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TRUMP CAMPAIGNS IN ARIZONA AS CORONAVIRUS CASES SPIKE AND WILDFIRES SPREAD ACROSS THE STATE

Washington, D.C. – As recent polls show Donald Trump falling behind in Arizona, the president is in Yuma and Phoenix tomorrow to stump for his re-election. His visit comes as coronavirus cases in Arizona reach all-time highs and several wildfires burn hundreds of thousands of acres of land across the state.

Trump is traveling to Yuma to survey the construction of his racist, useless, illegal border wall. He’ll then head to Phoenix to deliver remarks at a Students for Trump event.

Here are a few items that didn’t make the schedule:  

  • Meetings to address the wildfires raging across the state; 
  • Plans to increase coronavirus testing as Arizona reaches more than 50,000 cases;  
  • Or action to craft a relief package for the 28,500 Arizonians currently unemployed.  

Senator Martha McSally, one of Trump’s chief cheerleaders, will be joining Trump at the rally in Phoenix. (She’s voted with him 95 percent of the time.)

While Trump is in Arizona to play politics and ignore reality, it is important to focus on the facts: 

Arizona is suffering because of Martha McSally’s and Trump’s failure to lead. 

  • The Bush Fire alone has burned more than 185,000 acres of land and has already forced Arizonans to evacuate.
  • In 2019, McSally voted against a $19 billion disaster aid bill, which included money for wildfire relief for the Western U.S. McSally said she opposed the bi-partisan funding package because it didn’t contain enough cash to support Trump’s deportation machine.
  • Since Trump assumed office, Arizona has experienced two climate-related disasters responsible for more than $22 billion in damages.
  • In 2018, heat stress illness was responsible for nearly 3,000 emergency room visits in Arizona, and currently, more than 200,000 Arizonans are especially vulnerable to extreme heat made worse by Trump’s anti-science policies.
  • In 2019, five Arizona counties received an “F” grade for the number of days of unhealthy ozone levels, and two counties also received Fs for particle pollution. Phoenix’s air is among the worst polluted in the nation, and you can directly link Trump’s rollback of clean car standards for the city’s smog.
  • Like Trump, Senator McSally is a climate denialist. Throughout her entire tenure, she’s done the bare minimum of acknowledging that the climate is changing but refuses to do anything to stop it. Instead, she and Trump would rather do the bidding of her fossil fuel industry donors. 

Military service members at Arizona bases are at risk from extreme heat impacting their duties. 

  • The Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma is projected to experience 117 days with temperatures higher than 100 degrees. 
  • Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix is projected to experience 112 days with temperatures higher than 100 degrees. 

Trump’s Climate Denial Hurts Arizona’s Economy. 

  • Climate change will cost Arizona $17.3 billion annually by the year 2100.  
  • Trump’s clean cars rollback cost Arizonans more than $404 million per year.  
  • Climate change is projected to cause a 37 percent loss in crop yields in Arizona. The state’s agriculture sector generated $23.3 billion in revenue and employed 138,000 people in 2019.