Trump Threatens to Pull GOP Convention From NC

President Trump is threatening to pull the Republican National Convention out of North Carolina unless the governor can "immediately" guarantee that delegates will be allowed to fill the arena in Charlotte. Trump complained in a series of tweets Monday that Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is still in "shutdown mode" and the party could be spending "millions of dollars building the Arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat Governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space," CBS reports. He said that without the guarantee, "we will be reluctantly forced to find, with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site."

The threat "completely blindsided" GOP officials, who had promised that health concerns would come first in planning for the Aug. 24-27 convention at the 20,000-capacity Spectrum Center, CNN reports. Cooper says that as with any other large event, the state will make decisions about the convention based on science, not politics. "This is not political. This is not emotional. This is based on health experts, data, and science and that's it for everybody to see," he says. "No one is being favored or disfavored over the other." Vice President Mike Pence said Monday that Trump's position was "very reasonable." He suggested that Florida, Texas, or Georgia could be alternative locations. (More Republican National Convention stories.)