Tulsa, Oklahoma. At his first campaign rally since the COVID-19 shutdown Saturday night in Tulsa, President Trump took credit for educating the country about historical facts he claims it didn’t know.
“Most people didn’t know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. I taught them that. Most people didn’t know that Frederick Douglas was somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more. Or that healthcare was complicated.”
As his supporters started chanting “We didn’t know, we didn’t know,” he continued. “I also made Juneteenth famous. Nobody had ever heard of it before I planned my rally here on its anniversary. But I changed the date to today out of respect for my African-American supporters. Both of them were very pleased I changed the date.”
The president then turned to the subject of the Tulsa race massacre, the 1921 pogrom against the prosperous African-American Greenwood district of Tulsa perpetrated by white residents and law enforcement officers. The massacre, which just had its 99th anniversary this June 1st, resulted in the slaughter of as many as 300 African-Americans and the destruction of 35 square blocks of the district.
“Nobody knew about the Tulsa Race Massacre either. I made that famous. Nobody knew. And by the way, ‘massacre’ is a little bit strong. That’s fake news. There were black guys with guns, okay? I heard there were very fine people on both sides.”