Tesla Tells Employees On Juneteenth That Juneteenth Is A Holiday, But They Still Have To Use PTO

Musk: "It does require use of a paid-time-off day, which is true of many other holidays."

Ryan MacBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on June 19, 2020



On Friday morning, Tesla’s US employees received an email from Valerie Workman, the company’s head of North American human resources. She wrote that “Tesla fully supports Juneteenth for any US employee that wants to take the day off to celebrate.”

That was followed by another clarifying email from Tesla’s HR: “This is an unpaid PTO and excused absence.”



Provided to BuzzFeed News

Tesla workers were confused by the message. Some were already at work by the time they received the first email, and one, who spoke with BuzzFeed News, felt it was “pointless.” The company was recognizing Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the liberation of slaves in the United States, while telling workers they either had to take a vacation day or take the day off and not be paid.

With a national awakening to the need for racial justice following the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black Americans, corporations have taken different approaches to voice their support. Some have declared “Black Lives Matter” and committed funds and resources, while others have moved to recognize Juneteenth as a holiday.

Tesla and SpaceX, both helmed by billionaire Elon Musk, have taken a different approach.

“Juneteenth is henceforth considered a US holiday at Tesla & SpaceX,” he tweeted on Friday at 10:06 am in Los Angeles, before following that up with a reply. “It does require use of a paid-time-off day, which is true of many other holidays.”

Tesla and Musk did not respond to an email request for comment.


Elon Musk@elonmusk
@PPathole It does require use of a paid-time-off day, which is true of many other holidays05:42 PM - 19 Jun 2020
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Sources who provided or confirmed the emails to BuzzFeed News on the condition of anonymity fearing retribution, described the messages as performative. Operations continued at Tesla’s Fremont factory, the only non-unionized, US-owned car manufacturing facility in the country, and while workers were given the option to leave, they would not be paid if they did not use a vacation or paid time off day.

The only difference, the sources said, was that employees would not be penalized for not working. Typically, workers with unexcused absences at the factory accumulate penalties when they do not show up for their shifts. Enough penalties and a worker can be fired.

Tesla’s Fremont has been back in operation since May, after Musk, a vocal skeptic of the novel coronavirus pandemic, defied a shelter-in-place order from Alameda County and reopened it amid an on-going outbreak. In defying officials, Musk and Tesla filed a lawsuit against the county, which then gave the company concessions that allowed it to manufacture cars as other local businesses remained shuttered.

Tesla factory workers who previously spoke with BuzzFeed News said that while the company has implemented social distancing and mask policies, they are not being enforced or followed at the facility. There have been confirmed COVID-19 cases at some Tesla locations.


Ryan Mac 🙃@RMac18
Tesla’s head of US HR sent an email to employees this morning saying they could take Juneteenth off. Some employees were already at work by the time they received the email. Then she clarified that it’s unpaid time off.03:54 PM - 19 Jun 2020
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On Friday, some workers were frustrated by the announcement. They were not informed about the company's position on Juneteenth until Friday morning and some had traveled long distances to arrive for their regularly scheduled shifts only to see the email from Workman.

The Verge also reported that some employees had been planning a Juneteenth rally at the factory for Friday.

One former SpaceX employee, who spoke to BuzzFeed News anonymously, explained that while the company provided a standard set of holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July, it also gave employees floating holidays to use at their discretion. That allowed workers to take days off like Good Friday, which were not company-wide holidays.

Still, the former SpaceX employee said, Musk doesn’t deserve the credit he’s getting on Twitter.

“He’s claiming to give an extra day off and then immediately walked it back as requiring PTO to take off,” he said. “Seems like a totally empty gesture.”

ELON MUSK

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Ryan Mac is a senior tech reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in San Francisco.

A Woman In An "I Can't Breathe" Shirt Was Removed From The Trump Rally In Tulsa

The woman identified herself as Sheila Buck, a resident of Tulsa, and said she had a ticket to the rally.

SHE SAID SHE WAS KNEELING AND PRAYING 

(A CHRISTIAN TRADITION)

Lauren StrapagielBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on June 20, 2020

Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images
Tulsa Police take Sheila Buck into custody.

A women wearing a shirt that said "I can't breathe" was handcuffed and physically removed from the grounds of the rally for President Donald Trump in Tulsa on Saturday, apparently at the request of campaign staff.

MSNBC was broadcasting live from outside the BOK Center when Tulsa police officers approached the woman, who was sitting on the ground. One officer leaned down and told her to leave and that if she didn't, they would remove her.



Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images

"I have a ticket," she told the officer.

"We're going to put handcuffs on you," he then tells her.

A moment later, the officer along with another lifted her by the arms, took her a short distance away, and put handcuffs on her.



MSNBC@MSNBC
"Somebody has to do this." A peaceful protester is arrested outside the location President Trump's rally will be held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday.04:33 PM - 20 Jun 2020
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"They're arresting me! They're arresting me!" the woman said to media following the officers as they handcuffed her. "I've done nothing, I have tickets to this thing."

According to the MSNBC reporter, the woman was not impeding access at the rally.

Police then led her away from the scene as media with cameras followed. She told MSNBC the officers told her she was trespassing and breaking the law. She also said she wasn't with an organized group and came to the rally because of "what's happening" and identified herself as Sheila Buck, a resident of Tulsa.

In a post on Facebook, the Tulsa Police Department said they made the arrest at the request of Trump campaign staff.

Facebook: tulsapolice
"Tulsa Police spoke to the arrestee, Ms. Buck, for several minutes trying to convince her to leave on her own accord. After several minutes requesting her to leave she continued to refuse to cooperate and was escorted out of the area and transported to booking for obstruction," the post said.

The police department later wrote on Twitter that Buck was in a private area.

"For clarification, the arrestee had passed through the metal detector area to the most secure area of the event accessible only to ticket holders. Whether she had a ticket or not for the event is not a contributing factor for the Tulsa Police in making the arrest. Officers at the location, particularly in the 'Sterile' area, will remove individuals only at the direction of Campaign Staff," the tweet read.


Tulsa Police@TulsaPolice

***UPDATE*** There is some confusion about the area Ms. Buck was arrested. Ms. Buck was in an area that is considered a private event area and the event organizer, in this case the Trump Campaign, can have people removed at their discretion.06:41 PM - 20 Jun 2020
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A woman who said she has been friends with Buck for more than 20 years, Dr. Casey Jordan, told BuzzFeed News that Buck, 62, is a retired elementary school art teacher who worked with "at-risk" kids. Jordan also said Buck isn't affiliated with any activist groups — "she's just sick of police overreaction."

"Sheila is one of the most strong-headed, independent thinking people I’ve ever met," said Jordan, who added Buck grew up on a farm out of state.

"This is something Sheila would have woken up today and decided to do," she said.

The last Jordan heard, Buck was still in holding and being "evaluated" by police.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates and follow BuzzFeed News on Twitter.


Lauren Strapagiel is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Top Democrats Are Refusing To “Defund The Police.” Activists Fear The Police Killings Won’t Stop.

Reform leaders are frustrated with Democrats who have pushed aside the “defund the police” call that’s central to protests against police brutality after George Floyd’s killing.

Posted on June 18, 2020


BuzzFeed News; Getty Images
In President Donald Trump's presentation, all Democrats "have gone Crazy" and cannot wait to "DEFUND AND ABOLISH" police departments across the country.

In reality, Democratic leaders from Joe Biden down have virtually no interest in the call to “defund the police” that’s become a central demand of weeks of nationwide protests against police brutality after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Police reform leaders are as frustrated with Democrats as the president is outraged. They want party leaders to reconsider and worry that if they don’t, the country will be trapped in another cycle of ineffectual reforms leading to no real changes and more police killings of Black people.

“The Democratic Party and all of its institutions are experiencing a ‘What side are you on?’ moment,” Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the Working Families Party, told BuzzFeed News. “It’s a very binary moment. It’s rare where a society is experiencing a moment that’s so ethically clear. We’re in one now, where you’re either on the side of human rights and Black lives or you’re committed to business as usual, which is preserving a status quo that’s indifferent to Black lives.”

Grassroots activists and younger Democrats who have spoken with BuzzFeed News this week say they’ve been disappointed in party leaders — including Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Black Congressional leaders including Rep. Jim Clyburn and CBC Chair Karen Bass — as they’ve watched them swiftly turn away from those conversations, emphatically rejecting the idea of defunding police as they face immediate attacks from Republicans.

“When I think about the bread and butter of the Democratic Party, I think of Black women who show up election after election,” said Charlene Carruthers, a Chicago-based author and organizer with the Movement for Black Lives.



Cheriss May / Sipa USA via AP
Charlene Carruthers (right), speaking at the news conference for the Black Womenʼs Roundtable Summit, at the US Capitol, March 15, 2018.

Many Black women, Carruthers said, “are calling for divestment from policing. We’re the ones who show up, and we’re calling for investment in our communities. That is a core demand for us. So If they want to remain in these positions of power, it would behoove them to tune into and follow the leadership of the people who show up election after election.”

"To me it represents a vast disconnect between what people are seeing in communities across the country and people who have been elected to represent us," Carruthers added.

Adding to the difficulty of getting Democrats on board with defunding the police is the confusion about what exactly it means to “defund” departments — whether that means making federal funding conditional on reforms; taking some amount of funding away and redirecting it to community programs; or entirely defunding police departments as they stand today, redirecting those funds, and starting from scratch with a different conception of law enforcement, as Minneapolis now plans to do.

Biden, following goading from the Trump campaign, told CBS in an interview last week that he doesn’t support defunding the police, but instead backs “conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness.”


He has pointed to the criminal justice plan he released last summer, which includes adding $300 million in funding to community policing programs, in addition to services like summer programs and mental health and substance abuse treatment. Last week, he added four specific policies he’s now backing: a national use of force standard, greater accountability for police officers accused of misconduct, an end to the militarization of police forces, and a national ban on police use of chokeholds.

“Joe Biden understands that African Americans are in pain, and are tired of the systemic racism experienced in nearly every facet of society,” said Jamal Brown, Biden campaign national press secretary, in a statement to BuzzFeed News. “He believes we need to reform, train, and invest in the policing programs we know work to help protect and serve all communities. At the same time, he knows we need to invest in funding for schools, summer programs, homelessness services, and mental health and substance abuse treatment."



David J. Phillip / Getty Images
Biden speaks via video link as family and guests attend the funeral service for George Floyd at the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston, June 9.


Biden has said he supports a police reform package put forward by House Democrats, which does not defund police but bans chokeholds and creates a national police misconduct registry.

Sanders, in a recent letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, backed some of those same policies, and also said he’s against defunding police departments. He has said he instead supports more stringent oversight, raising police salaries to “pay wages that will attract the top-tier officers” and providing additional federal funding for training a “civilian corps of unarmed first responders to supplement law enforcement.”

Clyburn, a close Biden ally and one of the most powerful Black Democrats in Congress, reportedly instructed colleagues not to be “drawn into the debate about defunding police forces” and said in a TV interview that the focus should be on “reforming” policing.

Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina state representative and author, thinks Clyburn, his member of Congress, is missing the point.

“The slogan sucks — I’m clear about that,” Sellers told BuzzFeed News of “defund the police.”

“However, the intellectual dishonesty that’s going on around young activists is eerily reminiscent of the ‘60s. People are changing places — those who fought and marched in ‘60 are now the ones chastising the movement today. Instead of engaging and bringing in activists, they’re pushing them away.”


Meg Kinnard / AP
Former South Carolina House lawmaker Bakari Sellers.


“I know what they’re talking about when they say ‘defund the police’,” Sellers added. “I wouldn’t have chosen ‘defund,’ but I’m not going to sit here and say I don’t agree with it because I do.”

Sellers said that the party leaders need to start embracing the young activists on the ground who are calling for changes into how city budgets are structured. He urged politicians not to dismiss what they had to say because of the semantics of their slogan.


Part of what advocates want national leaders to understand is that there is a range of opinions on what police reform should look like. But many of the people working on criminal justice reform on the left agree that a central tenet of the work should be taking at least some funds and power away from police departments and redistributing those funds to community programs and emergency services like social workers and mental health professionals.

Some activists are full police abolitionists, and believe police should not exist in any form. Others say they want national and local leaders to drastically defund police departments, in some cases disbanding them in their current form, but creating some version of smaller and heavily regulated armed police divisions to respond to violent crimes.



Jason Redmond / Reuters
A protester holds a sign that reads "defund the police" as people rally against racial inequality and the death of George Floyd, in Seattle, June 8.


Campaign Zero, a police reform group, released a platform in early June called #8CantWait, which it says would reduce police use of force by 72% through a list of policy changes that would ban chokeholds, require officers to use de-escalation techniques, use all other options before shooting, warn suspects before shooting, and commit officers to a “duty to intervene” when they witness another officer using excessive force.


Cities and local leaders across the country have embraced aspects of the program, like banning or restricting chokeholds and requiring warning before shooting, but many of those policies are already in place and failing in cities where police have continued to kill unarmed Black people.

“Every officer on the Minneapolis police force has received training,” Minneapolis city council member Phillipe Cunningham said on a call with reporters last Friday. “Those [measures] are not working.”

Nationally, recent polling shows that the idea of “defunding the police” is still unpopular with a majority of Americans. Polling from ABC News and Ipsos last week, in the wake of the protests, asked people, ”Do you support or oppose the movement to defund the police?”

Some 34% said they supported “defunding the police,” with that number increasing to 55% among Democrats and to 57% among Black people. The polling question doesn’t involve an explanation of whether defunding the police means taking some resources away or entirely disbanding police departments.

In another question, people were asked “Do you support or oppose reducing the budget of the police department in your community, even if that means fewer police officers, if the money is shifted to programs related to mental health, housing, and education?” That elicited a marginally more enthusiastic response, with 39% of people saying they would support such a move, increasing to 59% among Democrats and 64% among Black people polled.

To many activists and party insiders, even those who agree that the messaging of “defunding the police” will be politically difficult for Democrats in swing districts, disavowing the idea is not the answer. They say that’s missing the point of their years of work tracking police violence and developing alternatives, which require at the very least shifting some resources away from police to distribute to community programs.


“I get that in order to govern you’ve got to win. I don’t want to paint people with this sort of brush of righteousness,” said Stacey Walker, an Iowa Democrat and member of a “unity task force” on criminal justice reform composed of Biden and Sanders allies with the goal of devising policy for the Democratic Party’s platform.

“I just want us to work a little harder as a party to figure out ways that we can talk about things we can actually believe in,” Walker said, speaking for himself and not the task force.

Watching national Democrats rush to distance themselves from arguments to defund police has been especially frustrating for advocates in the wake of the Minneapolis city council’s move to disband its police force, after protests against the police killing of George Floyd placed a national spotlight on the city and the yearslong problems with its police department.

“It's unfortunate that we have a presidential candidate who is still raising up reforms that are not working,” Cunningham said on last Friday’s call. He added that he’s glad to hear Biden talk about investing more in community programs.

The plan in Minneapolis isn’t to immediately gut the police force without having a plan in place, city council member Jeremiah Ellison told reporters on the call.


“We’re going to make sure there are systems in place to address an active shooter situation, for example,“ he said. “We are not going to hit the eject button so to speak without a fully realized plan.”

While many of the decisions on how to allocate police funding ultimately fall to local authorities, advocates say where top Democrats place themselves in the debate has undeniable influence, and that some federal moves like incentivizing cities and states to direct federal funds toward community services like mental health outreach could make a big difference. ”It would be helpful if federally elected officials were encouraging this kind of work to happen at the local level,” Walker said.


Stephen Maturen / Getty Images
Stacey Walker (center), with former Texas representative Beto O'Rourke (left) and Simeon Talley, recording an episode of the Political Party Live podcast at Raygun in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, March 15, 2019.

From what they’ve heard so far, they’re wary of Democrats proposing watered-down policies that don’t really get at the root of systemic police violence against Black communities.

The majority of proposals Democrats are backing right now, like demilitarizing police forces and funding community programs “fall completely short of what we’re demanding, and also fall completely short of addressing the systemic racist and racist violence of law enforcement,” said Carruthers.


Youth-led activist groups wrote to Biden recently asking him to adopt former presidential candidate Julián Castro’s police reform plan, because while it doesn’t defund police, it includes several more progressive reforms like banning stop and frisk and racial profiling.

Some criminal justice reform advocates said they see parallels with the movement to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which Democrats raced to show support for last summer before reeling back their enthusiasm as poll after poll showed the move to be unpopular.

“I think Democrats know in their heart of hearts that what ICE is doing is wrong and has no place in America, but the politics of it are tricky for some Democrats,” Walker said. “How they gain traction is through political pressure and that’s been the most successful tool for the left to date. And you find a number of ways of applying political pressure, and that also seems to be the only political tool that has any leverage.”

For some, it doesn’t add up for Democrats to have at least initially supported defunding one arm of law enforcement — ICE — but to not be able to commit to defunding police departments.

“The calls to abolish ICE and call out their abuses that were supported — EVERY politician and organization that supported those calls should be just as committed to defunding the police,” said Mitchell.

Mitchell said it’s on elected officials to come to the table and acknowledge the problems with police in Black communities stems from over-policing and how policing works in America, and that limiting the scope to “reform” isn’t enough.

“Democrats will turn around and they give you something lukewarm, you know, we’re talking about body cameras yet again or training yet again,” Mitchell said. “The story of Minneapolis is that they are one of the most reformed police departments and we still have this heinous crime because the fundamental problem is the police itself.”

“All of these things paper over the central problem,” he said.

Advocates have urged Democrats like Biden to sit down and listen to the range of ideas from activists who have been organizing in those spaces for years, rather than leaning on ideas like the #8CantWait program.

“Any set of policies for a broader political vision that are advanced in this moment that do not substantially take away resources, scope, scale, and power of law enforcement agencies, they are actually false solutions,” said Carruthers. “The issue is not simply with 8Can’tWait. It’s about, actually, a liberal trend to form Band-Aid solutions and false solutions to address a systemic problem.”

In a letter to Biden published on Monday, 50 progressives organizations including the Working Families Party, Black Voters Matter, and the Center for Popular Democracy Action urged Biden to listen to the policy proposals laid out by the Movement for Black Lives and reconsider his plan.

“We ask that you revise your platform to ensure that the federal government permanently ends and ceases any further appropriation of funding to local law enforcement in any form,” they wrote.

Activists pointed to a bill Rep. Ayanna Pressley introduced in Congress this week as an example of legislation that they say actually works toward structural change by taking police officers out of schools and reallocating those funds to school mental health and restorative programs.

“That particular bill shows that someone is listening to what we have to say,” Carruthers said. “I think that it’s aligned with our broader visions for Black lives.” ●


Ryan BrooksBuzzFeed News Reporter  
 Nidhi PrakashBuzzFeed News Reporter

French protesters decry racism, other systemic injustices
By THOMAS ADAMSON and BOUBKAR BENZABAT

1 of 13  https://apnews.com/d664869156264bd45cb61793592f7224
People march during a protest in Paris, Saturday, June 20, 2020. Multiple protests are taking place in France on Saturday against police brutality and racial injustice, amid weeks of global anger unleashed by George Floyd's death in the US. Banner reads "Let us breathe". (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)


PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of people in protested Saturday in Paris against racism and police violence and in memory of Black men who died following encounters with French police or under suspicious circumstances.

The protesters marched to the former home of Lamine Dieng, a 25-year-old Franco-Senegalese man arrested in 2007 who died in a police van. Thousands of other protesters marched Saturday in Paris and cities around France in support of undocumented migrants.

“I hope, that this is not just a moment of brief awareness,” Dieng’s sister Ramata Dieng told The Associated Press. “We have dreamed for a long time of seeing this many people mobilizing on this issue.”

Ramata Dieng, center, the mother of Lamine Dieng, a 25-year-old Franco-Senegalese who died in a police van after being arrested in 2007, stands during a protest in her's son's memory in Paris, Saturday, June 20, 2020. Multiple protests are taking place in France on Saturday against police brutality and racial injustice, amid weeks of global anger unleashed by George Floyd's death in the US. Banner reads "Let us breathe". (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

“This can’t stop at indignation. It’s fine to be indignant but we must move to the next step and the next step is to put implement the tools, have laws voted on so that police are no longer above the law,” she said.

The French government agreed earlier this month to pay 145,000 euros ($162,000) to Dieng’s relatives in a settlement via the European Court of Human Rights, after the family tried for more than a decade to hold police accountable for his death.

Many at Saturday’s protest linked it with the case of of George Floyd, an African American man whose death on May 25 in the U.S. city of Minneapolis galvanized protesters around the globe to rally against racism and police brutality.

“George Floyd was the hair that broke the camel’s back in the United States, but it’s not just George Floyd,” demonstrator Lylia Boukerrouche.

“In France, though it’s different, it’s a similar situation. It was a colonial state, and we see that today police violence occurs against Blacks and Arabs, the descendants of immigrants,” Boukerrouche added.
Some demonstrators carried placards bearing the words “Justice For Ibo,” a reference to Ibrahima Bah, 22, who died in an October motorbike crash in the Paris suburbs of Villiers-le-Bel wile allegedly trying to escape a police check. Bah’s family blames the police for his death.

The protests Saturday in Paris for Dieng and undocumented migrants were authorized by French authorities, who have been exercising caution over protests in recent weeks as the country emerges from coronavirus restrictions.

Other protests on Saturday in the French capital were banned, including an anti-racism demonstration near the U.S. Embassy by the Black African Defense League, and another protest linked to recent violence involving Chechens in the French city of Dijon. Activists gathered anyway.

People march holding a banner that reads "No country without justice- Truth and justice for all the victims of police crimes" during a protest in memory of Lamine Dieng, a 25-year-old Franco-Senegalese who died in a police van after being arrested in 2007, in Paris, Saturday, June 20, 2020. Multiple protests are taking place in France on Saturday against police brutality and racial injustice, amid weeks of global anger unleashed by George Floyd's death in the US. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Separately, a small group of activists staged a flash protest Saturday outside the French Health Ministry in support of state medical workers, who are demanding higher pay and more hospital staff after France’s once-renowned health care system struggled to cope with the virus crisis following years of cost cuts.

The protesters sprayed red paint on the ministry building, symbolizing blood, and on a mock medal.

French activists of Attac stage a flash protest outside the French Health Ministry in support of medical workers, in Paris, France, Saturday, June 20, 2020. French hospital workers and others are protesting to demand better pay and more investment in France's public hospital system, which is considered among the world's best but struggled to handle a flux of virus patients after years of cost cuts. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

Philippe Marion in Paris contributed.

Trump supporters, protesters face off outside Oklahoma rally

1 of 20 https://tinyurl.com/ydaj3cmh 

Protesters fill Boulder Ave. after Tulsa Police fired pepper balls at them after President Donald Trump's campaign rally at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Saturday, June 20, 2020.(Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)


TULSA, Okla. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s supporters faced off with protesters shouting “Black Lives Matter” Saturday in Tulsa as the president took the stage for his first campaign rally in months amid public health concerns about the coronavirus and fears that the event could lead to violence in the wake of killings of Black people by police.

Hundreds of demonstrators flooded the city’s downtown streets and blocked traffic at times, but police reported just a handful of arrests. Many of the marchers chanted, and some occasionally got into shouting matches with Trump supporters, who outnumbered them and yelled, “All lives matter.”

Later in the evening, a group of armed men began following the protesters. When the protesters blocked an intersection, a man wearing a Trump shirt got out of a truck and spattered them with pepper spray.

When demonstrators approached a National Guard bus that got separated from its caravan, Tulsa police officers fired pepper balls to push back the crowd, said Tulsa police spokesperson Capt. Richard Meulenberg. Officers soon left the area as it cleared.

The Trump faithful gathered inside the 19,000-seat BOK Center for what was believed to be the largest indoor event in the country since restrictions to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus began in March. Many of the president’s supporters weren’t wearing masks, despite the recommendation of public health officials. Some had been camped near the venue since early in the week.

Turnout at the rally was lower than the campaign predicted, with a large swath of standing room on the stadium floor and empty seats in the balconies. Trump had been scheduled to appear at a rally outside of the stadium within a perimeter of tall metal barriers, but that event was abruptly canceled.

Trump campaign officials said protesters prevented the president’s supporters from entering the stadium. Three Associated Press journalists reporting in Tulsa for several hours leading up to the president’s speaking did not see protesters block entry to the area where the rally was held.

While Trump spoke onstage, protesters carried a papier-mache representation of him with a pig snout. Some in the multiracial group wore Black Lives Matter shirts, others sported rainbow-colored armbands, and many covered their mouths and noses with masks. At one point, several people stopped to dance to gospel singer Kirk Franklin’s song “Revolution.”

The protesters blocked traffic in at least one intersection. Some Black leaders in Tulsa had said they were worried the visit could lead to violence. It came amid protests over racial injustice and policing across the U.S. and in a city that has a long history of racial tension. Officials had said they expected some 100,000 people downtown.

A woman who was arrested on live television was seen sitting cross-legged on the ground in peaceful protest when officers pulled her away by the arms and later put her in handcuffs. She said her name was Sheila Buck and that she was from Tulsa.



Police said in a news release the officers tried for several minutes to talk Buck into leaving and that she was taken into custody for obstruction after the Trump campaign asked police to remove her from the area.

Buck was wearing a T-shirt that said “I Can’t Breathe” — the dying words of George Floyd, whose death has inspired a global push for racial justice. She said she had a ticket to the Trump rally and was told she was being arrested for trespassing. She said she was not part of any organized group.


Several blocks away from the BOK Center was a festival-like atmosphere, with food vendors serving hot dogs and cold drinks and sidewalks lined with people selling various Trump regalia.

There was also an undercurrent of tension near the entrance to the secured area, where Trump supporters and opponents squared off. Several downtown businesses boarded up their windows as well to avoid any potential damage.

Kieran Mullen, 60, a college professor from Norman, Oklahoma, held a sign that read “Black Lives Matter” and “Dump Trump.”

“I just thought it was important for people to see there are Oklahomans that have a different point of view,” Mullen said of his state, which overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2016.

Brian Bernard, 54, a retired information technology worker from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, sported a Trump 2020 hat as he took a break from riding his bicycle around downtown. Next to him was a woman selling Trump T-shirts and hats, flying a “Keep America Great Again” flag. Her shirt said, “Impeach this,” with an image of Trump extending his middle fingers

“Since the media won’t do it, it’s up to us to show our support,” said Bernard, who drove nine hours to Tulsa for his second Trump rally.

Bernard said he wasn’t concerned about catching the coronavirus at the event and doesn’t believe it’s “anything worse than the flu.”

Across the street, armed, uniformed highway patrol troopers milled about a staging area in a bank parking lot with dozens of uniformed National Guard troops.

Tulsa has seen cases of COVID-19 spike in the past week, and the local health department director asked that the rally be postponed. But Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said it would be safe. The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday denied a request that everyone attending the indoor rally wear a mask, and few in the crowd outside Saturday were wearing them.

The Trump campaign said six staff members helping prepare for the event tested positive for COVID-19. They were following “quarantine procedures” and wouldn’t attend the rally, said Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s communications director.

Inside the barriers, the campaign was handing out masks and said hand sanitizer also would be distributed and that participants would undergo a temperature check. But there was no requirement that participants use the masks.

Teams of people wearing goggles, masks, gloves and blue gowns were checking the temperatures of those entering the rally area. Those who entered the secured area were given disposable masks, which most people wore as they went through the temperature check. Some took them off after the check.

The rally originally was planned for Friday, but was moved after complaints that it coincided with Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the U.S., and in a city that was the site of a 1921 race-related massacre, when a white mob attacked Black people, leaving as many as 300 people dead.

Stitt joined Vice President Mike Pence for a meeting Saturday with Black leaders from Tulsa’s Greenwood District, the area once known as “Black Wall Street” where the 1921 attack occurred. Stitt initially invited Trump to tour the area, but said, “We talked to the African American community and they said it would not be a good idea, so we asked the president not to do that.”


Associated Press reporters Ellen Knickmeyer in Tulsa, Ken Miller in Oklahoma City, Sara Burnett in Chicago, Adam Kealoha Causey in Dallas and Grant Schulte in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.

US protesters pull down more statues of people with links to slavery



In the US, protesters in the city of Raleigh, North Carolina pulled down parts of a Confederate monument on Friday night and hanged one of the toppled statues from a lamp post.

Police officers earlier in the evening had foiled the protesters' previous attempt to use ropes to topple the statues.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of demonstrators had marched through downtown Raleigh and Durham to protest against police brutality and to celebrate Juneteenth, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.

Numerous Confederate statues have been vandalized or torn down across the South in recent weeks following the death of George Floyd, a Black-American man who was killed after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes.

There were similar scenes in San Francisco where protesters pulled down statues of Francis Scott Key and Junípero Serra on Friday night.

Key wrote a poem after witnessing a huge American flag being hoisted after a victory over the British during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

That poem became "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the US.

Key and his family had links to slavery.

US Protesters topple several Confederate statues nationwide overnight

The statue of a militia man is hauled away from the nearby General Robert E. Lee monument prior to a rally set for later Saturday in Richmond, Va. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo

June 20 (UPI) -- Amid ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, demonstrators toppled several statues of Confederate figures and others deemed racist overnight.

A Confederate statue in Washington, D.C., was among those ripped down Friday night.

Protesters toppled the outdoor statue of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike by ripping it down with rope and later set it ablaze as law enforcement watched.
Pike, who was memorialized in a 27-foot-tall bronze and marble monument in Judiciary Square, was a northerner, but fought for the Confederacy as a brigadier general, championing the South's secession. After the Civil War, he supported the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry that commissioned the statue in the early 20th century.

RELATED Black caucus lawmakers revive bill to remove Confederate statues

"The D.C. Police are not doing their job as they watch a statue be ripped down and burn," President Donald Trump tweeted. "These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our country! @MayorBowser"

Trump tagged D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in the tweet, who also authorized painting a street near the White House with the words "Black Lives Matter" in huge yellow letters. The move was a rebuke to Trump for clearing peaceful protesters to stage what critics said amounted to a photo op at a church near the White House.

The protesters were calling for police reform in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black men, while he was in police custody on suspicion of using a counterfeit bill on Memorial Day. A Minneapolis police officer was fired and charged with murder for Floyd's death.

RELATED Virginia AG backs decision to remove Confederate monument

Controversy over the Pike statue had been brewing since the 2017 Unite the Right rally in which self-avowed white nationalists and members of the far right sought to protect the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va. Self-identified white supremacist James Alex Fields plowed his car into counterprotesters during the rally, killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring 35 people.

In the wake of Charlottesville, Ronald Seale, a leader of the Washington-based Scottish Rite, agreed to the Pike statue's removal as it had become a "source of contention or strife."

More recently, U.S. House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., introduced legislation seeking its removal since it would require federal approval, but the bill hasn't advanced.

RELATED Judge blocks removal of confederate statue in Virginia

The statue is one of several that have come tumbling down in recent weeks amid ongoing BLM protests. Many were brought down Friday night.

People walk by the General Robert E. Lee monument prior to a rally Saturday in Richmond, Va. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo

Five statues have been taken down in Richmond, Va. The latest is the First Virginia Regiment Monument, a memorial to a state militia regiment formed in 1754 before the Revolutionary War.

The four other statues torn down include Confederate President Jefferson Davis on Monument Avenue, Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham in Monroe Park, Christopher Columbus in Byrd Park and Richmond Howitzers Monument at the corner of Harrison Street and Grove Avenue.

In Raleigh, N.C., protesters removed two Confederate statues Friday night. One was of a cavlaryman, which they later hanged by its neck from a streetlight. The other, of an artillery man, was dragged through the streets to the Wake County courthouse, where police later carried it away.

In California, protesters ripped down two statues in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. One statue toppled near the park's de Young Museum was of slave-owner Francis Scott Key, composer of "The Star Spangled Banner," in 1814. The other in the park's music concourse, was of Junipero Serra, a missionary who has been criticized for forced conversions and destroying native culture.

A day earlier, city officials preemptively removed a statue of Christopher Columbus from San Francisco's Coit Tower and placed it in storage.

upi.com/7016104

Statues toppled throughout US in protests against racism
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and JEFFREY COLLINS

1 of 23
A statue of Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, author of "Don Quixote," stands after being vandalized overnight in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Saturday, June 20, 2020. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group via AP) https://apnews.com/9a01ee49102df70f10ce54ae04a46fa6


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Protesters tore down more statues across the United States, expanding the razing in a San Francisco park to the writer of America’s national anthem and the general who won the country’s Civil War that ended widespread slavery.

In Seattle, pre-dawn violence erupted Saturday in a protest zone largely abandoned by police, where one person was fatally shot and another critically injured.

On the East Coast, more statues honoring Confederates who tried to break away from the United States more than 150 years ago were toppled.

But several were removed at the order of North Carolina’s Democratic governor, who said he was trying to avoid violent clashes or injuries from toppling the heavy monuments erected by white supremacists that he said do not belong in places like the state Capitol grounds that are for all people.

The statues are falling amid continuing anti-racism demonstrations following the May 25 police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd, the African American man who died after a white police officers pressed his knee on his neck and whose death galvanized protesters around the globe to rally against police brutality and racism.

At a campaign rally Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, President Donald Trump sought to tie the destruction of monuments and statues around the country to Democratic leaders, including his likely rival in the presidential election, Joe Biden.

Trump said “the choice in 2020 is very simple. Do you want to bow before the left-wing mob or do you want to stand up tall and proud as Americans?”

In San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park along the Pacific Ocean, protesters sprayed red paint and wrote “slave owner” on pedestals before using ropes to bring down the statues and drag them down grassy slopes amid cheers and applause.

The statues targeted included a bust of Ulysses Grant, who was the U.S. president after he was the general who finally beat the Confederates and ended the Civil War.

Protesters pointed out that Grant and his family owned slaves. He married into a slave-owning family, but he had no problem fighting to end slavery. Grant also supported the 1868 Republican platform when he won the presidency, which called for allowing Black men to continue voting in the South.

Also torn down in the San Francisco park was a statue of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the U.S. national anthem “Star Spangled Banner.” Key owned slaves.

Protesters also pulled down the statue of Spanish missionary Junipero Serra, an 18th century Roman Catholic priest who founded nine of California’s 21 Spanish missions and is credited with bringing Roman Catholicism to the Western United States.

Serra forced Native Americans to stay at those missions after they were converted or face brutal punishment. His statues have been defaced in California for several years by people who said he destroyed tribes and their culture.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvadore Cordileone criticized the pulling down of the Junipero Serra statue.

“What is happening to our society? A renewed national movement to heal memories and correct the injustices of racism and police brutality in our country has been hijacked by some into a movement of violence, looting and vandalism,” he said in a statement Saturday night.

Police officers were called out to the park, but they didn’t intervene. The crowd threw objects at the officers, but no injuries or arrests were reported, San Francisco Police spokesman Officer Adam Lobsinger said.

In Seattle, authorities were investigating what led to the shooting in the area known as CHOP, which stands for “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” zone. It has been harshly criticized by President Donald Trump, who has tweeted about possibly sending in the military to exert control.

Police released few other details about the shooting. Two men with gunshot wounds arrived in a private vehicle at a hospital about 3 a.m. One died, and the other was in critical condition, Harborview Medical Center spokesperson Susan Gregg said.

In Washington, D.C., and Raleigh, North Carolina, it was another night of tearing down Confederate statues. In the nation’s capital, demonstrators toppled the 11-foot (3.4-meter) statue of Albert Pike, the only statue in the city of a Confederate general. Then they set a bonfire and stood around it in a circle as the statue burned, chanting, “No justice, no peace!” and “No racist police!”

Trump quickly tweeted about the toppling, calling out D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and writing: “The DC police are not doing their job as they watched a statue be ripped down and burn. These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our Country!”

Two statues of two Confederate soldiers that were part of a larger obelisk were torn down Friday night by protesters in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Police officers initially stopped the demonstrators. But after they cleared the area, the protesters returned an finished the job. They dragged the statues down the street and strung one up by the neck from a light post.

Saturday morning, official work crews came to the North Carolina capitol to remove two more Confederate statues. One statue was dedicated to the women of the Confederacy, and another was placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy honoring Henry Wyatt, the first North Carolinian killed in battle in the Civil War, news outlets reported.

Gov. Roy Cooper said he ordered the removal for public safety and blamed the Republican majority state General Assembly for the danger.

“If the legislature had repealed their 2015 law that puts up legal roadblocks to removal, we could have avoided the dangerous incidents of last night,” Cooper posted on Twitter. “Monuments to white supremacy don’t belong in places of allegiance, and it’s past time that these painful memorials be moved in a legal, safe way.”

Cooper’s opponent for a second term in November, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, issued a statement saying Cooper did nothing to stop the destruction of statues and was either incompetent or encouraging lawlessness.

“It is clear that Gov. Cooper is either incapable of upholding law and order, or worse, encouraging this behavior,” Forest said.

Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writers Lisa Baum in Seattle and Ashraf Khalil and Ashley Thomas in Washington, D.C., contributed to this story.


The Latest: Religious leader criticizes toppling of statue
By The Associated Press

— San Francisco religious leader criticizes toppling of statue in Golden Gate Park.

— Trump tries to tie destruction of statues to Democrats, including Biden.

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco Archbishop Salvadore Cordileone criticized the pulling down of the Junipero Serra statue in Golden Gate Park.

“What is happening to our society? A renewed national movement to heal memories and correct the injustices of racism and police brutality in our country has been hijacked by some into a movement of violence, looting and vandalism,” he said in a statement Saturday night.

Serra was an 18th century Roman Catholic priest who founded nine of California’s 21 Spanish missions and is credited with bringing Roman Catholicism to the Western United States.

Serra forced Native Americans to stay at those missions after they were converted or face brutal punishment. His statues have been defaced in California for several years by people who said he destroyed tribes and their culture.
___

TULSA, Okla. — President Donald Trump is seeking to tie the destruction of monuments and statues around the country to Democratic leaders, including his likely rival in the presidential election, Joe Biden.

Speaking to supporters in Tulsa, Trump says “the choice in 2020 is very simple. Do you want to bow before the left-wing mob or do you want to stand up tall and proud as Americans?”

Statues have been destroyed in numerous cities amid continuing anti-racism demonstrations following the May 25 police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd, the African-American man who died in police custody.

The statues targeted included a bust of Ulysses Grant, who was the U.S. president after he was the general who finally beat the Confederates and ended the Civil War. Also torn down in a San Francisco park was a statue of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the “Star Spangled Banner.” Key owned slaves.

Trump says: “Biden remains silent in his basement in the face of this brutal assault on our nation and the values of our nation. Joe Biden has surrendered to his party and to the left-wing mob.”
___

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Mayor London Breed acknowledged “the very real pain in this country rooted in our history of slavery and oppression, especially against African-Americans and Indigenous people,” but said she didn’t condone the damage done to Golden Gate Park by dozens of protesters who defaced and tore down statues.

“Every dollar we spend cleaning up this vandalism takes funding away from actually supporting our community, including our African-American community,” Breed, who is Black, said in a statement. “I say this not to defend any particular statue or what it represents, but to recognize that when people take action in the name of my community, they should actually involve us. And when they vandalize our public parks, that’s their agenda, not ours.”

Breed said city officials will work with community members to evaluate public art and make sure it reflects San Francisco’s values.

Besides the toppled bust and statues, the park’s old museum concourse was widely spray-painted, including commemorative benches, drinking fountains, pathways and balustrades. Heavy equipment operators and cleanup crews arrived late Friday and worked through the night to remove damaged statues, paint over the graffiti and power wash the area, the parks department said.
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RALEIGH, N.C. — Crews have removed two Confederate statues outside the North Carolina state capitol in Raleigh on order of the governor.

The statues were taken away on Saturday, the morning after protesters toppled two nearby statues.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who has long advocated removing the statues, said in a press release that removing the statues was a public-safety imperative.

“If the legislature had repealed their 2015 law that puts up legal roadblocks to removal, we could have avoided the dangerous incidents of last night,” Cooper said.

One of the statues is dedicated to the women of the Confederacy. The other was placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy honoring Henry Wyatt, the first North Carolinian killed in battle in the Civil War

Both statues stood for over a century.

A 2015 law bars removal of the memorials without permission of a state historical commission. But Cooper said the law creates an exception for public-safety emergencies, and he is acting under that provision.

SAN FRANCISCO — In San Francisco, a group of about 400 people tore down statues of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the U.S., Spanish missionary Junipero Serra and Francis Scott Key, who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The group of protesters arrived at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Friday night and after defacing the statues with red paint and writing “slave owner” on the platforms they were on, they toppled them using ropes and dragged them down grassy slopes amid cheers and applause.

Grant led the Union Army during the Civil War and thus was a key figure in the fight to end slavery. However, like Key, he once owned slaves. Serra, an 18th century Roman Catholic priest, founded nine of California’s 21 Spanish missions and is credited with bringing Roman Catholicism to the Western United States. He is also blamed by many Native Americans for the destruction of their culture and the decimation of several tribes.



ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A statue of the founder of Rochester, New York, has been vandalized.

Anti-racism messages were sprayed on the sculpture of Revolutionary War figure and slave owner Nathaniel Rochester.

The hands of the bronze statue of a seated Rochester were painted red, with “shame” written across the forehead. Other messages around the figure included “stole indigenous lands” and “abolish the police.”

Mayor Lovely Warren said Friday there’s a complexity to recognizing Rochester’s role in establishing what became the western New York city. She said the community should discuss “the best way to deal with those figures.”

The city’s new Commission on Racial and Structural Equity could decide. The sculpture was unveiled in 2008 as part of a neighborhood-revitalization effort led by volunteers.

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People film the only statue of a Confederate general, Albert Pike, in the nation's capital after it was toppled by protesters and set on fire in Washington early Saturday, June 20, 2020. It comes on Juneteenth, the day marking the end of slavery in the United States, amid continuing anti-racism demonstrations following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)


WASHINGTON — Protesters have toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the nation’s capital and set it on fire.

It comes on Juneteenth, the day marking the end of slavery in the United States, amid continuing anti-racism demonstrations following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Cheering demonstrators jumped up and down as the 11-foot (3.4-meter) statue of Albert Pike — wrapped with chains — wobbled on its high granite pedestal before falling backward, landing in a pile of dust. Protesters then set a bonfire and stood around it in a circle as the statue burned, chanting, “No justice, no peace!” and “No racist police!”


People film the only statue of a Confederate general, Albert Pike, in the nation's capital after it was toppled by protesters and set on fire in Washington early Saturday, June 20, 2020. It comes on Juneteenth, the day marking the end of slavery in the United States, amid continuing anti-racism demonstrations following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Eyewitness accounts and videos posted on social media indicated that police were on the scene, but didn’t intervene.

President Donald Trump quickly tweeted about the toppling, calling out D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and writing: “The DC police are not doing their job as they watched a statue be ripped down and burn.” After the statue fell, most protesters returned peacefully to Lafayette Park near the White House. 

Owner of Eskimo Pie to change its ‘derogatory’ name

WHEN WILL THE EDMONTON ESKIMOS CHANGE THEIR NAME

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO

NEW YORK (AP) — The owner of Eskimo Pie is changing its name and marketing of the nearly century-old chocolate-covered ice cream bar, the latest brand to reckon with racially charged logos and marketing.

“We are committed to being a part of the solution on racial equality, and recognize the term is derogatory,” said Elizabell Marquez, head of marketing for its parent Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, the U.S. subsidiary for Froneri, in a statement. “This move is part of a larger review to ensure our company and brands reflect our people values.”

The treat was patented by Christian Kent Nelson of Ohio and his business partner Russell C. Stover in 1922, according to Smithsonian Magazine

Eskimo Pie joins a growing list of brands that are rethinking their marketing in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests in recent weeks triggered by the death of George Floyd. Quaker Oats announced Wednesday that it will retire the Aunt Jemima brand, saying the company recognizes the character’s origins are “based on a racial stereotype.”

Other companies are reviewing their name or logo. Geechie Boy Mill, a family-owned operation in South Carolina that makes locally-grown and milled white grits, said Wednesday it is “listening and reviewing our overall branding,” though no decisions have been made. Geechie is a dialect spoken mainly by the descendants of African American slaves who settled on the Ogeechee River in Georgia, according to Merriam-Webster.com.

Mars Inc. said it’s also reviewing its Uncle Ben’s rice brand. B&G Foods Inc., which makes Cream of Wheat hot cereal, also said this past week it is initiating “an immediate review” of its packaging. A smiling black chef holding a bowl of cereal has appeared on Cream of Wheat packaging and in ads since at least 1918, according to the company’s website.

Chicago-based Conagra Brands, which makes Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup, said its bottles — which are shaped like a matronly woman — are intended to evoke a “loving grandmother.” But the company said it can understand that the packaging could be misinterpreted. Critics have long claimed that the bottle’s design is rooted in the “mammy” stereotype.

Trump comeback rally features empty seats, staff infections

"WE HAVE NEVER HAD AN EMPTY SEAT IN THE HOUSE" D. J. TRUMP

By KEVIN FREKING and JONATHAN LEMIRE

1 of 24 https://apnews.com/1a59b4efe97f2249d414ae4f0b3c6495
President Donald Trump arrives on stage to speak at a campaign rally at the BOK Center, Saturday, June 20, 2020, in Tulsa, Okla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — President Donald Trump launched his comeback rally Saturday by defining the upcoming election as a stark choice between national heritage and left-wing radicalism. But his intended show of political force amid a pandemic featured thousands of empty seats and new coronavirus cases on his own campaign staff.

Trump ignored health warnings to hold his first rally in 110 days — one of the largest indoor gatherings in the world during a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 120,000 Americans and put 40 million out of work. The rally was meant to restart his reelection effort less than five months before the president faces voters again.

“The choice in 2020 is very simple,” Trump said. “Do you want to bow before the left-wing mob, or do you want to stand up tall and proud as Americans?”

Trump unleashed months of pent-up grievances about the coronavirus, which he dubbed the “Kung flu,” a racist term for COVID-19, which originated in China. He also tried to defend his handling of the pandemic, even as cases continue to surge in many states, including Oklahoma.

He complained that robust coronavirus testing was making his record look bad — and suggested the testing effort should slow down.

“Here’s the bad part. When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more cases,” he said. “So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down.’ They test and they test.”

“Speed up the testing,” Trump’s Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, tweeted later.

In the hours before the rally, crowds were significantly lighter than expected, and campaign officials scrapped plans for Trump to address an overflow space outdoors. When Trump thundered that “the silent majority is stronger than ever before,” about a third of the seats at his indoor rally were empty.

Trump tried to explain away the crowd size by blaming the media for scaring people and by insisting there were protesters outside who were “doing bad things.” But the small crowds of pre-rally demonstrators were largely peaceful, and Tulsa police reported just one arrest Saturday afternoon.

Before the rally, Trump’s campaign revealed that six staff members who were helping set up for the event had tested positive for the coronavirus. Campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said neither the affected staffers nor anyone who was in immediate contact with them would attend the event

The president raged to aides that the staffers’ positive cases had been made public, according to two White House and campaign officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

Trump devoted more than 10 minutes of his 105-minute rally — with the crowd laughing along — trying to explain away a pair of odd images from his speech last weekend at West Point, blaming his slippery leather-soled shoes for video of him walking awkwardly down a ramp as he left the podium. And then he declared that he used two hands to drink a cup of water that day because he didn’t want to spill water on his tie — and proceeded to this time drink with just one hand.

But Trump also leaned in hard on cultural issues, including the push to tear down statue s and rename military bases honoring Confederate generals following nationwide protests about racial injustice.

“The unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, desecrate our monuments, our beautiful monuments,” Trump said. “They want to demolish our heritage so they can impose their new repressive regime in its place.”

Trump also floated the idea of a one-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of burning an American flag, an act of protest protected by the First Amendment. And he revived his attacks on Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who emigrated from Somalia as a child, claiming she would want “to make the government of our country just like the country from where she came, Somalia: no government, no safety, no police, no nothing — just anarchy.”

“And now she’s telling us how to run our country,” Trump continued. “No, thank you.”

After a three-month break from rallies, Trump spent the evening reviving his greatest hits, including boasts about the pre-pandemic economy and complaints about the media. But his scattershot remarks made no mention of some of the flashpoints roiling the nation, including the abrupt firing of a U.S. attorney in Manhattan, the damaging new book from his former national security adviser or the killing of George Floyd..

Large gatherings in the United States were shut down in March because of the coronavirus. The rally was scheduled over the protests of local health officials as COVID-19 cases spike in many states, while the choice of host city and date — it was originally set for Friday, Juneteenth, in a city where a 1921 racist attack killed as many as 300 people — prompted anger amid a national wave of protests against racial injustice.



But Trump and his advisers forged forward, believing that a return to the rally stage would reenergize the president, who is furious that he has fallen behind Biden in polls, and reassure increasingly anxious Republicans.

But Trump has struggled to land effective attacks against Biden, and his broadsides against the former vice president did not draw nearly the applause as did his digs at his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton.

City officials had expected a crowd of 100,000 people or more in downtown Tulsa. Trump’s campaign, for its part, declared that it had received over a million ticket requests. The crowd that gathered was far less than that, though the rally, being broadcast on cable, also targeted voters in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida.

The president’s campaign tried to point fingers elsewhere over the smaller-than-expected crowds, accusing protesters of blocking access to metal detectors and preventing people from entering the rally. Three Associated Press journalists reporting in Tulsa for several hours leading up to the president’s speaking did not see protesters block entry to the area where the rally was held.

The campaign handed out masks and hand sanitizer, but there was no requirement that participants use them and few did. Participants also underwent a temperature check.

“I don’t think it’s anything worse than the flu,” said Brian Bernard, 54, a retired IT worker from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who sported a Trump 2020 hat. “I haven’t caught a cold or a flu in probably 15 years, and if I haven’t caught a cold or flu yet, I don’t think I’m gonna catch COVID.”

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Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writers John Mone and Ellen Knickmeyer in Tulsa, Okla., contributed to this report.