“We don’t trust drug companies. We don’t trust the CDC at all. We don’t trust non-holistic doctors,” Cross said.
Judith Hannon, a former business executive and teacher, arrived at the rally wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a photo of a bloodied Trump with a raised fist and the expletive: “You Missed.” She said she lost 50 pounds by “following best practices when it comes to eating and drinking,” and is particularly passionate about Kennedy.
“Part of making America great again is making America healthy again,” she said.
President Trump’s crowd was overwhelmingly white. Mr. Harris’ crowd was racially mixed. Only a handful of people interviewed at the Trump rally had been vaccinated against the coronavirus. At the Harris rally, the opposite was true. Rachel McGinty Mock, a graphic designer, said she got vaccinated to protect not only herself but those around her.
“It was a personal choice, but it was also a community choice,” she said.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the now-retired director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the target of the ire of many Trump voters, remains a respected figure in the Harris campaign.
“Dr. Fauci is the best,” declared Gary Tate, a Harris voter who grew up in Queens and moved to Atlanta in 1992. He praised the CDC’s coronavirus response and said he had the following health conditions and wore a mask to protect himself: hypertension and diabetes.
Mr. Tate said of Mr. Trump: “He thinks bleach can kill coronavirus. Only an idiot would think that.” (Actually, bleach can kill coronavirus on surfaces, but in 2020 It’s dangerous to inject bleach before immediately putting it back on, as Trump suggested.)
