Trump seems bound and determined to help spread the coronavirus to as many of his supporters (and sadly, everyone they later come in contact with) as humanly possible at these MAGA rallies he's holding across the country, and his cheerleaders over on Fox continue to have his back, consequences be damned.
On this Friday's Outnumbered, former Marine amputee turned Fox regular Joey Jones was asked about Trump's rally at Mount Rushmore and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's declaration that no one was going to infringe on the "freedom" of the participants by enforcing any social distancing or mask wearing, and Jones was all too happy to jump on board the Trump train and excuse his completely irresponsible behavior.
Jones also managed to work in some cheap shots at the native Americans who were opposed to the event and didn't bother to mention the fact that their concerns were over more than just Indigenous rights and the land that was stolen from them. Tribal leaders also expressed concerns over fire hazards and the spread of the coronavirus when they made it clear that Trump was not welcome there.
Here's Jones basically saying that Trump holding this event is a-okay because these people were going to act irresponsibly anyway, so what the hell. Sorry Joey, but there's a big difference between these people refusing so social distance or wear masks around their friends and families, and over 7000 of them being packed together and cheering and yelling for Dear Leader at one of these events.
And so on both of those I can tell you one thing. The seventy five hundred people that show up to that celebration, they are not going to social distance anywhere else anyway. So it's not like you're causing them not to. If they're choosing not to, that's how they're living their lives.
I think the face coverings, probably most people have them on, and just like the governor said, that is their decision and I applaud that.
But when it comes to faces and Mount Rushmore, the Sioux Indians in that area weren't even there in the late 1700s. They conquered the Cheyenne and took it from them. And so the idea that they have some sacred tradition there is a little bit far-fetched. And I learned that from a fellow marine who has a radio show and looked it up.
And so, what I'm saying here is, before we get all outraged, maybe do a little research and learn some historical context. I applaud the fact we have Mount Rushmore. I think it's an amazing thing and I hope to go see it one day.
Guess what? Surprise, surprise, most of the people there did not have face masks on, and they had them jammed in there like sardines. Here are a couple of screen shots from Friday's event.
Jones' cohost Katie Pavlich followed up by doing her best to play the victim card for Trump, and to pretend that the objections to him holding his super-spreader event at Mt. Rushmore were only due to people being opposed to these freedom-loving patriots wanting to celebrate our Independence Day, rather than the fact that the real objections were over the fact that he's doing it in the middle of a pandemic. Pavlich also lied about whether or not there were concerns being expressed over the protests taking place across the country following the death of George Floyd, and whether they are contributing to the spread of the virus as well.
While their fellow panel member Leslie Marshall did nothing to dispel Pavlich's lies about why the event at Mt. Rushmore was being criticized, or the fact that people who work for other media outlets have expressed concern about protests contributing to the spread of the coronavirus, she did do a good job of putting the rest of them back on their heels on how completely irresponsible Trump's rallies and most of the participants' refusal to wear masks or socially distance really are.
MARSHALL: Well, I don't disagree with you, Katie, that people don't look at the protests. But watching somebody come home from the hospital every day beaten and battered, and talking to friends that signed so many death certificates that they become desensitized to people being human beings, and that those numbers stand for lives, this is a slap in the face to the health care industry.
We as Americans have to just accept the reality that we are going to have to wait for our lives to return to what they were. We need to social distance. We need to wear masks. We see what's happened in Texas, in Florida, and happening here in California.
If you don't want to listen to the health care professionals, then just look what's happened in South Korea, Japan, Europe, and of course New Zealand. We need to stop being children. We need to be responsible. And quite frankly, the president needs to lead with responsibility.
I'm going to have a little barbecue in my backyard, social distancing, with masks, a few people, 6 feet apart, and still be able to be patriotic. But, you know, do I want to have fireworks for me and my kids? Absolutely. Do I need to wait for that? Yes.
Look, this is true, this is life. We haven't gotten rid of COVID-19 1. Very worried about 2. We are all in this together. We're not going to defeat this unless we together make a decision to be responsible, and so far Americans have not shown they can be responsible when you just look at the stats and the spikes.
And by the way, South Dakota did last month have 5,000 additional cases. This could lead to more. Why do we want to risk that? Especially for somebody who has a vulnerable underlying health condition that they may not even be aware of.
PAVLICH: Well, as a governor said, it's people's choice to show up to this event.
The other glaring omission from this conversation -- the fact that Herman Cain was hospitalized with COVID-19 following Trump's super-spreader event in Tulsa.
How many more stories like Cain's are we going to hear following this event?
And will Fox report them, or ignore them as they did here?
I'm still amazed that they haven't turned on Trump for trying to kill off most of their viewers and are instead running segments like the one above.
