Trump threatens to find new GOP convention site if North Carolina governor won't allow full attendance
Trump threatens to find new GOP convention site if North Carolina governor won't allow full attendance

By Marisa Schultz | Fox News

President Trump warned Monday that planners would be “reluctantly forced” to find a new site for the Republican National Convention if North Carolina’s governor can’t guarantee the party will be allowed “full attendance” at the event currently planned in the state’s largest city.

The convention has been planned for the week of Aug. 24 in Charlotte.

In a rapid-fire series of tweets, Trump complained that Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is in “Shutdown mood & unable to guarantee that by August we will be allowed … full attendance in the Arena.”

He continued: “[Planners] must be immediately given an answer by the Governor as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied. If not, we will be reluctantly forced … to find, with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site. This is not something I want to do. Thank you, and I LOVE the people of North Carolina!”

Trump complained that the party could be faced with the prospect of spending millions without knowing if they’d be allowed to host a full-scale event.

The Republican National Convention is scheduled to take place Aug. 24-27 in Charlotte. The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to take place a week earlier in Milwaukee after being rescheduled from July due to the coronavirus pandemic. Both parties have weighed how to proceed with their conventions amid health concerns, but the Republicans generally have been more insistent than their counterparts that an in-person party affair go on as planned.

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Earlier this month, Trump accused Cooper of “playing politics” with the phased reopening of North Carolina amid the coronavirus pandemic that would be “bad for them” if the convention had to be delayed.

A spokesperson for the governor said North Carolina was just following the White House guidance on safely reopening.

“As the Governor said, pandemics cannot be political,” spokeswoman Sadie Weiner told the Charlotte Observer earlier this month. “North Carolina is using the data and the science based on White House guidance to inform our three-phased approach to lifting restrictions. The health and safety of North Carolinians is the top priority as we battle COVID-19.”

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As the DNC wrestles with the decision of whether to settle for a virtual convention in three months or pack thousands in an indoor stadium in Milwaukee to formally nominate former Vice President Biden, Trump and the RNC have been committed to maintaining an in-person convention.

“We are fully committed to an in-person event in August,” a GOP convention official recently told Fox News. “We’re forging ahead as originally planned.”

RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told reporters last week that she’s not heard any safety concern from GOP delegates about attending the August convention in Charlotte.

McDaniel said the RNC was moving ahead but did note that the convention “is quite a ways away and there is ample to time for us to adjust if necessary.”

“We’re going to see how factors are on the ground and also get guidance from the mayor and the governor a little bit closer to the convention,” McDaniel said.

Fox News’ Judson Berger and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

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