President Donald Trump is not receiving the warmest welcome from a Tulsa, Oklahoma, newspaper ahead of his upcoming re-election campaign rally in the city.
The president rescheduled his rally in Tulsa for June 20 following push back over the previous rally date being held on Juneteeth, as IJR reported.
In a post written by the Tulsa World editorial board published on Monday, the newspaper wrote in its headline, “This is the wrong time and Tulsa is the wrong place for the Trump rally.”
“We don’t know why he chose Tulsa, but we can’t see any way that his visit will be good for the city,” the editorial board wrote.
The newspaper added that it does not see people “pressed closely together” and “cheering” to be a “good idea” at the moment since the city “is still dealing with the challenges created by a pandemic.”
“The public health concern would apply whether it were Donald Trump, Joe Biden or anyone else who was planning a mass rally at the BOK. This is the wrong time. […] There’s no reason to think a Trump appearance in Tulsa will have any effect on November’s election outcome in Tulsa or Oklahoma. It has already concentrated the world’s attention of the fact that Trump will be rallying in a city that 99 years ago was the site of a bloody race massacre. This is the wrong place for the rally.”
In conclusion, the editorial board wrote, “When the president of the United States visits your city, it should be exciting. We think a Trump visit will be, but for a lot of the wrong reasons, and we can’t welcome it.”
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that the spike of new coronavirus cases in multiple states across the country “is a concern,” as IJR reported. He also urged people to wear a face mask if they are attending Saturday’s rally in Tulsa.
In hesitation ahead of the rally, Tulsa Health Department Director Bruce Dart said, “COVID is here in Tulsa, it is transmitting very efficiently. I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn’t as large a concern as it is today.”
Additionally, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CBS News on Sunday that he “would certainly counsel against” people attending political rallies, as IJR also reported.
“If I was giving advice to the administration on this, I would say they should withhold large political rallies right now,” he said, adding, “They also need to lead by example, and so encouraging people to social distance, encouraging people to wear masks, that’s what we should be engaging in right now.”
Despite the concern over the health circumstances of holding political rallies, Trump’s campaign manager said on Friday that 300,000 tickets had been registered for the Tulsa rally.
There are at least 2,162,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. and more than 117,000 deaths, as of Monday morning. Additionally, there are over 870,000 reported recoveries from the virus in the country.
