Summary: Donald Trump, defying expectations, finished off his miraculous climb to the Republican presidential nomination this week in Cleveland. We were there to witness it all, interviewing party leaders, pundits and delegates, on and off the convention floor.<br> With more than 700 delegates voting for someone other than Trump, there was no disguising the fact that dissension was apparent in Cleveland — none more so than the surprise refusal of Ted Cruz to endorse the top of the ticket, despite being rewarded with a prime-time convention speech. The other mini-story that didn’t help the GOP cause was Melania Trump‘s speech and questions about its originality.<br> But if you were looking for a red-meat convention, look no further than what went on this week at the Quicken Loans Arena. Attacks on Hillary Clinton, the presumed Democratic nominee, were constant. Chants of “Lock Her Up!” from the delegates were everywhere. If the delegates weren’t unanimous about the candidate they liked, they certainly were regarding the candidate they disliked.<br> This week’s show includes great interviews with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haley_Barbour">Haley Barbour</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Brown">Scott Brown</a>, <a href="http://www.anncoulter.com">Ann Coulter</a>, <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia:Jim_Barnes">Jim Barnes</a>, <a href="https://www.capito.senate.gov">Senators Shelley Moore Capito</a>, <a href="https://www.wicker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/home">Roger Wicker</a> and<a href="https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/"> John Boozman</a>, and many voices from the convention floor.<br> <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/07/18/donald-trump-makes-insane-wwe-intro-convention-introduce-his-wife/87276270/">Photo via Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY</a><br> Music used in the podcast:<br> <a href="https://youtu.be/Qyclqo_AV2M">We Can Work It Out – The Beatles</a><br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lion-King-2-Simbas-Pride/dp/B0002VESQ4">We Are One – The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride</a><br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chicago-XI/dp/B00007LTIQ">Baby What A Big Surprise – Chicago</a><br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZzUD0jx0iY">Maryland, My Maryland – Maryland State Song</a><br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stateless-Plus-Lene-Lovich/dp/B000003SZU">Lucky Number – Lene Lovich</a><br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Delfonics/dp/B00005JXQS">Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time) – The Delfonics</a><br> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/" rel="license"></a><br> This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a><br>
