
 Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh says it's time to "cancel the convention, stop the sham." She says Trump has worked to coronate himself king. 
 
 Unruh is warning there could be drama and a "show of displeasure" coming on Thursday when Trump is set to speak at the convention. 
 
 Colorado cast most of its votes for Cruz. 
 
 ___ 
 
 7:45 p.m. 
 
 Even as they're casting votes for John Kasich (KAY'-sihk) during the roll call of the states, numerous delegates are the Republican National Convention are still getting the Ohio governor's last name wrong. 
 
 It rhymes with "basic." 
 
 But at least three delegates announcing their state's votes for the nomination pronounced the second syllable like the word "itch." 
 
 The frequent stumbling over Kasich's last name was something of a running joke while Kasich was competing for the Republican presidential nomination. 
 
 He dropped out in May, but still was awarded delegates at the convention because of votes he won in the primary contests. 
 
 Kasich wasn't present for Tuesday night's proceedings, despite the fact that the convention is taking place in his home state. 
 
 ___ 
 
 7:35 p.m. 
 
 New Mexico's governor refused to endorse Donald Trump after he chastised her for not doing her job when it comes to unemployment and other issues. 
 
 But there was Susana Martinez on the floor of the Republican National Convention and introducing the young delegate who announced New Mexico's tally during the roll call of states. 
 
 Trump won the nomination Tuesday night, and New York put him over the top. 
 
 Some prominent Republicans have stayed away from the convention, but Martinez has been a visible presence in Cleveland. 
 
 Trump criticized Martinez in May at a campaign appearance in New Mexico, but later said he wanted her support. Martinez is the nation's first female Hispanic governor. 
 
 ___ 
 
 7:25 p.m. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is blaming what he calls are "Clinton Democrats" for a Senate standoff that's blocked President Barack Obama's request for money to fight the Zika virus. 
 
 Congress is now on a seven-week recess, and left Washington without acting on the Zika money. Democrats objected to a GOP proposal that would block Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico from getting money to fight the virus. 
 
 McConnell is blaming the impasses on Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. 
 
 The Kentucky lawmaker is speaking later Tuesday night at the convention but some of his remarks are being released beforehand. 
 
 McConnell says he wonders what Democrats "think public service is about." He says the presidential election will answer this basic question: "Who is looking out for us?" 
 
 ___ 
 
 7:15 p.m. 
 
 Donald Trump's son Donald Jr. cast the final votes his father needed to become the Republican presidential nominee. 
 
 The younger Trump was on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and told the excited activists in the auditorium that New York was casting 89 votes for Trump and six for Ohio Gov. John Kasich. 
 
 He then shouted out: "Congratulations, Dad, we love you." 
 
 Donald Jr. says he's watched as his father has built a movement and he says that movement has given Americans a voice again. 
 
 Also on the convention floor are some of Donald Trump's other children, including Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump. 
 
 Delegates on the floor broke into cheers and waved signs as the song "New York, New York" played at the Quicken Loans Arena. 
 
 ___ 
 
 7:10 p.m. 
 
 Make it official: The Republican Party has nominated Donald Trump for president. 
 
 And now the New York billionaire has completed a remarkable rise from political outsider to major party nominee for the White House. 
 
 New York put him over the top in the delegate count Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention. 
 
 There was a disruptive fight on Monday night over the party's rules, but a day later that was history. 
 
 There was little drama as party delegates united behind the real estate mogul and reality TV star. 
 
 ___ 
 
 6:58 p.m. 
 
 Donald Trump's former campaign manager — Corey Lewandowski — has announced how his home state of New Hampshire is casting its votes for the Republican nomination. 
 
 Lewandowski was fired by the Trump campaign last month. But he's remained a vocal supporter of Trump and has advocated for him in his new role as a commentator on CNN. 
 
 Lewandowski note that New Hampshire was the first primary contest that Trump won. He says New Hampshire is casting 11 of its votes for "my friend and the next president of the United States, Donald J. Trump." 
 
 ___ 
 
 6:43 p.m. 
 
 Republican convention officials are giving some delegates won by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich to Donald Trump. 
 
 Rubio won the District of Columbia convention and got 10 delegates. Kasich came in second and got nine. That's how the district's delegation announced its tally from the floor of the convention. 
 
 But the convention's presiding officer awarded all 19 delegates to Trump. 
 
 Here's what delegate Chip Nottingham thought of that move: 
 
 "The chair, in a power play, just deemed that all 19 would go to Trump 'cause they don't want any dissent even though they clearly have a majority of votes that they need." 
 
 Nottingham demanded that the delegation be polled. But convention officials didn't give him the chance to speak. ||||| So it’s official: Donald J. Trump is the Republican nominee for president in 2016. There’s no "presumptive" about it anymore; the delegates have voted and made it official. 
 
 That was probably the biggest news of the Republican National Convention’s second night, but once the actual business of the event was out of the way, the focus was on jobs and family. 
 
 The night’s official theme was "Make America Work Again," and the political speakers, notably Trump’s former rivals and current sycophants Chris Christie and Ben Carson, tried to focused their rhetoric on jobs, touting Trump’s business experience and repeating tried-and-true Republican attack lines on President Obama’s economic record. 
 
 But the show occasionally deviated from that theme with speeches from two of Trump’s children: Tiffany, his 22-year-old daughter with second wife Marla Maples; and Donald Trump Jr., Donald’s firstborn and a key lieutenant in the Trump Organization. 
 
 This being Trump, the proceedings were not exactly stage-managed to perfection, and there were definite winners and losers at the end of the night. Here’s who ended Tuesday behind — and ahead. 
 
 Winner: Criminalization of politics 
 
 Chris Christie delivered easily the most chilling speech of the evening, referring back to his time as US attorney for New Jersey and leading the crowd in a mock prosecution of Hillary Clinton. 
 
 His charges were numerous, and went beyond even the most extreme of Trump’s talking points in some places. They included: 
 
 "Ruining Libya and creating a nest for terrorist activity" 
 
 "An apologist for an al-Qaeda affiliate in Nigeria resulting in the capture of innocent young women" 
 
 "Putting big government spending financed by the Chinese ahead of good-paying jobs for middle-class Americans" 
 
 "She called Assad a different kind of leader. There are now 400,000 dead. Think about that: 400,000 dead. At the hands of the man that Hillary defended." 
 
 "An inept negotiator of the worst nuclear arms deal in American history" 
 
 "A failed strategist who has permitted Russia back in as a major player in the Middle East" 
 
 "A coddler of the brutal Castro brothers and betrayer of the family of fallen Trooper Werner Foerster" 
 
 "Lying to the American people about her selfish, awful judgment" 
 
 After each of these accusations, Christie would ask the crowd: "Guilty or not guilty?" And the crowd would roar back, "GUILTY!" occasionally adding in a chant of, "Lock her up!" 
 
 There were two genuinely unusual and somewhat shocking dimensions to Christie’s speech. One was the sheer severity of the charges he leveled against Clinton. He didn’t merely accuse her of mishandling Boko Haram. He directly accused her of responsibility for Boko Haram’s schoolgirl kidnappings, calling her an "apologist" for one of the most brutal terrorist groups on the planet. He didn’t merely accuse her of mishandling Syria but implied she was responsible for every death in the Syrian civil war. 
 
 These are truly grave charges for which there is no evidence, yet Christie leveled them casually, like they were any other campaign talking point. That’s a remarkable escalation of rhetoric even for this bananas election. 
 
 The second shocking element of the speech was the ease with which Christie essentially called for the criminalization of political disagreement. You can like or dislike the Iranian nuclear deal. But helping negotiate it, and supporting it, is not a crime. Doing that is participating in statecraft. Christie suggested that bad policy should put you before a jury ready and eager to condemn you for anything they deem mistakes. 
 
 The whole feel of the speech — a prosecutor inviting a mob to condemn the accused on count after count — resembled a show trial more than anything else, free of any and all protections for the defendant. Obviously it wasn’t a real trial of any kind. But the implication was nonetheless clear: Clinton deserves to be dragged to court for what she’s done when what she’s done is pursue policy options that Chris Christie doesn’t like. 
 
 It was a performative case for criminalizing disagreement, a perverse and authoritarian pageant that preyed on the worst, darkest tendencies of the Trump movement. 
 
 Winner: Donald Trump 
 
 Donald Trump is the Republican nominee. Officially. 
 
 The votes are tallied. There can be no last-minute coup. The delegates aren’t going to be unbound and rebel to some consensus candidate like Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan. A #NeverTrump revolt isn’t going to happen. It’s too late for NeverTrumpers to mount a realistic third-party campaign. 
 
 The convention went like every convention in recent memory: The delegates came and voted based on how they were bound, nominating the person everyone thought would be nominated. 
 
 And yet unlike other recent conventions, the specter of a last-minute revolt hung over the 2016 RNC up until the last moment. As late in the game as Tuesday afternoon, there were still reported efforts to disrupt Trump’s inevitable nomination: 
 
 Some drama/suspense behind scenes at RNC: Cruz backers debate entering his name into nomination a few hours from now. Party leaders nervous. — Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) July 19, 2016 
 
 Yet despite all the scheming and the angst and the extreme unease of Republican elites in a position to attempt a putsch, Trump survived. He made it through. He got nominated. Whatever else happens this week, that’s a significant victory — more significant, given the context, than it was for Mitt Romney or John McCain or other recent GOP nominees. 
 
 Winner: Benghazi, the issue 
 
 Monday night of the Republican convention was very heavy on Benghazi, featuring two veterans of the Annex Security Team and the mother of slain diplomat Sean Smith, and references from numerous other speakers on the "Make America Safe Again" national security theme night of the convention. 
 
 That makes sense: Monday was supposed to be about foreign affairs and defense, so attacking the Democratic presumptive nominee’s most famous foreign policy failing, particularly when the hardcore party activists at the convention are still deeply upset by that failing and what they perceive as its trivialization by the mainstream media, was a no-brainer. 
 
 But Tuesday wasn’t about national security. It was about jobs. And yet it was still about Benghazi. 
 
 "Hillary Clinton's bad judgment, as you heard last night, left us four dead Americans in Benghazi," Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson declared in a speech that really should have been about the Clintons’ history in his home state. "She lied about her emails, about her server, about Benghazi," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell attacked. "She even lied to the family members of America's fallen heroes," Sen. Ron Johnson said, in an allusion to Patricia Smith's claim that Clinton lied to her about the cause of the Benghazi attacks. 
 
 It was startling, especially coming after a first night already overloaded with Benghazi content, and a further sign that Donald Trump’s RNC is not designed to persuade undecided voters. It’s meant to excite his base by appealing to issues that enrage and energize them — even though those issues are not especially important to the people Trump needs to win over if he’s to have any hope come November. 
 
 This was Trump and fellow party members playing into a longstanding Republican tendency of extreme overreach when it comes to Clinton scandals — and doing it in a very high-profile way, using time they could be using for persuasion. 
 
 Winner: The Trump kids 
 
 Tuesday night was Donald Trump Jr. and Tiffany Trump’s time to shine, another opportunity for members of the Trump family to humanize the candidate and present him as a real person with whom the American people can empathize and whom they can trust in the wake of their stepmother Melania’s botched, plagiarist mess of a headliner speech. 
 
 And they did a pretty great job! Tiffany offered an almost entirely apolitical speech that was polished, confident, and human. She clearly understood that her father has a reputation as a brutal, abrasive figure whom one might expect to be a domineering parent with impossible expectations, and immediately set about trying to disabuse viewers of that notion. 
 
 "As a recent college graduate, many of my accomplishments are still to come, but my dad takes such pride in all [I've] done so far no matter how big or small," she told the crowd. "I still keep all my report cards because I like to look back and see the sweet notes he wrote on each and every one of them." Translation: My dad is a real person. He reacts to his kids’ ups and downs the way any other parent would. He’s not this asshole you think he is. 
 
 Better still, she bolstered this kinder, gentler image of Donald Trump while tying it into components of his existing reputation. "My dad is a natural-born encourager, the last person that will ever tell you to give up your dreams," she said. "I always look forward to introducing him to my friends, especially the ones with preconceived notions, because they meet a man with natural charm and no facade. In person, my father is so friendly, considerate, funny, real." 
 
 Here she’s blended the counterintuitive vision of her dad she’s trying to forward — as kind, generous, sweet — with the vision most already have, that he’s relentless and persistent, for good or ill. Those qualities, she’s arguing, didn’t make him a merciless steamroller but a wonderful cheerleader and supportive figure. You don’t need to buy the narrative she’s pushing to respect the skill with which she pushed it. 
 
 Donald Trump Jr. honestly seemed like a better candidate than his father, with a fluent grasp of the issues that Republican policy folks care about. He tried to defuse his and his siblings’ reputations as rich brats by acknowledging their privileged upbringing upfront and then pivoting seamlessly into a call for school vouchers. 
 
 "My siblings and I growing up were truly fortunate to have choices and options that others don't. We want all Americans to have those same opportunities," he told the crowd. "Our schools used to be an elevator to the middle class. Now they are stalled on the ground floor. They’re run for the teachers and the administrators and not the students. You know what other countries do better on K-12 — they let parents choose where to send their children to school." 
 
 Within a paragraph, he’d turned his own privilege into a chance to portray himself and his father as compassionate and concerned with the plight of the poor — and as a chance to reassure conservatives of his father’s ideological bona fides. 
 
 The Trump progeny are not politicians, and there was no reason to expect their speeches to be especially great. But Donald Jr. and Tiffany acquitted themselves very well, delivering two of the best speeches of the night. 
 
 Loser: Paul Ryan 
 
 Most Americans weren’t watching the convention as early as 8 pm; the major broadcast networks (NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox) start coverage at 10. So relatively few people saw Paul Ryan oversee the roll call vote procedure that saw Donald Trump finally, and officially, nominated as the Republican presidential nominee in 2016. 
 
 Still, this was clearly a loss for Ryan, who had to oversee the nomination of a man he once called a "textbook" racist, whom he for weeks pointedly refused to endorse, even after it became clear that man had won the primaries. 
 
 Ryan has tried to put a brave face on Trump’s nomination, arguing that he has little choice but to support the nominee. "It is either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton," he said on CNN. "You don't get a third option. It's one or the other." In essence, he’s been trying to signal to elites that his grudging support for Trump was a matter of protocol and that he was still the smart conservative they’ve come to love. 
 
 But that balancing act went to hell the minute he stood before America and stated, "Pursuant to rule 40d of the rules of the Republican Party, I formally declare Donald J. Trump and Michael R. Pence the Republican nominees for president and vice president of these United States..." 
 
 It’s hard to imagine a better way to make Ryan’s protestations that he was uncomfortable with Trump seem phony and worthless. When the chips are down, when the nomination was being decided, Ryan was out there in front, pushing Trump forward. He’s not Trump-agnostic. He’s Trump-boosting, the same as everyone else at this convention. 
 
 Loser: States’ delegate announcers 
 
 During the seemingly interminable roll call vote for president, each state and district/territory participating in the convention picked someone to represent the delegation and formally cast its votes for the nomination. 
 
 In some states, this was a fairly anonymous figure. But in others, it was a major politician, or at least a rising star. In Kentucky, it was Gov. Matt Bevin. In Iowa, it was former Secretary of State Matt Schultz, a likely future gubernatorial/senatorial candidate. In New Mexico, Gov. Susana Martinez introduced a junior delegate who did the honors, as she stood by smiling. 
 
 The result was that a slew of promising Republicans, all with bright futures ahead of them, are on tape enthusiastically praising Donald Trump as the "next president of the United States," or at the very least standing by happily as someone else does that. 
 
 In deep red states like Kentucky, maybe that’s not that damaging. But in swing states like Iowa and New Mexico, it’s ideal attack ad fodder. One can all too easily imagining a Senate race in Iowa where Schultz’s Democratic opponent plays footage of Shultz at this convention on loop to associate him with Donald Trump, who’ll either be a hugely divisive incumbent president or a discredited, failed former candidate who lost Iowa. 
 
 In normal years, like 2012, exercises like this don’t really matter. Obviously everyone in the Republican Party backed Mitt Romney. But Trump is different, and everyone knows at some level that Trump is less acceptable. 
 
 Loser: Michael Mukasey 
 
 Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey is not exactly a moral paragon. Recruited from a district judgeship late in George W. Bush’s second term as a more professional-seeming replacement for Alberto Gonzales, he is now best known for his participation in and defenses of the Bush administration’s torture regime. 
 
 He pointedly refused to say whether he considered waterboarding torture during his confirmation hearings, nearly derailing his nomination — only coming forward to suggest he thought it could be legal in some cases once in office. He would later gush of the CIA’s torture program: "Brave and serious men and women, faced with the most terrifying attack in American history, and — along with the rest of us — fearful of more, devised and executed a program to get intelligence from captured terrorists who refused to cooperate." He also falsely claimed that torture led to the capture of Osama bin Laden. 
 
 So it was rather rich to see him take the stage at the Republican National Convention and complain about Hillary Clinton’s systems administration practices, assailing them as indicative of Clinton’s disrespect for the rule of law. It’s a hard argument to take coming from someone who helped undermine the rule of law in the US by torturing people, which many would argue is worse than setting up a private email server. 
 
 It was worse than rich, though. It was hypocritical. Mere months ago, Mukasey participated in a forum at National Review attacking Trump as unacceptable, and declared, "A Donald Trump presidency would imperil our national security." 
 
 Here's Michael Mukasey a few months ago explaining why Trump should never be president pic.twitter.com/HmPjW8WNE6 — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) July 20, 2016 
 
 And yet here Mukasey was, at Trump’s convention, attacking his opponent. One could be forgiven for thinking he’s willing to abandon principles he claimed to hold mere months earlier for a chance to raise his profile within the party. ||||| Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) presented his case against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at the GOP convention on July 18. People in the crowd shouted "Guilty!" throughout his speech and started a "Lock her up" chant. (The Washington Post) 
 
 Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) presented his case against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at the GOP convention on July 18. People in the crowd shouted "Guilty!" throughout his speech and started a "Lock her up" chant. (The Washington Post) 
 
 The refrain of this Republican convention hasn’t been “Make America Great Again.” It has been “Lock her up!” 
 
 Over the convention’s first two nights, a growing number of Republicans called for Hillary Clinton to be imprisoned. One of Trump’s advisers called for her death. The unprecedented tenor for a national political convention has prompted dismay in some corners of the GOP and even launched a Secret Service investigation into a New Hampshire state representative who said Clinton should be shot by a firing squad. 
 
 At least three speakers called for the presumptive Democratic nominee’s imprisonment. “Lock her up!” the convention crowd shouted repeatedly on both nights, a chant not heard before at nominee Donald Trump’s rallies. 
 
 On Wednesday evening, the chants continued — echoed onstage. 
 
 “Lock her up!” Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi, her state’s top law enforcement official, said. “I love that.” 
 
 A law enforcement officer clashes with a protester who is holding a burning American flag in Cleveland during the third day of the Republican convention on July 20. (John Minchillo/AP) 
 
 Later Wednesday, the chant resurfaced during the speech of the vice-presidential nominee, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. He ignored it. 
 
 A Republican Party still divided over Trump has sought unity by focusing on attacking Clinton instead. But the recurring chant has made clear how much Trump has changed his party’s tone and direction. 
 
 On Tuesday, for instance, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recited a series of Clinton’s alleged misdeeds and led the crowd in shouts of “Guilty!” after each. 
 
 Months ago, Trump — who calls his opponent “Crooked Hillary” — was among the first prominent Republicans to suggest that Clinton should be imprisoned for her use of a private email server to conduct public business while she was secretary of state. That was before the Justice Department, acting on an FBI recommendation, decided not to prosecute Clinton, although FBI Director James B. Comey said she had been “extremely careless.” 
 
 Clinton’s use of that server — and her inability to explain why she had used it — have contributed to a decline in voters’ trust. In a July CNN poll, 34 percent of respondents said Clinton was “honest and trustworthy.” That was down significantly from 55 percent in March 2014. 
 
 “I will say this: Hillary Clinton has got to go to jail,” Trump said at a June rally in San Jose. “Folks, honestly, she’s guilty as hell,” Trump said then. He indicated that, if elected, he would have his attorney general revisit the case against Clinton. 
 
 Some delegates came to the convention thinking that Clinton might deserve worse. 
 
 At the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, vendors are selling everything from "Hillary for Prison" T-shirts to Donald Trump whoopee cushions. (Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post) 
 
 She should be “swinging from the rafters” — a reference to hanging, said Susan Reneau, an alternate delegate from Montana, in an interview in Cleveland. Reneau said she blamed Clinton and her handling of government emails for Islamic State attacks in Paris, Belgium and Istanbul. 
 
 “Hillary has jeopardized everyone,” Reneau said. “It’s not even fair to call this her Watergate — Watergate was peanuts by comparison.” She was wearing a black button that said “Hillary for Prison” on her jacket. Outside, vendors said those buttons were selling mainly to women. 
 
 Al Baldasaro, a Republican state representative in New Hampshire and an adviser to Trump on veterans issues, said that “Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason” on “The Kuhner Report,” a conservative radio show hosted by Jeff Kuhner. Trump chose Baldasaro to stand behind him at one of the most combative moments of his campaign, a news conference at which he defended his handling of money raised for veterans groups. 
 
 On Wednesday, Baldasaro stood by those comments in an interview with radio station WMUR. He said the death penalty was appropriate for Clinton’s handling of government emails. “As far as I’m concerned, it is treason, and the penalty for treason is the firing squad — or maybe it’s the electric chair now,” Baldasaro said. 
 
 That got the attention of the Secret Service, which protects Clinton as a candidate and former first lady. “The U.S. Secret Service is aware of this matter and will conduct the appropriate investigation,” spokeswoman Nicole Mainor confirmed in an email. 
 
 In the convention hall, the chants began Monday night, the first night of the convention. One speaker — Pat Smith, whose son Sean Smith was killed in the terrorist attacks on U.S. outposts in Benghazi, Libya — said she wanted to see Clinton “in stripes.” Another, U.S. Senate candidate Darryl Glenn of Colorado, said, “We all know she loves her pantsuits, but we should send her an email and tell her she deserves a bright orange jumpsuit.” 
 
 Some Republicans reacted with dismay to that tone. “I wouldn’t say that she belongs in jail,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), whose Monday speech had been punctuated by the “Lock her up” chant, said afterward on CNN. 
 
 On Tuesday night, however, the idea of Clinton as a guilty defendant was the centerpiece of the speech by Christie, a former federal prosecutor who was passed over in Trump’s running-mate search. 
 
 Christie’s speech was a powerful sign of how much the GOP — and its theory of what voters wanted — has shifted in just four years. 
 
 At the party’s 2012 convention, Christie gave an upbeat, policy-heavy speech focused on his record in New Jersey. It was time, he said, for Republicans to start doing things that got results. 
 
 “We are demanding that our leaders stop tearing each other down and work together to take action on the big things facing America,” Christie said then. 
 
 The day before his speech, Christie told Michigan GOP delegates he would not commit to prosecuting Clinton if he became Trump’s attorney general. “It’s very tempting to give in to what would be an enormous applause line,” but he wouldn’t, he said. 
 
 Then he used the applause line the next day — and the applause was enormous. 
 
 “So let’s do something fun tonight,” he said Tuesday, asking the convention crowd to act as a kind of mass jury. “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to present the facts to you — you, a jury of her peers — both in this hall and in your living rooms around our nation.” 
 
 Christie began with a series of assertions about Clinton’s time as secretary of state: She pushed for a military intervention in Libya, which led to a power vacuum and chaos. She supported better relations with the communist regime in Cuba and for a “reset” with Vladi­mir Putin’s Russia. In Christie’s speech, these all brought shouts of “Guilty!” from the crowd. 
 
 Some of Christie’s message dealt with the actual email investigation. The former U.S. attorney essentially asked the crowd to overrule the Justice Department. 
 
 “You see, since the Justice Department refuses to allow you to render a verdict, I’m going to present the case now, on the facts, against Hillary Rodham Clinton,” Christie said. 
 
 Later, he got to the point about the emails: “Hillary Clinton, lying to the American people about her selfish, awful judgment in making our secrets vulnerable,” he said. “What’s your verdict? Guilty or not guilty?” 
 
 “Guilty!” the crowd said. 
 
 Several Republican officeholders said they thought Tuesday night’s rhetoric went too far. 
 
 Clinton “now belongs in prison? C’mon,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) wrote on Twitter. “We can make the case that she shouldn’t be elected without jumping the shark.” 
 
 Four years ago, the second night of the GOP convention was dedicated to rebuking President Obama for uttering the phrase, “You didn’t build that,” which Republicans believed was Obama discounting the hard work of small-busi­ness owners. 
 
 This year, the tone inside the GOP’s convention hall had begun to match the raunchy T-shirts sold outside it. Vendors are selling shirts and pins that make crude references to Clinton’s gender, to sexual acts and to the scandal involving her husband and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. 
 
 Candidates and party leaders have lobbed insults at the other party in past U.S. political conventions: In 1936, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt likened his opponents to “economic royalists.” But Michael Kazin, a history professor at Georgetown University, said he did not know of another convention with rhetoric like that being used against Clinton. 
 
 “Saying [the nominee] should be in jail?” Kazin said. “That’s unique.” 
 
 For some in the crowd, the chant was something harmless. “A school cheer,” one man called it — fun to chant but not meant literally. 
 
 “ ‘Jail Hillary’ is more of a slogan,” said Norma Sanders, 50, a delegate from Mississippi. She said the slogan was invented long before the convention. She heard it first on Facebook, then on Fox News Channel, and finally from other people, face-to-face. “It’s a slogan that gets the point across that people think they would have a punishment for what she did with her email server,” though Clinton did not, Sanders said. 
 
 The Clinton campaign did not waste any time taking advantage of the imagery with her supporters. 
 
 “If you closed your eyes, you could imagine it being a lot like a witch trial,” read a campaign email soliciting donations. “They were barely one step removed from screaming ‘burn her at the stake.’ It felt like a dark turning point in American politics.” 
 
 That hasn’t stopped Republicans from picking up the rhetoric and taking it further. 
 
 Michael Folk, a Republican member of West Virginia’s House of Delegates, tweeted last week that Clinton should be “hung” on the Mall in Washington. 
 
 Inside the convention hall here in Cleveland, Christie was followed by retired neurosurgeon and former presidential candidate Ben Carson. He accused Clinton of another offense — literally showing sympathy for the devil. He said Clinton admired now-deceased community organizer Saul Alinsky, who Carson said showed an interest in Lucifer and his ambitions on Earth. 
 
 “So are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer? Carson asked. “Think about that.” 
 
 Joel Achenbach, Isaac Stanley-Becker and Aryn Braun in Cleveland and Emily Guskin and Aaron Blake in Washington contributed to this report.
– Tuesday was "Make America Work Again" day at the Republican National Convention, though there was easily as much talk about Hillary Clinton as there was about the US economy. Still, the convention seemed to run far more smoothly than on Monday—it was as if they "had brought in an entirely new team of organizers," according to Politico—and the GOP was unified enough to deal with the matter of choosing its nominee. Among the winners in another eventful day at the Quicken Loans Arena: Donald Trump. New York state's delegation put Trump over the top, making him the official GOP nominee 13 months after he launched what was seen as a long-shot bid. He "did the unthinkable on Tuesday night. And, whether you like him or hate him, he deserves a massive amount of credit for that," writes Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post. Donald Trump Jr. He "brought down the house" with a speech that put him on the national stage and added a personal touch to his father's business successes, the Hill reports. It briefly looked like there might be a repeat of the Melania plagiarism controversy, but it quickly emerged that a Francis Buckley line in the speech had been put there by Buckley himself, a friend of Trump Jr.'s who worked on the speech with him. Chris Christie. The New Jersey governor may still be smarting from VP rejection, but the crowd loved how he denounced Clinton from the point of view of a former federal prosecutor. They chanted "Guilty!" and "Lock her up!" as Christie made the case against Clinton. Avocado growers. Discussion of jobs largely fell by the wayside, but soap opera actress Kimberlin Brown, who has an avocado farm in California, managed to deliver both an in-depth discussion of jobs and a passionate call to help US growers by restricting avocado imports, Politico reports. Among the losers: Party unity. Trump won the nomination, but some 721 delegates voted against him in the evening roll call, making it the most divided vote of its kind since the contested convention of 1976, the New York Times notes. Never Trump. The movement "succumbed to multiple causes of death" on Tuesday, with many rebels deciding they had no choice but to support the nominee, the AP reports. The Utah delegation announced that all its 40 votes were going to Ted Cruz, but they ended up going to Trump because Utah GOP rules require ballots to be cast for active candidates only. Paul Ryan. The House speaker has been trying to signal to party elites that he's uncomfortable with Trump and is "still the smart conservative they've come to love," but the balancing act fell apart on Tuesday, according to Dylan Matthews at Vox. "When the chips are down, when the nomination was being decided, Ryan was out there in front, pushing Trump forward," he writes. Ben Carson. He "quickly went off script—and not in a good way," writes Cillizza at the Post. His linking of Clinton to Lucifer via Saul Alinsky was a strange moment, writes Tina Nguyen at Vanity Fair, though since Carson has "accidentally" insulted Trump numerous times over the last few months, the campaign must have been relieved "that Carson's meandering thoughts went straight to hell, and not somewhere closer to home."