Trump's Opposition To Social Distancing Will Cause Deaths Wherever He Goes

Killer by Nancy Ohanian

It's too soon to know how much damage Trump's pointless rally in Tulsa brought the city, the county, the state and the region. In their report for the Washington Post yesterday, Josh Dawson and Joshua Partlow noted that "Since the rally, coronavirus cases in Tulsa County hit a new high of 259 new confirmed cases on June 23. I would called that not just meaningless, but gratuitous. They know-- everyone with two brain cells to rub together knows-- that Tulsa is going to have an upsurge in cases, as will Oklahoma and Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas, all of which are near enough to Tulsa to have had residents traveling to the event and coming back home infected.

The Tulsa region is already the worst hit area of Oklahoma. On Friday the state had 12,343 confirmed cases (3,119 cases per million Oklahomans). Saturday that had jumped another 299 cases to 12,642-- and 3,195 cases per million and today Oklahoma reported another 302 cases-- 3,271 cases per million. I doubt any of the 3,162 Oklahomans with active cases got them from the Trump rally. We'll need another week or 10 days to start seeing that. And I have no doubt that we will. In their report, Dawson and Partlow explained that immediately before the rally, Trump campaign staffers "directed the removal of thousands of 'Do Not Sit Here, Please!' stickers from seats in the arena that were intended to establish social distance between rallygoers. The removal contradicted instructions from the management of the BOK Center, the 19,000-seat arena in downtown Tulsa where Trump held his rally on June 20. At the time, coronavirus cases were rising sharply in Tulsa County, and Trump faced intense criticism for convening a large crowd for an indoor political rally, his first such event since the start of the pandemic."

As part of its safety plan, arena management had purchased 12,000 do-not-sit stickers for Trump’s rally, intended to keep people apart by leaving open seats between attendees. On the day of the rally, event staff had already affixed them on nearly every other seat in the arena when Trump’s campaign told event management to stop and then began removing the stickers, hours before the president’s arrival, according to a person familiar with the event who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

...The actions by Trump’s campaign were first reported Friday by Billboard Magazine. As rally preparations were underway, Trump’s campaign staff intervened with the venue manager, ASM Global, and told them to stop labeling seats in this way, Doug Thornton, executive vice president of ASM Global, told the magazine.

“They also told us that they didn’t want any signs posted saying we should social distance in the venue,” Thornton said. “The campaign went through and removed the stickers.”

...Trump held his Tulsa rally despite opposition by Oklahoma health authorities and residents who feared that convening a large crowd indoors could accelerate the spread of the coronavirus. The number of coronavirus cases in Tulsa County was spiking in the days leading up to the rally and has continued to increase since.

The director of the Tulsa Health Department, Bruce Dart, had recommended that the event be postponed until it was safer. A number of city residents and business owners brought a lawsuit against the venue manager, ASM Global, seeking to require all attendees wear masks and adhere to social distancing guidelines from health authorities.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected that suit.

...Two days before the rally, the managers of the BOK Center had asked the Trump campaign to provide a detailed written plan outlining the “health and safety” measures it intended to use to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

...As the crowd entered the day of the rally, the Trump campaign handed out masks and small bottles of “Make America Great Again 2020” branded hand sanitizer.

The BOK Center also put down floor decals in front of concession areas and put up plexiglass to protect vendors.

At 1:47 p.m. that day, Fox 23 News posted on its Facebook page a photo from inside the BOK Center showing two members of the event staff putting stickers on seats. “Stickers are going on every other seat in the BOK Center saying ‘Do Not Sit Here’ to try to spread the crowd out for President Trump’s rally tonight,” the post read.

After the majority of the stickers were in place, a member of Trump’s campaign radioed staff in the event war room where arena management was monitoring preparations and told them to stop, according to the person familiar with the event. Event staff was told to continue applying the stickers. Later, the campaign began pulling them off, the person said.

In video footage of Trump’s rally, there appeared to be no effort to keep an empty seat between attendees.

Attendance turned out to be less than Trump expected-- he had said some 1 million people wanted tickets-- and the arena was not full, particularly in the upper level.

Trump had wanted every seat packed, and he told advisers coming in on Air Force One and at the arena he was displeased that the crowd was not larger, said two Trump advisers, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay private conversations.

“He was quite angry,” said one person who interacted with him.

...At least six members of the Trump campaign advance staff have tested positive for the coronavirus, including two Secret Service employees. Dozens of Secret Service officers and agents who attended the Tulsa rally were ordered to self-quarantine.

Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign manager, is also reported to be self-quarantined. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Pence is "postponing" campaign events in Florida and Arizona-- two must-win states that he and Trump are currently losing-- because of the pandemic going into out-of-control mode.