Trump’s Interior Sec’y Gave Him Special Exemption From Federal Law to Hold Fox News Town Hall Inside Lincoln Memorial

President Donald Trump was granted a special exemption from federal law in order to hold a Fox News town hall inside the Lincoln Memorial, which is typically prohibited from hosting from special events or demonstrations.

As reported in the New York Times, the Trump White House received permission for the unprecedented move from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who cited the “extraordinary crisis” of the coronavirus pandemic to justify allowing the question and answer session with Fox’s Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum within the memorial’s colonnade on Sunday night.

With imposing statue of Lincoln as his backdrop, Trump attacked Democrats, aired ahistorical grievances, floated dubious predictions, and again changed the goal posts on the final death toll from the Covid-19 outbreak, saying: “We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people.”

Bernhardt, a former oil and mining industry lobbyist and a major Republican donor, explained his decision in an order to the National Park Service. “Given the extraordinary crisis that the American people have endured, and the need for the president to exercise a core governmental function to address the nation about an ongoing public-health crisis,” he said, “I am exercising my authority to facilitate the opportunity for the president to conduct this address within the Lincoln Memorial.”

The Fox moderators acknowledged the controversial nature of holding the event inside the memorial early on during the town hall and asked him about his decision.

“You know, I didn’t know that it was creating criticism, and I did say this would be nice, but I thought it was your choice, not ours,” Trump said, trying to pass off the decision onto the cable network, while claiming ignorance of federal law and his own administration’s extraordinary efforts to stage manage the event. “I had not heard. What can you criticize? It’s — I don’t think it’s ever been done, what we’re doing tonight here.”