An overblown Republican National Convention Celebration to be held in Jacksonville, Florida has been canceled

On July 16, 2020 I blogged about Is the 2020 Republican National Convention still being held in Charlotte? Yes and no. They had moved part, a Celebration, to Jacksonville. In an earlier post on June 7, 2020 I quoted an angry June 2, 2020 tweet from President Trump on why he had decided to move the Celebration elsewhere (having been told he could not fill up the arena):  

“Had long planned to have the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, a place I love. Now NC Governor Roy Cooper and his representatives refuse to guarantee that we can have use of the Spectrum Arena – Spend millions of dollars, have everybody arrive, and then tell them they will not be able to gain entry. Governor Cooper is still in Shelter-In-Place Mode, and not allowing us to occupy the arena as originally anticipated and promised. Would have showcased beautiful North Carolina to the World and brought in hundreds of millions of dollars, and jobs for the State. Because of NC Governor we are now forced to seek another State to host the 2020 Republican National Convention.”

But in July there were concerns whether security could be provided, given a lack of detailed plans. An article by Alana Wise at NPR on July 20, 2020 said Florida sheriff warns that officers unable to provide security for RNC.

Then on July 23, 2020 the President announced that celebration was canceled, as shown above in a Fox News video. The official text  has a long-winded explanation that says:

“And I wanted to come out again today to share some additional news with you: This afternoon my political team came to me and laid out our plans for the convention in Jacksonville, Florida. It’s a place I love. I love that state. The drawings look absolutely beautiful. I never thought we could have something look so good, so fast with everything going on. And everything was going well – a tremendous list of speakers; thousands of people wanting to be there – and I mean, in some cases, desperately be there. They wanted to attend. People making travel arrangements all over the country; they wanted to be there. The pageantry, the signs, the excitement were really, really top of the line.

But I looked at my team, and I said, ‘The timing for this event is not right. It’s just not right with what’s happened recently – the flare up in Florida – to have a big convention. It’s not the right time.’

It’s really something that, for me – I have to protect the American people. That’s what I’ve always done. That’s what I always will do. That’s what I’m about.

They said, ‘Sir, we can make this work very easily. We have great enthusiasm. Incredible enthusiasm. Even the polls say about the most enthusiasm they’ve seen. We can do this safely, and we can do it responsibly.’

And I said, ‘There’s nothing more important in our country than keeping our people safe, whether that’s from the China virus or the radical-left mob that you see in Portland’ – where I want to thank Homeland Security and others in law enforcement for doing a fantastic job over the last few days. They went in, and people were out of control for 51 days – a long time. And Homeland Security and other law enforcement with us went in, and they’ve done a great job protecting our property – the federal courthouse and other property – and, most importantly protecting our people. Or the senseless violence that you see in Chicago or New York or Detroit – a lot of other cities where so many people are shot, and so many people are killed. And people elected me to help and to protect.

So, I told my team. ‘It’s time to cancel the Jacksonville, Florida, component of the GOP convention.’ We’ll be starting in North Carolina for the Monday, as has always been planned. We were never taking that off. That’s remaining as it is. The delegates are going to get together. That’s where they’ll do their nomination. So, the delegates are going to North Carolina, and they’ll be doing the nomination. And we’re going to do some other things with tele-rallies and online – the week that we’re discussing, which will be really good. I think we’re going to do it well. And I’ll still do a convention speech in a different form, but we won’t do a big, crowded convention per se. It’s just not the right time for that.

I care deeply about the people of Florida and everywhere else, frankly, in this country – and even in the world – who would be coming into the state, and I don’t want to do anything to upset lt. They’ll be doing very well very shortly. We’re going to put up some maps up of the country behind me, and you’ll see that the area that we’re talking about is a hotspot. You will also see a lot of the country is – has no problem whatsoever- most of the country, actually. So, I’m always going to take care of you, so that’s the way we’re going to do it.

I’ve spoken to Governor DeSantis and informed other political leaders. I want to thank the Jacksonville community, and its great mayor. He’s a great - great guy. Really great guy. They wanted it so badly. And all of the other political representatives in Jacksonville and in Florida. And just very special people – a very special group. And they were there for us, 100 percent.”

So The China Virus (right next to Roy Cooper) now is the culprit for the very latest Wheel of Blame.To me the description looks like a fairy tale about a 'pipe dream' that  had never really come together. When I looked on the convention web site I found no tremendous list of speakers, or even details of precisely what would occur (or where) on August 24 to 27. The web page about the convention only had promised “a five-star convention celebration.”

An article by Jim Morrill in the The Charlotte Observer on July 24, 2020 is titled After Trump cancels Jacksonville events, RNC is back where it was – in Charlotte.

Now that it is scaled down and back in Charlotte, it hardly can still be described as a five-star event. As shown above with my reimagined newest logo, it is down to two stars (and no blue queen crown). Instead of trumpeting with his trunk raised the elephant now has his head down (and his tail between his legs).  

During another event described in Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing on COVID-19 July 27, 2020 (in Morrisville, North Carolina) the president got the following question (which simply could have been answered with either a yes or a no):

QUESTION  Zachary Eanes from the Raleigh News & Observer. Now that you’ve canceled the Jacksonville portion of the RNC, do you think Governor Cooper made the right choice in limiting attendance in Charlotte?

But instead we got this non-reply:

THE PRESIDENT Well, we’re actually coming to North Carolina, as you know. We’re having a very major – I guess that would be the nomination night, so that’s Monday. That’ll be Monday – they’re going to be here. And the rest we’ll do in a different form. We could’ve done it many different ways, but I think we did the right thing. And I’m really happy that we’re going to be having a piece of it at least - and a very important piece - in North Carolina.”

The pipe dream bubble image was adapted from a 1902 Puck magazine cover I found at the Library of Congress.