The Republican National Committee will still need to hold an official part of the contract in Charlotte due to contractual agreements. However, the executive aspects of the contract, including the speech of the President, will take place in another city.
An RNC official told CNN that “it will not happen in Charlotte the night when the president accepts the nomination”.
Two sources with information seem to be not the final decision. However, sources say that there have been tense conversations between RUB and the governor’s office within the past 48 hours before the deadline Trump imposed on Wednesday.
The apparent move comes after tense negotiations between Republic officials and North Carolina Government Roy Cooper’s office officials. Over the past two weeks, Trump began targeting Cooper on the Congress drama, a strategy in which Republicans said they were considering turning the Democrat governor into a scapegoat if Congress couldn’t continue as planned due to the coronavirus.
The president tweeted Cooper, “is still in In-Place Housing Mode and does not allow us to invade the arena as originally expected and promised. It would showcase beautiful North Carolina to the world and bring hundreds of millions of dollars and works for the state.”
“Because of @NC_Governor, we now had to look for another State to host the 2020 Republican National Convention,” he said.
Now the plan is to carry Trump’s speech and other events in another city.
Another Republican official said, “The President’s celebration of his Republican candidacy acceptance will be held in another city, because of the directive that our governor cannot continue as planned, as required by our rules.” “If the governor allows more than 10 people in a room, we still hope to run the official business of the Charlotte contract.”
“We are obliged to go to Charlotte depending on the contract,” one official said, adding that “the business of the contract” should be in this city. However, since this is not officially defined, RNC officials are still working to determine which part of the contract should still take place in Charlotte.
This official states that this was a direct result of Cooper’s final letter, which RNC says should plan to “contract a contract with fewer people”.
“We are getting smaller because it tells us,” the official said.
Cooper wrote in a letter to Republican National Committee President Ronna McDaniel and Congressional CEO Marcia Lee Kelly, that he wants to continue talking to the organizers, but unless they offer a very different plan, Charlotte’s chance to host the August event is “very low”.
“The people of North Carolina do not know what the condition of COVID-19 will be in August, so it is an imperative to plan a scale scaled with fewer people, social distances and face covering.” “We are happy to continue talking to you about what a scaled contract will look like, and we are still waiting for your proposed plan for it.”
After Trump’s tweet, Cooper said it was “unfortunate” and no deal was made.
Unexpected planning has come to the point where party officials are planning to travel to Nashville this week for the discovery of possible venues, and sources said they may travel to other sites in the near future. Both Nashville and Las Vegas were potential host cities before the Republicans officially chose Charlotte.
President McDaniel acknowledged that after the letter from Cooper, the Republicans followed alternative places.
“We hope to continue the work of our convention in Charlotte, but to our delegates and candidates, America is open for business in recent days,” he says.
McDaniel also accused Cooper of “dragging his feet” to guide the planners.
Before Cooper’s response, Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens said, “As we have said from the beginning, we are determined to keep our contract in Charlotte, but we still expect Governor Cooper to approve the contract. Initially the contract can still be held there.”
Planned trips, first reported by Politico, are an open attempt by Republicans to show that they are serious about withdrawing from the Charlotte contract.
Despite the pressure, Cooper, who is about to be re-elected in November, did not move from the position where the pandemic situation would determine whether the Republicans could fully meet in Charlotte.
“We’re talking about something going to happen three months later, and we don’t know what our situation with Covid-19 in North Carolina will be,” Cooper said last week. Said. “As the number one thing we try to do here, we want to make a decision that anyone who reveals public health, safety, science, and facts can be reasonable.”
Cooper’s office did not immediately respond to questions about expeditions planned from CNN.
Where Republicans held a face-to-face meeting, largely unchanged, the Democrats were clear that the event could be changed significantly or be completely virtual. Milwaukee contracts moved from mid-July to mid-August due to April coronavirus concerns.
This story and its title were updated on Tuesday night with additional improvements.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Paul LeBlanc contributed to this report.
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