Fox’s Chris Wallace did an excellent job pushing back on Mercedes Schlapp’s attempt to pretend that Donald Trump’s Tulsa rally was not a bust. But we all know that the Fox News Trumpers will make up for it
As you probably know by now, Trump’s big rally last night was a big dud, turnout wise. Not only was there no overflow crowd, as was expected, there were whole sections of empty seats. There were only 6,200 people in the 19,000-seat arena, while Trump’s previous campaign rallies have typically attracted more than 10,000, The Washington Post reported.
Schlapp, an adviser to the Trump campaign, tried to blame the embarrassing turnout on fear of protesters, as if there were no fear of coronavirus. Then she dismissed the matter as no biggie because “over 5.3 million” watched the rally online.
Wallace wasn’t having it.
WALLACE: The fact is, the president talks about the attendance at his events, as we all know. That he made a big issue of the attendance at his inauguration. He talks about how he can fill an arena and that Joe Biden can’t. He didn’t fill an arena last night. … You guys were so far off that you had planned an outdoor rally and there wasn’t an overflow crowd.
Wallace said he spoke to Fox’s own reporter at the rally. “Protesters did not stop people from coming to that rally. The fact is, people didn’t show up.”
Schlapp insisted otherwise but she quickly changed the subject to Joe Biden holding an event “with empty folding chairs” and arguing that he would have had a much smaller crowd. Of course, Biden would not hold an indoor rally in the middle of the pandemic.
Wallace didn’t mention that but as Schlapp went back to the 5.3 million, B-roll footage showed large banks of empty seats at the Trump rally. Wallace interrupted. "Mercedes, please don’t filibuster," he said. "We’re showing pictures here and it shows big, empty areas. Frankly, it makes you guys look silly when you deny the reality of what happened."
"We’re not denying the reality of what - I don’t know what you are saying that," Schlapp replied.
"There are empty seats there, at least a third, if not half of the rally was empty. The arena was empty. I mean, you can’t deny it," Wallace said.
Watch it below, from the June 21, 2020 Fox News Sunday.
