Charlotte wanted to get out of hosting RNC after Trump's racist attacks: 'This is toxic'
Many in Charlotte are now dreading Trump and his hateful rhetoric descending upon their city for next year’s Republican convention.
Trump’s hateful rhetoric is so unacceptable that Charlotte, North Carolina, explored the possibility of withdrawing as host city for the 2020 Republican convention, HuffPost reported Wednesday.
The Charlotte City Council already passed a resolution condemning Trump’s “racist and xenophobic” attacks on several members of Congress. But the city council went even further, consulting with attorneys last week to see if there was any way to back out of their agreement to host Trump in 2020.
In the end, attorneys said breaking the contract would result in many legal fees and a likely court ruling forcing them to play host to the Republican nominating convention, currently scheduled to take place in August 2020.
“Currently, we have no option to pull out,” Dimple Ajmera, a city council member, told HuffPost. “We are tying ourselves to the most toxic convention in history,” Ajmera added. “Is history going to judge us right five, 10 years down the road?”
The city council only approved the convention coming to the city by a narrow 6-5 vote last summer. Those like Ajmera who opposed the measure are not shy about expressing their concerns.
“This is specifically about the racism of this administration and the elements that that brings,” Braxton Winston, another Charlotte City Council member who opposed the measure, said. “I wish we were not bringing that here.”
“This is toxic,” he added.
Since mid-July, Trump has dramatically amped up his hate-filled rhetoric, invoking racist tropes to attack numerous Democratic members of Congress.
On July 14, Trump lashed out at Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), declaring the four women of color should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
Later in the month, Trump turned his sights to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), who represents a sprawling Maryland district that includes parts of Baltimore. Trump attacked Cummings’ district, which includes the world-renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital, as a “disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess” and a “very dangerous & filthy place.”
The latest attacks build on Trump’s long history of racism, which include being a major proponent of the discredited “birther” conspiracy theory questioning President Obama’s Americanness and his repeated attacks on immigrants from Mexico and Central America.
Not everyone in North Carolina is unhappy about Trump’s presence or his racism. The state’s junior U.S. Senator, Thom Tillis, rushed to praise Trump at the conclusion of a late July campaign rally in the state, despite Trump using the occasion to spread the same racist attacks.
But Tillis may find himself in the minority when Trump arrives in Charlotte next year.
“The cons outweigh the pros,” Winston said. “I wish we were not hosting this.”
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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