President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign manager Brad Parscale criticized “leftists” for celebrating the lower-than-expected turnout numbers for the rally in Tulsa on Saturday night and slammed the media for their coverage of the event and its aftermath, Mediaite reported on Sunday.
"Leftists and online trolls doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don't know what they're talking about or how our rallies work," Parscale said in a statement, adding that reporters had "behaved unprofessionally and were willing dupes to the charade."
Parscale emphasized that "for the media to now celebrate the fear that they helped create is disgusting, but typical. And it makes us wonder why we bother credentialing media for events when they don’t do their full jobs as professionals.”
Leading up to the rally, the Trump campaign boasted that one million people had registered and had even set up an “overflow” event that was supposed to take place outside the rally but was cancelled as only 6,200 people showed up for the rally in the 20,000-seat arena, according to Business Insider.
Numerous news outlets reported that a social media campaign led by TikTok users was responsible for the low turnout by encouraging people to register for the rally without showing up.
Parscale dismissed that claim, saying that "Registering for a rally means you've RSVPed with a cell phone number and we constantly weed out bogus numbers, as we did with tens of thousands at the Tulsa rally."
Instead, Parscale blamed journalists, saying "a week's worth of the fake news media warning people away from the rally because of COVID and protesters, coupled with recent images of American cities on fire, had a real impact on people bringing their families and children to the rally."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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