BALTIMORE _ Vice President Mike Pence will address the Republican National Convention next week from Fort McHenry in Baltimore, marking a return by national Republicans to a city President Donald Trump has called corrupt and "rodent infested."
Pence is scheduled to speak Wednesday at the fort, where 1,000 U.S. soldiers withstood a British bombardment in 1814, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write the poem that became "The Star-Spangled Banner," according to a senior Trump campaign official on Thursday.
The theme of the GOP convention _ in which Trump and Pence are to be nominated for second terms _ is "Honoring the Great American Story."
According to the campaign official, other speakers in various locations include Trump, U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Tim Scott of South Carolina, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Among the other scheduled speakers are Nick Sandmann, a Kentucky high school student who said media organizations wrongly called him racially insensitive after an encounter with a Native American man during a 2019 Washington rally. Also on the list are Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a St. Louis couple who were widely shown in the media waving guns at protesters in June.
Trump gave a Memorial Day address this year at Fort McHenry, honoring fallen military members and likening their contributions to those of service members on the front lines battling the coronavirus.
Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young, a Democrat, urged Trump to reconsider that visit, saying it set the wrong example as the city was then under a stay-at-home order because of the coronavirus.
Currently, indoor and outdoor gatherings are capped at 25 people in Baltimore.
It is uncertain how many guests would attend Pence's speech at Fort McHenry, a National Park Service site. Trump gave his Memorial Day speech outdoors.
Like the Democrats at their convention this week, Republicans are positioning speakers at locations around the country this year. The pandemic has prevented both parties from hosting the usual mass gathering of convention delegates.
The GOP convention, which opens Monday, was originally to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, and then predominantly in Jacksonville, Florida.
In 2019, Trump launched a string of tweets and comments attacking U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings _ who died in October _ as well as the congressman's hometown of Baltimore and his 7th Congressional District. Trump called the city "rat and rodent infested."
Pence was last in Baltimore at a September 2019 Republican retreat. He said Republicans were ready to work with Democrats "to improve the lives of people in cities like Baltimore."
A day earlier, Trump told lawmakers at the retreat that the GOP was "going to fight for the future of cities like Baltimore that have been destroyed by decades of failed and corrupt rule."
