As COVID-19 remains rampant in the U.S., medical experts allegedly accuse President Donald Trump of “negligent homicide” after conducting its first-ever indoor rally.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump conducted an indoor campaign rally for his supporters in Nevada. Reports confirm that the event was jam-packed with thousands of attendees.
They went despite the “national and state restrictions on social distancing.” As The New York Times adds, most of them forgone wearing masks.
Health professional on Donald Trump campaign rally
The Hill cites the commentary of Dr. Jonathan Reiner accusing Trump of “negligent homicide” after his Nevada indoor rally.
It should be noted that Dr. Reiner is a professor at George Washington University, teaching medicine and surgery. Aside from that, he serves as a medical analyst for CNN.
As he emphasized, “what else could you call an act that because of its negligence results in the death of others?”
“If you have a mass gathering now in the United States in a place like Nevada or just about any other place with hundreds of thousands of people, people will get infected and some of those people will die.”
“Negligent homicide. What else could you call an act that because of its negligence results in the deaths of others? …People will die as a consequence of this.” —@JReinerMD on the impact of President Trump holding an indoor rally tonight. pic.twitter.com/nLpinuJrzr
— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) September 13, 2020
Donald Trump, the current POTUS, has long been criticized for how he has lightly handled the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, accusations against him only grew stronger after the recorded interviews for Bob Woodward’s book, RAGE, showed how Trump purposely downplayed COVID-19.
Dr. Reiner expressed how it made no sense for him that the president held an indoor rally in a state who imposes a law on limiting gatherings of people. He expressed:
“If you took this virus seriously, you would never hold an indoor rally or almost any rally now and particularly one that doesn’t enforce very strict rules on masks. People will die as a consequence of this. I think that Nevada has a law right now limiting gatherings to more than 50 people. So, the president is defying that. Makes no sense.”
Trump campaign justifies indoor rally
The Donald Trump campaign spokesperson, Tim Murtaugh, defends the president’s decision to gather hundreds of his supporters amid a pandemic. The New York Times quotes Murtaugh saying:
“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 First Amendment to hear from the president of the United States.”
https://twitter.com/GovSisolak/status/1305324316746162176
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak has slammed Trump for forcing his events despite report warnings submitted to the White House. In a series of tweets, he has accused the president of endangering the lives of the people in Nevada.
https://twitter.com/GovSisolak/status/1305324318855802882
The president’s last indoor rally was in June, held in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There was a surge of coronavirus cases following his event, per The New York Times. The area of the surge was likely linked to the event.
Nevada has recorded a total of 1,454 deaths as of Sunday evening. The state has at least 73,648 COVID-19 cases.
Featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore/Flickr