On a very different Fourth of July holiday, when many Americans are wrestling with the racist misdeeds of the country's heroes and confronting an unrelenting pandemic with surging cases, their commander-in-chief is attempting to drag America backward -- stirring fear of cultural change while flouting the most basic scientific evidence about disease transmission.
In a jaw-dropping speech that amounted to a culture war bonfire, President Donald Trump used the backdrop of Mount Rushmore Friday night to frame protesters as a nefarious left-wing mob that intends to "end America." Those opponents, he argued, are engaged in a "merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children."
Like Trump's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last month -- where at least eight Trump campaign staffers came down with the coronavirus and dozens of Secret Service agents were forced to quarantine -- the South Dakota event ignored many of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for large gatherings. The lack of any visible effort to keep people safe was effectively an act of sabotage against Trump's own public health officials, who fear that crowds gathering this holiday weekend could lead to frightening surges in cases and an increase in America's death toll from the pandemic.
In a jaw-dropping speech that amounted to a culture war bonfire, President Donald Trump used the backdrop of Mount Rushmore Friday night to frame protesters as a nefarious left-wing mob that intends to "end America." Those opponents, he argued, are engaged in a "merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children."
Like Trump's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last month -- where at least eight Trump campaign staffers came down with the coronavirus and dozens of Secret Service agents were forced to quarantine -- the South Dakota event ignored many of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for large gatherings. The lack of any visible effort to keep people safe was effectively an act of sabotage against Trump's own public health officials, who fear that crowds gathering this holiday weekend could lead to frightening surges in cases and an increase in America's death toll from the pandemic.
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