Trump Asking West Point Cadets To Return For Graduation [POLL]

WEST POINT, NY — A thousand graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point will be coming back to the campus for a graduation ceremony orchestrated by President Donald Trump. The president made the announcement that he would be making his first visit as a commencement speaker a couple of days after Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado April 18.

The graduation ceremony at West Point will be held Saturday, June 13.

On Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that schools in the state would remain closed through the end of the 2019-20 academic year.

West Point is in Orange County and, as of Saturday morning, there were 9,083 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the county with 329 deaths.

West Point is in the Town of Highlands which has 110 confirmed cases of the virus, which is 8.95 cases per 1,000.

In the past, when speaking at West Point, presidents have flown into Stewart Air National Guard Base, which straddles the towns of New Windsor and Newburgh. New Windsor has 739 confirmed cases to date of the virus, or 26.71 per 1,000 people. Newburgh has 587 cases, or 8.95 per 1,000.

Cadets will have a choice if they are flying back to the area, but will be flying into virus hotspots. They can land at John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, New York Stewart International Airport or Westchester County Airport.

According to the military academy's website, the commencement will look different from recent graduation ceremonies because of "current social health force protection measures." At the U.S. Air Force Academy commencement, graduates were 8 feet apart.

The U.S. Military Academy said decisions regarding family attendance and the scope of the ceremony will be announced at a later date and will be based on the safety of the cadets and the community.

Upon returning to the area, graduates will be tested for the new coronavirus off-campus. Those testing negative, the New York Times said, will be sent to the school and monitored for 14 days before the graduation ceremony.

School officials indicated there was as yet no decision whether the graduates would be sharing bedrooms, but they will be wearing masks and will be segregated while eating in the mess hall.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois and an Iraq War combat veteran, told Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC that forcing the cadets to come back is a failure in his role as commander in chief.

She said the president is needlessly exposing the graduates to the contagion which could impact their military readiness if they get sick.

Now it's your turn to weigh in on the issue. Vote in our unscientific poll and tell us what you think in the comments.