US president Donald Trump will travel to Charlotte, North Carolina on Monday for the first day of the Republican National Convention, ahead of his nomination as the party's candidate in November's election later this week.
Republicans are holding their convention a week after Democrats opened their virtual-only affair last week culminating with the nomination of Joe Biden as the party's presidential candidate.
As was the case for Democrats, coronavirus has severely curtailed the scale and scope of the convention, traditionally the high point in an election year. But Republicans have said they intend to hold more in-person events than Democrats, promising a “hybrid” event rather than a virtual-only gathering.
The gathering will begin today with the traditional “roll-call” whereby delegates announce their choice of candidate.
Six delegates representing each state will announce their candidates in person, and both Mr Trump and vice-president Mike Pence are expected to make an appearance.
But the vast majority of the convention will take place in Washington and virtually, culminating with Mr Trump’s acceptance speech from the White House on Thursday night.
Mr Trump criticised the decision of Democrats not to hold a significant part of their convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last week as planned.
“Biden and the Democrats have greatly disrespected the Great State of Wisconsin by not even paying a small visit to Milwaukee, the designated site of the DNC. The State & City worked very hard to make sure things would be good. Not nice. Vote Trump Wisconsin!” he tweeted.
Criticised
Mr Trump won the state in 2016 and his rival Hillary Clinton was strongly criticised in the aftermath of the election for not visiting the state once during her campaign.
Mr Trump is expected to focus much of his message this week on trying to discredit Joe Biden, whose speech on Thursday night received a very positive reception, even from traditional Trump allies such as Fox News.
Tweeting on Saturday, Mr Trump wrote: “Why would Suburban Women vote for Biden and the Democrats when Democrat run cities are now rampant with crime (and they aren’t asking the Federal Government for help) which could easily spread to the suburbs, and they will reconstitute, on steroids, their low income suburbs plan!” His comment comes as polls show that Mr Trump is losing significant support among suburban middle class women voters, with just 10 weeks until the election.
Among those expected to speak at the convention this week are former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and House minority leader Kevin McCarthy.
Democrats are also planning a “counter-programme” of events throughout the week, with senior figures such as House speaker Nancy Pelosi and senator Cory Booker among those participating.
Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives returned to Washington on Saturday for an emergency debate and vote on the US postal service, amid ongoing concern that November’s election could be marred by problems with mail-in voting.
Postmaster-general Louis De Joy, a Trump donor who was appointed by the president to lead the postal service earlier this year, appeared before a Senate committee on Friday, and will testify before the House Oversight Committee on Monday.
Emergency funding
On Saturday, the full House of Representatives voted by 257 to 150 – largely on party lines – to approve $25 billion in emergency funding for the post office and to suspend any operational changes to the service. However, the Senate has no plans to vote on a similar package. Mr Trump urged Republicans to vote against the legislation ahead of the vote, though 25 Republicans broke with their party and voted for the Bill. “Vote NO to the Pelosi/ Schumer money wasting HOAX which is taking place now,” the president tweeted, shortly after returning to the White House from his golf course in Virginia.
Mr DeJoy bowed to pressure last week and said he would postpone any proposed changes to the postal service until after November’s election. But during his Senate testimony on Friday he said that changes that had begun to be implemented before he took over in June would remain.
Mr Trump also criticised the potential use of mail-drop boxes, which would avoid the need for people to use the regular postal service. “So now the Democrats are using Mail Drop Boxes, which are a voter security disaster,” he tweeted on Sunday. “Among other things, they make it possible for a person to vote multiple times. Also, who controls them, are they placed in Republican or Democrat areas? They are not Covid sanitized. A big fraud!”
However, officials say the steel structures are safe and not susceptible to fraud.
Twitter subsequently placed a “public interest notice” on the tweet for “making misleading health claims that could potentially dissuade people from participation in voting”.
