President Trump has just ramped up his threats about breaking the contract with Charlotte and moving the Republican National Convention if our state and city do not allow the Spectrum Center to “be allowed to be fully occupied”.
In a press conference today, the president told a reporter; “we need a fast decision from the governor, he’s been acting very, very slowly and very suspiciously. We’re talking about a very short period of time. It’s a massive expenditure, yeah. I would say within a week, certainly, we have to know.”
Yesterday morning, President Trump lashed out at the idea that his crowds might be reduced, tweeting a series of 4 tweets directed at North Carolina’s governor. He said RNC organizers “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…another Republican National Convention site.”
…full attendance in the Arena. In other words, we would be spending millions of dollars building the Arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat Governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space. Plans are being….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 25, 2020
…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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 25, 2020
Later in the afternoon our governor released the following statement:
Statement from Gov. Cooper’s spokesperson on today’s comments about the Republican National Convention: pic.twitter.com/xDuNWstqjQ
— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) May 25, 2020
Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, it was estimated that the RNC would draw more than 50,000 people, gathering at 1,000+ scheduled events in hundreds of locations around our city.
Recently, leaders have been questioning what changes might need to be made to keep attendees and our city safe, especially considering the North Carolina infections continue to spike (we saw our highest daily case count last Wednesday with 1,000 new cases, and again on Friday with an additional 1,600 new cases).
Last week, mayor Vi Lyles was interviewed by MSNBC’s Ali Velshi about the upcoming conference and if any changes will be made.
The mayor said:
“We have a contract with the RNC to host this convention, but we also have a commitment to our community that we will keep them safe and well, and that’s where we’re focused.
Our community thought that we’d be talking about protests and security and keeping people safe that way, and here we are fighting the unknown, COVID-19, and so we have to win that fight first.
We can’t go into this with just, ‘Well, we agreed to something in 2018 and we’re going to continue to do it,’ that is not the world today.”
What do you think about the decision?
Do you think the governor should allow full occupancy?