Dave Matthews: Trump rallies show ‘disregard’ for ‘his greatest followers’

Dave Matthews is calling out President Trump for campaign rallies featuring largely mask-free crowds amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying they show a “disregard” for the commander in chief’s own supporters.

“It’s very disappointing,” Matthews said in a Thursday interview on CNN’s “The Lead,” telling Jake Tapper, “The sort of disregard for science, and the disregard for the health of people, and disregard for even his own … his greatest followers that are willing to go to an environment. But it does tell everybody don’t really worry about this, believe what you will about it.”

Tapper noted how, as a performer, Matthews won’t hold massive in-person concerts because he doesn’t want his fans to get infected with the deadly virus.

“It’s a disregard for what’s happening,” Matthews, 53, responded. “It’s just a playing by your own rules, taken to a really absurd and kind of insulting, obviously selfish, degree.”

CNN’s @jaketapper asks Dave Matthews to sound off on Trump holding rallies “where there is no masks, no distancing” pic.twitter.com/wF7nztDXVM

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 29, 2020

Trump’s campaign has defended his largely outdoor rallies, where thousands of supporters have been seen packed in close together and with only some attendees sporting masks. 

“We know the disease. We social distance, we do all of the things you have to do. … You know the bottom line, though? You’re gonna get better,” Trump, who announced earlier this month that he tested positive for COVID-19, told supporters in Florida on Thursday.

“It just makes me think he doesn’t really have much interest in the truth or helping out with the struggle people have,” Matthews said of Trump. “And being blatant about it, ‘I’m more important than anyone else.’ “

The “Ants Marching” singer was one of several entertainers who participated in a virtual fundraising concert for Biden last Sunday. But, he said during his interview with Tapper, the Democratic presidential nominee “doesn’t represent all my beliefs by a long stretch.”

“But the direction that [Biden’s] leadership would take the country would be at least toward trying to again turn the country into a place that listens to the science, and listens to the medical industry, and listens to the people that know, that have an idea of what is happening,” Matthews said.

“I think it’s unfortunate that we’re in a place right now where it’s believe what you will,” he added, “which is kind of scary.”