Trump slowly concedes the GOP convention will have to be different this year
After a venue change, spiking coronavirus cases and a sharp recession, Trump aides and allies are increasingly questioning whether it's worth the trouble, and some are advocating that the convention be scrapped altogether. Conventions are meant to lay out a candidate's vision for the coming four years, not spark months of intrigue over the health and safety of attendees, they have argued.
But privately, concerns are mounting, and plans are being drawn up to further scale back the event or even shift it to entirely virtual. Officials who weeks ago had looked for the convention to be a celebration of the nation's vanquishing of the virus now see it as a potent symbol of the pandemic's persistence.
Organizers now plan to provide COVID-19 testing to all attendees daily, conduct frequent temperature checks and offer face coverings. Even so, Trump aides and allies fear that the entire spectacle will be overshadowed by attendee concerns and already heightened media scrutiny on the potential for the convention to be a “super-spreading” event.
Despite the economic downturn, GOP officials insist they will have the financial resources needed to hold the convention. Vice-President Mike Pence flew to Florida on Saturday to hold a fundraiser for the event. A Saturday rally in New Hampshire that was meant to be the president's second attempt at a return to campaign travel was called off on Friday, ostensibly because of weather concerns from then-Tropical Storm Fay. But aides acknowledged they also were worried about attracting enough of a crowd to fill the Portsmouth aircraft hangar.
“I'm not going to go, and I'm not going to go because of the virus situation,” 86-year-old Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said on a conference call with Iowa reporters last week.
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