Jacksonville sheriff: 'I don't have what I need to keep our community safe' during RNC
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The sheriff in Jacksonville says he is not confident that the Republican National Convention can happen safely in his city.
Sheriff Mike Williams expressed concern about security for the event, saying his office does not have the resources it needs to protect those attending the RNC.
“We don’t have what we need today to go forward with the current plan for the Republican National Convention," he told Action News Jax.
With just over a month to go until the RNC begins Aug. 24, Williams said his office has not signed a single contract and is "past the point of no return" to do the job safely.
"Any plan requires finances and resources," he told First Coast News. "I don't have what I need to keep our community safe."
The Republican National Committee chose Jacksonville to host major portions of the convention, after largely abandoning the city of Charlotte, N.C., over disagreements on coronavirus-related crowd restrictions.
The president and Republican officials were angered after Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, a Democrat, said that because of the pandemic he wasn’t prepared to guarantee the RNC a full-fledged convention with an arena packed full of party officials, delegates and activists as desired by Trump. Some business aspects of the convention, however, will still be held in Charlotte.