Democrats call Trump rally a 'super spreader' ahead of Western Pa. visit

With President Donald Trump about to descend on Western Pennsylvania, riding the momentum of a likely Supreme Court nomination later this week, three prominent Democrats did what they could to highlight what they described as Trump’s “failed economic policies.”

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair Nancy Patton Mills, and Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, took turns hammering Trump in a virtual news conference Tuesday morning.

The event coincided with the rollout of a mobile billboard set to be driven through Pittsburgh during the day with messages stating Trump has botched his handling of the covid-19 pandemic.

Mills and Fitzgerald made a point of referring to Trump’s scheduled campaign rally Tuesday at a hangar outside Pittsburgh International Airport as a “super spreader event.”

“We’re going to have thousands and thousands of people show up tonight without masks,” Fitzgerald said. “We have people in our colleges and our schools and our workplaces who have been responsible and now we have a president who is going to come tonight and encourage people to not wear a mask, making fun of people who do wear a mask.

“I’m very disappointed that people are going to listen to this president and believe his falsehoods when it comes to science, this virus and how we should be spreading out and wearing masks.”

Trump supporters have made similar accusations about Black Lives Matter protests spreading the virus across the country and in Western Pennsylvania. Additionally, there has been no evidence that Westmoreland County covid numbers have spiked since the Trump’s rally earlier this month at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport near Latrobe.

Fitzgerald brought up recent revelations from Trump’s recorded interview with author Bob Woodward in which the president said he knows how dangerous coronavirus is, thus contradicting his public downplaying of covid-19.

In keeping with the theme of the press conference, the trio of Democrats also emphasized what they see as Trump’s “broken promise” to create jobs in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

“He promised he’d bring back manufacturing, but the manufacturing sector went into a recession in 2019 and there are almost 3,000 fewer manufacturing jobs in Pittsburgh than at the end of the Obama/Biden administration,” said Mills. “He promised that if he were elected we wouldn’t lose a single plant but workers at shuttered facilities like ATI in Midland know that’s just downright false.”

As expected, the topic of Trump’s intention to fill the now vacant Supreme Court seat of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last Friday after her long fight with cancer, was raised by these Democrats.

Mills said she was taken aback by the way Trump is capitalizing on the death of Ginsburg to rally his supporters, something the president is certain to bring up tonight.

“Before Ruth Bader Ginsburg was even laid to rest, they were already talking about replacing her. We oppose that,” said Mills. “On Nov. 3 we’re absolutely going to elect Joe Biden as the next president and I think that he should have the opportunity to name the justice. I’m sure that anybody that Donald Trump comes up with will never match the quality of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”

Kelly said he is concerned about union protections, including collective bargaining rights, being stripped away by another conservative Supreme Court justice being named by Trump.

“On the labor end there’s possibly a situation where we could have someone who could affect three generations of workers,” said Kelly. “When you have a new Supreme Court Justice come in and literally write labor law that can affect workers’ safety, workers’ rights, overtime protections, this connects all aspects of organized labor because work rules are not different for people that lean left or lean right. You work under the same umbrella of the work rules.”

Kelly added that this issue will help to motivate workers throughout the region.

Fitzgerald said he hasn’t seen a higher level of enthusiasm for a Democratic candidate.

“Not for Obama, not for either Clinton, not for Gore, Kerry etc. I mean the amount of signs that are flying out of the union halls of people that want to show support for Vice-President Biden, I think you’re going to see a higher turnout in Allegheny County than we have seen in the past,” said Fitzgerald. “We might hit as many as 700,000 voters. With the mail-in voting, it’s easier to vote and more convenient to vote, even in covid.”