On Friday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow praised thousands of protesters that flooded the streets across the country on Juneteenth, while also calling it “madness” for President Trump to host a rally. She made it clear, that it is only okay to gather in the thousands if she believes in the political cause being advocated.
Here Maddow highlighted the massive crowds that gathered all around the nation’s capital on Juneteenth:
There were more than a dozen different Juneteenth rallies and demonstrations and celebrations just in Washington, D.C. Today. Thousands of people crowded around the memorial for Dr. Martin Luther King and also the Washington Monument and also the Lincoln Memorial and in Malcolm X Park and in front of the White House. A group of hundreds of people marched in the rain to the steps of the mayor's office at the Wilson Building demanding the mayor defund D.C. Police.
Photographs of some of these events underlined how hundreds assembled elbow to elbow, and no one cried "super spreader." Just minutes later, when describing Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Maddow no longer was supportive of thousands gathering to rally for a cause that they believe in:
On top of all of that, there of course are concerns whether this event or any event like this should be happening anywhere in the world, especially in Oklahoma, where there has been a dramatic rise in coronavirus cases recently, where Oklahoma has seen a spike in terms of record numbers this week. But where Tulsa is actually the worst part of the spike in Oklahoma.
Maddow invoked the argument that President Trump could not host his campaign rally in Tulsa, because there was a spike in coronavirus cases in Oklahoma, specifically Tulsa. Although, minutes earlier she was bragging about how many people were protesting in Washington D.C., where there are currently 10,020 positive coronavirus cases, and 533 deaths. Meanwhile, in the entire state of Oklahoma, there are 10,515 positive coronavirus cases, and 369 total deaths. And in Tulsa County alone there are only 875 active coronavirus cases, and a total of only 66 deaths.
Unfortunately, Maddow is not the only person, in the liberal media, and among Democrats, that is okay with thousands of protestors in the streets of major U.S. cities on a daily basis, but are not okay with President Trump holding a rally in a city with less than a thousand active coronavirus cases.
Read the transcript below:
MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show
06/19/2020
9:01:11 PM
RACHEL MADDOW: They celebrated Juneteenth in Oakland, California today. This was the port of Oakland. Look at this, thousands of people, peaceful protesters, joined by the Longshoreman's Union, commemorating the end of slavery in this country, as part of this Juneteenth action today. In Oakland, they shut down the operations in the port of Oakland today. This was across the bay, in San Francisco today, people holding a socially distant Juneteenth protest outside San Francisco City Hall.
There were more than a dozen different Juneteenth rallies and demonstrations and celebrations just in Washington, D.C. Today. Thousands of people crowded around the memorial for Dr. Martin Luther King and also the Washington Monument and also the Lincoln Memorial and in Malcolm X Park and in front of the White House. A group of hundreds of people marched in the rain to the steps of the mayor's office at the Wilson Building demanding the mayor defund D.C. Police. To commemorate Juneteenth in New York today, demonstrators crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, some on foot, some by bike, with signs taped to the handlebars.
There were thousands of people in the streets of Atlanta today, that city, of course, still grieving the police killing of Rayshard Brooks this past week.
(…)
9:13:27 PM
MADDOW: On top of all of that, there of course are concerns whether this event or any event like this should be happening anywhere in the world, especially in Oklahoma, where there has been a dramatic rise in coronavirus cases recently, where Oklahoma has seen a spike in terms of record numbers this week. But where Tulsa is actually the worst part of the spike in Oklahoma. Yesterday the Oklahoma state Supreme Court heard arguments about whether to require the adherence to CDC guidelines at the Trump rally tomorrow. An attorney for local residents and businesses that brought this case argued that going forward as is, going forward with the Trump rally the way they're planning to do it, would pose a huge risk to the public in terms of health.
(Audio from Oral Arguments on Trump Tulsa Rally, Oklahoma Supreme Court)
PAUL DEMURO (ATTORNEY): We would be seeking the same relief no matter if this was a concert, no matter if this was an NBA game, or no matter if this was another political candidate. This has nothing to do with politics. This has everything to do with public safety. This is not a question of whether additional people will be infected and die in Tulsa, it's just a question of how many. People are going to be allowed in and to sit as closely as possible to each other, 19,000 people chanting and screaming and yelling in a big box in the middle of the worst pandemic we may have ever faced as a country. It's madness to let this event go forward.
9:15:08 PM
MADDOW: It's madness to let this event go forward. I'll say that the residents who brought that case also proffered to the Oklahoma supreme court that if somebody had tried to intentionally design a delivery system that would maximize the communal spread of this deadly virus, the president's rally tomorrow is what somebody would design to do that.
