The Latest: QAnon-backing candidate gets White House invite
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the Republican National Convention (all times local):
7:15 p.m.
A Republican congressional nominee from Georgia who supports the QAnon conspiracy theory and was congratulated by President Donald Trump on her primary victory has been invited to the Republican National Convention.
Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a photo of the invitation to her Twitter account on Tuesday. She wrote that she was “honored and thrilled to be invited to attend President Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday evening at the White House.”
A person familiar with Greene’s invitation says it is legitimate. The person was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Trump praised Greene as a “future Republican Star” after she won her primary earlier this month. He has courted the support of QAnon believers, saying, “I heard that these are people that love our country.”
Other Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence and Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, have rejected the conspiracy theory, which centers on an alleged anonymous, high-ranking government official known as “Q” who shares information about an anti-Trump “deep state” often tied to satanism and child sex trafficking.
— Associated Press writer Zeke Miller
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11:15 a.m.
Democrats are unloading on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ahead of his planned address to the Republican National Convention from Jerusalem.
An aide to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden who has worked for the State Department calls Pompeo’s Tuesday speech “flat out disgraceful.” Aide Bill Russo says it's “an abuse of taxpayer money.”
Another top Biden deputy, Kate Bedingfield, blasts Pompeo as President Donald Trump’s “errand boy” and says he has a record of “repeated and blatant use of his office for overtly political purposes.”
Secretaries of state regularly travel abroad on behalf of a U.S. administration’s agenda, but Pompeo’s speech to a party convention from foreign soil is an outlier.
Russo mocks Pompeo’s explanation that he will address the GOP convention on personal time. Russo notes that the speech is still part of “official travel” and that taxpayer money “got him there” and is “paying for his protection” and for the “the staff on the ground” with him.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and says Pompeo’s move “violates his own policy.” Booker referred to Pompeo’s “memos and instructions” sent recently to his department’s employees.