Nominee Won't Be at Democratic Convention

'We don't want to risk anyone's health for this'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 5, 2020 11:42 AM CDT
Biden Won't Go to Milwaukee to Accept Nomination
Joe Biden speaks with members of the audience as he leaves a campaign event at the William "Hicks" Anderson Community Center in Wilmington, Del., Tuesday, July 28, 2020.   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Speakers—including Joe Biden—will no longer be traveling to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, officials say. Organizers, who were already planning a mostly virtual convention from Aug. 17 to 20, say they made the decision after speaking to public health officials in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports. "The fear of community spread in Milwaukee, with media, production teams, and party officials was just getting to be too much," a senior Democratic official tells CNN. "We don't want to risk anyone's health for this." Biden will now accept the nomination from his home in Delaware.

"While we wish we could move forward with welcoming the world to beautiful Milwaukee in two weeks, we recognize protecting the health of our host community and everyone involved with this convention must be paramount," convention chief executive Joe Solomonese said in a statement. President Trump, meanwhile, confirmed Wednesday that he will "probably" accept the Republican nomination at the White House instead of the party convention in Charlotte, NC, on Aug. 27, NBC reports. "We're thinking about doing it from the White House because there's no movement, it's easy, and I think it's a beautiful setting," the president told Fox & Friends.

(More Democratic National Convention stories.)

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