- The Republican Party in a statement Sunday said it would not be unveiling a new platform at this week's convention, citing the scaled-back nature of the event.
- The party said it would instead stick with its 2016 platform, even though parts of it are outdated, and "continue to enthusiastically support the President's America-first agenda."
- The move is highly unusual, with parties generally using their conventions to showcase a new set of policies and pledges to win over voters.
- Critics are accusing the party of abandoning its commitment to principle and policy in its uncritical support for President
Donald Trump .
The Republican Party says it will not be announcing a new platform of policies to voters at this year's Republican National Convention but will instead pledge to "enthusiastically" support President Donald Trump.
In a statement released Sunday, the Republican National Committee announced that instead of unveiling a range of new policy goals should its candidate win in November's presidential election, the party would instead "continue to enthusiastically support the President's America-first agenda."
The committee said that because of the scaled-back nature of this year's convention, its first to be held largely online, the party's Convention Committee on Platform had been unable to meet.
The GOP says it instead plans to campaign on the same platform as that announced in 2016 and will not be launching a new platform until 2024, when the next presidential election will take place.
The absence of a platform is highly unusual. Parties usually use their election-year conventions to lay out a series of new policies and goals. Last week, the Democrats at their convention unveiled a 50-page platform. The GOP platform from 2016 runs to 66 pages.
Vanity Fair reported as early as June that Republicans were abandoning plans to craft a new platform.
Trump originally wanted a spectacular in-person convention, but plans and venues have shifted several times, leaving organizers struggling to finalize the preparations on time. The party eventually decided to hold the conference remotely.
Critics are pointing out that swaths of the 2016 platform are out of date. It contains criticism about the White House incumbent, who at that point was Barack Obama but is now Trump. It also advocates policies since enacted by Trump, such as relocating the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
—Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) August 24, 2020
As well as backing Trump's signature "America First" trade policies, it backs a range of hardline conservative positions, including opposition to abortion and what has been widely interpreted as vaguely worded support for conversion therapy.
The Republican statement goes on to accuse the news media of having "outrageously misrepresented the implications of the RNC not adopting a new platform in 2020 and continues to engage in misleading advocacy for the failed policies of the Obama-Biden Administration, rather than providing the public with unbiased reporting of facts." The statement does not spell out how media reports have misrepresented the party's decision not to present a new platform.
Republican critics are accusing the party of becoming a personality cult, abandoning values and principles in its support for the president.
—Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) August 23, 2020
"The Republicans, in 2020, for the first time, have no platform," wrote Bill Kristol, the former National Review editor who is a prominent conservative critic of Trump. "It's no longer the Republican party," he added. "It's a Trump cult."
The RNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the criticisms.
The president in recent media interviews has been criticized for largely declining to spell out exactly what policies he intends to pursue should he win a second term.
But the Trump campaign did release its own list of policy pledges Sunday, which the president discussed in an interview with Fox News' Steve Hilton. In the interview, the president said school choice and confronting China would be key priorities for a second term.
—steve hilton (@SteveHiltonx) August 23, 2020
The president and his family are set to be the star attractions at this year's convention, with Trump expected to speak on all four nights of the event, forgoing the custom of a party's nominee delivering only a major speech on the convention's final night to accept the nomination.
A list of key speakers at the event broadcast by Fox News over the weekend was dominated by the president's family, with the first lady Melania Trump and four of the president's children scheduled to speak.