President Donald Trump triumphantly returned to the campaign trail at a rally in Florida on Monday night, and promptly upset his critics.
The moment: Trump, though mask-less on stage, threw face masks to the crowd before delivering a 65-minute address in signature style.
Addressing the bout of COVID-19 that had kept him from campaigning this month, the president repeated his pledge to extend the treatment he received at Walter Reed Medical Center to all Americans.
“I went through it, now they say I’m immune. I feel so powerful. I’ll walk into that audience. I’ll walk in there, I’ll kiss everyone in that audience,” Trump told the attendees in Sanford.
- “I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women, everybody. I’ll just give ya a big fat kiss.”
Shortly before the rally, White House physician Sean Conley released a memo saying Trump had tested negative for the coronavirus on consecutive days and was no longer infectious.
The reaction: Many liberal observers responded with outrage to Trump’s talk of kissing his supporters during the pandemic.
CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota condemned Trump on-air for “wanting to force unwanted kisses on everybody in the crowd.”
Samantha Power, an Obama administration U.N. ambassador, tweeted, “This is truly sick.”
- “Trump is glib and reckless about a disease that has killed more than 215,000 Americans and has inflicted economic devastation on millions more,” she continued. “He doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He never will.”
Vice News’ David Gilbert in a tweet linked Trump’s talk of kissing women to allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
Other Twitter users made gay jokes.
Meanwhile, pro-Trump commentators were glad to see the president back in action, and “triggering” liberals.
- “Hahahahahahaha!!! This is amazing!!!” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted of a clip of his father’s kissing remarks.
“The real polls.”: Trump has relaunched his rallies with an aggressive schedule that this week will take him to battleground states Pennsylvania, Iowa and North Carolina.
- According to his campaign, Trump has pushed to hold multiple events a day as he looks to prove he’s healthy and overcome a double-digital deficit in national polls before Election Day, Nov. 3.
At one point during Monday’s rally, Trump contrasted his massive crowds with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s small and socially distanced campaign events, saying they are “the real polls.”
