President Trump assured supporters his political rallies remain safe amid the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.
The president took questions from the press during a White House meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque Marquez. Trump was asked on Monday if he thought it was “safe or appropriate” to hold campaign rallies while there’s “a public health crisis.”
“These were set up a long time ago, and others are,” Trump said, before harping on the Democratic presidential primary contest. “You can ask that to the Democrats because they’re having a lot of rallies. They’re all having rallies. That’s what they’re doing; they’re campaigning.”
The president was pressed for a more direct answer, to which he stated, “I think it’s very safe, yeah. I think it’s very safe.”
Trump mentioned he has a rally coming up Monday night in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Tonight as you know we’ll be going to North Carolina, we have a big rally scheduled, and that should be — I think thousands of people are already up there waiting. So we’re gonna have hopefully a good time,” Trump said. “We’re gonna make a lot of good predictions there also.”
Cases of the coronavirus, also known as the COVID-19 virus, in the U.S. spiked over the weekend, and two patients in Washington state have died. Globally, more than 89,000 people have been infected with the virus, and more than 3,000 people have died, mostly in mainland China.
