Clinton Campaign, DNC Planning Counter-Convention During RNC

Celebrities and allied organizations will take part in the initiative.

ByABC News
July 15, 2016, 4:33 AM

— -- Talk about political mixed messages.

The Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee are gearing up for their own joint counter-convention during the Republican National Convention next week, sending a full staff to Cleveland to troll the Republicans and fight back against every attack made against them throughout the week.

The effort, according to a Clinton campaign official, will be titled “Better Than This” and will include daily press conferences, press calls and rapid response from top aides and surrogates. The RNC runs July 18-21.

The campaign –- which will work out of their headquarters in Cleveland located less than a mile from the RNC's venue, the Quicken Loans Arena -- has also enlisted celebrities and other allied organizations. They plan to tweet along with the convention program using the hashtag, #BetterThanThis, the aide said.

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz will head to Cleveland, along with a number of elected officials who have agreed to participate. Among the participants are Sen. Al Franken, Rep. Tim Ryan, Rep. Marcia Fudge, Rep. Joyce Beatty, former Ohio governor Ted Strickland, Rep. Xavier Becerra, Rep. Ruben Gallego, Rep. Joe Crowley, Rep. Bennie Thompson and former senior economic policy adviser to President Obama, Austan Goolsbee.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee herself will not be in Cleveland, but unlike past presidential elections where the opposing candidate takes the week off the campaign trail, Clinton will be on the road.

On Monday –- the first day of the convention -– Clinton will speak at the NAACP conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then she’ll court teachers at a conference in Minnesota. The following day she will speak to union workers in Las Vegas.

And while no other events are scheduled yet, it’s likely she makes her own VP announcement that week, too.

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