ICYMI: Your TPM Weekend News Roundup

Trump Hijacks The White House For His Reelection Effort

• President Trump on Thursday turned the White House into his own personal playground for reelection, festooning the South Lawn with giant “TRUMP” signs as if it were one of his real estate projects.
• The President’s GOP Convention acceptance speech stretched on for 70 minutes, but the remarks largely rehashed his favorite talking points.
• Trump leveraged the weight of the White House during the RNC on Tuesday night, too, hosting a naturalization ceremony and announcing a pardon during the convention broadcast.
• After Kimberly Guilfoyle’s epic and boisterous speech on the opening night of the RNC Monday, the convention took on a more subdued tone. But it still brought plenty of the crazy.
• The TPM staff live-blogged the final night of the convention. Catch up on all the key moments here.

Jerry Fallwell’s Downfall

• The week began with a striking statement from Jerry Falwell Jr., who has headed up Liberty University for more than a decade.
• In the statement, Falwell admitted that his wife had carried out an extramarital affair with a Miami pool boy the couple had gone into business with years ago.
• On Monday afternoon, Reuters published an exclusive interview with the pool boy, Giancarlo Granda, who claimed that not only did Becki Falwell have a sexual relationship with him, but that Jerry Falwell would sometimes watch the pair have sex.
• Reports surfaced later Monday that Falwell had agreed to step down as president of the university. But Falwell cried foul, and said he had not yet stepped down.
• By Tuesday morning, the situation was settled: Falwell told multiple news outlets that he was leaving his post.
• Borrowing a line from Martin Luther King Jr., Falwell celebrated the move, saying that he was “free at last.”
• The evangelical leader stands to rake in as much as $10.5 million over the next two years as part of his exit package.

Shock And Anguish In Kenosha

• Yet another instance of excessive police force shocked the nation this week after a Kenosha, Wisconsin officer shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back, in front of his children, as he was opening his car door. Protests broke out over the shooting in the Wisconsin town.
• On Tuesday night, two protesters were shot dead after an armed vigilante allegedly fired into a crowd of demonstrators.
• Police arrested a suspect in the shooting, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse of Antioch, Illinois. Rittenhouse’s social media was reportedly replete with pro-police messages.
• Blake’s father said his son, who remains hospitalized, was paralyzed from the waist down from the shooting. It’s unclear if Blake’s paralyzation will be permanent.