Presented by the American Investment Council.

Good Wednesday morning. I'm Jake Sherman and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing.

And I'm Anna Palmer. Despite what Donald Trump wants, the idea of a large-scale celebratory

2020 political convention is over. If you're a company, a law firm, or a lobby shop,

why would you ever consider putting

any money behind a political convention this year? Would you want your logo anywhere near

Jacksonville, Florida, or Milwaukee during COVID-19? Would you want your executives anywhere

close to a gathering that has a chance to be a super spreading event? Would you throw a party?

You'd have to be nuts to.

Senators are saying no thanks. Five Senate Republicans are taking a pass on the RNC convention this summer,

Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Chuck Grassley, and Lamar Alexander.

TV networks are also vowing to stay away. Again, just because the mostly maskless White House wants to act like this is over, the rest of America disagrees, and reality indicates otherwise.

The quote of the day comes from New Hampshire GOP Governor Chris Sununu on attending the president's

Saturday rally in his state via CNN. He said,

quote, I'm going to go and greet the president as the governor. I will not be in the crowd of

thousands of people. I'm not going to put myself in the middle of a crowd of thousands of people,

if that's your question specifically. I try to, unfortunately, you know, I have to be extra cautious as

the governor. I try to be extra cautious for myself, my family. The post has a story from St. Petersburg,

Florida, looking at how the state became a new coronavirus epicenter. Forbes posted an interview

overnight with Kanye West, who says he's done with Donald Trump taking the red hat off, he says, and opened up about his White House bid.

He said he's running under the birthday party, don't know that one, with the guidance of Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla.

Kanye said he's okay, siphoning off black votes from the Democratic nominee and believes that groups

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