Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, diagnosed with Covid-19 after attending Donald Trump’s Tulsa rally in June, has died from the virus. Liberals online soon rushed to treat his death as a statement about masks.
Cain, who was hospitalized on July 1, just two days after testing positive for the coronavirus, died on Thursday. His initial diagnosis prompted speculation he could have contracted Covid-19 while attending Trump’s rally, where there was no mandate to wear a facemask – speculation that resurfaced after news broke of his death.
A co-chair of Black Voices for Trump, Cain vocally sided with the president in his skepticism over the danger posed by the virus and the usefulness of facemasks. The facemask issue in particular pushed many liberals on Twitter to point the finger at both Trump and Cain himself for his death, while conservatives pushed back over the politicization of his passing.
A wave of Twitter users posted that the pizza magnate died “because [Trump] told America a mask wasn't needed,” and one person went as far as to claim that Cain was “sacrificed at the altar of Donald Trump.”
Some, including MSNBC host Joy Reid, could not let go of the unconfirmed speculation that the Tulsa rally was at the root of his fatal illness, as others steadfastly cited Cain's "selfish" refusal to done a face covering as reason for refusing any sympathy for the man.
Others on the platform, apparently unironically, tweeted that the real killer was the “politicization of public health.”
Conservatives, meanwhile, accused Democrats of “dancing on [Cain’s] grave” simply because he had a different political viewpoint, and criticized the seemingly ardent efforts of many to score political points off of his death.
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