Wednesday on CNN, anchor Wolf Blitzer criticized President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump for not wearing a mask and social distancing with the crowd attending the third night of the Republican National Convention.
Blitzer said, “I want to bring in Kaitlan Collins into this conversation. Kaitlan, you’re there at Fort McHenry. It’s so sad and potentially dangerous to see a few hundred people who have gathered there, supporters of the president. They’re very close together. They’re not wearing masks, as Dana pointed out— in the midst of this very deadly coronavirus pandemic. And by all accounts, I’m told, but maybe you have more information, that most of these people were not tested for coronavirus before they were allowed to come into this setting. And we know there’s going to be a much bigger crowd tomorrow on the South Lawn of the White House when the president makes his presentation.”
Collins said, “We’re expecting it to actually be ten times the size tomorrow night. Tonight, we’ve seen about 135 chairs before, and that’s how many we counted were here. They seemed to all be filled. And what’s notable is that the attendees are sitting pretty close to one another. They’re not wearing masks. We spoke to at least four of them who had not been tested to coronavirus before coming to this event, Wolf, and it’s unclear if some of them potentially were. We saw that was the case last night, which caused some confusion. The people seated around the president in the Rose Garden had been tested, according to the first lady’s office, but several of the rows back, most of the attendees last night had not been tested.”
“So it’s not clear if that’s what the case is here,” she continued. “What you just saw after the vice president ended his speech, which I’m not sure if you saw, but what we were watching is the president, and the first lady were down walking face-to-face, interacting with self of the audience members, many of whom are not wearing masks tonight, Wolf. It was striking to see how closely they were interacting, given we’re not convinced every single person in the audience has been tested tonight. We were tested before we came in. Our photographers, producers were tested. It’s not clear audience members were. We spoke to at least four of them who had not been. It was really striking to be here not only at this outdoor venue. You are seeing probably a bigger crowd than what many Americans have seen over the last several months, but also for the president and the first lady to come down from the stage and to be interacting with those other audience members not wearing masks tonight, Wolf.”
Blitzer said, “Yeah, I say begun, it looked very dangerous, very risky to me. There were plenty of older people there. I’m sure a lot of the people had underlying health issues that they need to worry about, but they were there, and they weren’t wearing masks.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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