How To Stream The Republican National Convention

It's not exactly the Oscars or the Grammys, but this is certainly a party (uh, of sorts) that you'll want to tune into. The Republican National Convention is upon us, and though many of the GOP leaders are staying far, far away, July 18 will kick off several days of Donald Trump's debutante ball. If nothing else, it'll be informing to see how he would handle things if he were, gulp, in charge of the United States. So how can you stream the Republican National Convention?

Although Republicans have consistently been cited for not keeping up with technology as well as Democrats, they've proven that in 2016, they're willing to get into the tech game. Want to watch speeches and get 360-degree video from the RNC? There's an app for that. RNC 2016, available now on iOS and Android, will provide live coverage from the convention, along with maps and schedules for those who are actually in attendance.

If you don't feel like watching from your smartphone or tablet, you can turn into ABC's live streams, which will have both "gavel-to-gavel" live coverage and takeaways and "Strait Talk" analysis from Matthew Dowd and LZ Granderson, along with interviews from the convention.

If you prefer to listen, rather than watch Donald Trump's eerily solid hairdo bounce around, NPR is partnering with PBS for coverage of the RNC, too.

As I mentioned, many of the party's leaders won't be in attendance this year. Mitt Romney, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have already announced that they won't be journeying to Cleveland; former presidents George W. and H.W. Bush also said that they'd sit this one out. Still, there is plenty of interesting stuff to watch out for.

For example, how will Ted Cruz, who once insulted Donald Trump almost as thoroughly as Trump insulted him (and everyone else), be able to speak at the convention with a straight face? This week, Cruz accepted Trump's invitation to speak at the RNC, but he was quick to add that this didn't mean he was going to be endorsing the presumptive GOP nominee.

Other speakers include basically the entire Trump family. Melania, Ivanka, and the Trump boys all have speaking slots confirmed for the RNC. Talk about a family affair. But that's what family is for, I guess: When no one else wants to hang out with you, they're still forced to.