CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Republican National Committee members voted to extend the party’s 2016 platform through 2024.
Members of the RNC’s executive committee voted in June to reuse the 2016 platform instead of crafting a new one due in part to the coronavirus pandemic, and Saturday’s vote made the platform extension official.
They cited logistical challenges because of the coronavirus pandemic that prevented all delegates from gathering at the 2020 national convention. Republicans opted to send a handful of delegates from each state to Charlotte for in-person party business on Friday through Monday.
“The RNC has unanimously voted to forego the Convention Committee on Platform, in appreciation of the fact that it did not want a small contingent of delegates formulating a new platform without the breadth of perspectives within the ever-growing Republican movement,” the resolution said. “The RNC, had the Platform Committee been able to convene in 2020, would have undoubtedly unanimously agreed to reassert the Party’s strong support for President Donald Trump and his Administration.”
Democrats did produce a new party platform this year despite the coronavirus pandemic, conducting the work of creating a new party platform virtually and via remote voting.
Trump is put in a somewhat awkward position with the extension of the platform because of its many negative references to the “current administration,” which referenced President Barack Obama’s administration when it was crafted.
The resolution takes swipes at the press, in an apparent reference to or anticipation of pushback to delegates not crafting a new platform when Democrats did, and the awkward phrasing that accidentally criticizes the current administration.
“The media has outrageously misrepresented the implications of the RNC not adopting a new platform in 2020 and continues to engage in misleading advocacy for the failed policies of the Obama-Biden Administration, rather than providing the public with unbiased reporting of facts,” it says, adding that “all platforms are snapshots of the historical contexts in which they are born, and parties abide by their policy priorities, rather than their political rhetoric” and that “the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.”
Republicans adopted additional resolutions Saturday that included defending Christopher Columbus and blasting “cancel culture.”
