Several hundred people piled into boats for the "Charleston MAGA Boat Parade" in support of President Donald Trump Sunday afternoon.
The event took place in the South Carolina coastal city and featured hundreds of boaters. According to WCSC, dozens of other people lined the shore to get a glimpse of the rally.
"We've got our friends coming in," event participant Michael Holcomb said. "There's people we saw coming in from all over to watch this and view this. So it's pretty awesome."
According to the report, the U.S. Coast Guard, South Carolina's Department of Natural Resources, and police and fire officials from Charleston kept tabs on the rally in their own boats.
A Facebook page for the event showed that 1,200 people were interested in it and more than 700 said they planned to go.
William Hamilton, a local Charleston activist, told WCSC he found the event inappropriate in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed roughly 100,000 Americans. In South Carolina, around 11,000 people have been sickened and 435 have died.
"Well, my first thought is that it was remarkable that when Americans were dying at the rate of over 1,000 a day, and 40 million people are out of work that somebody thought it was appropriate to hold a big party," Hamilton said.
All states have begun to reopen from months of coronavirus closures. Trump is pushing for restrictions that are still in place, including for religious gatherings, to end. Monday morning, he also threatened to pull this summer's Republican National Convention out of North Carolina if Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, does not allow the event to be held as scheduled.
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