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Trump threatens to move Republican National Convention out of North Carolina

President Trump threatens to move the Republican National Convention out of North Carolina if Governor Roy Cooper does not lift restrictions to allow 'full attendance' at the event.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: I want to switch to the latest coming out of DC, and of course, that's President Trump. Right now, he's threatening to pull the Republican National Convention out of Charlotte, North Carolina. He has accused the governor of being in, quote, "shutdown mood" over the weekend. Rick Newman has the latest for us. And Rick, what does this mean just for what we could expect to see play out before the convention in August?

RICK NEWMAN: Well, it's fun to contemplate the consequences and the implications of this. So the-- so North Carolina is a swing state. It is in play, and it has a Democratic governor and the legislature is controlled by Republicans. So let's say President Trump ends up being the dog that catches the car and he actually does cancel the Republican convention. What does he do next, and how does that affect voters in North Carolina?

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I honestly have no idea, but I'm not sure it would necessarily benefit Trump if he told North Carolina, OK, we're leaving. We're not we're not happy with a socially distanced convention. We're not going to wear masks the way your public health authorities tell us to do. We're just going to split. We're going to go to Florida or Texas or someplace like that. That would be a really interesting factor for voters to parse out.

And then the other question is what if they do have the convention, but it's-- you know, it-- but it's a full-blown convention where everybody's there and shoulder to shoulder and then people get sick? You know, would that reflect badly on Trump? Would that cost him votes in North Carolina? Would it gain him votes because he looks courageous in the face of this terrifying virus? I really have no idea. It's just a fun political drama to think about.

SEANA SMITH: Rick, what about a virtual convention? I guess, is that under consideration at all?

RICK NEWMAN: You know what, it seems as if President Trump just thinks that would be too wimpy. I mean, he has pretty much pointed out that he is not abiding by all the restrictions that many of the rest of us have to. He has never worn a mask in public. I think at this point, he probably never will. He's kind of taking the tough guy approach. And I think it would be a defeat for Trump, basically, to have to show up at a virtual convention.

Now, I think the Democrats very well could do that. You could do that. The parties don't need for everybody to get-- you know, 30,000 or 40,000 people to get together all at once. They can do their business in some other way. You can find other ways to have TV events. These are not essential events.

But I think it would just look like a defeat and a failure for Trump if he cannot pull off a full-blown convention. And if you think about it, in a way, if the virus is still so bad that his own party cannot have a convention to nominate him and give him the big TV show-- you know, the big three day extravaganza that he wants on TV-- that is kind of a de facto defeat for Trump. So I think he's going to find a way to have it.

SEANA SMITH: Well, and then Rick, is there a timeline where they have to decide by, or is that something that's just arbitrary and left up to President Trump and the administration?

RICK NEWMAN: I don't know if there's a deadline. I think Trump was talking about August 1, the very beginning of August the state of North Carolina would have to commit. Yep, we're going to let you have full-blown convention with as many people as you want. I mean, you have to think about what that entails. That means packed hotels in Charlotte. I mean, it's not a big city. It means the restaurants would be packed because everybody has to eat, obviously, everybody crowded into the convention hall itself.

And Trump has drawn a line, basically. He's basically said, I'm either having a full convention in North Carolina, or I'm going someplace else. So there-- he is going to have to get it and then deal with any infections that happen there, or he might have to change his mind and back down or actually just, you know, pack up his-- take his ball and go to some other state.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, it will be interesting to see how all this plays out. We know President Trump doesn't really disappoint when it comes to that the theatrics around things. So it will be interesting--

RICK NEWMAN: Never.

SEANA SMITH: --to see what the final verdict is.