The Washington, DC, celebration does not appear to be following US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines concerning gatherings despite deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere telling CNN this week that the White House would enforce social distancing.
CNN has asked the White House whether guests are being tested or having temperatures checked but has yet to receive a response. The White House stopped temperature checks of all those entering the White House grounds weeks ago. Reporters at Saturday's event have not been tested or received a temperature check.
Admiral Dr. Brett Giroir, a member of the White House's coronavirus task force, who is attending the White House's Fourth of July event, declined to comment on the event and the lack of social distancing.
"Good question, but let me just see," Giroir, the assistant secretary for health for the US Department of Health and Human Services, said when asked if the White House event was setting a good example for other Americans. "I'm reserving judgment."
He noted: "My wife and I are both wearing a mask."
A campaign aide familiar with the President's prepared remarks for Saturday night characterized them as "patriotic" and said the President will celebrate America's founding and the triumphs of American history while saluting the US military. The aide said the President "will appeal to the very best in the American Character."
Trump's remarks at the White House come a day after he delivered a deeply divisive speech in South Dakota Friday night aimed at stoking the culture wars in America, warning, "Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children."
It was the kind of dark message the President has turned to often in recent weeks to incite his most loyal supporters as he attempts to ignore a pandemic in the face of skyrocketing coronavirus cases. There was no social distancing at the Mount Rushmore event, especially with chairs at the top of the amphitheater tied together with zip ties. The President mentioned the virus just once in his Friday speech, at the very top of his remarks, thanking those working to fight it.
The aide said on Saturday that the President will seek to give Americans watching a "worthy show on the Fourth of July."
Trump's remarks, an aide told CNN, will seek to contrast those of former Vice President Joe Biden, which the aide called "truly shocking." Biden's July 4 remarks, which addressed systemic racism in America, "evoke a series of the very worst moments of our history," according to the aide.
Biden on Saturday called on Americans to "commit to finally fulfill" America's founding principle that "all men are created equal."
"We have a chance now to give the marginalized, the demonized, the isolated, the oppressed a full share of American dream," Biden says in the video. "We have a chance to rip the roots of systemic racism out of this country."
Biden later tweeted that "one of the most patriotic things you can do is wear a mask" during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Biden campaign on Saturday also responded to Trump's Mount Rushmore speech by saying the United States is "suffering" as a result of having a "divisive" president who doesn't "give a damn about anything but his own gain."
"Our whole country is suffering through the excruciating costs of having a negligent, divisive president who doesn't give a damn about anything but his own gain - not the sick, not the jobless, not our constitution, and not our troops in harm's way," campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement of Trump. "Even as the outbreak ramps up, he's admitted to ordering that the federal testing response be watered down."
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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July 05, 2020 at 05:54AM
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Many White House attendees are not social distancing or wearing masks ahead of Trump's July 4th remarks - CNN
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