Attendees at President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20 will be provided with masks and hand sanitizer, and will be subject to temperature screenings before entering, his campaign announced Monday.
According to his campaign, more than a million ticket requests have been made for Trump’s first rally since March, when the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic put a halt to all in-person campaign events.
People who attend the rally however, will not be required to wear the masks or maintain social distance, CNN reported.
Over 1M ticket requests for the @realDonaldTrump #MAGA Rally in Tulsa on Saturday.
Before entering each guest will get:
✅Temperature check
✅Hand sanitizer
✅MaskThere will be precautions for the heat and bottled water as well.
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) June 15, 2020
A full house is expected at Saturday’s rally at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which has a capacity of just under 20,000. Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, said Monday that the upcoming rally is the most popular of any Trump events.
When it hit 800,000 over the weekend, it represented the “biggest data haul and rally signup of all time” by 10 times, Parscale said.
People can still sign up for the rally on the campaign’s website. Anyone can get free tickets but they’re honored on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The rally, which is expected to begin at about 7 p.m., was pushed back one day so it wouldn’t fall on Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery. African Americans mark June 19 as the day in 1865 that slaves in Texas found out they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation made more than two years previously.
A number of officials, including Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), called on or personally spoke to Trump about shifting the event, and the president ended up supporting the new date.
Trump said in a statement Friday that “unfortunately” the rally was originally scheduled to fall on Juneteenth, adding, “Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents.”
The date change was made to honor those requests, the Republican added.
News that people attending the upcoming rally will receive masks, hand sanitizer, and temperature checks before entering, comes after Tulsa City-County Health Department’s director, Dr. Bruce Dart, told the Tulsa World that he hoped the event could be pushed back even further because of a “significant increase in our case trends.”
“I’m concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event, and I’m also concerned about our ability to ensure the president stays safe as well,” he said over the weekend.
“COVID is here in Tulsa, it is transmitting very efficiently,” Dart added. “I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn’t as large a concern as it is today.”
Prospective attendees are told that they cannot sue the Trump campaign or the venue if they contract the CCP virus, which emerged in China last year and causes the disease COVID-19.
“By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present,” says a statement to people who sign up.
“By attending the rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury.”
“The campaign takes the health and safety of rally-goers seriously and is taking precautions to make the rally safe,” Erin Perrine, deputy communications director for the campaign, said in an email. “Every single rally-goer will have their temperature checked, be provided a face mask and hand sanitizer. We are also taking precautions to keep rally-goers safe in the Oklahoma heat—including providing water bottles to keep people hydrated.”
Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, told Fox News that people with underlying conditions can choose not to attend events such as Trump’s upcoming rally.
Oklahoma reported 8,417 cases of COVID-19 and 359 deaths as of Monday.
Zachary Stieber and Reuters contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
