White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted on Monday that President Trump was “quite energized” in spite of an attendance flop at his supposedly highly anticipated reelection rally Saturday in Tulsa.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday said that President Trump "was quite energized" after his rally in Tulsa, calling it "a huge success" in spite of very low attendance and a sea of empty seats at the BOK Center on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/KfLSZW5Sti
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 22, 2020
“The president was not angry at all,” McEnany said when asked if President Trump was upset when he saw how few people showed up at the rally. “The president was quite energized. I was with him after the rally — it was a huge success.”
While McEnany did not comment directly on the attendance reports from the Tulsa Fire Department, which said that fewer than 6,500 people came out to the rally, she said Trump’s speech got “rave reviews” and he was “in good spirits.”
The rally ultimately did not deliver on earlier claims by the Trump campaign that the president’s supporters were eagerly jumping at the chance to attend the first of his rallies as he begins in-person campaigning amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale at one point bragged that upwards of one million tickets had been requested. There was talk that the BOK Center, which only holds about 20,000 seats, would open into an overflow area outdoors so as not to disappoint anyone who couldn’t make it inside. But Saturday’s event reflected quite a different reality as Trump began his speech to a much more modest audience that filled less than half of the arena.
