President Donald Trump’s campaign manager tweeted Friday that 200,000 people — soon revised up to 300,000 people — registered for tickets for Trump’s June rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
He did not explain, however, what 280,000 of them will do after the just over 19,000-people BOK arena is filled to capacity.
Correction now 300,000! Going to be epic! https://t.co/36wBjA7duT
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) June 12, 2020
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to TPM’s questions.
The registrants had to sign a waiver upon buying their tickets, promising not to sue the President in case they get COVID-19.
“By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present,” a notice at the bottom of the registration form warns attendees. “By attending the Rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury.”
The rally is scheduled for Friday, June 19 — also known as Juneteenth, or a day marking the official outlawing of slavery in the United States.
It also comes just weeks after the anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, during which white mobs murdered inhabitants of Greenwood, a majority-black community in Oklahoma. They also destroyed 35 blocks of what was, at the time, the wealthiest black community in the United States.
Reverend Dr. Robert Turner, pastor of a historic church that was burned down during the Tulsa massacre, expressed his “disgust” with Trump’s event Friday on MSNBC.
“I’m highly disgusted that this president of ours, 45, has the audacity on Juneteenth, the day we celebrate our liberation from chattel slavery, he chooses that day to relaunch his reelection campaign,” he said. “It is disgusting, because this is the same president that has sympathized with neo-Confederates.”
