Fox News contributor Dan Bongino and Jessica Tarlov react on ‘The Daily Briefing.’
President Trump announced Thursday that he is canceling the Republican National Convention events that were scheduled to take place next month in Jacksonville, Fla. – citing the rising numbers of COVID-19 in the state.
“The timing for this event is not right, it’s just not right,” Trump said during a press briefing at the White House. “To have a big convention, it’s just not the right time.”
Trump added: “There is nothing more important in our country than keeping our people safe.”
The Republican National Committee (RNC) last month chose Jacksonville to host major portions of the convention, after largely abandoning the city of Charlotte, N.C., over disagreements on coronavirus-related crowd restrictions.
The president and Republican officials were angered after Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, a Democrat, said that because of the pandemic he wasn’t prepared to guarantee the RNC a full-fledged convention with an arena packed full of party officials, delegates and activists as desired by Trump.
While the Jacksonville portion of the convention has been cancelled, Trump said that delegates will still meet in North Carolina and that he will give an address when he accepts the nomination.
The president’s announcement comes as Florida has become the most recent epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
As of Thursday, the state had recorded more than 390,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 – including more than 9,000 in the last 24 hours – and over 5,500 deaths.
This story is breaking. Check back for updates.
