The 5-Minute Fix from The Washington Post

Keeping up with politics is easy now

By Amber Phillips

A lot has happened since we last talked, so let's jump right in.

Here's what we know about Election 2016 now that we're halfway through the Republicans' convention in Cleveland:

Donald Trump is the Republicans' presidential nominee: The #NeverTrump movement never had a chance. Trump officially won the nomination Tuesday night; he'll formally accept it Thursday. But never one to shy away from the camera, Trump shared his feelings on this historic moment with the world via a video address to the convention Tuesday:

social_card [Wed Jul 20 2016 13-08-21 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)]

Republican leaders don't seem thrilled about it: Moments after he officially won the nomination, Republican congressional leaders mentioned Hillary Clinton twice as many times — sometimes more — than they mentioned Trump. In his convention speech, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) mentioned Clinton 24 times and Trump only five. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) barely mentioned either.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan at the convention Tuesday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump doesn't seem to care. For the most part, the attention is on him, and that's the way Trump likes it, writes Fix Boss Chris Cillizza: "Trump's job is to be, well, Trump. That is, quite clearly, how Trump sees the role of president — as a sort of brand ambassador for the United States. He is the guy who will make people believe America can be, um, great again — at home and abroad. He will be the strong public face that Barack Obama isn't — and doesn't know how to be. As for the day-to-day operations of the White House, he would delegate most of them."

"Hillary Clinton should be in jail" has gone mainstream: This was a fringe thing to say until Trump said it back in early June, referring to her use of a private email server while secretary of state. Now, it's a full-blown rallying cry for Republicans, who chanted "lock her up!" during New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) speech/indictment of Clinton on Tuesday.

Protesters in June in Ohio. (Ty Wright/Bloomberg)

Republicans are angry. So is everyone, actually. Chanting "lock her up," The Fix's Philip Bump writes, "represents a natural way station in American politics." A recent Pew Research Survey found that 45 percent of Republicans and 41 percent of Democrats view the opposite party as a "threat to the nation's well-being."

(Philip Bump / The Washington Post)

It's a 2020 launching pad. So this happened Wednesday: Ted Cruz held what felt very much like a rally at the convention.

Screen Shot 2016-07-20 at 3.16.25 PM

Except Cruz isn't running for anything. Or is he? He'll speak Wednesday night at the convention — along with other failed 2016 candidates Marco Rubio and Scott Walker — and we'll be watching closely to see whether they're setting themselves up for 2020. It certainly feels like Ted Cruz is.

The Melania Trump plagiarism scandal is still very much alive: On Wednesday, Meredith McIver, a Trump Organization staffer (NOT a campaign staffer) apologized and offered her resignation for inadvertently plagiarizing Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic convention speech. Now there are questions of whether Trump, in accepting campaign help from his business, violated campaign finance rules.

And really, there are still more questions than answers about how this happened. And why the Trump campaign took too long — 38 hours — to give us an answer at all. It's sign the Trump campaign struggles when in crisis mode.

What we don't know: Whether two-plus days of pageantry will help bring the party together and, as so many in Cleveland want to do, beat Hillary Clinton.

Our partners at Mic.com sat down with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday, a day after the Trump ally gave a fiery convention speech. Giuliani's main takeaway to Mic.com's Celeste Katz was that Trump — and his wife — are being treated unfairly by the media:

"This is not a caricature, this is a man, he's a very good man. It's true he can be politically incorrect, but Hillary Clinton, you know, is a criminal."

"They were going to find something wrong with Mrs. Trump's speech. If it wasn't that, it would've been something else."

Sounds like Giuliani got the Trump campaign talking points.

Our politics aren't just divided between parties

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Presidential campaigns are supposed to unite members of parties among common themes, principles and policies. But a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that's not happening in 2016, at least not yet.

"Most Republicans and Democrats agree with their party's broad position on immigration, guns and abortion," writes our polling guru Scott Clement, "but a sizable minority do not."

It appears that as Trump — and soon Hillary Clinton — accept their party's nomination, they've got some work to do within their parties to be ready for November.

Thanks for reading! There's much more convention coverage on The Fix, and we'll be in your inbox in the wee hours of Thursday morning with another edition of Fix Boss Chris Cillizza's winners and losers.

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