‘Our past is not a burden to be cast away,’ Trump says
U.S. president makes combative speech at July 4 event
WASHINGTON — On a day meant for unity and celebration, U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to “safeguard our values” from enemies within — leftists, looters, agitators, he said — in an Independence Day speech packed with all the grievances and combativeness of his political rallies.
Trump watched paratroopers float to the ground in a tribute to America, greeted his audience of front-line medical workers and others central in responding to the coronavirus pandemic, and opened up on those who “slander” him and disrespect the country’s past.
“We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and the people who, in many instances, have absolutely no clue what they are doing,” he said. “We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children. And we will defend, protect and preserve the American way of life, which began in 1492 when Columbus discovered America.”
He did not mention the dead from the pandemic. Nearly 130,000 are known to have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. Even as officials across the U.S. pleaded with Americans to curb their enthusiasm for large July 4 crowds, Trump enticed the masses with a “special evening” of tribute and fireworks staged with new U.S. coronavirus infections on the rise. But the crowds wandering the National Mall for the night’s air show and fireworks were strikingly thinner than the gathering for last year’s jammed celebration.
Many who showed up wore masks — unlike those seated close together for Trump’s South Lawn event — and distancing was easy to do for those scattered across the sprawling space. Trump did not hesitate to use the country’s birthday as an occasion to assail segments of the U.S. that do not support him. Carrying on a theme he pounded on a day earlier at
Mount Rushmore, he went after those who have torn down statues or think some of them, particularly those of Confederate figures, should be removed. Support has grown among Republicans to remove Confederate memorials. “Our past is not a burden to be cast away,” Trump said.
Outside the event but as close to it as they could get, Pat Lee of Upper Dublin, Pennsylvania, gathered with two friends, one of them a nurse from Fredericksburg, Virginia, and none in a mask. “[The president] said it would go away,” Lee said of the pandemic. “Masks, I think, are like a hoax.”
By the Second World War Memorial, the National Park Service handed out packets of five white cloth masks to all who wanted them. People were not required to wear them. Another nurse, Zippy Watt from Riverside, California, was there to see the air show and fireworks with her husband and their two daughters. They wore matching American flag face masks. “We chose to wear a mask to protect ourselves and others,” Watt said.
Trump’s guests on the South Lawn were doctors, nurses, law-enforcement officers and military members, as well as officials from the administration. Judd Deere, deputy White House press secretary, said the event was a tribute to the “tremendous courage and spirit” of front-line workers and the public in the pandemic.