Trump indoor rally plan prompts virus warning
HENDERSON, United States: US President Donald Trump on Sunday held his first fully indoor rally in months, outraging officials in the state of Nevada who warned the gathering violated coronavirus restrictions on crowd sizes.
Indoor rallies during the pandemic have proven problematic for Trump, who was heavily criticised after one in June that was later linked to a spike in virus cases.
Trump used Sunday’s event, held in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, to applaud his own handling of the pandemic, which has killed nearly 195,000 Americans, the world’s highest toll.
“We have done an incredible job, we get absolutely no credit for the job we have done,” the Republican told the crowd at the Xtreme Manufacturing facility, adding that his leadership had ‘saved millions of lives.’
Governor Steve Sisolak tweeted that “tonight, President Donald Trump is taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada.”
“The President appears to have forgotten that this country is still in the middle of a global pandemic,” he said.
Trump called Sisolak, a Democrat, a ‘political hack’ and urged the crowd to ‘tell your governor to open your state.’ Plans for the rally drew a rebuke from local authorities, who noted events with more than 50 people are not allowed due to the coronavirus.
“The City of Henderson has issued a compliance letter and verbal warning to the event organiser that the event as planned would be in direct violation of the governor’s Covid19 emergency directives,” city spokeswoman Kathleen Richards said in a statement.