President Donald Trump’s Republican National Convention, presented unethically and unsafely to the country in front of a huge crowd at the White House last Thursday, was meant to project a show of force against the Democrats’ virtual convention the week before.
And yet the TV ratings for the RNC were down compared to the DNC across the board and now the Trump campaign is being accused of holding yet another “super-spreader event.”
Speaking to Trump campaign spokesperson Lara Trump this weekend, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked pointedly about the president’s upcoming campaign schedule. “The president is expected to go out a couple of times a week and hold rallies of some sort,” Wallace noted. “This last week, on Thursday, as part of the Republican convention, the president gave his acceptance speech on the South Lawn of the White House.”
Showing footage to viewers of “more than 1,500 people packed in, very few masks, no social distancing,” Wallace asked, “Lara, is the president just going to ignore the public health guidelines?”
Speaking on behalf of the campaign, Lara Trump insisted that “we always encourage people to follow the guidelines and to do what they think is best for themselves.” While they “encourage people to spread out,” she suggested there was nothing they could do if Trump fanatics want to “rush towards the front of the stage” to be close to the president. “They pack themselves in,” she said.
“But look, at a certain point in this country, I think we all have to recognize that people want to get back to normal,” she continued. “And you know what? Maybe it’s going to a Trump rally that does that, but we are always following the guidelines.”
“The fact is you did stack the chairs right next to each other,” Wallace shot back. “Some health officials say this has the potential to be a super-spreader event.”
Instead of defending the Trump campaign’s actions as safe, Lara Trump simply pivoted to attack the protesters outside the White House Thursday night and on the Washington Mall on Saturday. “So look, we either have to say that everybody plays by the same rules or we have to stop talking about it,” she said.
