Jacksonville’s Sheriff: I Don’t Have Enough Cops to Staff Trump’s Republican National Convention

Not only is Covid-19 ravaging the country, it is also occurring during an election year. And this is especially hard for Donald Trump who is desperate to hold multiple rallies. The President also moved the location of his party’s National Convention in the hopes that he’d have a big full crowd.

But the new location, Jacksonville, Florida, is currently having difficulty stopping the spread of the coronavirus. And that’s not the only problem Florida’s largest city is having. The Sheriff of Duval County said Monday that he couldn’t provide the cops needed to secure such an event.

The Sheriff, Mike Williams, is a Republican like Trump. But he said of the event’s logistics, “As we’re talking today, we are still not close to having some kind of plan that we can work with that makes me comfortable that we’re going to keep that event and the community safe.”

In a stunning rebuke of RNC planning efforts, Duval County Sheriff Mike Williams, a Republican, says they are "past point of no return" for Jacksonville to safely host Trump’s convention by @NewsbySmiley https://t.co/j6sDZD6WNz

— Mary Ellen Klas (@MaryEllenKlas) July 20, 2020

Williams continued, “It’s not my event to plan, but I can just tell you that what has been proposed in my opinion is not achievable right now … from a law enforcement standpoint, from a security standpoint.”

The Sheriff closed by saying he just didn’t have enough time:

“But there’s a lot of things that need to happen: an event schedule nailed down, and being able to sign contracts and spend money so that we can prepare for this event. And none of that has happened yet. So here we are inside of 40 days, and I haven’t really pulled the trigger on anything RNC-related when it comes to finances or contracts and so, you know, only related to security, mind you, nothing, nothing related to any of this.”