Trump returns to rally stage despite coronavirus concerns

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump held his first rally in more than three months in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday evening, despite warnings from health experts against large-scale gatherings amid a surge in coronavirus cases after reopening in some states.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters inside the BOK Center, Trump touted his policies and judicial nominees, tore into Democrats and media, and touched upon a series of national issues, including the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 2.2 million people and taken nearly 120,000 lives in the United States.

The president blamed the numbers on testing, a claim that has been widely disputed.

"When you do testing to that extent, you are gonna find more people, you're gonna find more cases. So I said to my people slow the testing down please," he said. "They test and they test. We have tests that people don't know what's going on."

Trump made the remarks only hours after his campaign spokesman revealed that six staffers helping organizing the Tulsa rally have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Attendees of the rally received a mask from organizers before entering the event, but most of them did not wear it inside the arena, which can hold 19,000 people.

In his remarks on Saturday, Trump also spoke at length complaining about media coverage of his slow walk down a ramp after giving the commencement address at the US Military Academy, also known as West Point, last week, which has fueled questions about his health.

He explained that he was wearing "leather-bottom shoes" and that the ramp "was like an ice-skating rink," stressing that "I can't fall with the fake news watching."

There are multiple groups of demonstrators with varying viewpoints in the area adjacent to the rally, the Tulsa Police Department tweeted Saturday night. "Overwhelmingly these encounters have been peaceful."

Trump's last rally was held in Charlotte, North Carolina on March 2.