Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)

Was Trump campaignin­g or trolling in Nevada?

Maybe he thinks he can win here, but his visit seemed more like a prank

- STEVE SEBELIUS

IS Nevada in play in the 2020 presidenti­al election? If you judge by President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Nevada, you’d certainly think so.

Trump rallied his supporters at both ends of the state last weekend, defying

Gov. Steve Sisolak’s coronaviru­s restrictio­ns and accusing the Democrat of trying to spike his rallies (and also steal the November election).

It was a tour de force of free media for a president who has shown he’s the master at attracting cameras and reporters who chronicle his every utterance, even when those utterances stretch the facts. It was also a reminder that Democrats shouldn’t underestim­ate Trump or his team’s strategy to reach the 270 electoral votes he’ll need to win a second term.

But does Trump really think he can win Nevada in 2020 after losing here to Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 2.4 percentage points?

His campaign canceled some recent Nevada advertisin­g even as rival Joe Biden is up constantly with ads of his own. And there are certainly more vote-rich states for Trump to concentrat­e on, including Iowa,

North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvan­ia.

In some ways, the president’s visit to Nevada seemed more like an elaborate political prank aimed at triggering Sisolak and generating a new grievance than an earnest campaign swing. First, Trump announced two rallies at airport hangars, one at the Reno-Tahoe Internatio­nal Airport, one at McCarran Internatio­nal Airport. He and his campaign knew that presidenti­al rallies draw crowds well in excess of the current 50-person limit on gatherings under coronaviru­s restrictio­ns.

So it was little surprise when the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority told the tenants of the private hangar where the northern rally had been scheduled that the event would violate their lease agreement. (The owners of the hangar at McCarran never even contacted the airport about permission for the rally, so McCarran officials never officially said no to anything.)

Trump took advantage of the cancellati­on, blaming Sisolak for the denial. When the governor disclaimed all responsibi­lity, Republican­s were swift to note that Sisolak closely monitored an Evangelica­ls for Trump rally last month in Las Vegas, repeatedly pressuring local officials about the event, according to emails obtained by the Review-Journal under the state’s public records law.

“We just feel that Sisolak doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt,” said Keith Schipper, spokesman for Trump’s Nevada effort. “There no reason to trust (him) on this.” And then Trump went ahead and held his rallies anyway, welcoming thousands of people to the Minden-Tahoe airport in Douglas County and thousands more to the Xtreme Manufactur­ing facility in Henderson.

When Sisolak denounced the president as callously indifferen­t to the lives of his supporters, Trump’s people replied in kind: Where was the governor’s opprobrium when Black Lives Matter protesters were swarming the Strip? Why does Sisolak denounce only Republican gatherings?

If Trump’s visit was primarily a political stunt rather than a legitimate attempt to court the Nevada vote — and there’s reason to suspect it was — then give his campaign credit for a well-played weekend. But on substance, it’s a different story. Inconsiste­nt though it may be, Sisolak’s criticism of Trump (repeated by the state Democratic Party and even Joe Biden) isn’t misplaced: By holding large rallies, Trump inevitably risks exposing his supporters to the coronaviru­s. That’s especially true at an indoor rally, without social

distancing and scant use of masks.

Asked by the Review-Journal’s Debra Saunders if he was worried about catching COVID-19, Trump replied that he was safely distanced from the crowd. Yes, but what about the crowd?

In fact, the White House’s own guidance at the time of Trump’s visit classified Clark County as a coronaviru­s red zone, in which social gatherings should be limited to no more than 10 people. That’s also the precise limit that Xtreme Manufactur­ing advertised as its own internal policy for its facility.

But yes, outdoor protests on the Strip, regardless of motive, also violate the state’s coronaviru­s restrictio­ns and also court danger with respect to transmissi­on. COVID-19 does not discrimina­te based on politics.

The president was also wrong in his repeated assertion that Sisolak controls ballots in Nevada and intends to cheat in the upcoming election. In reality, the governor has no role in the election whatsoever, save for declaring the emergency that triggers the provision of the recently passed election reformm measure, Assembly Bill 4. Instead, local county clerks and registrars of voters and their staffs will collect and count ballots, under rules promulgate­d by the secretary of state’s office.

The only ballot the governor will touch is his own, and we can say with certainty that his will not be a Trump vote.

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