Republican National Convention: Reporter’s notebook

A roundup of news items from the 2016 Republican National Convention this week in Cleveland:

NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME: Iowa's convention delegates were dismayed Monday night as they watched retired U.S. Army Lt. General Michael Flynn run out the clock on Sen. Joni Ernst's prime-time TV debut.

'I was mad. I was ready to go take that general off the stage. He repeated himself and he went on way too long,” a visibly miffed Gov. Terry Branstad told reporters Tuesday morning. 'I was disappointed that Joni Ernst's speech got pushed back off of prime time.”

Ernst was scheduled to take the stage at 9:36 p.m. Iowa time, but it was halfway into many TV stations' local news reports when Iowa's junior senator took the stage to talk about national security due to a behind-schedule program exacerbated by Flynn's remarks.

'I was really proud of her but I have to say I also was disappointed,” added Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds. 'I was watching the clock and, I don't want to be disrespectful of any of the speakers, but she was told that she was going to have prime time and we watched the time just tick away.”

Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, shared Branstad's disappointment but was surprised with the governor's impatience in Quicken Loans Arena waiting for Ernst's turn.

'He was up and he was pacing back and forth,” said Kaufmann.

For her part, Ernst called the opportunity 'a great moment” and praised her Iowa colleagues for hanging with her to the end after about two-thirds of the delegates had exited by the time she reached the microphone. She laughed when a reporter told her the governor almost charged the stage with impatience: 'I know, God bless, Gov. Branstad. He's wonderful,” she said.

'The Iowa delegation stayed with me. They stood the whole speech,” added Ernst. 'I enjoyed giving the speech. I was glad to have the national stage.”

U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, shared his frustration over the delay as he waited with other Iowa delegates, calling it 'a significant disappointment” that Ernst's remarks were not carried to a wider TV audience but he noted the speech is available for viewing on the internet.

'Gen. Flynn took a stab at elevating his national posture last night. He probably didn't help himself in Iowa a lot,” said King. 'I thought the governor was going to walk up on stage and give him the hook.”

KING DEFENDS RACIAL COMMENTS: U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, on Tuesday defended controversial remarks at the Republican National Convention here that were taken to dismiss the contributions of minority groups to civilization.

In an interview with Iowa reporters early Tuesday, King said liberals are constantly denigrating 'old white people” and there was a need for him to respond.

'That comes out of the mouths of liberals on a daily basis around this country. They're disparaging a group of people. And it's about time somebody stood up for that group of people,” King said.

King caused an uproar in a television appearance on Monday, when he responded to Charlie Pierce, an Esquire writer, who'd said an optimistic view would be that 'old white people” would no longer be commanding the Republican Party's attention.

King then jumped in. 'This ‘old white people' business does get a little tired, Charlie. I mean, I'd ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you're talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?”

The comment drew widespread condemnation. Iowa Democratic Party Chair Andy McGuire called the comments 'blatantly racist.”

Gov. Terry Branstad also told reporters Tuesday: 'I just think they were inappropriate. I think I'll just leave it there, that it was inappropriate.

Asked Tuesday what he meant by 'subgroup,” King said: 'You can divide that any way you want, but I brought that back to western civilization itself, the very foundation of western civilization. And there's no culture, no civilization in the history of the world that's contributed more in the area of math, or science or technology or medicine or literature. That's just a clear fact. And it runs directly contrary to their theory of multiculturalism, which is every culture is equal. They're not. They're not equal in their contribution. And we ought to be selecting the best we can from what each culture has to offer.”

As for Branstad's criticism, King said he should live by the Reagan-esque dictum that Republicans shouldn't criticize one another. 'Did he listen to the tape? The answer is no,” King said. 'My response is there is an 11th commandment. At least go listen to the tape.”

ERNST JUST HELPING A FRIEND: So, what to make of Sen. Joni Ernst's visit Tuesday morning to the New Hampshire delegation to the Republican National Convention here?

Don't make anything out of it at all, says Ernst, Iowa's first-term senator and a rising star in Republican Party politics.

Ernst, R-Iowa, laughed off the idea Tuesday morning she might be testing the waters for a future presidential bid by checking in with the state with the nation's first presidential primary.

'Just helping a friend,” she told reporters at a downtown brewery where she, Sen. Grassley and other Republicans were joined by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas for a forum on the economy.

Ernst said she is friends with U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hampshire, and that she visited with Granite Staters to talk about national security, not national politics. 'What you should read into is I'm very, very good friends with Kelly Ayotte,” she said.

Still, when a national figure visits one of the early nominating states - Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina - it's hard to escape the idea they may have an eye on a future election.

Cotton, too, is thought to be a future presidential candidate. He is reportedly visiting three early states at this convention.

However, Ernst told reporters any speculation on a presidential election other than the one in November isn't appropriate. 'I don't think we should be focusing on 2020. I think that we focus on this election,” she said.

MELANIA SPEECH-GATE: Iowa's GOP delegates were willing to cut Melania Trump some slack Tuesday in the glare of media reports the presumptive presidential nominee's wife allegedly plagiarized portions of her speech to the 2016 Republican National Convention from remarks delivered by Michelle Obama in 2008.

Gov. Terry Branstad called the post-speech brouhaha 'much to do about nothing” over remarks by Mrs. Trump that he said overall were 'very well done” but may have had a few lines 'that were very similar” to Mrs. Obama's comments.

Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann and delegate Randy Feenstra of Hull - both adjunct community college instructors - took a dim view of lifting passages from other speeches without proper attribution, but said they would have to compare the speeches to make a judgment call on plagiarism.

Feenstra said students who take his courses in public administration and U.S. political history likely would get 'a zero” if they were caught plagiarizing but he noted that Mrs. Trump's speech was 'probably rewritten” by others and the situation was more of a 'sideline issue” compared to more important matters facing the nation.

Kaufmann said he saw the media reports but noted as a teacher of both speech and English he would 'never make any kind of a judgment” until he had a chance to compare copies of both speeches that included themes and phrases that 'are out there in the public domain.”

'I didn't see anything there that just screamed it was lifted,” said Kaufmann, adding 'this smells a little bit like the Clinton campaign folks or the pro-Clinton folks - much ado about nothing, trying to derail things.”

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, who also spoke to convention delegates Monday night, told reporters she thought Mrs. Trump's address was 'beautiful” but declined to get caught up in the controversy. 'I don't know whether it was lifted or not. I don't want to go there. I think she delivered a very heartfelt message. She loves her husband, she's glad to stand beside him and I think that's the take away.”

Ernst said she wrote her own speech and was given 'plenty of leeway” with 'some minor edits” by party and Trump campaign officials.

'I was just really proud to take the stage last night,” she said.