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Expect Very Few California Speakers At This Week’s Republican National Convention
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Coronavirus Task Force press briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 29, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Last week, we heard from a parade of Californians taking turns on the Democratic National Convention stage. But according to the schedule released Sunday, the Republican Party gatherings in Jacksonville, Fla. and Charlotte, N.C. will be a different story.
Starting tonight, we’re more likely to hear about California — and the Trump Administration’s criticisms of the state — than to hear the voices of California politicians.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield is the only elected official from the state slated to speak. One of President Trump’s closest allies on the Hill, McCarthy will take the stage on Thursday, the final night of the convention.
The other Californians in the lineup: Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, who in February became the first openly gay cabinet member in U.S. history; and Kimberly Guilfoyle — a former Fox News personality and the current Trump campaign finance chair. (And, incidentally, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ex-wife.)
But the Golden State will undoubtedly be a repeated target in RNC speeches. For example, President Trump has repeatedly made false or misleading claims about California elections, alleging with no proof that massive voter fraud occurred here in 2018.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice Presidential nominee, Senator Kamala Harris, are also often subjects of the President’s ridicule as he attempts to use California policies as cautionary tales about the consequences of Democratic leadership on a national scale.
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