Thread by @tripgabriel

On the day POTUS returned to the WH and whipped off his mask, I spoke with voters in central PA, including many who scoffed at the threat of the virus nytimes.com/2020/10/06/us/…

My main takeaway: many Trump voters were full of misinformation about Covid that echoes the false claims the president has made all year.

E.g., they falsely claimed that data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on deaths and cases were wrong, that getting the virus was no worse than getting the flu, and that it was introduced and kept in the spotlight only by Mr. Trump’s Democratic opponents.

Scoffing at masks, social distancing and crowd avoidance — all measures recommended by health experts, including in the Trump administration — has become a test of loyalty for fervent supporters of the president, who mocked Mr. Biden’s masks during their debate last week.

Sue Jones said Trump “had one of the greatest economies going before it happened and the liberal left does not like that. They couldn’t impeach him. They couldn’t do anything about the Russia collusion. So then they were colluding with China, they bring in the virus.”

Brad Dechert, who violated a state order by shopping maskless at Walmart, said: “We all die at some point. So, hey, I grew up in this America where you could have freedom, go out about your own business. Cool. Hey, if I get it and I die, awesome.”

Tim Girvin, a used car dealer, said: “I have my own business and I don’t have anybody wear a mask in my business. I don’t buy into it. When you look at the facts, with how many people die of influenza every year. Obesity kills more people than the Wuhan virus does.”

I asked Sue -- who believed the virus was "brought in" by Trump opponents -- where she gets her news. “I was just telling her,'' she said, gesturing to her young niece, "don’t go to the news sources. Go to different podcasts.”

She mentioned podcasts by the conservative commentators Ben Shapiro and Dennis Prager. In April, Mr. Prager called coronavirus lockdowns “the greatest mistake in the history of humanity.’’

Maureen O’Toole-Goldman, a nurse married to an infectious disease doctor, who moved to the area 25 years ago, said many voters in central Pennsylvania felt left behind economically, and to them, Trump has become “a sort of demigod.”

“They believe everything he says. When the Medical Center came, there was a lot of distrust of the educated elite versus, you know, regular folk. They feel like people look down on them. Trump comes out and is sort of speaking their language.”