2016 Conventions

Amid furor over an email leak that revealed a bias against Bernie Sanders inside the Democratic National Committee, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced Sunday she will step down as chair.

Wasserman Schultz will still open and close the convention, she said in a statement, and "address our delegates about the stakes involved in this election not only for Democrats, but for all Americans."

It has been said that "to cleave" is the only verb in English that connotes one specific action and its direct opposite. To cleave sometimes means to hold together, and it can also mean to split apart.

That's why Cleveland was the perfect city to host the 2016 Republican National Convention. Because this week, in this town, the GOP demonstrated both its persistent divisions and its instinct for overcoming them.

In a year when the topic seems virtually unavoidable, race has been a major focus of coverage of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

There was the MSNBC panel Monday evening in which Iowa Rep. Steve King questioned whether nonwhites have made any contributions to civilization.

National security was front and center during the Republican National Convention's first night of programming.

Speaker after speaker bashed President Obama and his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, for the Obama administration's approach to fighting ISIS, immigration policies, and the 2012 attacks on diplomatic compounds in Benghazi, Libya.

Here are the facts and context behind several high-profile claims in Monday's speeches.

Chaos erupted on the floor on the first day of the Republican National Committee in Cleveland, as forces opposed to Donald Trump tried — and failed — to make one last stand.

Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack brought up the Rules Committee report, which would keep delegates bound to Trump. Anti-Trump forces began shouting and wanting a roll call vote in a last-ditch effort to unbind GOP delegates and let them vote their "conscience."

Clayton Allen, 21, walked right up to the 8-foot fence surrounding the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

He drove from Kentucky and he stood out from the crowd because he had a handgun strapped to his hip.

"I open-carry all the time," Allen said. "The Republican convention would not be the exception."

The Democrats on Friday released an outline of their upcoming convention, and one of the main goals appears to be showing off the party's unity after a long primary fight.

After a divisive primary season between presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the convention schedule includes a speech from Sanders on the first night, Monday, July 25. That night's theme is "United Together" — indeed, of the four nights' themes, three include the word "together."

Getting to next week's Republican National Convention in Cleveland has become more of a burden than some delegates were expecting. For one thing, some of them had no idea they'd be on the hook for the whole cost of casting a vote for their candidate.

One such delegate is Rita Gaus, who lives out among the cornfields and wind turbines about two hours south of Chicago in Buckingham, Ill. Gaus and her husband are dog breeders, something that started out as a hobby but has turned into a full-time gig on their family farm.