GOP chairwoman dismisses health concerns stemming from Republican convention

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Sunday that the presence of some in-person attendees at the party’s national convention in Charlotte, N.C. will not pose public health risks.

“We tested everybody before they came to Charlotte, we tested everybody onsite,” McDaniel said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“We are doing things that allow people to live their lives, have a convention and do it in a healthy and safe way, which most Americans are doing,” she added.

{mosads}McDaniel also blasted Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for saying he would reimpose shutdown measures if public health advisers said it was necessary, saying “this is a realistic way of opening up our country and doing it in a healthy and safe way and the Democrats are saying shut it all down.”

Host Margaret Brennan asked McDaniel about CBS polling indicating 57 percent of Republicans believe the number of U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus has been “acceptable,” compared to 10 percent of Democrats and 33 percent of independents.

“I think that is a really unfair poll,” McDaniel responded. “There is nobody in this country, starting with the president of the United States, who wants to see people pass away from this global pandemic … Republicans do not want to see people suffering from this pandemic.”

Brennan also addressed similar polling gaps between Republicans and the population at large on whether enough attention has been paid to discrimination in the U.S.

McDaniel responded that there was “a big distinction between the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ and the movement, which has been led by people who embrace Marxism,” and pointed to the president’s actions on criminal justice reform and funding to historically black universities.