Trump campaign events in Nevada canceled, campaign co-chair says
(CNN) — Two Trump campaign events scheduled to take place in Nevada this weekend were canceled, according to Adam Laxalt, a Nevada co-chair of Trump’s campaign.
The announcement comes after The Nevada Independent reported that the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority said that President Donald Trump‘s planned campaign rally for Saturday violated the state directive limiting gatherings to 50 people and that the event “may not proceed.”
“Outrageous! @realDonaldTrump rally venues in NV canceled. Welcome to (Nevada Gov. Steve) Sisolak’s Nevada — home of partisan political retribution,” tweeted Laxalt, who lost the 2018 gubernatorial race to Sisolak. “This is unprecedented — to cancel an incumbent President’s campaign stop inside 60 days of a major contested election in a swing state. This isn’t over!”
Joe Rajchel, a spokesperson McCarran International Airport, told CNN that the campaign event the Trump campaign was advertising at the airport was never approved, and that they had not received a formal application to host the event from the company that the Trump campaign had worked with to use a hangar on airport grounds.
The Trump campaign had originally announced plans to hold two rallies in Nevada this weekend, one at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport on Saturday and the other at McCarran in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Trump’s campaign communications director, Tim Murtaugh, said that Trump would still be traveling to Nevada on the dates planned and that additional details would be “announced soon.”
“Democrats are trying to keep President Trump from speaking to voters because they know the enthusiasm behind his reelection campaign cannot be matched by Joe Biden — a historically weak candidate controlled by the radical left who could hold a campaign event in a broom closet,” Murtaugh said.
Sisolak tweeted that the governor’s office had “no involvement or communication with the event organizers or potential hosts regarding the proposed campaign events advertised by the Trump campaign.” He said statewide emergency directives to limit the spread of Covid-19 include “mandatory face coverings, limitations on public and private gatherings to no more than 50 people.”
“The Nevada-specific White House recommendations have consistently included recommendations to limit the size of gatherings for weeks now,” the governor tweeted.
Trump’s recent campaign events have violated state mandates put in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump’s rally in North Carolina on Tuesday violated Gov. Roy Cooper’s mandate that outdoor gatherings be limited to 50 people. The President and most of his gathered supporters also did not wear masks, despite there being a statewide mask mandate in place in North Carolina. Before Tuesday’s event, the Republican chairman of the local county commission where the rally was held said the President should wear a mask during his speech.
“The fact that Donald Trump was even considering holding these unsafe events in the midst of a global pandemic is just the latest example of his poor judgment and complete disregard for Nevadans’ public health and safety,” Nevada State Democratic Party spokeswoman Madison Mundy said in a statement.
Mundy said, “The state is currently reeling from a pandemic exacerbated by Trump’s disastrous coronavirus response. Limitations on in-person gatherings in Nevada were established to fill the void in leadership created by Trump. Thanks to emergency directives implemented by state leadership, great progress has been made in controlling deadly outbreaks. Trump is only the victim of his own incompetence.”