Swamp Monsters, Deep Staters, Deplorables, Oh My! Redskins’ New Name Turns Political

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Swamp Monsters, Deep Staters, Deplorables, Oh My! Redskins’ New Name Turns Political

Washington, perhaps the nation’s most reviled city, needs a new nickname for its football team. What could possibly go wrong?

Naming opportunities are rife with ridicule, partisanship and humor: Washington Gridlock, Washington Swamp Monsters, Washington Bureaucrats, Washington Subpoenas, Washington Scandals or Washington Pardons. And then there’s the Capitol Indictments, Deep Staters or Deplorables if you really want to get partisan.

On the traditional and of course more likely side are Red Tails, Warriors, Generals, Monuments, Senators, Cherry Blossoms, Red Wolves or even Hogs (which pays tribute to an offensive line from long ago).

After dumping its longtime name, Redskins, which was considered racist, the team is said to be zeroing in on a new name, but dealing with trademark issues.

Since mid June, 14 different trademarks have been filed by people for a potential Washington football team, including Red Tails, Red Wolves, Monuments and a version of Hogs. Most are by the same person.

That means football team owner Daniel Snyder will likely have to pay off someone to get the name he wants, said Alexandra Watkins, whose real title is chief executive boss lady of Eat My Words, a branding company.

Rebranding with new names happens a lot in the corporate world and often involves a reluctant owner, like Snyder, she said.

“Most companies go through two or three name changes in the life of a company,” said Phil Davis, founder of Tungsten Branding in North Carolina.

In the case of the Washington football team, where political correctness is an issue, both branding experts Davis and Watkins recommend a clean sweep and being more inclusive. So choosing a new name like Warriors, which can still be considered offensive to some, would not be smart, Watkins said.

“Anything with any historic significance that’s negative they should just stay away from,” Watkins said.

She likes Red Tails, which is a hawk, sounds similar to the team’s original nickname and pays homage to the Tuskegee Airmen, the group of African American fighter pilots who broke down racial stereotypes during World War II.

Stay away from politics, Watkins advised.

“People hate politics,” Watkins said. “Sports is a great uniter. Where politics is the great divider.”

However, David Litt, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama and former chief Washington writer for Funny or Die, says as a Washington resident: “I would like to bring back the Washington Senators. You know we deserve at least some senators here in D.C.”

Key to branding is being clear, concise, compelling and consistent, Davis said. And do it in only one or two words.

One issue is the city of Washington itself.

“It’s the only equal opportunity hated city,” Davis said. “Both sides hate it.”

So that gives the opportunity for a little fun like Swamp Monsters or Gridlock, which Davis likes.

Normally Watkins loves using humorous names, reeling off her favorites: the yogurt chain Spoon Me, Denver’s Church of Cupcakes, San Francisco’s TMI Colonics. But for sports teams, she said it’s not right, especially for a team that has upset people in the past with their name: “They need to be serious.”

Still, there is the opportunity for humor, especially at the expense of a football team that hasn’t won a playoff game since 2005 and has gone 132-187 this century.

“’Not an embarrassment’ would be an exciting thing to call the team from Washington,” said comedy writer and Washingtonian Litt. He also praised this tweet from “The Daily Show” writer Jason Gilbert: “They should rename it the Washington Liberals Watching the Supreme Court because they usually have to settle for 3 wins per season.”

Eric Dezenhall, who has been in Washington since working for the Reagan White House and now runs a crisis communications firm, has some suggestions of his own.

“If your objective is to appease the cultural left, there is the Washington Inclusives,’’ Dezenhall wrote in an email. “For a Trumpian theme, the Washington Tweets, Washington Covfefes or Washington Combovers could work.

“If we want something that everyone has in common, why not the Washington Smart Phones, after all, nobody’s watching the action on the field anymore?”

Parents of 8-Year-Old Atlanta Victim Seek Help Finding Killers

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Parents of 8-Year-Old Atlanta Victim Seek Help Finding Killers

The parents of an 8-year-old Atlanta girl slain near the site of an earlier police killing pleaded for the public to help find whoever was responsible as their lawyers announced more reward money.

In an emotional news conference Monday, the family’s lawyers announced an “all-hands-on-deck” effort that will include canvassing several neighborhoods Tuesday to seek clues in the slaying of Secoriea Turner. They’ve also set up a new hotline for tips that will be staffed by law students with help from lawyers who are volunteering their time.

“Please don’t use the word snitch,” the girl’s father, Secoriey Williamson, said Monday, addressing anyone who might have leads. “If you come forward, you will not be labeled as a snitch, you will be labeled as a hero.”

The family’s lawyers vowed to use all resources available in the search for suspects. Total reward money now stands at $50,000, said one of the attorneys, Mawuli Davis.

“Martin Luther King said our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. And the life of Secoriea matters,” said Shean Williams, another of the family’s lawyers.

Images of a second person of interest in the killing were released late Sunday. Police have said at least two shooters might have been involved.

Secoriea was gunned down on the Fourth of July while riding in a car with her mother and another adult. The shooting happened near the Wendy’s where a Black man, Rayshard Brooks, 27, was killed by a white police officer June 12.

Make-shift barricades had been set up in the area after Brooks was killed, and armed men had been blocking roads in the area and turning some drivers away. Secoriea’s car was trying to make a U-turn at one of barricades when at least one gunman shot into the car, police said.

The second person of interest is seen with a large rifle strapped to his body and a black crossbody bag over his shoulder. Atlanta police had released a short video last week of the first person of interest, who is also seen carrying a rifle near where Secoriea was shot.

A private, invitation-only funeral for Secoriea is planned for Wednesday.

“No longer can we sit back and wait. The reason we can’t wait is because there’s a killer or killers still out here,” former Atlanta City Councilman Derrick Boazman said.

“The bottom line is this baby is going to be buried on Wednesday and we want the murderer of this child picked up before then,” he added.

Secoriea Turner person of interest
An image from video released by the Atlanta Police Department shows a person of interest in the shooting death of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner. / IMAGE: Atlanta Police Department via AP

Protests Erupt over Pa. Police’s Use of Neck Restraint

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Protests Erupt over Pa. Police’s Use of Neck Restraint

Activists expressed outrage and pressed their demand for accountability Monday after video emerged over the weekend of an officer placing his knee on a man’s head and neck area outside a Pennsylvania hospital.

Allentown police allegedly violated their own policy against neck restraints when an officer used his knee to bear down on the man’s head, the activists said.

The far-left American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania called it an illegal use of force.

Hundreds of people rallied in downtown Allentown on Monday night, calling for the officer to be fired and police funds to be reallocated to mental health and other social services.

“These police officers should not have been restraining him. He needed help,” said protester Maegan Llerena. Instead, she said, an officer “placed a knee on the neck of a man in front of a hospital. What is that? Can someone explain that to me?”

Police launched an internal probe and promised to release additional video of Saturday’s incident.

The videotaped incident occurred nearly seven weeks after the death of George Floyd, a black man, after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes.

Floyd’s death sparked global protests over police brutality and racial injustice.

The local Black Lives Matter group issued a list of demands, including the release of any police bodycam video of the incident, the suspension of the officers involved, the name and condition of the man, the establishment of a regional criminal justice review board and a reallocation of police funding.

“I can’t believe this is really happening now, and here,” said Justan Parker, founder of Black Lives Matter to Lehigh Valley.

The bystander video, shot from a passing vehicle and posted on social media, shows Allentown officers restraining the man on the ground outside the emergency room of the Sacred Heart Campus of St. Luke’s Hospital.

An officer had his elbow on the man’s neck before switching to a knee to hold him down while other officers restrained his arms.

The man does not appear to be resisting during the video.

In a statement Sunday night, police said officers were outside the hospital for an unrelated matter when they saw a man staggering in the street, vomiting and stopping in the driveway of the ER.

The man began to yell and spit at officers and hospital staff, the statement said, adding the man was “noncompliant which required officers to restrain” him.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania tweeted that the police department’s “appalling excuse for an officer illegally placing his knee on a man’s neck is that he was in mental distress and being ‘non-compliant.’ Police should NOT be first responders to those in a mental health crisis.”

Attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents Floyd’s family, tweeted the video of the Allentown incident, writing that the restraint used by the unidentified officer is “exactly what led to #GeorgeFloyd’s death.” Crump demanded the officer’s name.

The official report from the coroner who examined Floyd suggests that he died of a heart attack likely due to an overdose. Floyd had three times the lethal amount of fentanyl in his system.

It’s unclear from the video how long the Allentown officer had his knee on the man’s head and neck area, or whether the other two officers in the video sought to intervene to push the officer’s knee off.

The man was treated at the hospital and released.

Police have not released the name or race of any individuals seen in the video. Community advocates said they were trying to identify the man in the video to offer support.

“During a health crisis, whatever it was, when he should’ve been given support, instead he was criminalized and he received a knee to his neck,” said Hasshan Batts, executive director of Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, an Allentown community group.

Police have said their internal investigation is moving swiftly, and the department plans to release additional video later this week. The Lehigh County district attorney’s office assigned two detectives to the internal probe and planned to issue findings later this week.

“Our investigation is ongoing, and as we uncover additional information we’re trying to release that as we can,” Assistant Police Chief Bill Lake said.

Though Allentown police wear body cameras, Lake declined to say Monday whether police video of the incident exists.

A St. Luke’s spokesperson said the hospital has turned its own video over to police.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Attorney in Indiana ‘Lynching’ Episode Denounces Smear Campaign

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Attorney in Indiana ‘Lynching’ Episode Denounces Smear Campaign

‘Mr. Booker was the instigator and the agitator…’

An attorney for two people accused of being involved in a reported assault on a black man at a southern Indiana lake said Monday his clients are victims of a “smear campaign” and a “rush to judgment.”

Vauhxx Booker, a local civil rights activist and member of the Monroe County Human Rights Commission, said five white men pinned him against a tree, shouted racial slurs and one of them threatened to “get a noose” at Monroe Lake near Bloomington over Independence Day weekend.

But David Hennessy, a criminal defense attorney for Sean Purdy and Caroline McCord — two of the people accused of being involved — said Booker has been “putting forth a false narrative” about what happened.

“Mr. Booker was the instigator and the agitator,” Hennessy said at a press conference in downtown Indianapolis.

Neither Booker nor his attorney, Katherine Liell, was present at the news conference. Liell didn’t respond to a phone message seeking comment.

Purdy and McCord claim, according to their lawyers, that Booker was on private property. Hennessy said that after they informed Booker of the property line, his clients thought the situation was resolved.

Hennessy contends that hours later, Booker again approached Purdy, McCord and a group of others.

They say Booker threatened them, claiming to be a county commissioner.

That’s when Booker “jabbed a finger” in McCord’s face and proceeded to punch Purdy three times, Hennessy said.

“If you go on a neighbor’s property and start punching people, you can be restrained. And (Booker) ended up against a tree,” Hennessy said, arguing that Booker was not attacked.

“No talk of a noose, no talk of a rope, no talk of a lynching. No white power,” he added.

Hennessy said neither Purdy nor McCord heard or said “get a noose,” but that “some racially insensitive stuff” was said by people known to them.

When asked, Hennessy said his clients know the people and condemn the language used.

“There is a grand awakening regarding racial injustice happening in all of our communities. This is long overdue. It is deplorable that a person would be targeted because of his or her race,” Hennessy said. “It is equally deplorable for a person to use his race as a weapon and to arouse public passion over a false allegation.”

Booker has said he was pinned to a tree at the lake just south of Booker’s hometown of Bloomington and that the group of five men accused him of trespassing on private property. After he tried to apologize, he said the situation got physical.

Booker said the men threatened to break his arms and said, “get a noose,” while telling his friends to leave the area. Booker also said one of the men had a hat with a Confederate flag on it and that the men made statements about “white power.”

Much of the assault that followed was captured on cellphone video by people Booker had met up with that day.

Booker said he suffered a minor concussion, cuts, bruises and had patches of his hair pulled out.

Hennessy said there is more video that the public has not seen that will provide proper context but that neither he nor his clients possess the footage.

Purdy and McCord were at the news conference but did not speak. Their lawyers said they are cooperating with law enforcement.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources, which responded to the reported assault, is still investigating what happened, officials said Monday.

The FBI confirmed it also is still investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

After Court Losses, Texas GOP Considers Online Convention

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After Court Losses, Texas GOP Considers Online Convention

The Republican Party of Texas said Monday it would consider moving its convention online after several courts refused to force Houston to allow in-person events the city canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Hours after the Texas Supreme Court dismissed the party’s appeal, the state GOP said in a statement that its executive committee would meet Monday night to vote on canceling a three-day event that would have drawn potentially thousands of people.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, said last week that he had directed city lawyers to terminate the contract because he believed the event could not be held safely.

He denied that the convention was cancelled due to political differences and cited the potential risk to service workers and first responders if the virus spread through Houston’s downtown convention center.

The state party sued a day later, alleging the city illegally breached the contract and accusing Turner—who recently participated in mass protests supporting the Black Lives Matter movement—of shedding “crocodile tears.”

“The Party argues it has constitutional rights to hold a convention and engage in electoral activities, and that is unquestionably true,” the Supreme Court wrote in its opinion. “But those rights do not allow it to simply commandeer use of the Center.”

State District Judge Daryl L. Moore on Monday afternoon denied another party request for an injunction forcing Houston to allow the convention.

Texas has set daily records in recent days for the number of COVID-19 deaths and confirmed cases. Top officials in Houston have called for the city to lock back down as area hospitals strain to accommodate an onslaught of patients.

State District Judge Larry Weiman last week sided with Turner, citing Houston statistics that show major hospitals exceeding their base intensive-care capacity due to an influx of COVID-19 patients.

The Texas Medical Association withdrew its sponsorship of the state GOP convention and asked organizers to cancel in-person gatherings.

As the virus has surged throughout the state in June and July, Gov. Greg Abbott, the state’s top Republican, has reversed some business reopenings and broadly required the use of face masks.

State GOP chair James Dickey had insisted that organizers could hold the event safely.

Prior to Turner’s move to cancel the convention, Dickey said the party had planned to institute daily temperature scans, provide masks, and install hand sanitizer stations.

State Democrats held an all-online convention in June. Nationally, the Republican Party is moving forward with plans for an in-person convention in August to be held in Jacksonville, Florida, though some GOP elected officials have said they won’t attend for health concerns.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

WHO Boss Who Duped US on COVID Blames ‘Mixed Messages’

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WHO Boss Who Duped US on COVID Blames ‘Mixed Messages’

‘The virus remains public enemy No. 1, but the actions of many governments and people do not reflect this…’

(Headline USA) Next to Chinese President Xi Jinping, few bear as much responsibility as WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the United Nations-backed World Health Organization, for enabling the spread of the deadly coronavirus outside of China in December 2019 and January 2020.

Tedros, who maintains close ties with the communist Chinese government, initially downplayed the risk, urging world leaders to do the same.

While giving China the opportunity to stockpile pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment, as well as to manipulate the messaging about its role in the pandemic, the silence during the critical early-response time allowed the virus to spread silently while catching areas from Italy to New York City entirely off-guard and unprepared.

The result, a catastrophic shutdown that tanked the world economy, was set into motion by the organization’s dramatic about-face in declaring it a global pandemic in early March.

President Donald Trump has vocally denounced both China and the WHO for intentionally misleading the world and announced last week that the US would formally withdraw its support for and participation in the organization.

But, unsurprisingly, Xi and Tedros have aggressively sought to deflect blame.

The WHO chief on Monday slammed some government leaders for eroding public trust by sending mixed messages on the coronavirus and warned that their failures to stop their countries’ spiraling outbreaks mean there would be no return to normal “for the foreseeable future.”

He did not call out specific politicians for criticism but said “too many countries are headed in the wrong direction” with the pandemic and some were not taking the proper steps to curb infections.

At the same time, Tedros acknowledged how difficult it was for governments to respond effectively, given the economic, social and cultural consequences of imposing restrictions.

“The virus remains public enemy No. 1, but the actions of many governments and people do not reflect this,” he said.

The director-general’s remarks to reporters in Geneva came a day after WHO reported yet another worldwide record of more than 230,000 confirmed cases in 24 hours.

Ten countries accounted for 80% of the daily tally reported Sunday, and more than half of the new confirmed cases came from the United States and Brazil alone.

The U.N. health agency said government and individual responses should depend on local conditions—namely, whether there is widespread community spread of the virus.

Tedros claimed some nations are playing “political football” by calling for schools to reopen without having broader control measures in place such as keeping shops closed or limiting public gatherings.

“Mixed messages from leaders are undermining the most critical ingredient of any response: trust,” he said Monday, adding that governments should communicate clearer public health messages and individuals should maintain social distancing, mask-wearing, hand-washing and staying home when they have COVID-19 symptoms.

Without applying basic outbreak-control methods, “there is only one way this pandemic is going to go,” WHO chief Tedros cautioned.

“It’s going to get worse and worse and worse,” he said, continuing with a blunt warning. “There will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future.”

Still, WHO pointed to a sign of hope in countries that had experienced massive outbreaks and death tolls and managed to get the virus under control.

Amid a debate in places like the United States about whether schools can reopen, Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program, said any such decisions require a broader outlook that takes into account how workplaces or long-term care facilities operate, too.

“We can’t turn schools into yet another political football in this game. It’s not fair on our children,” Ryan said. “We have to make decisions that are based on the best interests of our children, be it their educational or their health interests.”

Trump has pressured school districts in America to reopen this fall, threatening to cut off funding for ones that don’t comply.

Other top administration officials, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, have agreed.

Despite the fearmongering from the so-called scientific community, one clear conclusion from researching the virus is that children without underlying health conditions are neither vulnerable to the virus nor are they the source for spreading it.

DeVos said that like most other health outbreaks, schools could not let temporary spikes dictate the school policies and schedules for populations and areas where transmission is low-risk.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

House Republicans Urge Reopening of Schools This Fall

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House Republicans Urge Reopening of Schools This Fall

‘Children are not the superspreaders we initially thought them to be…’

The House Freedom Caucus urged the Trump administration and state governments to reopen schools this fall, citing concerns about distance learning’s failure and the mental well-being of students across the nation.

“It is more harmful to keep children locked out of schools, and less harmful and less risky for children to go back to schools, and that’s the bottom line. It’s as simple as that,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., the chairman of the caucus, said during a press conference on Thursday.

There is ample evidence proving that the coronavirus is not nearly as big of a risk to students as it is to older adults, said Dr. Bob Hamilton, a pediatrician from California who has been advising the lawmakers.

“Children in general are not getting sick in large numbers from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Children are dying in very, very low numbers — almost zero,” Hamilton said. “Children are not the superspreaders we initially thought them to be.”

The real risk is what happens when you don’t send children back to school, said Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va.

“You have food insecurity. You have emotional problems that are not being addressed. There may be child abuse going on. Nobody is seeing it; nobody’s paying attention. Parents are under a lot of stress. Kids may be left at home. Mom and dad may have to go to work, and then we’re leaving these kids at home,” he explained.

Hamilton agreed and noted that the long-term effects of quarantine and isolation are “not positive.”

“It is very clear that depression, stress, anxiety is increasing in large numbers and especially students in [the] junior high and high school age category,” he said.

Even the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admitted this week that reopening schools is of the upmost importance.

“I’m of the point of view as a public health leader in this nation, that having the schools actually closed is a greater public health threat to the children than having the schools reopen,” CDC Director Robert Redfield told The Hill.

Even so, Redfield is refusing to change its existing health guidelines for schools, which are “very tough & expensive,” according to President Trump.

Pelosi Backs Mob That Tore Down Columbus Statue

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Pelosi Backs Mob That Tore Down Columbus Statue

‘If the community doesn’t want the statue, the statue shouldn’t be there…’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., refused to condemn the mob that tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus in Baltimore, saying, “people will do what they do.”

At a press conference on Thursday, Pelosi, who is from Baltimore, was asked about the Columbus statue, which was torn down and thrown into the Inner Harbor by protesters on Saturday.

The statue had stood near Baltimore’s “Little Italy” neighborhood since 1984. 

The San Francisco liberal, whose father was mayor of Baltimore, is “not one of those people who is wedded to a statue of somebody someplace,” she said in response, according to Fox News.

“If the community doesn’t want the statue, the statue shouldn’t be there,” she said.

Asked again whether the statue should have been taken down by a commission or a city council instead of a “mob in the middle of the night,” Pelosi continued to make excuses.

“I do think that, from a safety standpoint, it would be a good idea to have it taken down if the community doesn’t want it,”  she said. “I don’t know that it has to be a commission, but it just could be a community view.”

Pelosi has also called for the removal of Confederate statues at the U.S. Capitol.

Ironically, she’s remained silent on her father’s role in the dedication of several Confederate statues.

Thomas D’Alesandro, whose own statue in downtown Baltimore has yet to be pulled down by an angry mob, oversaw the dedication of a monument to Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee in 1948.

“Today with our nation beset by subversive groups and propaganda which seeks to destroy our national unity, we can look for inspiration to the lives of Lee and Jackson to remind us to be resolute and determined in preserving our sacred institutions,” D’Alesandro said during his dedication speech, according to the Washington Examiner.

That same statue was removed by Baltimore officials in 2017, but Pelosi has yet to comment on it.

EPA Chief: We’ve Done More for Environment than Obama

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EPA Chief: We’ve Done More for Environment than Obama

‘We are the gold standard worldwide. President Trump does not get the recognition that he deserves…’

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler says that the Trump administration has done more to clean the environment than the Obama administration ever did.

President Donald Trump’s environmental policies have been the subject of criticism for the past few years, specifically his policies rolling back Obama-era emissions regulations.

Leftists have accused Trump of accelerating pollution and intentionally denying climate change.

Earlier this year, former Obama-era EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, even accused Trump’s EPA of making the coronavirus pandemic “more deadly.”

Wheeler, however, said the policies speak for themselves.

Air pollution is down 7%, 1,200 state air pollution improvement plans have been approved by the administration, drinking water in schools across the country are being tested, and the reduction in Obama-era red tape has cut backlogs in half, Wheeler told the Washington Examiner.

What’s more, Trump was the first president to ever include environmental provisions in an international trade deal, the U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement.

“We are the gold standard worldwide,” he said “President Trump does not get the recognition that he deserves.”

The EPA has been able to do all of this while creating jobs, Wheeler added.

“We’ve done more in four years than the Obama administration in eight,” he said.

That’s not what the Democrats would like Americans to think, he noted. Democrats try to act like they have a monopoly environmental issues, but Wheeler said that the environment isn’t a “partisan issue, and it shouldn’t be.”

“But some of the biggest cash cows of the Democratic Party are the environmental organizations. They don’t care about cleaning up the environment,” he explained. “They care about a sound byte for the election.”

Trump Campaign Spox Slams Media for Hypocritical COVID Coverage

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Trump Campaign Spox Slams Media for Hypocritical COVID Coverage

‘There were literally no health precautions to speak of as thousands looted, rioted and protested in the streets…’

President Donald Trump’s campaign spokesman said mainstream media outlets do not care about the coronavirus unless they can use it to harm the president.

Spokesman Tim Murtaugh said the Trump campaign took extensive precautions to protect rally-goers in Tulsa, but the media attacked him regardless.

Yet, protesters, as well as rioters, looters, vandals, and arsonists, swarmed the streets to destroy America’s culture and history without precautions.

“There were literally no health precautions to speak of as thousands looted, rioted and protested in the streets and the media reported that it did not lead to a rise in coronavirus cases,” Murtaugh said in a statement.

“Meanwhile, the President’s rally was 18 days ago, all attendees had their temperature checked, everyone was provided a mask, and there was plenty of hand sanitizer available for all,” he said.

Murtaugh’s comments come after so-called health experts said Trump’s rally “likely contributed” to the 261 new coronavirus cases in Tulsa County on Monday.

“In the past few days, we’ve seen almost 500 new cases, and we had several large events just over two weeks ago, so I guess we just connect the dots,” said Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart.

Trump drew a crowd of more than 6,000 to his rally in Tulsa.

A reporter who attended the rally said he tested positive for the coronavirus, AP reported.

Six of Trump’s campaign staffers and two of Trump’s Secret Service agents also tested positive for COVID-19.

The media’s hype about rising coronavirus cases has followed an overall decline in the case fatality rate of the coronavirus, meaning that more people are contracting the disease but a smaller percentage are dying from it.

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