Donald Trump team records COVID-19 cases ahead of rally in Tulsa
US President Donald Trump has returned to the election trail with a controversial rally in which he used racist language and slammed the tearing down of statues.
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US President Donald Trump returned to the election trail with a raucous rally in which he pushed America to reopen, labelled his supporters “warriors” and addressed questions about his health.
Describing the event as the start of his re-election bid, it was Mr Trump’s first rally since March 2, when coronavirus effectively halted campaigning for the November election.
In a freewheeling speech that veered from vaudeville act to dire warnings Democrats wanted to “take away your guns”, Mr Trump repeated familiar attacks on his rival Joe Biden, the media and “far-left” cities he said were hobbling their police forces.
He also doubled down on criticism of China for “sending the plague” of coronavirus, which he labelled “Kung Flu”, sparking cheers from thousands of supporters not wearing masks inside the arena.
He also lashed out at the growing number of activists removing statues across the country and said Mr Biden was “hostage” to “radical leftists”.
“He will surrender your country to these mobsters, 100 per cent,” he said.
“The unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalise our history, desecrate our monuments, tear down our statues, and punish, cancel, and persecute anyone who does not conform to their demands for absolute and total control.
“We’re not conforming. That’s why we’re here actually.”
In a lengthy anecdote he acted out on stage, Mr Trump sought to counter recent speculation about his health after he looked unsteady when he drank water during a speech at West Point and then appeared to stumble when he walked off the stage.
He denied he tripped, saying the ramp was like an “ice rink” and said his critics kept trying to diagnose him with “new diseases”.
He then received some of his loudest applause and cheers of “four more years” when he picked up a glass of water with one hand and drank from it.
Mr Trump said he was shocked when First Lady Melania Trump told him commentators were saying “you may have Parkinson’s disease or stroke”.
“They say there’s something wrong with our president,” he recalled she told him.
The rally went ahead despite concerns from local authorities it would clash with a weekend commemorating the abolition of slavery and in the shadow of soaring coronavirus cases in Oklahoma.
Six Trump 2020 staffers were quarantined after testing positive for COVID-19 hours before Mr Trump took the stage.
“We saved millions of lives,” he said. “It’s time to open up and get back to work.”
Attendees had temperature checks and were handed masks as they entered but the far majority elected not to use them.
While the Trump campaign said it received more than a million RSVPs for the event, there appeared to be fewer than 20,000 rallygoers.
Many empty seats remained in the upper stands of the BOK Centre and a scheduled outdoor stage appearance and speech by the president and Vice President Mike Pence were canned when there was no crowd to address.
The Trump campaign blamed “radical protesters, coupled with a relentless onslaught from the media” for scaring attendees away.
Mr Trump praised those inside the rally for standing up to the protesters.
“You are warriors,” he said.
“We had some very bad people outside. We had some very bad people outside. They were doing bad things.”
Protesters successfully blocked one of three entries to the rally for an hour until the area was cleared by police in riot gear and Secret Service officers.
Protesters and rallygoers in a standoff outside the #TrumpTulsaRally pic.twitter.com/qWQGlf1aMx
— Sarah Blake (@sarahblakemedia) June 20, 2020
The rally came at a challenging time in Mr Trump’s presidency, with polling putting him behind his Democratic rival Joe Biden in several must-win states.
Support from his base remains solid and he is preferred president for about 40 per cent of Americans, the point at which his approval has hovered throughout his first term.
Mr Trump has been eager to reopen America and to restart the travelling rallies which helped propel him to victory in 2016 and reenergize his base.
His approach differs markedly from that of Mr Biden, who has eschewed large-scale gatherings due to the risks of COVID-19.
The Cheyenne and 4th St entry to the #TulsaTrumpRally has been shut off by #BlackLivesMattters protestors for the past 15 minutes â¦@dailytelegraphâ© for updates pic.twitter.com/GmeVcgj0Wg
— Sarah Blake (@sarahblakemedia) June 20, 2020
The New York Times however reported teenage TikTok users and K-pop fans saying they sunk Trump’s rally, claiming to have registered potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets for Trump’s campaign rally as a prank.
It came after @TeamTrump tweeted asking supporters to register for free tickets using their phones on June 11.
The New York Times reported K-pop fan accounts then began sharing the information with followers, encouraging them to register for the rally – and then not show.
It came as some Trump supporters waited outside the event location since last Monday and the streets surrounding the arena took on a carnival-like atmosphere ahead of the rally.
They included June Allen, 72, from Wichita in neighbouring Kansas, who was in the minority of rally attendees wearing masks.
Seated in a lawn chair with friends, the retired nurse said she was concerned about the rising COVID-19 cases in 27 states as the US reopens.
“I am taking precautions, so I am safe to be here,” she said.
Nearby, Garrett Bryant, 42, said he was excited the Trump campaign was being held in his home city.
“This is a great opportunity,” said Mr Brooks, who was not wearing a mask.
“I wouldn’t have missed coming here to support my President.
“I’m not worried about the virus, I think a lot of it has been blown up by the media.”
The Trump campaign said “all rally attendees are given temperature checks before going through security, at which point they are given wristbands, face masks and hand sanitiser.”
“Per safety protocols, campaign staff are tested for COVID-19 before events. Six members of the advance team tested positive out of hundreds of tests performed, and quarantine procedures were immediately implemented,” said spokesman Tim Murtaugh.
“No COVID-positive staffers or anyone in immediate contact will be at today’s rally or near attendees and elected officials.”
The event coincides with Juneteenth, or Freedom Day, which celebrates the end of slavery in the US, and has become a lightning rod for the civil unrest which has gripped the country in recent weeks.
Commemorations are particularly poignant for Tulsa, which is marking the 99th anniversary of one of the worst race massacres in history, when about 300 black people were killed by white Oklahomans at what was known as Black Wall Street.
Mr Trump was forced to move the rally back a day, after his initially scheduling it for June 19 drew broad criticism.
The rally, scheduled to take place in the 19,000-capacity BOK arena, is going ahead despite warnings from local authorities that the state’s virus cases were soaring and holding an indoor event was hazardous.
All of which led to wide concern the competing events could lead to clashes between Trump supporters, protesters and organised groups such as those who have infiltrated recent protests across the country.
“I fear for my community,” said Tulsa City Councillor Vanessa Hall-Harper this week.
Oklahoma’s Supreme Court yesterday struck down a lawsuit lodged to keep the Trump rally away, with residents and businesses saying it posed “a substantial, imminent and deadly risk to the community.”
The court also ruled that rally attendees would not have to wear masks, despite CDC recommendations that they be worn where social distancing is not possible.
“It is not the duty of this Court to fashion rules or regulations where none exist,” the court wrote in a unanimous decision.
And Tulsa’s Republican mayor, who had earlier embraced the business and publicity the Trump rally would bring, walked back some of his enthusiasm.
Dozens of Trump supporters camped outside the arena were evicted Thursday night by a new curfew, however this was lifted after Mr Trump called Mayor George Bynum yesterday.
Mr Bynum also declared a civil emergency, citing the unrest caused by the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd.
Outrage over Mr Floyd’s killing last month by a white police officer led to weeks of protests and sparked a national reckoning over the history of slavery and racism in the US.
“I have received information from the Tulsa Police Department and other law enforcement agencies that shows that individuals from organised groups who have been involved in destructive and violent behaviour in other States are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally,” Mr Bynum said.
Mr Trump has been keen to return to the raucous rallies that helped propel him to victory in 2016, and his campaign said more than a million tickets had been requested for the Tulsa event.
It comes at a perilous point of Mr Trump’s presidency, with consistent polls showing a growing lead for the presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden, as Americans contend with historic job losses due to coronavirus and the continuing unrest.
A Fox News poll yesterday showed the president trailed nationally by 12 points, and he was also down among some key demographics he took in 2016.
These include suburban and independent voters, with whom he was behind by 22 points.
Mr Trump’s share of white, non-college educated women had slipped from a lead of 27 points to 11.
He is also trailing in almost all polls in several key swing states, although by a smaller margin.
Mr Trump slammed the poll, as he has done with several others showing a double digit national lead for Mr Biden, and said he was commencing his bid for re-election in Tulsa.
“My campaign hasn’t started yet,” he said Friday, local time.
“It starts on Saturday night in Oklahoma.”
He also warned authorities would crack down on “any protesters, anarchists, agitators or lowlifes” in the city.
“You will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis,” he said, referring to riots in which police were overwhelmed by arsonists, rioters and looters.
“It will be a much different scene.”
Originally published as Donald Trump team records COVID-19 cases ahead of rally in Tulsa