White House Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Friday that President Trump canceling the Republican National Convention, scheduled to take place next month in Jacksonville, Fla., was a “good decision.”
“It’s no secret around the White House how I and my fellow task force members feel about the issue of congregating in crowds. I believe he and others in the White house have heard us speak about that so I would hope that that maybe would have some influence in the decision,” Fauci told “America’s Newsroom.”
“Not only a decision about that but as you can see the president has come around now about wearing a mask and has actually been recommending it so I think we’re moving in a positive direction in that regard,” Fauci said.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES JACKSONVILLE PART OF GOP CONVENTION WILL BE CANCELED
Trump explained his decision to cancel the Republican National Convention events that were scheduled to take place next month in Jacksonville, Fla., in an exclusive interview on “Hannity” Thursday.
Citing the rising numbers of COVID-19 in the state, Trump told Sean Hannity that he is “setting an example” with the last-minute change, which he hopes will encourage citizens to practice social distancing.
“It’s really the China virus, call it COVID, call it any one of a lot of different names,” Trump said, “but we are setting an example. We don’t want to have people so close together.”
Trump announced the cancellation during a press briefing at the White House earlier Thursday, telling reporters that “the timing for this event is… just not right.”
The Republican National Committee (RNC) last month chose Jacksonville to host major portions of the convention, after largely abandoning the city of Charlotte, N.C., over disagreements on coronavirus-related crowd restrictions.
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“You’re seeing an evolution of the realization of the reality of what’s going on and, I think, he is adjusting to that right now and acting accordingly,” Fauci said.
“I’m very, in many respects, positively responding to that because that’ll set a good example to the rest of the country,” Fauci said.
The Republican Party of Florida tweeted that Trump “made a selfless decision by canceling the FL component of @GOP Convention.”
Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
