Joe Biden, whose campaign previously encouraged Americans to go out and vote in droves in the middle of a pandemic, is now advocating for a “virtual” 2020 Democratic National Convention.
Biden, who finally seems to have figured out how to use Zoom, floated the idea on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “Well, we’re going to have to do a convention. We may have to do a virtual convention,” he told host George Stephanopoulos. “ I think we should be thinking about that right now.”
The convention, which is supposed to take place in Milwaukee this summer , was originally scheduled for July but moved back to August amid the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic’s arrival in the United States. But experts expect the pandemic to continue through the summer—and possibly for, uh, the next two years—and even if officials relax some social distance measures in a few months, it hardly seems wise to cram thousands of people into a convention center. The 2016 DNC in Philadelphia, for instance, drew about 50,000 people. By August, we’ll be lucky if a couple restaurants reopen.
The Republican National Convention is scheduled for the end of August, in North Carolina. Trump seems to be looking forward to it. Best of luck.