Doctor warns Trump’s Nevada rally is ‘negligent homicide’: ‘People will die’

Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University and medical analyst for CNN, said on Sunday that President Trump’s indoor rally in Nevada is “negligent homicide.”

“What else could you call an act that because of its negligence results in the death of others?” he said. “If you have a mass gathering now in the United States in a place like Nevada or just about any other place with hundreds of thousands of people, people will get infected and some of those people will die.”

“There has been a lot of talk about over whether the president played down the risks of this virus to his followers and the country as a whole. And you have to just look at what is going on now to understand that,” he continued. “If you took this virus seriously, you would never hold an indoor rally or almost any rally now and particularly one that doesn’t enforce very strict rules on masks. People will die as a consequence of this. I think that Nevada has a law right now limiting gatherings to more than 50 people. So the president is defying that. Makes no sense.”

“Negligent homicide. What else could you call an act that because of its negligence results in the deaths of others? …People will die as a consequence of this.” —@JReinerMD on the impact of President Trump holding an indoor rally tonight. pic.twitter.com/nLpinuJrzr

— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) September 13, 2020

The Trump campaign defended its plans to hold an indoor rally in Nevada as it faces criticism from city officials and others on social media.

Trump’s rally in Henderson, Nev., at a facility owned by Xtreme Manufacturing, is expected to violate the city’s rules against indoor gatherings of more than 50 people, and while masks will be given to attendees, they will not be required to wear them.

The city has reportedly issued a compliance letter and verbal warning to the event organizer over their defiance of coronavirus guidelines in the state.

But the Trump campaign fired back that it was within its right to hold an indoor rally because of protests.

“If you can join tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets, gamble in a casino, or burn down small businesses in riots, you can gather peacefully under the 1st Amendment to hear from the President of the United States,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told reporters.

In a tweet, Reiner responded to the argument, saying the Trump campaign is saying “it’s only fair that the president be allowed to kill some of his supporters.”

Apparently Trump’s campaign believes that since there were riots this summer it’s only fair that the president be allowed to kill some of his supporters by exposing them to superspreader events. https://t.co/tytAMEvDBE

— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) September 13, 2020