CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Republicans opted against drafting a 2020 platform, but they did agree on a handful of statements that reflect the party’s core values.
The Republican National Committee passed seven resolutions during its annual summer meeting before members and this cycle’s convention delegates vote Monday to renominate President Trump as the GOP standard-bearer for the general election against Democrat Joe Biden.
The RNC’s business agenda included affirming its decision to keep its 2016 platform, essentially a nonbinding messaging document outlining Republican positions on a range of issues, until 2024.
They also stuck up for Christopher Columbus, credited with the 1492 European discovery of the “New World” of the Americas. Statues erected in Columbus’s honor were toppled or desecrated this summer during protests against racial injustice over the Italian explorer’s treatment of indigenous people, particularly in modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Republicans on Saturday also ripped “cancel” or “callout” culture, which encourages boycotts of people or businesses by those who don’t condone their comments or actions.
“The Republican National Committee voted to approve seven resolutions 1) to conserve history and combat prejudice with respect to Christopher Columbus 2) to uphold the First Amendment in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the ‘cancel culture’ amendment,” Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer tweeted.
The Republican National Committee voted to approve seven resolutions 1) to conserve history and combat prejudice with respect to Christopher Columbus 2) to uphold the First Amendment in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the “cancel culture” amendment
— David Shafer (@DavidShafer) August 22, 2020
Other resolutions touted the Trump administration’s accomplishments, urged Congress to do more to prevent Chinese companies dominating the country’s medical supply chain amid the COVID-19 outbreak, and pushed lawmakers “to overhaul the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 refuting the legitimacy of the Southern Poverty Law Center to identify hate groups,” according to Shafer.
A second GOP official in the Westin Charlotte meeting room, closed to reporters and TV crews, confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the resolutions were passed.
National Republican Committee leaders and state party committee heads are gathering this weekend to provide updates, take part in training sessions, and attend meetings on topics from budgets to internal rules.
They’ll be joined on Monday by Republican convention delegates to vote on the 2020 presidential nomination. Trump is visiting Asheville, North Carolina, next week, but White House and campaign aides remain mum on whether he plans to make a surprise appearance in Charlotte. The president plans to deliver his nomination acceptance speech on Thursday at the White House.
Most of the Charlotte convention will be replaced by virtual prime-time programming similar to the Democratic convention last week. The Charlotte host committee has already begun its closeout process, which incorporates $3.2 million worth of cash and in-kind donations to the local community that had banked on a convention-related economic boost.
