Trump Cancels Second Tulsa Speech Due To Low Turnout, Blames Protesters And The Media

TOPLINE

The Trump campaign announced Saturday evening that they were cancelling a planned second speech at the president’s Tulsa rally due to low turnout, blaming the turnout on protesters and the media.

KEY FACTS

The campaign anticipated a crowd too large for Tulsa’s BOK Center, a stadium with a capacity of 19,200, claiming to have received over a million ticket requests.

“There was so much response, over a million ticket requests, that we decided that the BOK Center was just not big enough,” Trump campaign Communications Director Tim Murtaugh said on Friday. “We had to have more so that’s why we have the neighboring streets all blocked off. There’s going to be two stages. The president is going to speak in both locations.”

But as the crowd filed in Saturday evening, it looked as though there wouldn’t be enough people to fill the stadium, let alone necessitate a second speech.

In a statement, Murtaugh announced the campaign was canceling the speech, insisting that the president’s supporters were energized and blaming the low turnout on protesters and the media.

“President Trump is rallying in Tulsa with thousands of energetic supporters, a stark contrast to the sleepy campaign being run by Joe Biden from his basement in Delaware,” Murtaugh said. “Sadly, protestors interfered with supporters, even blocking access to the metal detectors, which prevented people from entering the rally.”

“Radical protestors, coupled with a relentless onslaught from the media, attempted to frighten off the President’s supporters. We are proud of the thousands who stuck it out,” he added, without naming specific incidents.

Key Background

The rally has been marred by controversy since it was first announced, both for the fact that it was originally planned on Juneteenth, a holiday of great significance to African Americans, and due to the dire public health implications of a large indoor rally during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Public health experts, including some from the Trump administration, had warned against the rally. Several events on Saturday, including six Trump staffers working on the rally testing positive for coronavirus and Tulsa County reporting its highest number of cases ever, seemed to confirm those fears.

Key Quote

“As others are reporting, looks like attendance here in Tulsa is well below campaign’s expectations,” New York Times reporter Astead Herndon noted.

Chief Critic

Los Angeles Times White House Correspondent Chris Megerian pushed back on the campaign’s claim that protesters blocked access to the metal detectors. “Cops on site tell [LA Times Reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske] that the entrance was closed only briefly and no one was turned away,” he tweeted.


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