Tulsa Rally Superspreader: "We Killed Herman Cain"
Trump held a large indoor rally during the pandemic. 8 campaign staffers tested positive. Herman Cain, 74, attended unmasked, contracted COVID, and died. A senior Trump staffer admitted: "We killed Herman Cain."
On June 20, 2020, Trump held a campaign rally at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma despite warnings from local health officials that a large indoor gathering could become a superspreader event. The campaign had boasted of over 1 million ticket requests, but only approximately 6,200 attended (per the Tulsa Fire Department). An overflow stage outside was dismantled.
Eight Trump campaign staffers tested positive for COVID-19 in the days following the rally.
Herman Cain, 74, co-chair of Black Voices for Trump, attended the rally without a mask. He tested positive on June 29, was hospitalized on July 1, and died on July 30, 2020. A senior Trump staffer later admitted to journalist Jonathan Karl: "We killed Herman Cain."
Trump dismissed any connection, saying he didn't think Cain caught COVID at the rally. The event was held over the explicit objections of Tulsa's health department and during a period when Oklahoma was seeing rising case counts. The rally was not just a public health failure — it was also a political one, with the embarrassingly small crowd leading to the demotion of campaign manager Brad Parscale.