All alliteration aside (assonance allowed, apparently)
And, speaking of ASSonance………
The reviews are in.
FAIL.
.
“We've never had an empty seat, and we certainly won't in Oklahoma.” — Donald Trump
To be accurate, he was right.
He didn’t have “an” empty seat.
’Tik Tok Teens Troll Trump’
“empty seats” trending on Google
Newsroom
President Donald Trump's campaign canceled a previously scheduled speech to an expected overflow crowd outside of his campaign rally at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, because turnout numbers are lower than expected.
While President Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday was pitched as an over-subscribed event, with Trump campaign staffers touting ticket registrations over a million, the final turnout came to a fraction of the venue’s overall capacity, confirming reports of low turnout that dogged what was meant to be Trump’s triumphant return to the campaign trail.
The campaign ended up cancelling the second speech to the overflow section, with Communications Director Tim Murtaugh blaming the low turnout on the media and protesters, who he claimed blocked access to the entrance despite reports that nobody was turned away from the rally.
PUBLISHED SUN, JUN 21 20206:37 AM EDT UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
KEY POINTS
- President Donald Trump’s first campaign rally in three months drew far fewer attendees than had been anticipated, an embarrassing blunder for a candidate who places an unusually high value on crowd sizes.
- Speaking for almost two hours, Trump fanned the flames of culture war issues currently roiling the nation, including racial justice and law enforcement.
- Trump deployed several new attack lines against Joe Biden, but none of them seemed to animate his supporters like his attacks on Hillary Clinton did in 2016.
Donald Trump made his return to the campaign trail in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday night after the coronavirus sent the country into shutdown but faced an audience of reportedly just 6,200 people after his campaign had bragged they had received 1m registrations for tickets.
On stage at the BOK Center, the president mocked the dangerous respiratory disease that has killed some 121,000 Americans as the “kung flu”, likened it to the “sniffles” and admitted he had ordered his team to “slow the testing” for Covid-19 because the infection statistics were so unfavourable to him in an election year.
Slipping in polls, the president hoped to reset his campaign with first rally since coronavirus outbreak began.
TULSA - President Donald Trump is hoping to outrun the coronavirus pandemic as he bids for reelection in 2020. His return to the campaign trail Saturday night in Tulsa, Okla. demonstrates just how difficult that's going to be.
Trump skipped a planned appearance outside of the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., which Campaign Spokesman Tim Murtaugh blamed on "radical protestors, coupled with a relentless onslaught from the media," who "attempted to frighten off the President’s supporters" with their warnings about the pandemic risk.
Reporters on the scene, however, denied seeing large numbers of people turned away from the overflow stage. Inside the 20,000-person BOK Center, meanwhile, whole sections of the arena remained empty. Health experts had issued increasingly stark warnings in the lead up to the rally, while a June 15 editorial in the Tulsa World argued it was "the wrong time" to hold a campaign gathering.
The disappointing turnout is a blow to Trump and his Republican allies, who hoped the rally would kick start a new phase of the campaign after a politically brutal spring. National and swing-state polling show Trump trailing presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, amid mounting criticism of the president's handling of both the coronavirus and the protests against police brutality sweeping the nation.
Dartunorro Clark and Susan Kroll and Monica Alba
TULSA, Okla. — President Donald Trump drew lower-than-expected turnout at his first rally in months on Saturday in Tulsa amid a tense political backdrop, nationwide anti-racism protests, and warnings from health officials about the coronavirus.
Trump began the rally, his first since early March, by thanking the crowd of supporters indoors for coming, despite efforts from "some very bad people outside," alluding to the campaign's unfounded claim that protesters were responsible for the many empty seats inside Tulsa's 19,000-seat Bank of Oklahoma Center by blocking rally-goers from entering.
"We begin! We begin! We begin our campaign," Trump said to applause. "I stand before you today to declare the Silent Majority is stronger than ever before!"
Hillary Clinton "lock her up" chants???????
What is this, 2016??
Silent Majority????
What is this, 1982? 1974?? 1968????
STALE
President Trump’s attempt to revive his re-election bid sputtered badly as he traveled to Tulsa for his first mass rally in months but found a small crowd and delivered a disjointed speech.
TULSA, Okla. — President Trump’s attempt to revive his re-election campaign sputtered badly on Saturday night as he traveled to Tulsa for his first mass rally in months and found a far smaller crowd than his aides had promised him, then delivered a disjointed speech that did not address the multiple crises facing the nation or scandals battering him in Washington.
The weakness of Mr. Trump’s drawing power and political skills, in a state that voted for him overwhelmingly and in a format that he favors, raised new questions about his electoral prospects for a second term at a time when his poll numbers were already falling. And rather than speak to the wide cross-section of Americans who say they are concerned about police violence and systemic racism, he continued to use racist language, describing the coronavirus as “Kung Flu.”
While the president’s campaign had claimed that more than a million people had sought tickets for the rally, the 19,000-seat BOK Center was at least one-third empty during the rally. A second, outdoor venue was so sparsely attended that he and Vice President Mike Pence both canceled appearances there.
By Patsy Widakuswara
Updated June 21, 2020 12:58 AM
Trump defended his administration’s handling of the pandemic, blaming the high numbers -- over 2.2 million coronavirus cases and 119,000 deaths nationwide -- on extensive coronavirus testing.
“When you do testing to that extent, you’re gonna find more people, you’re gonna find more cases. So, I said to my people, slow the testing down, please,” Trump said, adding that his administration “saved millions of lives.”
A White House official clarified Trump's comment after the rally.
“He was clearly speaking in jest to call out the media’s absurd coverage. We are leading the world in testing, and we are proud to have conducted 25 million-plus tests," the official said in a statement.
Clarifying Trump?
Joking about “slowing down testing?”
Nobody laughed. Because he was obviously serious.
Oh, and he never gets laughs. Because he’s about as funny as an anal cyst.
And “Chinese Virus” wasn’t racist enough, so he settled on “Kung Flu” instead.
Because isn’t 120,000 dead Americans hilarious?
That “pivot”
It ain’t never happening.
And…………….speaking of sports analogies……………..