The President has returned to his campaigning activities despite his coronavirus diagnosis, delivering a speech from the White House on Saturday in which he called on the surprising number of Black and Latino people in attendance to vote Democrats โinto oblivion.โ
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At the event, billed by the White House as a protest for law and order, Trump continued to downplay the severity of COVID-19 and told an audience of MAGA hat wearersโmany of them Blackโthat a Biden presidency would bring socialism to America, reports the New York Times.
Though the White House said it had invited nearly 2,000 people to the โprotestโโin actuality a campaign rally held in a place paid for with our tax dollars and which just a few weeks ago was the site of a super spreader eventโonly a few hundred people were in attendance.
Among those attendees were Black and non-Black people clad in blue Blexit shirts, who Candace Owens had paid to travel to D.C. and bear โBack the Blueโ and โPolice Lives Matterโ signs in a show of support for her organization, cops, and Trump.
From ABC News:
Supporters, who [were] also scheduled to attend a separate BLEXIT event earlier in the day, were invited to attend a โHUGE outdoor rallyโ by the group and asked to fill out a form that notified them that BLEXIT, a campaign urging Black Americans to leave the Democratic Party, will be covering travel costs.
Guests were later informed they would be receiving an invitation from the White House to attend an event with Trump.
Appearing to be speaking specifically to these โBack the Blueโ Black people in a bid to win their votes, Trump said at the event that โthe homes and churches and businesses of Black Americans have been looted,โ due to this yearโs protests against extra-judicial killings of Black people by police.
From the New York Times:
โSleepy Joe Bidenโs betrayed Black and Latino Americans,โ Mr. Trump said, as part of his attempt to win over more than the 8 percent of Black voters he won four years ago.
In late August, Mr. Trump also spoke at the Republican National Convention on the South Lawn, delivering his acceptance speech for the nomination in front of the same balcony where he stood on Saturday, continuing to play down the virus despite its entry into his own orbit.
โItโs going to disappear,โ he said on Saturday, after underscoring recent โflare-upsโ in other countries. He added that โthe therapeutics are going to help a lotโ and claimed, without evidence, that a vaccine was coming out โvery, very quickly.โ
Emails obtained by ABC News showed Owens recruiting Blexit supporters and telling them masks were required for entry to the White House, but those who watched Trump deliver his speech from the South Lawn ended up donning more MAGA hats than they did masks.
Meanwhile, White House doctor Sean Conley said on Saturday night that the president is โno longer considered a transmission risk to others,โ but notably did not say whether Trump is now testing negative for COVID-19.
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