(CNN) -- During his Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally on Saturday night, President Donald Trump said he had told officials in his administration to slow down coronavirus testing because of the rising number of cases in America, and used a racist term to describe the coronavirus.
"You know testing is a double-edged sword," Trump said while complaining about media coverage of his handling of the virus. He said that the US has now tested some 25 million people. "Here's the bad part ... when you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people; you're going to find more cases. So I said to my people, 'Slow the testing down please.'"
Trump's revelation was shocking given that nearly 120,000 people have died in the United States from the coronavirus and medical experts have long said that testing is critical to identifying cases, tracing them and stopping the spread of the virus.
According to a report from CNN, after Trump made the comment about testing, an administration official told media that the president was "obviously kidding" when he said that he asked for a slowdown. But Democratic organizations are now racing to get this comment in as many ads as possible, operatives from multiple Democratic super PACs tell CNN.
At another point during the rally, he said COVID-19 has more names than any other disease: "I can name Kung Flu," he said using a racist term for the virus that originated in China. "I can name 19 different versions of them."
Trump ignored health warnings to go through with his first rally in 110 days — one of the largest indoor gatherings in the world during the pandemic. 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?"
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 declaring "don’t go, don’t come, don’t do anything" 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.
Just hours 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 that "quarantine procedures were immediately implemented," and that neither the affected staffers nor anyone who was in immediate contact with them would attend the event.
News of the infections came just a short time before Trump departed for Oklahoma, and the president raged to aides that the information 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 because he didn’t want to spill water on his tie.
But Trump also leaned in hard on cultural issues, including the push to tear down statues and rename military bases honoring Confederate generals in the wake of nationwide protests about racial injustice.
"The unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, desecrate our monuments, our beautiful monuments. Tear down our statues, and punish, cancel and persecute anyone who does not conform to their demands for absolute and total control," 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 covered by the First Amendment. And he revived his attacks on Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from Somalia, 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."
Trump touted the accomplishments of his administration, including boasts about the pre-pandemic economy. He quickly turned to his campaign message touting his appointments of conservative judges, his efforts to rebuild the American military, the tax cuts that he championed and his vow to be the president of law and order.
"Republicans are the party of liberty, equality and justice for all," Trump said shortly after taking the stage. "We are the party of Abraham Lincoln and we are the party of law and order.
"... Five months from now we're going to defeat Sleepy Joe Biden," he added, before mocking Biden by suggesting that he often doesn't know what state he's campaigning in. Trump criticized the media for failing to give him credit for the number of Americans who have now been tested for COVID-19 and played up the harm that the "radical left" has inflicted on police.
Trump argued that his administration's "incredible success in rebuilding America" stands in stark contrast to "the extremism, and destruction, and violence of the radical left." He argued that he sent in the National Guard after watching the protests in Minneapolis.
"You saw these thugs that came along — these people call them protesters," he said, singling out the protesters in Seattle. "Americans have watched left wing radicals burn down buildings loot businesses, destroy private property, injure hundreds of dedicated police officers."
He charged that Democrats are trying to "demolish our heritage"— referring to the tearing down of Confederate monuments — and replace it with their "oppressive regime." And he railed against the calls by some protesters to defund the police, claiming at one point that Americans will call 911 and the number will be out of service.
"These people are stone-cold crazy," Trump said.
He pledged to protect the Second Amendment in light of the protests, saying, "When you see those lunatics all over the streets, it's damn nice to have arms."
Trump advocated for jailing protesters who burn the American flag, calling on the two Oklahoma senators in the crowd to craft legislation. "We ought to come up with legislation that if you burn the American flag, you go to jail for one year," the President said. "You know, they talk about freedom of speech, and I believe in freedom of speech. But that's desecration."
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, will also target voters in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida.
The campaign handed out masks and hand sanitizer, but there was no requirement that participants use them. 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."
Related Stories:
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2020 WDRB Media and CNN. All Rights Reserved.
