Will The GOP Keep Its Convention Just to Show The Party Is Tougher Than the Dems?

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Could the political conventions this summer turn into a weird test of courage vs. caution in this unprecedented era of the coronavirus?

The day after Democrats announced their Milwaukee convention may be scaled back or even conducted online, Lara Trump said the planned GOP confab in Charlotte, N.C., is full speed ahead.

“We don’t plan on canceling our convention. We plan on going ahead with it,” said President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law on a telephone news conference Tuesday with journalists in battleground states.

The Democrats’ gathering — already moved from its original July date — is now set for Aug 17-20. The Republican convention is scheduled for the following week.

The president told Sean Hannity in late March the GOP convention will be held as scheduled regardless of the coronavirus.

“Somebody was asking today, ‘Will you cancel your convention?’ I said no way I’m going to cancel the convention. We’re going to have the convention, it’s going to be incredible,” Trump told the Fox host.

The Democrats’ convention rules committee was to vote Tuesday on a measure “to participate in the convention in person or by means that allow for appropriate social distancing.”

Lara Trump, a senior adviser to the campaign, and regional communications director Rick Gorka were on the half-hour call.

She said the virus has not affected the efficiency of the reelection effort, which includes the largest field and data operation in GOP history.

“Just because we switched everything virtual doesn’t mean we have slowed down at all,” Lara Trump said.

The campaign has signed up 300,000 volunteers and made 20 million voter contacts since the pandemic hit, she said.

“The Trump campaign never skipped a beat.”

Lara Trump criticized the public pledge of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden to choose a female running mate.

“As a woman I think it’s been a little ridiculous to do a blanket statement and say ‘I’m choosing a woman’ rather than saying ‘I’m going to choose the best person, and if it happens to be a woman, that’s great,’” she said.

“This seems to be a standard pandering effort on the part of the Democratic Party to attract women to vote for Joe Biden. … Those sorts of tactics I don’t think are effective. I think by saying something like that, you actually turn off a lot of women. Women are very smart.”

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