Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) warned older people and those with underlying health issues, which make them at high risk for coronavirus and its health impacts, to stay away from President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa this weekend.
Lankford said, “The president is always welcome to be able to come to Oklahoma, same thing with any president is welcome to be able to come to Oklahoma. I am fully aware a lot of the nation is looking at Oklahoma right now saying I can’t believe they are holding a political rally. Our restaurants have been open. Our retail has been open for seven weeks now. We’re way ahead of a lot of the other areas of the country. We’ve seen an increase in numbers over the last five days or so. We think that is —that was expected. I don’t want to say we think it was expected. It was expected as we reopened retail and restaurants. Protests have been around my state as well, so with that re-engagement, we’ve seen an uptick, but we have not seen an uptick in hospitalizations, in deaths. It’s younger folks getting it. We’re advising people if they’re coming to the rally, if you have co-morbidities, if you are older, or you have other health issues, don’t come. Watch it on TV.”
He continued, “They’ll pass out masks and hand sanitizer and do temperature checks as folks enter the rally as well trying to make it as safe as possible.”
He added, “The hard part about it, and I’ve tried to explain this to other folks, when you’re at a large gathering like that, as you know, it’s hard to be able to hear sometimes. So there’s going to be times they are going to pull masks on and off. That’s why I really encourage people if you have other health issues, I discourage you from coming to the event.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.