Jim Acosta Highlights Trump Campaign Event Forced to Socially Distance in Minnesota: ‘Unlike Anything We Have Seen at a Trump Rally’

CNN’s chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta reported from the scene of President Donald Trump’s latest campaign rally, in Rochester, Minnseota, which looks unlike any others that have come before it.

On Friday evening, Acosta noted that this rally, which was originally scheduled to have 6,000 attendees assembled on an airport tarmac, had been radically scaled back after Minnesota political leaders demanded that the event comply with state coronavirus public safety guidelines. As a result the Trump campaign had to cap the crowd at 250 people and scatter chairs at least six feet apart to maintain sufficient social distancing.

Speaking with The Situation Room‘s Wolf Blitzer, Acosta contrasted this latest rally with the numerous other Trump campaign events that have been marked mostly maskless supporters crowding together by the thousands. A CNN investigation from Thursday found swing state counties that have hosted Trump rallies violating CDC guidance have seen noticeable spikes in the weeks afterward.

“President Trump is spreading fear and misinformation in these last four days of the campaign,” Acosta said to Blitzer. “We have shown you this picture time and again at these rallies where you have Trump supporters packed together, not practicing social distancing and not wearing masks. But something very different is about to happen here in Rochester, Minnesota. You can see over my shoulder that they have now set up the seating at this venue for social distancing. The seats are spaced apart. This is unlike anything we have seen at a Trump rally up until this point.”

“But a key point here,” he added. “Minnesota state leaders are forcing the Trump campaign to do this knowing full well this could potentially become a super-spreader if all of these supporters are packed together.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.