President Donald J. Trump speaks throughout a “Make America Great Again!” rally on the BOK Center on Saturday, June 20, 2020 in Tulsa, OK. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post through Getty Images

Many Trump staffers blamed themselves for Herman Cain’s death from COVID-19, in keeping with a brand new guide.

Cain attended Trump’s rally in Tulsa final 12 months and examined optimistic for the virus days after.

“We killed Herman Cain,” one senior Trump staffer reportedly stated after his death.

When information hit that former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain died of COVID-19 a month after he attended then-President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa final summer season, lots of the president’s marketing campaign staffers blamed themselves for his death, in keeping with a brand new guide.

“We killed Herman Cain,” one senior Trump staffer reportedly informed ABC News reporter Will Steakin, who additionally attended the Tulsa occasion on June 20, 2020.

That’s in keeping with an excerpt of ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl’s forthcoming guide, “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,” printed in Vanity Fair on Thursday. The guide is slated to come back out on November 16.

The Trump marketing campaign flew in Cain, a outstanding Republican who co-chaired the coalition Black Voices for Trump, to attend the Tulsa rally final 12 months, in keeping with the guide. He, together with many different attendees, have been photographed on the indoor occasion with out masks.

Trump’s staff spent months organizing the rally, which was billed because the president’s comeback to the marketing campaign path because the begin of the pandemic. Trump was “convinced” that getting again on the highway would increase his low public approval rankings attributable to the pandemic and his response to the outbreak, per the guide.

Local public well being officers warned that the big indoor rally might flip right into a superspreader occasion because the pandemic nonetheless raged in Oklahoma, however Trump, fixated on his 2020 reelection, ignored the warnings. Soon, information broke that six Trump marketing campaign staffers in Tulsa examined optimistic for the virus. The precise quantity was eight staffers, in keeping with the guide.

The occasion didn’t draw the large crowd measurement that Trump anticipated, however nonetheless, images present that public security measures like social-distancing and mask-wearing have been minimal.

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Nine days after the occasion, Cain examined optimistic for COVID-19. Two days later, he was hospitalized. He died because of problems with the virus on July 30, 2020, at age 74.

It’s unknown whether or not Cain contracted the virus on the occasion, however that did not cease Trump staffers, who have been “devastated” by the information of his death, from blaming themselves for it, in keeping with the guide.

Read the unique article on Business Insider



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