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US President Donald Trump hosted his first indoor rally in three months in front of a packed crowd in Nevada, in open defiance of state regulations and his own administration’s pandemic health guidelines.
Eager to project a sense of normalcy, Trump soaked up the raucous cheers inside a warehouse in Henderson, outside Las Vegas.
Since his humiliating rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June, which featured empty rows of seats and was blamed for a local spike in Covid-19 cases, he has not gathered supporters inside.
The president did not mention that the pandemic had killed nearly 200,000 Americans and was still claiming 1,000 lives a day.
Few in the crowd wore masks, with one clear exception: Those in the stands directly behind Trump, whose images would end up on television, were mandated to cover their faces.
The rally in Tulsa, which was the first in three months after the coronavirus hit the United States, was a disaster for the campaign. A prominent Trump supporter at the rally, businessman and former presidential candidate Herman Cain, died of Covid-19 weeks later, though it was unclear if he contracted the virus in Tulsa.
Acknowledging that many supporters were uncomfortable gathering in a large group indoors, where the virus spreads more easily, the Trump campaign switched to holding smaller outdoor rallies, usually on airplane hangers. But those rallies have grown in size in recent weeks, with little social distancing and few masks.
Indoors
On Sunday, they returned indoors, in part as a nod to the Las Vegas-area heat. Temperature checks were performed on everyone upon entering the industrial site in Henderson, and while the masks were encouraged, few wore them.
Nevada Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak has limited indoor and outdoor in-person meetings to 50 people since May, a recommendation based on the White House reopening guidelines.
In a statement issued just before the rally began, Sisolak said Trump was “taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives here in Nevada at risk.”
“To put it bluntly: he didn’t have the guts to make tough decisions,” Sisolak said of Trump’s handling of the virus.
“He left that to the governors and the states. You have now decided that you do not have to follow the laws of our state. As usual, he doesn’t think the rules apply to him. “
The city of Henderson informed Xtreme Manufacturing on Sunday that the event, as planned, was in direct violation of the governor’s Covid-19 emergency directives and that sanctions would be imposed. The Trump campaign rejected the restrictions.
“If you can join tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets, gambling in a casino, or torching small businesses in riots, you can gather peacefully under the First Amendment to hear from the president of the United States,” said the communications director of the United States. the bell. Tim Murtaugh said.
Up to this point, the campaign has not played out as a choice between Trump and his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, but rather as a referendum on the president’s handling of the coronavirus. By wide margins, Americans have disapproved of Trump’s leadership, as the United States has suffered more deaths than any other nation.
Evidence
Therefore, the president’s campaign believes that it is necessary to change the subject and project the feeling, despite evidence to the contrary, that the pandemic was waning and that a vaccine was on the horizon.
Part of the plan involves creating images of normalcy, such as the crowded White House lawn for Trump’s convention speech, although it was unclear whether onlookers were calm or scared.
The Nevada rally came the night before Trump traveled to California to receive a report on the devastating wildfires raging through the region. For the most part, he has been silent about the fires that have claimed dozens of lives in Oregon and California.
Earlier Sunday, Trump sought more breakthroughs with Latinos that could prove vital in highly controversial states that could shape the race for the White House, promoting the economic gains they made before the pandemic.
Although Trump has made dozens of inflammatory and disparaging remarks about Latinos, his campaign is increasingly confident that he has garnered some support that could help in Florida, Arizona and Nevada.
Winning the support of Latinos has been an uphill struggle for Trump, whose hard-line immigration policies and at times virulent portrayal of immigrants have alienated many Hispanics. – PA
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