The Unconventional Diaries: Trump dazzles the GOP faithful, capping off a turbulent convention

Yahoo News enlisted participants at the Republican National Convention representing different viewpoints and roles to file daily diary entries on their experiences in Cleveland. They were your eyes and ears at one of the most unconventional political gatherings in generations, offering a front-row seat on the convention floor, behind-the-scenes access to key political meetings and a vivid picture of what conventions are really like, both inside and outside the arena. Here are yesterday’s entries.

On Thursday night, those participants filed their final entries, which you can view below. Be sure to check back next week during the Democratic National Convention for an entirely new cast of chroniclers.

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You don’t realize how many problems we have until someone lays it out. And Trump did that Thursday night. I thought he hit it out of the park.

It was a little long, but he didn’t leave one section out. It was nice to hear someone finally standing up for us. We’re at a point where we’re seeing some negative change, and that means the next generation may have a hard life. We need a cheerleader in chief, and he showed that tonight.

I hope it made an impression with people at home. It was a very presidential speech. If you lay it all out, people can see there are so many things that need correcting and it never happens in Washington, where there are so many broken promises. And we see inaction has led us down this track. And people don’t want four more years of the same inaction.

Trump understands trade. He understands monetary policy. We’ve never had anyone who is that experienced. Instead, we have a community organizer as president and a woman who wants to be president who thinks the government creates jobs.

Trump doesn’t lie. He tells it like it is. People like the plain talk. Everyone in the arena understood it. He said he was going to help people. He said he was going to help the coal miners, help the businessmen. He made it clear he wanted to build things because that’s what he does, build things. He knows how to get it done, and he showed it. It was a little long, but he hit every special niche or interest that delegates have.

During the day, before Trump’s acceptance speech, we had a reception with the Texas and North Carolina delegations. I made a point of asking around about the Cruz debacle from the night before. I was with the Texas delegation in the afternoon. People were split, but a lot of the folks I talked to were angry with him. Texas led the booing last night, and they made sure I knew it at the event today! Even the Cruz supporters said they wished he hadn’t done it. They were talking about how they wouldn’t support him and that he cut himself off from a future presidential run.

Before that, we had breakfast with Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. He was a really interesting guy. I had forgotten he had served in the Department of Homeland Security under George Bush. He was a really nice guy and had a great sense of what is going on in the country. But everyone was gearing up for Trump’s speech. It was a mostly quiet day.

After all the drama, I don’t see how you couldn’t vote for Trump. But overall, the convention experience was great. I don’t know where I’m going to be in four years, but I couldn’t have asked for more.

As told to Andrew Bahl/Yahoo News

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We had two protests against Donald Trump today, and both were amazing. We’ve always seen this as a moment for everybody. Not just people who go to protests frequently, but also people who have never protested before, to come out and say why they believe in each other.

For the afternoon march, we kept getting RSVPs until the last minute. One of the things we did earlier was survey all the people who said they were coming and ask them if they had any experience protesting. Seventy percent of people said it was their first time protesting, and they came to a national convention to march.

We may sound idealistic or sappy, but we believe it. People were carrying signs about sexism, racism and immigration. They were about valuing people, valuing women, valuing immigrants, valuing Muslims and valuing Hispanics. These aren’t anti-Republican messages, but rather the core beliefs of our group. These aren’t mass-produced signs, but ones that people took a marker in their backyard or in their basement and made. This is how they feel and why they want to be out here. The march went great. We were stoked.

It is going to sound weird coming from a protest organizer, but we also want to thank the police. It is one of the hottest days of the year, and the officers did great. It was safe and positive. I loved seeing handshakes between protesters and police. This was the kind of moment we thought the country needed. It is the same vibe we had later in the day in Public Square. I can’t say enough good things about the police.

We think Trump needs a protest that isn’t about violence and chaos. That positivity happened in the afternoon and it happened in the evening. We are committed to this, and it says a lot about the people involved to have it turn out as it did.

The evening rally was great, during Trump’s speech. The turnout was about the same as the march — a few hundred people. We took over Concert Hill in Public Square downtown. Other opposition groups came up and hung around, but we dominated the hill.

A great moment came when Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams rode by. He was on a bike with other officers and clearly doing work. But he came over and made sure we felt secure when people openly carrying weapons came by. It was a true act of leadership on his part.

Today was more than we ever expected. We thought we would be a tiny group in a larger protest put on by someone else. We had no idea we would be the largest march and the largest Public Square demonstration. That being said, I hope a cause like this never comes again, to make us protest like this. Once was enough. I don’t even want to think of what a Trump reelection campaign would look like.

As the Republican National Convention closes tonight, Stand Together Against Trump congratulates demonstrators, the people of Cleveland, city government, police and Republicans on a peaceful and positive week of demonstrations. We hope it is said of our city that in a time of hate, Cleveland was not hateful. In a time of division, we stood together. In a time of fear, we were not afraid.

As told to Andrew Bahl/Yahoo News

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Donald Trump’s acceptance speech was disappointing. It’s not enough to read off of a teleprompter. He didn’t do what he needed to do.

He lied again and again. He made a lot of misrepresentations and made up facts that are just not true. At the end of the day, it was an ugly speech about pitting Americans against one another. And that was offensive. As a country, we need to be coming together and bring people together. That’s not what this convention did.

This convention also showed a lot of disorganization and chaos. The arguments he made tonight about being a strong executive were very much undermined by how poorly his whole convention was executed. It started out with his own vice presidential rollout of Mike Pence, in which his own organization was leaking that he wanted to change his mind. Then there’s the weird scene with Ted Cruz on Wednesday night in the middle of the arena being booed.

I don’t think in any of these four days we heard anyone outline a positive vision about what this country needs to do. And there’s been no real recognition of how far we’ve come. Eight years ago, this was a country that was losing 800,000 jobs a month. They’re pretending — somehow — like that time was the “good ol’ days we need to get back to.”

Earlier in the day, we had Sens. Cory Booker and Al Franken join us for a press conference with Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee. They spoke out a lot about this: the division and the use of very ugly language. Donald Trump ran this convention the way he ran the first day of his campaign — by calling immigrants criminals.

We won’t be getting enough sleep fact-checking all of the lies tonight, but that’s been the story of the week. But it’s been worth the lack of sleep to hold Republicans accountable for all of their falsehoods. Because there have been a lot of them.

We’re on our way to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. We’re going to stop briefly in Washington, D.C., to do laundry. We leave tomorrow morning. Our flights got canceled, so we’re just going to drive right back. Whatever flights we could find would take us just as long, anyway.

But we’re excited to get to Philly and show what really makes America great, and that is its people. Philly will showcase a positive vision for America, one that recognizes we’re stronger together and that we’re better than this mess we saw in Cleveland.

As told to Hunter Walker/Yahoo News

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I’ve had a great last day. I got in late the night before, then I went to a breakfast. Karl Rove was at breakfast, which was a big surprise. He talked about how Donald Trump invited him to New York City to visit. Rove said he had a good talk with Trump. Whether Donald picked him up on that or not, we don’t know. In any case, Karl Rove has a lot to offer.

After breakfast, I took a nap, went to a luncheon and then took another nap. The luncheon was at a waterfront restaurant out on the lake. We drove out on school buses into the residential area, which was really nice. It was great to see part of Cleveland that we wouldn’t normally see.

I think the media pays too much attention to Ted Cruz. As Trump has said, he’s that “Lyin’ Ted.” Trump invited him here and he said he would endorse Trump, and then he didn’t. I have no respect for him. I was out on the convention floor while everyone was booing him. Cruz said it was just New York booing him, but everyone was booing — our own Mississippi delegation included.

I think Mike Pence is going to be great as Trump’s running mate. It’s a different balance, and I think it’s one that we need. He attracts the evangelicals — those people will be happy with him. I’m happy that Trump is our nominee.

As the RNC comes to a close, I feel tired. But I am feeling good about this election. I’m looking forward to going to work for Trump. That’s what I came to do.

This week, in general, has been exciting and productive. I think we’re going to win in November. Rudy Giuliani was definitely one of the best speakers of this week, in addition to Donald Jr. and Eric Trump. The Trumps are a wonderful family. Mike Pence’s family is also a wonderful family. I think we’ll come back to a lot of family values as this election goes on.

I think what we need, most of all, is a good businessman, and that’s what we have got.

As told to Susanna Heller/Yahoo News
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