(upbeat music)
- On the day Donald Trump most likely contracted COVID
at an event in the Rose Garden, he hosted another,
slightly different kind of super spreader event,
a campaign rally.
These rallies are a known vector for spreading
many of Trump's favorite lies.
So I traveled to the battleground state of Pennsylvania
to see just how many people had caught
Trump's version of reality.
I'm here at a Trump rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
We are weeks away from the election,
a month away from finding out who wins,
and probably about a year away
from losing a loved one from the inevitable civil war.
Let's do this!
(rock music)
(crowd cheering)
- Yes, make America great again!
- Woo!
- Woo, woo!
- Rambo flag, classic.
How's it going?
Mind if I check out some of your stuff?
- Yesterday we made $5400 in sales.
- What is selling out.
Is there anything 200,000 deaths later
that doesn't quite work as well?
- Not with the Trump stuff.
- It's almost as if the Trump stuff isn't affected
by that at all.
- Exactly. (laughing)
- Yeah, ah huh, ah huh.
Tell me about these shorts.
- Well, we've got the Donald Trump shorts.
You know we've got to represent the president today.
- You gotta be careful.
Donald Trump, that close to your genitals, in a decade,
he's gonna deny he was ever there and counter-sue.
- (laughing) Pretty funny.
- When did you get out here to see Donald Trump?
- Ah, about 26 hours ago, 10:00 yesterday morning.
- So you're gonna wait two days to see the President?
- First of all, come on, Donald Trump,
is our first rock star, superhero president.
He's the real-life Tony Stark.
They should call him, President Iron Man.
- Well, Tony Stark gave a shit about science.
(laughing)
So much excitement in the air, so many droplets.
You feel like people are gonna feel this effect
for weeks to come.
Why no mask?
- Frankly, I forgot it in my car.
I forgot to grab it on the way out.
- Honestly, it's not even for COVID.
I just think all of the Sharpie fumes are--
- Oh, no.
- Not super healthy for ya.
- Probably not, when it was still wet.
- What do you think about the whole mask situation
right now, are you worried about COVID?
- Um, for me personally, I'm not worried,
but my dad has underlying health conditions,
so if he gets it, he's gonna be in trouble.
- Why come here and take that risk,
if your dad has health issues?
- Just to see Trump.
- So it's worth a little bit of risk.
- Yeah.
(rock music)
- Nice flag, man.
- [Vendor] I love 'em! Ha-haa!
- Wear a mask!
- [Vendor] Fuck you!
- Back at him!
- [Vendor] I don't live under dictators like you, douchebag!
- The efficacy of Trump's heard mentality theory
was on full display.
- That's America right there, that's freedom.
- That's freedom?
- That's freedom.
- Are you excited about the SCOTUS pick?
- Of course I am!
- What are you excited about?
- It's gonna fill the court
with Constitutional-loving Americans again.
That court has been too liberal for too long.
- Really?
- Of course it has!
- You're pro-life?
- Or course!
- It's important for Americans to do whatever they can
to protect a human life.
- Yes.
- Why aren't you wearing a mask?
- I mean, again, it's a personal choice I think.
If everybody was wearing one, and everyone said,
"Put a mask on," I would respect everybody's wishes
and put it on.
We're not sheep, we're lions.
- You're not sheep, you're not sheep.
But if everybody here was wearing masks...
- If everybody was wearing, but again, we're not sheeple.
- You're not sheeple.
- We're not.
- So you're gonna look at what everybody's doing,
and you're gonna follow along.
- That's it.
- [Jordan] Yeah, but not sheeple.
- Not sheeple.
- As the not sheep were bravely running
into a tightly packed airplane hangar to see patient zero,
I couldn't help but think of D-Day
and the beaches of Normandy.
Well, I don't know which side they're on.
As I traced the spread of bullshit,
I was fearful for those most vulnerable,
whose defenses were already compromised.
- About two months before COVID started,
somebody put me on to Qanon.
- Great!
- And I believe some of it, and I don't believe some of it,
but I believe only so much can be a conspiracy.
I think a lot of it's true.
- You know about Qanon.
Is there anything you can tell us that I don't know?
- JFK Junior is still alive.
- What!?
- This guy is always behind Trump at the rallies.
- So you're saying JFK Junior is still alive
and spending his time in the back row in a Trump rally.
- From Qanon. - From Qanon, yes.
- Do you think racism exists in America?
- I do not believe that people hate each other as much as--
- You don't think racism is a problem in America.
- I do not think it's a problem, no.
- But there's a potential that JFK Junior
is alive and here at a Trump rally.
- Maybe. (laughing)
- Hilarious, but with just over a month
until the voters go to the polls, had the President
somehow already contaminated election day?
If Biden is elected--
- Ah, huh?
- Do you trust the results?
- No. - No.
- [Lady's Companion] They're cheaters.
- But if Trump wins, do you trust the results?
- Yes. - Absolutely.
- I think mail-in ballots is not gonna be fair,
'cause it leads to fraud and stuff.
- You don't trust mail-in ballots.
- Not at all.
- The President uses mail-in ballots.
- Yeah, they're gonna use mail-in ballots
for this upcoming election, right?
- Right, but the President himself uses mail-in ballots.
- Oh, he does, where?
- That's how he votes.
He mails it in.
- [Lady Responding Off Screen] That's different.
- Yeah, that's different, I don't--
- How's it different?
- I don't know, I honestly didn't know that.
I don't even know what you're talking about.
- But you do know it's different.
After hours in the heavily contaminated parking lot,
I wanted to self-quarantine and chill,
but I still had one burning question.
Are you in a better place than you were four years ago?
- Absolutely, absolutely.
- Is America in a better place then we were four years ago?
- I believe, absolutely.
- We have higher unemployment.
We have 200,000 people dead due to COVID,
and we have riots in the streets.
- Yes, let me just tell you this much,
yes, I'm doing much better.
I'm literally making four times as much
as I was making when Obama was President.
- What do you do?
- I work for a debt relief company.
- (laughing) yeah! (cackling)
So now as a debt relief employee,
you make more money under Donald Trump?
- Yeah, I do, yeah.
- Yeah! (both laughing)
It's good to be a white debt relief collector!
(upbeat music)