President Donald Trump’s director of strategic communications for the 2020 campaign on Friday said the president’s Tulsa rally is a celebration of the country reopening and Americans coming together.
During a Friday appearance on MSNBC, Marc Lotter said the rally is a celebration of Americans' First Amendment rights “to assemble, to let your voices be heard and to celebrate an America that’s reopening and this president.”
Lotter also defended Trump when MSNBC's Kristen Welker asked if the president was threatening protesters planning demonstrations during his rally.
On Friday, Trump tweeted: “Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma, please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle or Minneapolis. It will be a much difference scene!”
Lotter said the president “supports peaceful protests and people who are exercising their First Amendment rights. But if we see what we’ve seen in other cities with rioting, looting, setting buildings on fire and physical violence, then that’s going to be something that would be met by police. And it will be handled appropriately.”
Lotter said Trump's message was directed toward “agitators, rioters, looters not people who are coming here with the idea of exercising their peaceful right to First Amendment.”
“We normally have peaceful protests going on around our rallies,” he added. “And we would hope that anybody that’s coming in from out of town would continue to honor that peaceful tradition in our country and not go to violence.”
When asked why the campaign isn’t requiring rallygoers to wear masks, Lotter said the campaign is putting safety measures in place to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, while respecting the fact that people have the right to make their own decisions.
“We are going to be providing temperature checks for everyone as they enter the door. Masks will be made available. Hand sanitizer will be made available to everyone coming in, he said. “But we also believe in American freedom and if people want to come here and celebrate not only reopening of the America but also the president and his campaign, they have the right to wear a mask, they also have a right to make a decision for themselves.”
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