Nation & World Glance
Trump says GOP is pulling convention from N.C.
RALEIGH, N.C. — President Donald Trump announced Tuesday night that he is seeking a new state to host this summer’s Republican National Convention after North Carolina refused to guarantee the event could be held in Charlotte without restrictions because of ongoing concerns over the coronavirus.
Trump announced the news via tweet, complaining the state’s governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, and other officials “refuse to guarantee that we can have use of the Spectrum Arena” and were not “allowing us to occupy the arena as originally anticipated and promised.”
“Because of @NC--Governor, we are now forced to seek another State to host the 2020 Republican National Convention,” he wrote.
Trump and the Republican National Committee had been demanding that the convention be allowed to move forward with a full crowd and no face coverings — raising alarms in a state that is facing an upward trend in its virus cases, with about 29,900 cumulative cases and 900 deaths as of Tuesday. Around 700 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized. Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, accounted for 4,500 cases — more than double the next-highest county — and nearly 100 deaths.
“We have been committed to a safe RNC convention in North Carolina and it’s unfortunate they never agreed to scale down and make changes to keep people safe,” Cooper tweeted in response to the decision. “Protecting public health and safety during this pandemic is a priority.”
Tropical Storm Cristobal forms, flood threat for Mexico
MEXICO CITY — Tropical Storm Cristobal formed in the southern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, bringing some flooding to Mexico’s southern Gulf coast and threatening more deadly inundations farther inland.
Cristobal was the earliest third named storm of an Atlantic hurricane season on record; in 2016, Tropical Storm Colin formed in the Gulf on June 5.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Cristobal was now expected to dip inland along the Mexican coast near the low-lying, flood-prone city of Ciudad del Carmen and meander there for a couple of days. That could pump a huge amount of water into coastal lagoons behind the city.
Police in Campeche state, where Ciudad del Carmen is located, said they have already closed several highways because of flooding.
By Friday, the storm is expected to make a northward turn and head towards the U.S. Gulf coast, where the Hurricane Center said “there is a risk of storm surge, rainfall, and wind impacts this weekend along portions of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Texas to the Florida Panhandle.”
Iowa voters oust Rep. King, shunned for insensitive remarks
DES MOINES, Iowa — Republicans in northwest Iowa ousted Rep. Steve King in Tuesday’s primary, deciding they’ve had enough of the conservative lightning rod known for making incendiary comments about immigrants and white supremacy throughout his nearly two decades in Congress.
The nine-term congressman, shunned by his party leadership in Washington and many of his longtime supporters at home, lost to well-funded state Sen. Randy Feenstra in a five-way GOP primary. The challengers argued that King’s loss of clout, even more than his continuous string of provocative and raciallycharged statements, was reason enough for turning on him.
“I said from day one that Iowans deserve a proven, effective conservative leader that will deliver results and I have done that in the Iowa Senate, being in the Iowa Legislature for the last 12 years, and I promise you I will deliver results in Congress,” Feenstra said during a Facebook Live appearance with his family behind him.
Iowa Democrats also chose a challenger for Republican freshman Sen. Joni Ernst in a race earlier thought to heavily favor Ernst until her approval shrank over the past year. Des Moines businesswoman Theresa Greenfield, who raised the most money and garnered the widest cross-section of the Iowa Democratic coalition of elected officials and labor unions, won the nomination over three others.
Biden sweeps all 7 presidential primaries
Joe Biden has scored a clean sweep of the seven states conducting Democratic presidential primaries on Tuesday, not at all a surprise given that the presumptive Democratic nominee has no active opposition.
Yet the delegate haul is important to Biden’s goal of gaining enough delegates to claim the Democratic nomination before the party’s summer convention. Tuesday’s results may leave Biden just short of the 1,991 delegates he needs, but primaries next week in Georgia and West Virginia could put him over the top.
Of Tuesday’s elections, Pennsylvania’s could add the most delegates to Biden’s count. He also won contests in Maryland, Indiana, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Montana and South Dakota.