Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani went all in on President Trump’s efforts to portray himself as an all-powerful strongman who has beat COVID-19 (he has not) during an indoors Italians for Trump rally in Philadelphia Monday night.
Speaking to a crowd of about 75 Trump supporters at the campaign’s Northeast Philadelphia office space — which was originally scheduled to be held at the 15,000-square-foot 2300 Arena, but was forced to relocate when the arena’s owners canceled the night before after finding out the event was a Trump rally — Giuliani falsely declared victory over COVID-19 as the country tops more than 215,000 fatalities amid the pandemic.
“People don’t die of this disease anymore,” Giuliani said, before baselessly insisting that “young people don’t die at all” and that “middle age people die very little”
“And even elderly people have only 1 percent chance of dying,” Giuliani said, without evidence.
Giuliani’s latest rosy picture of COVID-19 comes amid Trump’s return to the campaign trail despite an outbreak among those in his orbit, which included a rally in Florida on Monday night when he doubled down on his unfounded assertion that he’s now immune to COVID-19 after being diagnosed and hospitalized for it less than two weeks ago.
“I went through it, now they say I’m immune,” Trump said at his Florida rally on Monday night. “I feel so powerful, I’ll watch into that audience, I’ll walk in there, I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women.”
On the same day that Trump held his Florida rally, a new study published in the Lancet found that there has been at least one case of COVID-19 reinfection in the U.S. so therefore there is no guarantee of “total immunity” following previous exposure to the novel coronavirus.
“Thus, previous exposure to SARS-CoV-2 might not guarantee total immunity in all cases,” the scientists wrote. “All individuals, whether previously diagnosed with COVID-19 or not, should take identical precautions to avoid infection with SARS-CoV-2.”
Rudy Giuliani in Philly yesterday: "People don't die of this disease anymore."
Fact check: 215,000+ people are dead. More are dying every single day. pic.twitter.com/elpimiZIPi
— The Recount (@therecount) October 13, 2020
