Gov. Kim Reynolds will be a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night. The governor has not indicated what she will be talking about, but all the convention speakers are expected to use their time to praise President Trump.
Each night of the RNC is themed, and Tuesday’s theme is “Land of Promise.”
Speeches are scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. (Central Time), but an exact time for Reynolds’ speech has not been published. Other speakers on Tuesday night include Melania Trump, Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
President Trump will also address the convention. Traditionally, the presidential candidate does not speak until the final night of a convention, but Trump has decided to speak every night.
The president did not mention Iowa in his the remarks to the delegates on Monday, but he did disparage an important Iowa industry. Trump accused Democrats of being “phonies” and wanting to weaken the country by supporting wind energy. Iowa is a national leader in the use of wind power as a source of renewable energy.
“I saw where these phonies, you know, they want to end everything we’ve done,” Trump told the delegates in phoned-in remarks. “They want to go to wind — they don’t even know if they want to go to wind. I think they want to just basically close up our country because they’ve taken away our strength.”
In a speech to the National Republican Congressional Committee last year, Trump said noise from wind turbines causes cancer.
Reynolds was asked about Trump’s baseless cancer claim shortly after he made the remark. She declined to criticize the president or even disagree with him.
“You know how those things change. One year coffee’s good for you. The next year coffee causes cancer, I mean, that’s what happens,” Reynolds said, responding to a reporter’s question.
The reporter followed up, “Can you just say he’s wrong?”
“That’s not my place,” the governor said.
Trump did not repeat his false cancer accusation during his rambling remarks on Monday.
The president and Vice President Pence were officially nominated for second terms on Monday, receiving the support of all of Iowa’s 40 delegates to the convention.
“The great state of Iowa fully sends, full send, unanimously, all of our folks to re-nominate you to lead our country, America, under God, for four more years,” Anthony Marlowe of Iowa City said announcing the Iowa delegations votes during the convention’s rollcall. “Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, you’re rehired!”
Marlowe praised Trump for his “explosive economic policies.”
A Republican Party donor, Marlowe is the CEO of MCI, a business support company.
Marlowe said Trump’s policies had helped his company grow from 400 employees in 2016 to more than 4,000 currently.
The Des Moines Register reported that MCI received money through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was supposed to support small business during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing forgivable loans so small businesses could keep workers on their payrolls.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, MCI received a loan of between $5-10 million on April 14, with the company reporting that it would retain 500 employees as a result.
In its application, MCI registered as a telemarketing or “contact center” business, a designation that requires $16.5 million or less in annual revenue to be considered a small business, according to the Small Business Administration. On its website, MCI says it “is approaching” $100 million in revenue in 2020.
An attorney for MCI told the Register the company qualified for a PPP loan under an “alternative size standard” that allowed business that don’t meet the standard definition of small business to qualify if they have less than $15 million in tangible net worth or had less than $5 million in net income during the previous two fiscal years.
Marlowe and Reynolds won’t be the only Iowa voices at the 2020 RNC. On Wednesday night, Sen. Joni Ernst will speak. The theme that night will be “Land of Opportunity.”
