Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are working closely with the Republican National Committee to ensure that President Donald Trump's convention speech goes well and that their portion of the RNC convention is a "great event to show that their state is open" and that America is open for business," RNC Chairman Ronna McDaniel said Friday.
"We are obviously going to put safety checks in place to make sure the convention goers are safe, but we are going to have a packed arena," McDaniel said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
"We are going to recognize the renomination of our president as we go on to reelect him in November."
McDaniel pointed out that the business end of the convention will remain in Charlotte, NC, but that Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper "refused to work with us."
"The governor has said time and time again that we need to scale back our convention and that we could only have 10 people in any given room," she said. "We have worked in good faith with the host committee and with Mayor Vi Lyles. We wanted to be in Charlotte. We want to bring as much revenue to that city as possible. We had to scale it back."
However, there has been no decision about making convention-goers sign releases that would keep them from suing anyone involved with the events should they end up contracting COVID-19, like have been included in Trump's upcoming MAGA rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"We have 74 days to plan a whole new celebration in a different city," said McDaniel. "Of course, we want to put the safety of convention-goers first and foremost. We will be working with the president team, with the secret service in the state of Florida to make sure that takes place."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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