We have reporters and photographers in Cleveland starting today both inside the Quicken Arena and outside. They'll start filing reports today, although photographer CP photographer Aaron Petan did file some images from the event's first day.  

The Los Angeles Times reported that the first day of the RNC was a fairly peaceful one with only  two arrests and one was for an outstanding warrant. Petan did catch this image of a woman being detained by police, but it's unclear if this is one of the arrests on the Cleveland PD's tally sheet.


While this Washington Post columnist was deeply in love with Melania Trump's night one speech, others, including other journalists at the same newspaper, remarked how much they liked it the first time they heard it — from Michelle Obama in 2008. 


Earlier this morning, Donald Trump's campaign, apparently deciding not to let the truth start screwing things up now, denied that Melania Trump plagiarized any part of Obama's speech calling the claims "just really absurd," according to CNN. 


"To think that she would do something like that knowing how scrutinized her speech was going to be last night is just really absurd," Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort told CNN's Chris Cuomo on New Day. 


Who are we to pass judgment on this issue. Oh yeah, we're the media! But don't take our word for it, give it a look for yourself from CNN:




Politico is calling the convention's first day "disastrous," citing poor scheduling and an attempt to portray this country as a "dark and dystopian portrait of an America in decline" without any signs of "signs of outreach across the aisle or to independents. For most of the night, the convention lineup felt and sounded more like a Tea Party rally on the statehouse steps — with little-known speakers delivering hardline speeches — than a traditional national convention."

And it's kind of hard to say they're too wrong. The day started out with anti-Trump Republicans causing a commotion on the convention floor.
USA Today says there weren't as many protests on the first day as organizers and police thought they would be on the first day, but that doesn't mean it wasn't interesting. A group of armed men calling themselves the West Ohio Minutemen walked through downtown openly carrying rifles and pistols, as is supported by Ohio law, despite Cleveland PD's best attempts to keep it from happening.

"To be honest, we did not expect this kind of media attention," said minuteman Bryon Hennon, 37, a contractor from, Lima, Ohio, who was carrying a loaded 9 mm carbine. "There's a lot of demonization going around about people carrying guns and guns in general, and not everybody who open carries ... has an evil agenda. You don't have to be afraid. It's part of our society. It's always going to be part of our society."

10 armed men (West Ohio Minutemen - not police) are in Cleveland to "make sure everyone is safe, including police." pic.twitter.com/d9tRJi6vMw

— Natalie DiBlasio (@ndiblasio) July 18, 2016

Finally as we move into Day 2, there's no telling what the day holds. We will be running a live blog throughout the day from events around the city of Cleveland. So, while we wait for chaos, please enjoy this adorable photo of baby bunnies living in my garden.