TULSA, Okla. — President Donald Trump drew lower-than-expected turnout at his first rally in months on Saturday in Tulsa amid a tense political backdrop, nationwide anti-racism protests, and warnings from health officials about the coronavirus.
Trump began the rally, his first since early March, by thanking the crowd of supporters indoors for coming, despite efforts from “some very bad people outside,” alluding to the campaign’s unfounded claim that protesters were responsible for the many empty seats inside Tulsa’s 19,000-seat Bank of Oklahoma Center by blocking rally-goers from entering.
“We begin! We begin! We begin our campaign,” Trump said to applause. “I stand before you today to declare the Silent Majority is stronger than ever before!”
A supporter sits in the stands at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump in Tulsa, Okla., on June 20, 2020.Evan Vucci / AP
Trump’s return to the campaign trail, however, comes as the country has a national reckoning over race in a city where one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history occurred. White residents went on a horrific spree of murder, arson, and looting, known as the Tulsa Race Massacre, in a wealthy Black community in 1921.
The Trump campaign had initially scheduled the campaign for June 19, which is known as Juneteenth —a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S — but postponed it after criticism.
Trump made no mention of the historical tragedy as he gave his typical freewheeling campaign speech, ranging from calling news media fake news to his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump peppered his speech with various criticisms of former Vice President Joe Biden, his presumed Democratic rival in the 2020 presidential election, including on race.
“Virtually every policy that has hurt Black Americans for half a century, Joe Biden has supported or enacted,” Trump said. “I have done more for the Black community in four years then Joe Biden has done in 47 years.”
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Hours before the rally kicked off, the campaign said six staff members involved in organizing it had tested positive for coronavirus, including two Secret Service members. The campaign said it will conduct contact tracing and those officials would not attend Saturday’s rally.
At Saturday’s rally, Trump again blamed testing as the reason for spikes in the number of COVID-19 cases despite the fact that both data and public health experts connect the surge to the easing of lockdown restrictions in various states.
“Testing is a double-edged sword,” Trump told the crowd. “Here’s the bad part: when you do testing to that extent, you will find more cases.”
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Trump said he has tried to tell his officials to slow down testing, even as states such as Texas, Nevada, and Florida have seen recent upticks in cases. His campaign issued a statement after the rally saying the president’s remarks were in jest.
However, the campaign refused to cancel or significantly scale down the event despite warnings from health officials and a last-ditch legal challenge about the fear of spreading COVID-19 at one of the largest public gatherings since the outbreak began.
After the rally ended, Trump’s campaign tried to downplay the low turnout by citing the statement on Tulsa rally viewership on social media, calling it “unmatched enthusiasm behind the President’s re-election.”
The president also spent a great deal of time recounting the media and pundit reaction to his now-viral and noticeably cautious walk down a conventional-looking ramp after a speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point last week.
The president also went after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, a familiar target, for apologizing this month for opposing players kneeling to protest police brutality during the national anthem.
“We will never kneel to our national anthem or our great American flag,” Trump said.
Trump, who has referred to COVID-19 at the “Chinese virus,” at one point referred to the coronavirus as the “Kung Flu,” a racist term his White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters in March was “highly offensive” after reports of aides using the term.
Trump boasted days before the event, telling reporters, “We’ve never had an empty seat, and we certainly won’t in Oklahoma.” Trump’s campaign claimed that nearly 1 million people had requested tickets to the event.
Although a large crowd of his supporters – many sporting ‘Make America Great Again’ hats, shirts, and signs – gathered inside the arena, many of whom were not wearings masks, the campaign’s crowd expectations were not met as many seats were empty. An outdoor stage set up for an overflow crowd was dismantled when no overflow occurred.
Supporters cheer for Eric Trump before the start of a rally in Tulsa, Okla., on June 20, 2020.Sue Ogrocki / AP
Some supporters near the podium appeared to be wearing face coverings. Republican lawmakers, many of whom were not wearing face coverings, were also in attendance. Campaign officials said masks were offered, and temperatures of rally-goers and reporters were checked on the way into the arena.
A tense and chaotic scene erupted outside the arena, mostly between Trump supporters and anti-racism protesters, many of whom were peaceful and support the Black Lives Matter movement. Police and members of the Oklahoma National Guard were also on-scene near the arena ahead of the rally to create a buffer zone between protesters and rally-goers.
MSNBC aired live footage of an anti-racism protester, who had a ticket to the rally, being physically moved by police for refusing to move out of a street near the rally. The unnamed woman was wearing an “I can’t breathe” T-shirt memorializing the words heard by George Floyd before his death in police custody. Other protesters had “8:46” signs, the amount of time the Minnesota officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck.
The Trump campaign criticized protesters in a statement.
“President Trump is rallying in Tulsa with thousands of energetic supporters, a stark contrast to the sleepy campaign being run by Joe Biden from his basement in Delaware,” campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said. “Radical protestors, coupled with a relentless onslaught from the media, attempted to frighten off the President’s supporters. We are proud of the thousands who stuck it out.”
Police form a line outside of the BOK Center before a rally hosted by President Donald Trump in Tulsa, Okla., on June 20, 2020.Lauren Egan / NBC News
Trump, who emphasized that the rally he is the “Law and Order” president, Trump criticized the media’s coverage of the protest sparked by Floyd’s death versus his rally related to COVID-19.
“They don’t talk about, when you see 25,000 people walking down Fifth Avenue, or walking down a street of a Democrat-run city, you never hear them saying they are not wearing their masks,” Trump said.
Many protesters around the country, including those demonstrating outside the Tulsa arena, have worn masks.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported 331 new COVID-19 cases across the state on Saturday, bringing the total number of the state’s number of cases to more than 10,000. Those attending the rally must sign a waiver protecting the campaign from responsibility. On Friday, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit to delay the rally because of coronavirus fears.
Many states around the country, including Oklahoma, have begun reopening despite the U.S. recently topping more than 2.2 million coronavirus cases as of Saturday, according to an NBC News tally.
Trump was originally slated to speak to overflow crowds outside of Saturday’s rally, but his campaign told NBC News moments before the rally began that the president would not make that appearance. The campaign said in a statement protestors had been interfering with people attending the rally, however, MSNBC reported that was not the case. There were also very few supporters gathered in the overflow area outside the event. Campaign workers were seen dismantling outdoor stages shortly before Trump arrived at the arena.
Vice President Mike Pence, who held a roundtable with Black faith and community leaders in Tulsa several miles away from the rally, also declined to speak to crowds outside.
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Trump’s rally also comes as he faces another political maelstrom in Washington. A judge ruled on Saturday that Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton can publish his tell-book about his time in the White House, which paints a damning portrait of the president.
Trump also faces scrutiny over his firing of Geoffrey Berman, the Manhattan U.S. attorney in New York, who was investigating members of the president’s inner circle. Trump told reporters on Saturday he was “not involved” in the firing, telling reporters before heading to Tulsa, “That’s all up to the attorney general.”
Attorney General William Barr had initially announced Berman was resigning. However, Berman issued a statement contradicting Barr and said he would only leave if the Senate confirms his replacement. Berman left his position after deputy U.S. attorney Audrey Strauss was named acting U.S. attorney.
Susan Kroll reported from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Monica Alba from Washington, and Dartunorro Clark from New York.
MONTEBELLO, Que. – The Bloc Québécois is ready to wheel and deal with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government in exchange for support during confidence votes now that the Liberal government’s confidence and supply agreement with the NDP has ended.
That support won’t come cheap, the Quebec-based Bloc said, and the sovereigntist party led by Yves-François Blanchet has already drawn up a list of demands.
In an interview ahead of the opening of Monday’s party caucus retreat in the Outaouais region, Bloc House Leader Alain Therrien said his party is happy to regain its balance of power.
“Our objectives remain the same, but the means to get there will be much easier,” Therrien said. “We will negotiate and seek gains for Quebec … our balance of power has improved, that’s for sure.”
He called the situation a “window of opportunity” now that the Liberals are truly a minority government after New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh tore up the confidence and supply deal between the two parties last week, leaving the Bloc with an opening.
While Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives have promised multiple confidence votes in the hope of triggering a general election, the Bloc’s strategy is not to rush to the polls and instead use their new-found standing to make what they consider to be gains for Quebec.
A Bloc strategist who was granted anonymity by The Canadian Press because he was not authorized to speak publicly stated bluntly that the NDP had officially handed the balance of power back to the Bloc. The Bloc is taking for granted that when a federal election is held in about a year or less, it will be a majority Conservative government led by Poilievre, whose party has surged in the polls for over a year and has been ahead in the rest of Canada for over a year.
Quebec won’t factor so much in that win, the source added, where the Bloc will be hoping to grab seats from the Liberals and where the Conservatives hope to gain from the Bloc.
“It’s going to happen with or without Quebec,” the source said. “They (the Conservatives) are 20 points ahead everywhere in Canada, with the exception of Quebec, and that won’t change … their (Conservative) vote is firm.”
It is not surprising that the Bloc sees excellent news in the tearing up of the agreement that allowed the Liberals to govern without listening to their demands, said University of Ottawa political scientist Geneviève Tellier.
“The Bloc only has influence if the government, no matter which one, is a minority,” she explained. “In the case of a majority government, the Bloc’s relevance becomes more difficult to justify because, like the other parties, it can oppose, it can hold the government to account, but it cannot influence the government’s policies.”
On the Bloc’s priority list is gaining royal recommendation for Bill C-319, which aims to bring pensions for seniors aged 65 to 74 to the same level as that paid to those aged 75 and over.
A bill with budgetary implications that comes from a member of Parliament, as is the case here, must necessarily obtain royal recommendation before third reading, failing which the rules provide that the Speaker of the House will end the proceedings and rule it inadmissible.
The Bloc also wants Quebec to obtain more powers in immigration matters, particularly in the area of temporary foreign workers, and recoup money it says is owed to the province.
The demands concerning seniors’ pensions and immigration powers are “easy, feasible and clear,” Therrien said.
“It’s clear that it will be on the table. I can tell you: I’m the one who will negotiate,” he added.
The Bloc also wants to see cuts to money for oil companies, more health-care funds for provinces as demanded by premiers and stemming or eliminating Ottawa’s encroachment of provincial jurisdictions.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2024.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick‘s Liberals got a jump on the province’s coming fall election today with the official launch of their party’s campaign.
The kickoff, which took place in the Fredericton riding where Liberal Leader Susan Holt plans to run this time, came before the official start of the general election set for Oct. 21.
The Liberal platform contains promises to open at least 30 community care clinics over the next four years at a cost of $115.2 million, and roll out a $27.4 million-a-year program to offer free or low-cost food at all schools starting next September.
The governing Progressive Conservatives, led by BlaineHiggs, have so far pledged to lower the Harmonized Sales Tax from 15 per cent to 13 per cent if re-elected.
Political observers say the issues most affecting people in New Brunswick are affordability, health care, housing and education.
Recent polls suggest Higgs, whose leadership style has drawn critiques from within his caucus and whose policies on pronoun use in schools have stirred considerable controversy within the province, may face an uphill battle with voters this fall.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2024.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will face a fretful and strained caucus in British Columbia Monday, with MPs looking for him to finally reveal his plan to address the political purgatory the party has endured for months.
Several Liberal MPs privately and publicly demanded they meet as a team after the devastating byelection loss of a longtime political stronghold in Toronto last June, but the prime minister refused to convene his caucus before the fall.
Their political fortunes did not improve over the summer, and this week the Liberals took two more significant blows: the abrupt departure of the NDP from the political pact that prevented an early election, and the resignation of the Liberals’ national campaign director.
Now, with two more byelections looming on Sept. 16 and a general election sometime in the next year, several caucus members who are still not comfortable speaking publicly told The Canadian Press they’re anxiously awaiting a game plan from the prime minister and his advisers that will help them save their seats.
The Liberals have floundered in the polls for more than a year now as Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives have capitalized on countrywide concerns about inflation, the cost of living and lack of available housing.
Though Trudeau hasn’t yet addressed all of his MPs en masse, he has spoken with them in groups throughout June and July and stopped in on several regional caucus meetings ahead of the Nanaimo retreat.
“We’re focused on delivering for Canadians,” Trudeau said at a Quebec Liberal caucus meeting Thursday.
He listed several programs in the works, including a national school food program and $10-a-day childcare, as well as national coverage for insulin and contraceptives, which the Liberals developed in partnership with the NDP.
“These are things that matter for Canadians,” he said, before he accused the NDP of focusing on politics while the Liberals are “focused on Canadians.”
Wayne Long, a Liberal MP representing a New Brunswick riding, says the problem is that Canadians appear to have tuned the prime minister out.
Long was the only Liberal member to publicly call for Trudeau’s resignation in the aftermath of the Toronto-St. Paul’s byelection loss, though several other MPs expressed the same sentiment privately at the time.
Long shared his views with the prime minister again at the Atlantic caucus retreat ahead of Monday’s meeting.
“I’m really worried the old ‘stay calm and carry on,’ which effectively is where we are, is not going to put us on a road to victory in the next election,” said Long, who does not plan to run again.
“If we’re going to mount a campaign that can beat Pierre Poilievre, in my opinion that campaign cannot be led by Justin Trudeau.”
Long fears a Trudeau campaign could lead to a Poilievre government that dismantles the prime minister’s nine-year legacy, piece by piece.
Long is one of several Liberal MPs who confirmed to The Canadian Press they do not plan to go the meeting in Nanaimo. But Mark Carney, the Bank of Canada governor whose name is routinely dropped around Ottawa as a possible successor to Trudeau as Liberal leader, will be in attendance.
He’s expected to address MPs about the economy and a plan for growth.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s decision to back out of the supply and confidence deal certainly complicates any calls for the prime minister to step aside and allow a new leader to face off against Pierre Poilievre in the next election, since that election could now come at any time.
“It makes a much more precarious situation, because Singh probably holds the keys to when that election could be,” said Andrew Perez, a longtime Liberal with Perez Strategies, who also called for Trudeau’s resignation earlier this summer.
“Maybe it presents an argument for the pro-Trudeau side to say that we need to stick with Trudeau, because there’s no time.”
But while some caucus members describe feeling frustrated by the political tribulation, Long insists that those who are running again aren’t yet feeling defeated.
Speaking about those in the Atlantic caucus, he said “to a person, they’re ready to fight. They’re they’re ready to go.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2024.
