Getty Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the BOK Center.
During President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa on Saturday night, he talked about protesters who burn the American flag. Trump proposed that the country should have legislation requiring anyone who burns the flag to be in jail for a year.
Watch Trump’s Statement About Flag Burning
Here’s the moment when Trump made that statement.
Trump said:
We oughta come up with legislation that if you burn the American flag, you go to jail for one year. One year… We oughtta do it. You know they talk about freedom of speech and I’m a big believer of freedom of speech, but that’s desecration, that’s a terrible thing they do.”
The audience cheered after Trump spoke.
Here’s another video of that part of his speech from NowThis.
People are already tweeting about the moment.
Trump made his suggestion to Senators Jim Inhofe and James Lankford of Oklahoma. They are both Republicans.
The Rally’s Turnout Was Smaller Than Expected
The rally already generated controversy because it’s not requiring any social distancing or masks. Some experts were concerned, since the coronavirus may spread better during indoor events, such as the rally. In fact, Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx had advised Trump against holding the rally, The Hill reported. The BOK Center (Bank of Oklahoma Center) has a seating capacity of about 19,199 for a central stage setup. But fewer than that showed up for the rally tonight, and the outdoor overflow space had to be shut down.
Courtney Subramanian of USA Today tweeted that the campaign announced outdoor speeches were canceled.
The overflow area was mostly empty. This is rare for a Trump rally. Vice President Mike Pence was supposed to speak, but that speech was canceled.
In this video below from Mike Simons of Tulsa World, you can see people entering the rally when the barricades were opened. It appears attendees (at least in these videos and photos) weren’t wearing masks or social distancing while standing in line and getting ready to enter the venue.
At a different moment during the rally, Trump addressed the videos and coverage of his walking down a ramp during his West Point speech.
Although the outdoor portion of the rally was canceled, the indoor event was still taking place and the lower section of the venue is mostly filled.
Earlier in the day, before the rally began, Eric Trump shared a photo about the rally with a QAnon reference that he later deleted. You can see the photo here.
This was Trump’s first rally since the COVID-19 shutdowns.
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