Members of President Donald Trump‘s campaign reportedly removed stickers promoting social distancing from seats inside the BOK Center before Trump’s rally on June 20, according to Billboard and the Washington Post.

The arena’s management had purchased 12,000 stickers that read “Do Not Sit Here, Please!” for Trump’s first rally since the coronavirus pandemic. The Post reports the BOK Center’s staff had the do-not-sit stickers on almost every other seat in the almost 20,000 seat arena.

Before the rally, members of the campaign reportedly told venue staffers to stop adding them to seats, and then began removing stickers that had already been placed. During the rally, most people didn’t wear a mask and were shown in photos and video from the event in close proximity to each other in the lower bowl seats and in a standing area in the center of the arena.

Washington Post: The Trump campaign removed thousands of “Do Not Sit Here, Please!” social distancing stickers before his poorly attended Tulsa rally.

The removal violated specific instructions from the BOK Center.

@StevenReyCristo pic.twitter.com/KjgKh6KVtK

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) June 27, 2020

The Tulsa Fire Marshall said there were 6,200 people in attendance, a stark contrast from predictions from Trump and members of his campaign team. An outside overflow area event was cancelled before Trump spoke and the campaign sent out a text an hour before begging people to come.

The BOK Center has a “full capacity” inside of 19,199. If the Trump campaign had followed social distancing guidelines and had the 6,200 rally attendees spread out, the arena might not have looked so obviously empty and perhaps spared the campaign some of the ridicule that ensued.

Trump’s speech praised rally-goers for braving Covid-19 and “fake news,” referenced coronavirus as “kung flu,” and attacked protesters tearing down confederate statues that “demolish our heritage.” Even though in-person attendance was smaller than expected, Fox News broke weekend rating records for carrying the rally in full.

On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence defended the campaign’s decision to hold an in-person rally on Friday, citing American’s First Amendment right to assemble. “We have an election coming up this fall,” Pence said. “President Trump and I believe that [we’re] taking proper steps.”

Oklahoma has 12,600 positive cases of Covid-19 as of Saturday night. Over the last three days, the state has averaged 400 new cases a day.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/3g5w9l6