Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer slammed President Trump for holding an indoor rally in Nevada over the weekend, with the Fox News contributor calling the decision amid the coronavirus pandemic “irresponsible.”
“Indoor rallies are irresponsible,” Fleischer, who served in the George W. Bush administration, tweeted on Monday.
“Covid-19 is real and this was a bad idea,” he added.
The criticism comes after the Trump campaign promoted the event by mocking protests while urging supporters “to gather peacefully under the 1st Amendment” to hear the president speak.
“If you can join tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets, gamble in a casino, or burn down small businesses in riots, you can gather peacefully under the 1st Amendment to hear from the President of the United States,” the campaign said in a Sunday statement leading up to the rally.
The decision by the Trump campaign to hold the event in a warehouse in Henderson, Nev., drew similar criticism from other journalists and political pundits from the left and right, with some reporting that masks were worn by “some” or “very few” attendees who also appeared to not practice social distancing.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) ripped Trump for defying his state’s coronavirus restrictions, which ban gatherings of 50 or more people.
“Tonight, President Donald Trump is taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada,” Sisolak said. “The President appears to have forgotten that this country is still in the middle of a global pandemic.”