Trump Threatens to Move Republican National Convention; President Trump Tweets Insults Ahead of Memorial Day Events.
BASH: Before heading out to honor the nation's fallen heroes, the president blasted out a series of tweets, lashing out after critics attacked him for playing golf on one of the most somber holiday weekend in the year, in the middle of a pandemic, a pandemic that has killed more Americans than Vietnam and the Korean wars combined, as CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On this Memorial Day, President Trump laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery to honor those who have sacrificed their lives and addressed coronavirus as he remembered fallen soldiers in a speech at Ft. McHenry in Baltimore.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In recent months, our nation and the world have been engaged in a new form of battle against an invisible enemy.</s>COLLINS: Earlier today, President Trump threatened to move the Republican National Convention from North Carolina if the state's governor doesn't commit to allowing a full attendance. The convention has been planned for months and is scheduled for late August. But the coronavirus pandemic has threatened to upend both it and the Democratic National Convention the week before. On Twitter, Trump complained that North Carolina's Democratic Governor Roy Cooper is still in "shut down mood" and unable to guarantee that by August, we will be allowed to hold a full convention. Vice President Mike Pence said they may move it to a state that's further along in reopening.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We all want to be in Charlotte. We love North Carolina. But having a sense now is absolutely essential because of the immense preparations that are involved.</s>COLLINS: Last week, Governor Cooper told CNN it wasn't a political decision.</s>GOV. ROY COOPER (D-NC): This is not political. This is not emotional. This is based on health experts.</s>COLLINS: Trump spent the weekend dedicated to fallen troops on Twitter where he aired his grievances, posted insults, promoted a baseless murder claim, and amplified disparaging remarks. For his 80 million followers, the president retweeted his supporter John Stahl who accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of drinking booze on the job, mocked former Georgia governor candidate Stacey Abrams by claiming she visited every buffet in the state, and referred to Joe Biden as a racist. The president also pushed a debunked theory that MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough played a role in the death of a staffer in 2001 who hit her head and died. The woman's death was ruled an accident and police never suspected foul play though the president implied that he's under investigation. As the death toll from coronavirus nears six digits, Trump complained about the media's coverage about him playing golf twice at his club this weekend. Though he often criticized Barack Obama for golfing while in office, Trump said he was only exercising and accused the press of portraying it as a mortal sin, though he once predicted the death toll in the U.S. would never come close to 100,000, Dr. Deborah Birx said the White House is still operating under the idea that it could range from there to 240,000 people. On Sunday, the U.S. added Brazil to the list of countries from which travel is banned because cases there have skyrocketed.</s>COLLINS: Now, Dana, back to what's going to happen with the Republican convention, we are told by the city of Charlotte, that they want to put out some guidance as soon as next month on what to do for these events. They say they have a meeting with stakeholders for large gatherings like the RNC and they are hoping to put out guidance on exactly what everyone can expect in the coming days.</s>BASH: Yes, and, Kaitlan, I'm told by source familiar with the president's thinking that this tweet storm about the RNC and threatening to pull out of North Carolina wasn't meant to really say he was going to pull out of North Carolina. It's more about forcing the governor and local officials there to set the rules of the road, to, you know, this is something that he does when he's negotiating. He does the most extreme, he takes the most extreme position in order to try to get people to where he wants them. What are you hearing there?</s>COLLINS: Yes, and we know that the RNC and these state officials have been talking about this.</s>BASH: Exactly.</s>COLLINS: Are they going to have to test all the delegates? Are they going to -- I mean, it's thousands of people that come to a convention like this, temperature checks, all of these things are under discussion right now, we're told, but it's not clear what agreement they're going to come to and it's not clear what the state of the country is going to look like in late August. Though we should note that these conventions bring a lot of money to the states where they're held. So it's hard to see why the governor would not want to hold the convention given just how much of a financial boost they can be. But as he told our Jeff Zeleny, he said that safety is their concern at this moment.</s>BASH: A lot of bluster going on, not surprisingly in politics. Kaitlan, thank you so much for that report. And many Americans are marking this holiday weekend with trips to the beach. But in some communities, there is a new battle brewing. I'll talk to one official who is trying to stop out of towners from visiting.