TULSA -- President Donald Trump pressed ahead Saturday with a comeback rally by declaring "the silent majority is stronger than ever before," as concerns of the coronavirus spreading were amplified after six staff members setting up for the event tested positive for the virus.
Supporters filled the stadium and surrounding streets where the president held his first rally in months. However, in the hours before the event, crowds seemed lighter than expected. Campaign officials scrapped plans for Trump to first address an overflow space.
Trump tried to explain away the crowd size, criticizing the media for declaring "don't go, don't come, don't do anything" while insisting there were protesters outside "doing bad things."
"Sadly, protestors interfered with supporters, even blocking access to the metal detectors, which prevented people from entering the rally," campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said in a statement. "Radical protestors, coupled with a relentless onslaught from the media, attempted to frighten off the President's supporters. We are proud of the thousands who stuck it out."
"We begin our campaign," Trump shouted to cheering rallygoers. "The silent majority is stronger than ever before."
Trump acknowledged several lawmakers in attendance, including Arkansas' Sen. Tom Cotton.
The president defined the upcoming election as a stark choice between national heritage and left-wing radicalism.
"The choice in 2020 is very simple," Trump said. "Do you want to bow before the left-wing mob, or do you want to stand up tall and proud as Americans?"
Trump devoted more than 10 minutes of his 105-minute rally -- with the crowd laughing along -- trying to explain away a pair of odd images from his speech last weekend at West Point, blaming his slippery leather-soled shoes for video of him walking awkwardly down a ramp as he left the podium. And then he said he used two hands to drink a cup of water because his arm was sore from saluting 600 times at West Point, adding he didn't want to spill water on his tie.
But Trump also leaned in hard on cultural issues, including the push to tear down statues and rename military bases honoring Confederate generals in the wake of nationwide protests about racial injustice.
"The unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, desecrate our monuments, our beautiful monuments. Tear down our statues, and punish, cancel and persecute anyone who does not conform to their demands for absolute and total control," Trump said. "They want to demolish our heritage so they can impose their new repressive regime in its place."
State and city health department officials were already girding for a possible surge in coronavirus cases from large outdoor demonstrations against police brutality held across the country.
The crowd filtered into the 19,000-seat BOK Center for the biggest indoor event the country has seen since restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus began in March.
Some empty seats remained in the arena. And that came on the heels of the campaign revealing that staff members tested positive for the virus.
Murtaugh said that "quarantine procedures were immediately implemented," and that neither the affected staff members nor anyone who was in immediate contact with them would attend the event.
Murtaugh said campaign staff members are tested for the virus as part of the campaign's safety protocols.
In the minutes before the president arrived at the downtown arena, Trump supporters who signed up for tickets received a text urging them to show up, declaring, "There's still space!"
Many of the president's supporters weren't wearing masks, despite the recommendation of public-health officials to keep the coronavirus from spreading. Some had been camped near the venue since early in the week.
Thousands of people filled the downtown streets Saturday, including a large group of Black Lives Matter protesters who chanted and marched, occasionally getting into shouting matches with some Trump supporters who chanted, "all lives matter."
The protesters blocked traffic in at least one intersection. Some black leaders in Tulsa have said they're worried the visit could lead to violence. It's happening as protests over racial injustice and policing take place across the U.S. and in a city that has a long history of racial tension. Officials said they expected some 100,000 people in Tulsa's downtown.
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Across the street, armed, uniformed highway patrol troopers milled about a staging area in a bank parking lot with dozens of uniformed National Guard troops.
NO CUOMO BRIEFING
The map of the outbreak in the U.S., and elsewhere, has become a patchwork, with infections falling in some areas and surging in others. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo didn't hold a televised coronavirus briefing Saturday for the first time in months -- a sign of progress in the state that was home to the epicenter of the outbreak.
Other states are seeing increases, and Nevada and Arizona, for instance, have reported record single-day jumps in new cases in recent days.
In Tulsa, health department officials have said two large indoor gatherings recently contributed to a spike in new cases. They declined to name the events or say how big they were, but the city has had the largest increase in infections in Oklahoma in recent days.
Several bordering states, including Arkansas, also have had spikes in community spread of the virus in recent weeks.
"I think there's no question that indoor events are more risky than outdoor events. But we don't really know how big that difference is. And certainly other aspects, like how tightly packed things are ... will make a big difference," said Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Lessler said large events like the rally or the protests have the "potential to be super spreader events," but their potential to drive the pandemic is short-lived.
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"The larger factor is what happens when people go home," he said. "If everybody goes home and doesn't respect the social-distancing factors and goes out into the community, then they could push the spread."
Tulsa County reported 136 new cases on Saturday -- marking another high for both single-day and average cases -- while the state as a whole reported 331 new infections.
Oklahoma has surpassed 10,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the interim commissioner of the state's Health Department says a surge in cases was expected after the state began reopening.
"As we have expected, our state is experiencing increased positive cases since reopening," in late April, Dr. Lance Frye said in a Friday night news release.
WARNINGS ON RISK
On its website, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people hoping to attend an event take into consideration whether it is outside or inside, noting indoor events are "more risky" because it might be harder to keep a safe distance from other people and because ventilation is poorer than outside.
Tulsa County health officials had urged state officials to postpone the event at the BOK Center because of the recent spike in cases. But Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said it would be safe.
The Trump campaign acknowledged the risk in a waiver it asked attendees to sign that absolves them of any responsibility if someone should get sick. It was handing out masks and hand sanitizer, but there was no requirement that participants use them and there was to be no required social distancing inside.
Teams of people wearing goggles, masks, gloves and blue gowns were checking temperatures of those heading to the arena on Saturday.
The rally originally was planned for Friday, but was moved after complaints that it coincided with Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the U.S., and in a city that was the site of a 1921 race-related massacre, when a white mob attacked blacks, leaving as many as 300 people dead.
In the district of Greenwood, black leaders rushed to cover up Black Wall Street memorials hours before a scheduled visit by Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday. The memorials remember the 1921 massacre.
Activists said they did not want Pence to use the historic district for a political event.
"I just think his visit is an opportunity for a photo op," said community activist and educator Kristi Williams. "We say, 'Don't come for a photo op when you have not come to sit down and talk with black leaders in the community.'"
However, when Pence arrived Saturday afternoon at the Dream Center in North Tulsa, he met with a roundtable of black ministers. Pence told them that he was there to listen after Floyd's death, according to White House pool reports.
"There is no excuse for what happened to George Floyd," Pence told the ministers. "There is no excuse for the rioting and looting and violence that ensued."
On Saturday in Tulsa, Kieran Mullen, 60, a college professor from Norman, Okla., held a sign that read, "Black Lives Matter" and "Dump Trump."
Margene Dunivant and her son, Christian Lynch, both of Tulsa, sat on the edge of the crowd, taking in the scene.
"Everybody here is just full-on American and American Dream and hardworking, and just believes in everything America," said Dunivant, 52. "Nowadays, it's like you put on a Trump shirt and you're considered racist, and it's just wrong. We're good people, and we love everybody."
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Meanwhile, health officials are still keeping an eye on the outdoor demonstrations against police brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
States also are preparing for summer vacations, stressing that people must continue to social distance when going to the beach, camping or taking part in other activities. Delaware officials put out the call to high school seniors who participated in traditional senior week events at beaches over the weekend to get tested, after at least three teens tested positive.
Information for this article was contributed by Sean Murphy, Claudia Lauer, Sara Burnett, Ellen Knickmeyer, Ken Miller, Jill Colvin, John Mone, Kevin Freking and Jonathan Lemire of The Associated Press; and by Robert Klemko, Arelis R. Hernandez, DeNeen L. Brown and Isaac Stanley-Becker of The Washington Post.
