White House Official Explains Lack of Social Distancing at Trump Speech: “Everybody Is Going to Catch This Thing Eventually”

A White House official reportedly dismissed concerns about a lack of Coronavirus safety measures at the President’s speech on Thursday be saying everybody would catch it eventually.

Donald Trump delivered his Republican National Convention speech from the White House lawn in front of a large crowd. There were few masks apparent and no social distancing.

CNN’s Jim Acosta reported on the extraordinary remark from one official about the event. He spoke to the network’s Wolf Blitzer.

“Yeah, Wolf, we not only heard a lot of gas lighting tonight, we possibly saw and witnessed some super-spreading from this event,” Acosta said.

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“And I talked to a senior White House official earlier this evening about all of these people, hundreds of people sitting side by side in the audience, not wearing masks, and the senior White House official brushed off these concerns about the lack of social distancing at the president’s speech.”

“And get this, this quote might blow you away,” Acosta said. 

“Everybody is going to catch this thing eventually,” he quoted an official as saying.

“Those are the words coming from a senior White House official about the concerns being raised about this being a possible super-spreader event tonight.”

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Darragh Roche

Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media