By Kent Sepkowitz
Updated 8:10 PM ET, Mon June 15, 2020
(CNN)Like many others, I was startled to learn that President Donald Trump was resuming his campaign barnstorming in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Startled that he was hitting the road again in the middle of a pandemic, startled that he had picked the place where a massacre of African Americans occurred (and was covered up) 99 years ago, startled that he initially decided to do this on Juneteenth — June 19, the holiday celebrating the end of slavery.
And then I was startled that he backed down and delayed the rally by a day.
I will let others examine Trump’s cruelty in stoking racial divisiveness at such a historical flashpoint. Let others comment on his flippant disregard of public health experts as he ridicules mask wearers as unmanly of PC for caring about keeping themselves and others safe from Covid-19.
Instead, I will focus on the remarkable idiocy of staging a large indoor public gathering in Tulsa just now.
Tulsa may not be the single worst place in the US to have a mask-free and liability-free rally, though the just identified Whirlpool plant outbreak there may place it in the running.
Continued
Jeff in Charlotte
Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/opinions/the-remarkable-idiocy-of-holding-a-trump-rally-in-tulsa-sepkowitz/index.html