News24.com | Donald Trump's Las Vegas indoor rally violates coronavirus restrictions, outrages Nevada officials
- Donald
Trump held a fully indoor rally on Sunday in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson,
his first in months. - Sunday’s
event drew heavy criticism and outraged officials in the state of Nevada who
warned the rally violated coronavirus crowd size restrictions. - Coronavirus
cases jumped in Tulsa in the weeks after Trump’s previous indoor rally in the
Oklahoma city of Tulsa in June.
Henderson
– US President Donald Trump on Sunday held his first fully indoor rally in
months, outraging officials in the state of Nevada who warned the gathering
violated coronavirus restrictions on crowd sizes.
Indoor rallies during the pandemic
have proven problematic for Trump, who was heavily criticised after one in June
that was later linked to a spike in virus cases.
Trump used Sunday’s event, held
in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, to applaud his own handling of the
pandemic, which has killed nearly 195 000 Americans – the world’s highest toll.
“We have done an incredible
job, we get absolutely no credit for the job we have done,” the Republican
told the crowd at the Xtreme Manufacturing facility, adding that his leadership
had “saved millions of lives”.
Governor Steve Sisolak tweeted
that “tonight, President Donald Trump is taking reckless and selfish
actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada”.
“The President appears to
have forgotten that this country is still in the middle of a global
pandemic,” he said.
Trump called Sisolak, a Democrat,
a “political hack” and urged the crowd to “tell your governor to
open your state”.
‘Verbal warning’
Plans for the rally drew a rebuke
from local authorities, who noted events with more than 50 people are not
allowed due to the coronavirus.
“The City of Henderson has
issued a compliance letter and verbal warning to the event organiser that the
event as planned would be in direct violation of the governor’s Covid-19
emergency directives,” city spokesperson Kathleen Richards said in a
statement.
The pandemic has stripped the US
presidential campaign of its usual flood of events, but with less than two
months to voting Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden have been making more
appearances.
The Trump campaign said
temperature checks would be done at the door of the Nevada rally and attendees
would be given face masks and encouraged to wear them.
“If you can join tens of
thousands of people protesting in the streets, gamble in a casino, or burn down
small businesses in riots, you can gather peacefully under the 1st Amendment to
hear from the president of the United States,” Trump campaign
communications director Tim Murtaugh told reporters.
Trump’s indoor rally in the
Oklahoma city of Tulsa in June proved deeply controversial, with most attendees
flouting Trump administration guidelines by refusing to wear masks or engage in
social distancing despite being indoors.
Coronavirus cases jumped in Tulsa
in the weeks after the 20 June rally, and local health officials said it was
“more than likely” that major events were a contributing factor.
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