On Thursday's edition of CNN's "OutFront," in the wake of Republican businessman and Trump ally Herman Cain's death from COVID-19, anchor Erin Burnett walked through the unsafe decisions made by the president's team at the rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma that Cain attended weeks before.
"It's important to note we do not know where Herman Cain contracted the virus, but 11 days after contracting it is when many people who become ill from it seek urgent hospital care," said Burnett. "Regardless, neither Cain or anyone else should have been at the rally because there was no social distancing and almost no masks. But President Trump can be very convincing. He wanted that rally. He wanted it bad."
"The Trump campaign, at that rally, did not take the safety of its supporters seriously," said Burnett. "That is just a fact. He did not mandate masks. The president's press secretary made it clear she would not wear one. And The Washington Post reports that the Trump campaign directed the removal of the stickers reminding people to social distance. You can see people pulling 'do not sit here' stickers off the chairs. They were doing that very specifically, in effort to make the room look more crowded, have people all sitting next to each other. The turnout didn't end up what they hoped. They wanted people jammed in, showing a normal life."
"The president had been encouraging this deadly mentality, that it's not important to wear a mask, it's not important to socially distance," said Burnett. "We've seen it again and again from him. We even saw it yesterday, at the Trump event in Midland, Texas. No social distance, no masks. This is yesterday, people, 117 days after they said wear masks. Or just two days ago when the president claimed that because hydroxychloroquine is a cure, which by the way it is categorically not, that people don't need to wear masks."
"And people in power are echoing Trump," added Burnett. "Staffers working for Trump's ally, Congressman Louie Gohmert, who just tested positive for the virus yesterday, they tell Politico they were berated in the congressman's office for wearing masks as if it was something bad or weak or inappropriate to do. The president's allies and supporters have all too often followed his lead in their scorn for masks, and this has deadly consequences."
Watch below:
