Trump axes party’s Florida convention
JACKSONVILLE: President Donald Trump sought to revive his sagging campaign by cancelling the multi-day convention for his party to nominate him for a second term as Florida, the host state, posted record deaths from the coronavirus.
Mr Trump has been battered by polls showing that the public disapproves of his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic that has crashed the economy, infected four million Americans and killed 146,000.
On Thursday, a Quinnipiac University survey showed Democratic nominee Joe Biden leading Mr Trump by 13 percentage points in Florida, the president’s adopted home state and a crucial electoral battleground.
“I told my team it’s time to cancel the Jacksonville, Florida component of the GOP convention,” Mr Trump said on Thursday at the White House. “We didn’t want to take any chances.”
The US President began to treat the virus more seriously this week, offering daily news conferences where he encouraged people to wear masks after disdaining them for months, and acknowledging the seriousness of the virus after minimising its impact.
Mr Trump had insisted for months that he would still hold his convention extravaganza despite worries that the gathering could become a super-spreader event. The Republican National Committee decided on June 11 to move the convention from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida, after Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina refused to waive socialdistancing and other measures to prevent contagion.
But just as preparations for the Florida event got underway, that state was hit with a surge of infections and now is one of the country’s hardest-hit areas, with a total so far of 389,868 confirmed cases — about 1.8% of the state’s population — and the number growing by an average of more than 10,000 cases a day. The state posted a record 173 deaths on Thursday.
Mr Trump, who thrives on the large crowds that attend his rallies, was clearly looking forward to an event that would give his campaign a boost of enthusiasm.
He tried that with a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June, his only one so far since the pandemic began in March. The event was only filled to about onethird of capacity and numerous people, including state officials, became ill.
Democrats scaled back their convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, earlier this summer, dispensing with the full pageantry and celebration that normally marks the nomination of a presidential candidate. The Democratic National Committee is allowing delegates to vote remotely and most of the speeches, except for Mr Biden’s acceptance speech, which will be livestreamed. Mr Biden will speak in Milwaukee but before a limited audience.
“Unlike Trump, we followed the science, listened to doctors and public health experts, and worked through plans to protect lives,” Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said in a statement after the President’s announcement.
The Republicans, urged on by Mr Trump, had persisted in planning a full convention right up until his announcement at his daily coronavirus briefing on Thursday.
He offered few details of how the GOP virtual event would work, except to say there would be a “reasonably quick meeting in North Carolina.”
“We’ll figure it out,” he said.