Call the president’s bluff, Gov. Cooper. Tell him no on RNC 2020.

The decision about whether the Republican National Convention can be held in Charlotte this August was never going to be easy. N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper’s final call will need to be made weeks and perhaps months before the Aug. 24-27 event. Given how tough COVID-19 is to forecast even a week or two out, that could present a real challenge.

But Donald Trump may have just done the governor – and a lot of others – a big favor. Cooper should take him up on it.

The president, in a series of tweets Monday, delivered an ultimatum of sorts on the convention, saying he would be “reluctantly forced” to move it unless the governor guaranteed “full attendance” at the Spectrum Center. On Tuesday, Trump gave Cooper a week to decide.

Trump has a bit of a point. The president and his party are about to invest a lot of political and real capital into the convention without knowing if it actually will happen. North Carolina is still on the wrong side of the COVID-19 curve, and the state is currently allowing only 10 people to gather indoors in Phase 2 of its reopening. Even a regularly bankrupt businessman can see that it’s a risky venture to plan for 50,000 people in Charlotte three months from now without some assurances that Cooper won’t change the locks at the last minute.

But if the president wants a guarantee right now, Cooper should call his bluff with the only answer he can provide right now: No.

The alternative – giving an unqualified nod to the convention – is untenable. No one, including Trump and Cooper, knows what COVID-19 will look like late this summer. It’s possible North Carolina could see the kind of coronavirus progress that allows for a large-scale indoor event to be safely held here. It’s just as possible that loosening restrictions in May and June could result in a spike of infections in July and August, and that the convention will be unsafe for Charlotte and its global guests.

One thing is certain about COVID-19: it’s inadvisable to predict what the virus will look like a few weeks out, let alone a few months. With North Carolina just now tip-toeing into reopening, there’s no way officials can smartly estimate the risks of a full arena and packed Uptown in August.

We also know this: Trump has shown a willingness to downplay or ignore the danger of COVID-19 from the start. He repeatedly said it was “under control” in its early stages. He’s encouraged states to reopen even as his own public health officials said otherwise. If Cooper gives Trump the RNC guarantee he wants now, there’s likely no COVID spike bad enough to persuade the president to call things off on his own. That would be a political disaster for the governor, and it would be a public health catastrophe for Charlotte.

It also could bring financial hardship to local businesses and workers, who by the way would also like an answer – perhaps soon – on whether they should make plans for tens of thousands of people showing up in August.

Cooper, for his part, appears to want no part of a tangle with Trump. On Monday, the governor’s Twitter account oddly provided a statement from a spokesperson instead of directly addressing the president. That statement reiterated what Cooper has long said about relying on science and data with the RNC decision. On Tuesday, the governor said he was working with the RNC on how to safely hold the convention.

We think he should give the president an answer. Call his bluff. Say no to a guarantee. Maybe it causes Trump to back down for a while. Or, even better, it might prompt the president to move the convention. That could be the best outcome – or at least the safest – for Charlotte.

This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 8:12 AM.