Image Source: Vox

Agencies:

President Donald Trump said that he was scrapping the Jacksonville, component of the Republican National Convention that was scheduled for late next month, underscoring an apparent reversal of tone and approach to the viral pandemic that has crippled much of the country for months.

The President said he would still deliver a speech accepting his party�s nomination for re-election in a �different form.�

�I looked at my team and I said the timing for this event is not right. It�s just not right,� Trump said at his third White House briefing this week to discuss developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic, after a months long hiatus from those briefings. �To have a big convention, it�s not the right time,� the president said.

Trump�s announcement comes as Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, informed members recently of a decision to scale back the event due to the rise in coronavirus infections in the region. Now it is being eliminated entirely, and the president suggested that aspects of the event would be held via webcasts or otherwise online.

Florida and California reported single day records in fatalities with 173 and 157 deaths respectively. A day earlier, Texas had reported a record 197 deaths.

The President painted a relatively upbeat picture of the state of the country in its battle against the pathogen, pointing to country�s northeastern states as �very clean.�

�The country is in really good shape,� Trump said, excluding southern and western parts of the country, where infections have been spiking, even as New York state, once an epicenter of the pandemic, appears to be under control.