Trump cancels in-person Republican convention events in Florida

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he had cancelled segments of the Republican National Convention scheduled for Florida next month, citing a “flare-up” of the coronavirus in the state.

“The timing for this event is not right,” Trump said in a White House news briefing. “It’s just not right with what’s happened recently, the flare-up in Florida.”

Trump moved parts of the GOP convention to Florida last month amid a dispute with North Carolina’s Democratic leaders over holding an event indoors with mask-less supporters. But those plans were steadily scaled back as virus cases spiked in Florida and much of the country over the last month.

A small subset of GOP delegates will still gather in Charlotte, North Carolina for just four hours to formally renominate Trump on August 24. Those delegates were to be flown to Jacksonville after voting to attend a number of in-person events planned around the city, many of them at outside venues, but those events will now be replaced with what Trump called “tele-rallies” or online events.

Trump said he would deliver an acceptance speech in an alternate form, potentially online.

Trump said thousands of his supporters and delegates wanted to attend the events in Florida, but “I just felt it was wrong” to attract them to a virus hotspot. Some of them would have faced quarantine requirements when they returned to their home states from the convention.

“We didn’t want to take any chances,” he said.

In recent weeks, Trump aides and allies have encouraged the president to consider calling off the convention, advising him it was not worth going forward with the event if the focus would be on the pandemic. Trump acknowledged that consideration, saying, “I could see the media saying, ‘Oh, this is very unsafe’.”

More than 10,000 people were expected in Jacksonville – already a fraction of the number that would attend a normal convention. Only 336 delegates will be allowed to participate in Charlotte under extraordinary procedures approved last month by the Republican National Committee. The balance of the more than 2,500 delegates will vote by proxy.

Democrats will hold an almost entirely virtual convention August 17 to 20 in Milwaukee using live broadcasts and online streaming, according to party officials. Joe Biden plans to accept the presidential nomination in person, but it remains to be seen whether there will be a significant in-person audience.