Donald Trump wants voters to believe that the coronavirus pandemic is in the past. He’s already campaigning like it is. Trump’s campaign events are largely maskless and crowded, often in direct violation of state public health guidelines. But while many in Trump’s base love it, even some Trump supporters are concerned.
When Trump went to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the Trump-supporting Republican chair of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners called on him to wear a mask. “It’s been ordered by the governor,” David Plyler told the Winston-Salem Journal. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in North Carolina, do as the governor says.” Trump, of course, did not.
Instead, Trump reveled in a crowd packed into bleachers, with many people not wearing masks. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has put a 50-person cap on outdoor gatherings, but Trump’s event not only ignored that, Trump himself mocked it. “We call you peaceful protesters, you know why?” he said. “Because they have rules in these Democrat-run states that if you’re campaigning, you cannot have more than five people. They did that for me.”
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows insists that there’s no need for Trump to wear a mask, since masks are to protect other people and Trump’s regular testing means he knows he doesn’t have COVID-19. But Plyler, the county commissioner, understands the power of leadership even if top White House officials won’t admit that they do.
”The president of the United States sets the example for everybody else,” he told CNN. “You can hear it: if the president of the United States says I don’t have to wear it, I’m not going to wear it. And I can guarantee you that will be done.”
Trump’s events could directly spread coronavirus given the lack of social distancing—but his example also spreads risk by leading his supporters to defy public health guidelines in their everyday lives.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, is holding small, distanced events—which means that he is, for the sake of public health and safety, giving up opportunities to reach more supporters in person. The Biden campaign and many other Democratic groups are similarly holding off from running major in-person field campaigns, while the Trump campaign and other Republican groups knock millions of doors, at whatever risk to both their canvassers and the people whose doors they show up at.
Republicans have held 31,000 in-person campaign events since mid-June, with, for instance, a Trump campaign office opening in Ohio having 100 mostly maskless people in a crowded indoor space. Democrats, on the other hand, say that while Trump’s pretend-there’s-no-virus strategy may appeal to his supporters, it’s not good outreach beyond that base.
”Donald Trump’s voter outreach fails to understand the concerns of Americans right now,” according the Biden campaign’s states director, Jenn Ridder. “He is blatantly having events. He is blatantly going to doors. And the reality of this country is, they are worried about the economy, they are worried about sending their kids to school, and they are worried about COVID.”