President Trump announced Thursday that he will cancel the Republican National Convention events that were scheduled for next month in Jacksonville, Florida, citing the increasing number of COVID-19 in the state.
“The timing for this event is not correct, it is simply not correct,” Trump said during a press conference at the White House. “To have a great convention, it just isn’t the right time.”
Trump added: “There is nothing more important in our country than keeping our people safe.”
The Republican National Committee (RNC) chose Jacksonville last month to host large portions of the convention, after largely abandoning the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, over disagreements over coronavirus-related crowd restrictions.
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The President and Republican officials were angered after Democratic Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina said that due to the pandemic he was not prepared to guarantee the RNC a full convention with an arena full of party officials, delegates and activists as Trump wishes.
While the Jacksonville portion of the convention has been canceled, Trump said delegates will still meet in North Carolina and that he will give a speech when he accepts the nomination.
The president’s announcement comes as Florida has become the latest epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
As of Thursday, the state had recorded more than 390,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including more than 9,000 in the past 24 hours, and more than 5,500 deaths.
After deciding to move the celebration aspects of the convention out of North Carolina, Jacksonville was likely attractive to Republican officials because it was the only city considered to support Charlotte that has a Republican mayor in a state with a same-party governor. .
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The RNC planned to hold parts of the Jacksonville convention at VyStar Stadium. But last week, when new coronavirus cases emerged in Florida, Republican Party officials announced that they were reducing events in Jacksonville by limiting the number of people who could attend the convention and move parts of the confab to outdoor venues. .
The downshift came shortly after the city enacted a mandatory mask requirement for indoor and public places.
But even after moving most of the convention to Florida, the RNC had always planned to hold some business aspects of the meeting in Charlotte.
But major primetime events, such as the acceptance speech for the president’s nomination, will likely move online.
“We are going to do some things with tele-meetings and online the week we are discussing, which would be really good. I think we will do well,” Trump said.
Democrats urge congressional party members not to attend the convention in person
Democrats have also dramatically shortened their convention.
The Democratic National Convention, which has been delayed for a month and is scheduled to begin on August 17, is still being held in Milwaukee.
But the Democratic National Committee announced last month that its meeting will be held primarily online, with delegates and Democratic members of Congress participating in the convention virtually rather than in person.
