President Donald Trump is holding a pair of rallies in Wisconsin on Saturday, despite the fact that the state has recently been facing rising Coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Consistently, the Trump campaign has held rallies with essentially no meaningful social distancing or other public health measures in place, which means that the rallies could be catalysts for rapid spread of the Coronavirus among local communities if the pathogen happens to be present on site. On CNN this week prior to the rally, La Crosse, Wisconsin’s Tim Kabat — whose city is one of the ones Trump will be visiting this weekend — said that he wants to see the rally at least put on hold “based on what we’re experiencing right now.”
Kabat told CNN host Alisyn Camerota:
‘We’re hoping to get this event either canceled or postponed to another time, based on what we’re experiencing right now… We are in a very severe situation with COVID.’
Kabat subsequently explained that although he has not been in direct contact with the Trump campaign over the issue, his team has been working with the locals who will be hosting the president, and Kabat’s team has been trying to get the event held outside the city. As of the time of the mayor’s appearance on CNN, a venue for the event had apparently not been finalized.
Camerota subsequently noted that the White House’s own Coronavirus response task force has designated Wisconsin communities as a “red zone” for community spread of the Coronavirus, and yet, the president’s team is still planning a social distancing-free event anyway. To be clear: over 200,000 Americans have died due to the Coronavirus, and millions have been infected. This issue is not a matter of mere convenience, and it is not simply a case of Democrats trying to make Trump look bad, as the president has so ludicrously claimed in the past. Americans are dying on his watch.
Asked if he knows why the president might be ignoring the counsel of his own administration’s task force, Kabat commented:
‘I do not understand. I think that’s something that we expect out of our leaders is to really lead by example. And in this case, obviously, it’s ‘Do as I say, not as I do,’ and coming out of his own task force and talking about trying to again keep people safe, get our economy back to a place where it was before COVID — we lose all kind of confidence here with these high numbers, and not to mention obviously the impacts to our health systems and to our communities. It is concerning and upsetting.’
Watch his comments below:
Trump has repeatedly countered his own administration’s health officials. Trump suggested, for instance, that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) chief Dr. Robert Redfield was “confused” about the timeline for a Coronavirus vaccine rollout after he said that a vaccine might not be widely available until next year. Redfield is the public health professional; Trump is the buffoonish imbecile. Trump fails to grasp this distinction.
