President Donald Trump will return to the campaign trail with his first rally since the pandemic began. The Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally, which will go down on Saturday, has come under heat for multiple reasons, one of which is the concern over the increase being seen in positive cases in the Sooner State.
On Monday, an additional 186 cases came in, marking the total number of positive tests in the state at 8,417. Over the weekend, the state saw its biggest spike in a single day, with 225 positive cases, which surpassed the previous high set the day before. With the state seeing a larger number of infected patients, officials have warned Trump to postpone his scheduled rally, although Trump doesn’t seem to be too worried at this point. “Oklahoma has done very well,” Trump said during his presser on Monday, adding that it’s still at a low number thanks to the “fantastic work” they have done. He reminded the press that one million people are wanting to attend the rally, leaving 900,000 people unable to participate in what he calls a highly-anticipated event.
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Trump defends plan to hold political rally in Oklahoma on Saturday, despite local officials urging him to postpone it, with a lie: “Oklahoma is at a very low number.” (Cases are actually rising there https://t.co/9Dt2Gml8HN) pic.twitter.com/DUFKj3prFZ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 15, 2020
Contrary to what Trump stated, Tulsa Health Department Director, Dr. Bruce Dart, is concerned about the city hosting the indoor event. He told the Tulsa World the virus is “transmitting very efficiently” and added that he wished the president would consider postponing the rally until “the virus isn’t as large a concern as it is today.”
Trump has been very adamant about keeping the event as is. Those who attend the rally will also have to sign a waiver giving up their rights to hold Trump and those involved in the event liable if they were to contract COVID-19 while in attendance. In a tweet put out on Monday, Trump said the “far left fake news media” is attempting to “COVID shame” them ahead of the rallies.
The Far Left Fake News Media, which had no Covid problem with the Rioters & Looters destroying Democrat run cities, is trying to Covid Shame us on our big Rallies. Won’t work!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2020
While the June 20 date doesn’t appear to be heading to any postponement, the rally initially caught flak for being scheduled on June 19, otherwise known as Juneteenth and the celebration for the end of slavery. This year will mark the 155th year. After tremendous backlash, Trump and his team pushed the event back one day.
