Tim Murtaugh, the communications director for President Donald Trump's reelection campaign, Tuesday slammed the media for "nitpicking" plans to resume the president's large signature "MAGA" rallies amid the new spike of coronavirus numbers nationwide. He said that nobody was doing any "social distance shaming" about protest marches in response to the police-connected death of George Floyd.
"There's been an explosion in the way that we are testing Americans across the country and the president intends on getting back on the campaign trail very shortly," Murtaugh told Fox News' "Overtime Outnumbered" host Harris Faulkner. "We will be announcing where the first rally is going to be and it will be before the end of this month, and make no mistake, where we go, we will make sure it is safe to hold a rally and safety precautions will be put in place."
However, he added that he'd point out to the national media that he doesn't remember them shaming the crowds at the demonstrations.
"Last weekend, I saw some video from Philadelphia, a massive demonstration, and there was no nitpicking from the national news media about folks participating in that without wearing masks and without being socially distant," said Murtaugh.
Meanwhile, he told Faulkner that the move to defund the nation's police is sweeping the Democratic Party and is not something Republicans "anywhere" made up. Murtaugh said that when people call for defunding the police, that's what they mean.
"All you have to do is look at the mayors of our two largest cities, the mayor of New York and the mayor of Los Angeles shifting money away from police departments, the city council in Minneapolis where the whole sad tale of the George Floyd killing actually took place, the city council voted to disband the police department," said Murtaugh.
"They all have one thing in common, they all support Joe Biden's candidacy to run for president of the United States," he added. "Joe Biden is on the defund the police train whether he knows it or not and it has already left the Democrat station."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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