BENTONVILLE -- Dealing with a major disease outbreak is something that cannot be done on the spur of the moment, Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg said Thursday. He accused President Donald Trump's of being unprepared for a response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The president fired the federal government's top specialists in emergency, large-scale disease control earlier in his administration and cut disease control funding.
Bloomberg went to Bentonville on Thursday for a rally, his third campaign visit to Arkansas in his blitz of states with primaries on next week's Super Tuesday. The former mayor of New York City said at the rally that detailed contingency plans for a possible pandemic in New York City were complex and demanding. That was for one city, he said. The lack of any such planning and response on a national scale is obvious, he said.
"The president was briefed on the virus two months ago and buried his head in the sand," Bloomberg said during his 20 minutes of public remarks. A little under 1,000 people attended the rally at the Record event center near the Bentonville square, event organizers said.
"We need someone who believes in science and listens to experts," he told the crowd.
The Trump campaign responded to Bloomberg's rally appearance Thursday with a statement. "Bloomberg is out-of-touch with the Arkansas voters, who will never approve of his big-government, job killing and anti-Second Amendment agendas," the statement said. "The millions of dollars he is lighting on fire will not redirect from his abysmal record and disparaging statements towards hardworking Americans." No specific response to Bloomberg's comments about the coronavirus outbreak was received.
More than two out of every five delegates to the Democratic convention will be committed to candidates after the polls close Tuesday. That follows earlier contests that included Saturday's primary in South Carolina. Fourteen states, including Arkansas, will hold their primaries Tuesday. Super Tuesday contests alone account for more than one-third of all delegates awarded in the Democratic Party's primary process.
Bloomberg is a largely self-financed candidate and an advocate of anti-gun violence legislation. In addition to his three visits to Arkansas, he has visited Tennessee four times, North Carolina five times and Texas eight times. They are Super Tuesday states.
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Briefly interrupted Thursday by a booing heckler, Bloomberg quipped: "Thanks for making me feel right at home." Outside, about 20 protesters chanted "No Blue Trump" and other slogans, saying Bloomberg was another billionaire trying to buy an election.
Before the rally, Bloomberg said rural states such as Arkansas have suffered a crisis in health care for years. "Rural areas have been hurting for a long time," he said. "Part of that is the cost of medical equipment and the need for more and more of it." Providing high-tech medical testing is an increasing challenge in rural America that he can craft policies to manage, he said.
Bloomberg visited Benton County because there are more Democrats there than most campaigns realize, said Glenn Hooks of Little Rock, the Bloomberg campaign's Arkansas climate and environmental adviser. Hooks is taking a leave of absence as director of the Arkansas Sierra Club while working on Bloomberg's campaign.
"People tend to think of this as a Republican area, so the Democrats here don't get a lot of attention," Hooks said. "This is a nationwide primary, and their votes matter." Benton County Democrats are heavily outvoted in local and state GOP primaries but the populous county weighs heavily in a Democratic partisan contest, he said.
[GALLERY: Mike Bloomberg makes a stop in Bentonville » arkansasonline.com/228bloomberg/]
More than one attendee of the rally was a Republican. "I'm not voting for Trump," said Pat Calnan of Rogers, who said she was a Republican who voted for the president in 2016. "I thought maybe he'd work out, that Trump would do all right if we gave him a chance."
Joe Kupillas of Bentonville said he has friends and relatives in New York City who were impressed with Bloomberg's tenure as mayor. "He says what he'll do and he does what he says," Kupillas said. "It's done. That's what they told me about him."
Bloomberg is the founder and chief financial backer of Everytown for Gun Safety, which promotes anti-gun violence measures, including background checks. "He's probably the most in favor of strict gun laws of any Democrat in the race," said Rep. Denise Garner, D-Fayetteville. "I think it could hurt him here, especially with moderates."
Bloomberg addressed the gun issue in his interview: "I would make this argument to gun owners. We're not going to take away anything. But if we don't do something to stop mass murders, someday people are going to insist on something.
"Gun stores abide by the laws we have. Gun shows and internet sales don't. Why? Because gun shows and the internet didn't exist when these laws were made." All sales outlets should abide by the same rules, he said.
Bloomberg's campaign opened a regional headquarters in Fayetteville on Feb. 10. Former Fayetteville Mayor Dan Cody spoke at that event. Thursday former state highway commissioner John Burkhalter endorsed Bloomberg and spoke at the rally. Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. has also endorsed the candidate.
The Fayetteville headquarters was chosen from between Maxine's Tap Room and Hugo's restaurant "because when the president's not driving us crazy he's driving us to drink," Bloomberg told the crowd.
Bloomberg's previous visits to Arkansas were to Little Rock. He came to Arkansas on Nov. 12 to register as a candidate for president. He stopped in Little Rock again Jan. 20 to march in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade.
Bloomberg's decision to celebrate the King holiday in Little Rock eschewed the option to appear in larger Southern cities such as Atlanta, with its rich haul of Democratic delegates, or Memphis, where the mayor has endorsed Bloomberg.
Bloomberg and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., are the only 2020 presidential candidates who have publicly visited the state more than once. Klobuchar was at an event in Little Rock in August and attended a rally for her presidential campaign in North Little Rock on Sunday.
Former U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder of Little Rock announced his support for Klobuchar.
Primary rival U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., plans her first visit to Arkansas on Saturday for a rally in North Little Rock.
Then-candidate Beto O'Rourke, a former member of the U.S. House, attended a rally in Fayetteville in August before dropping out of the race.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, came to Arkansas for a Walmart shareholder's meeting and protest in June, but that was not a campaign visit. He met with supporters outside the meeting in Rogers afterward. Inside the meeting, he told shareholders that Walmart should raise its wages.
Metro on 02/28/2020