Gov. Kevin Stitt: Americans have the freedom to stay at home or come to the rally
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt discusses the Trump rally in Tulsa and reopening during the coronavirus pandemic on ‘America’s Newsroom.’
Oklahoma has been safely reopening amid the COVID-19 pandemic and is prepared to host President Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa on Saturday, Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said.
In a Friday interview on "America's Newsroom" with hosts Sandra Smith and Ed Henry, Stitt said that his state was ready to take on the challenge -- despite the Oklahoma State Health Department reporting a record-high new 450 cases on Thursday.
There are now over 9,300 confirmed cases with more than 360 deaths recorded.
TULSA ARENA ASKS TRUMP CAMPAIGN FOR WRITTEN COVID-19 MITIGATION PLAN AHEAD OF RALLY
"Well, what we can tell you is that…I made 25 different executive orders over the last 60 days, and we peaked in hospitalizations at 560 back in March. Today, we have 211," Stitt remarked.
"We have been safely reopening. We were one of the first states to start reopening. So, we’re 57 days into our reopening campaign, and we feel like it’s the right time to start reopening," he asserted.
People camp outside of the BOK Center ahead of a rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S., on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. Trump's resumption of his signature campaign rallies this week is intensifying criticism of his response to the biggest domestic crises of his presidency: The deadly coronavirus pandemic and widening protests over police brutality against Black Americans. Photographer: Christopher Creese/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Supporters of the president have already started forming a line outside of Tulsa's BOK Center, which can hold up to 20,000 people. On Thursday, the arena asked the Trump campaign for a written plan outlining how it will incorporate social distancing and other "health and safety" steps, pointing to the recent uptick in cases.
The campaign was already going to provide a mask and hand sanitizer to each attendee, and there would be temperature checks at the door. But GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told Fox News she believed masks would be optional and there has been no apparent social distancing plan or similar system for the indoor event.
The city's Mayor G.T. Bynum, a Republican, declared a civil emergency Thursday and announced a curfew near the BOK Center. Bynum cited recent “civil unrest,” expected “crowds in excess of 100,000” in the vicinity of the rally, and opposition protests in his decision to place a federal exclusion zone for a six-block radius near the arena.
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale announced Monday they have received more than 1 million ticket requests for the event.
"The coronavirus is in the United States. It’s in Oklahoma. We have to take precautions, But, we have the freedoms to stay at home. You have the freedoms to come to this rally," Stitt told the "America's Newsroom" hosts.
In terms of coronavirus precautions, the governor would "follow the president and the vice president's lead."
While there will be temperature checking at the door of the BOK Center, he conceded he is "very reluctant to mandate wearing a mask."
"We just believe in freedoms in Oklahoma. If you want to wear a mask, we want you to do it. If you feel safer at home, we don't want you to come to that rally. But, if you do feel OK, we want you to come to the rally and have a good time," Stitt urged. "We are going to be very safe, and we think it's the right time."
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"And, my question back to all the folks that say ‘you shouldn't have a rally’ -- when is the right time?" he asked. "Do we really think that in July or August or in November, coronavirus is not going to be here?"
"We've got to learn to deal with this. We've got to learn to be safe, take precautions, but we've got to learn to also live our lives," Stitt concluded.
Fox News' Tyler Olson, Brie Stimson, Mark Merideth, Morgan Phillips, and Russell Cosby contributed to this report.
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