Former Vice President Joe Biden no longer plans to travel to Milwaukee to formally accept his party’s nomination for president and will instead do so from his home state of Delaware, the Democratic National Convention announced Wednesday.
The party said in a statement that it’s scrapping plans for anyone to speak from the Wisconsin city and instead will have invited speakers appear remotely from their home states, citing consultation with public health officials and experts “who underscored the worsening coronavirus pandemic.” The DNC said it is making the change “to prevent risking the health of our host community as well as the convention’s production teams, security officials, community partners, media and others necessary to orchestrate the event.”
“We’re basically saying having people do the convention from where they are,” said a senior party official told CBS News before the announcement. The DNC said the location of Biden’s speech will be announced later.
The convention is still slated to kick off on August 17 with four nights of primetime programming planned. A “custom virtual video control room” has been built by the party to take in hundreds of remote feeds nationwide, the party said.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump announced last month that he is canceling the Jacksonville portion of the Republican National Convention, which is set to begin on August 24. Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that he is considering delivering his speech accepting the Republican nomination from the front lawn of the White House.
“It would be the easiest from the standpoint of security,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Fox & Friends. “It’s easy. I think it’s a beautiful setting. We are thinking about that. It certainly is one of the alternatives. It’s the easiest alternative. I think it’s a beautiful alternative.”
