Jon Karl Warns Trump’s RNC Speech Could Be ‘More Profound’ Super-Spreader Event: ‘The Visual Message Was This Pandemic Is Over’

ABC News White House correspondent Jon Karl warned of the larger, dangerous message sent to the rest of the country byPresident Donald Trump’s RNC acceptance speech, which took place in front of an audience of 1,000-plus supporters who were not socially distanced and exhibited little evidence of mask wearing.

Photos of the RNC’s White House audience set-up quickly went viral on Thursday evening, showing chairs being closely spaced together in direct contravention of CDC guidelines. In reaction, CNN’s Jake Tapper raised the alarm over the potential public health dangers that could result from Trump’s speech. In the wake of the Trump’s embarrassing campaign rally debacle in Tulsa earlier this summer, local health officials identified a spike in Covid-19 cases linked to the thousands of attendees who gathered at the indoor rally.

During Friday’s The 11th Hour, Karl weighed in on not just the direct epidemiological effects of the RNC speech attendees, but also the psychological ones, to MSNBC anchor Brian Williams.

“I think the idea of this being a super-spreader event, Brian, it may be a super-spreader event, what we saw on the South Lawn, in a more profound way than literally the people that were there,” Karl warned. “That event last night sent a message to the country going into Labor Day, that the visual message was this pandemic is over. Fireworks are back. Remember all those fireworks displays that were canceled for July 4th? Fireworks are back. Mass events outside. All those concerts that have been cancelled. look, it all happened on the South Lawn of the White House. What message does that send to the rest of the country? And how much of the country looks at that and says, ‘Hey, it happened at the White House. You know, let’s go, Labor Day.'”

Karl then recalled the massive resurgence in both coronavirus cases and deaths that occurred earlier this summer in the weeks and months after numerous viral videos of people ignoring CDC guidelines and lockdown rules during the Memorial Day weekend.

“So the question and a big gamble for President Trump, frankly, is does this turn into a super-spreader event magnified across the country because people replicate it as they go into this holiday weekend,” Karl said. “And do we see a second wave that was effectively fueled by what we saw on the South Lawn of the White House?”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.