She added that she was “horrified” to see pictures from the day before of about 100 Trump supporters packed into a ballroom in Arizona, mostly maskless, for an event billed as a roundtable by a campaign.
“People will die because of these types of events and that’s from the president of the United States,” she asserted. “And you look at folks that might not be wearing masks or aren’t taking this seriously and you understand how that’s the case.”
Despite Biden generally approving of the diplomatic breakthrough being commemorated at the White House on Tuesday, she said Trump “continues to just suggest that we aren’t in the middle of a pandemic and it’s really problematic, but so emblematic of his lack of leadership and what we are going to continue to stay focused on.”
The president began holding rallies again in June, when he sought to pack a Tulsa, Okla., arena with supporters who his campaign required to agree wouldn’t sue the campaign if they contracted coronavirus at the event. A few weeks later, the county saw a spike in cases that the head of the city’s health department said were “more than likely” connected to the rally and recent protests.
Less than two weeks after attending the Tulsa rally and being photographed with no mask on, Herman Cain, one of Trump’s top Black surrogates, was hospitalized with coronavirus, though it is unknown where he contracted the virus. He died from complications with Covid-19 several weeks later.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly defended its resumption of campaign rallies amid the pandemic, with thousands of fans packing airplane hangars for the events in recent weeks, mostly eschewing safety precautions like masks and physical distancing.
The campaign has argued that it is a voter’s choice to attend Trump’s rallies — which O’Malley Dillon described as “superspreader” events for the coronavirus — and that rallygoers are offered free hand sanitizer and face masks and required to have their temperatures checked.
Biden, on the other hand, has been criticized for his relatively light campaign schedule throughout the pandemic, opting for entirely virtual events up until the last month or so. He has since resumed campaign traveling, with smaller events where masks and social distancing are ubiquitous.
While the former vice president has been ridiculed by Trump and his allies, who have joked that Biden is “stuck in his basement,” O’Malley Dillon embraced the two candidates’ differing pandemic campaign styles.
“I think that contrast between how the vice president is approaching campaigning in a pandemic versus Donald Trump is stark, and is certainly part and parcel to the leadership difference here,” she said, noting that the campaign is “very comfortable that we’re reaching out to voters, we’re having the conversation we need to have with voters” without putting them, Biden, or his staff in harm’s way.
Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/15/biden-campaign-manager-trump-rallies-415241
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