Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Monday claimed that up to a million “very real” people signed up for President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa — even though only 6,200 were said to have attended the event.
“If the president were to call you today and say, ‘What happened in Tulsa?’ What would you say?” Fox News host Ed Henry asked McDaniel.
“I think the enthusiasm we saw online with the million sign-ups is very real,” McDaniel insisted. “And we weed out the bots and we weed out the fake TikTok things. None of that was factored in.”
Co-host Sandra Smith pressed McDaniel: “Just looking at the numbers, I guess the tickets scanned amounted to 6,200, Ronna. The campaign had touted that there were a million ticket requests going into this. We knew the arena’s capacity was 19,000.”
“So what are you saying was the real reason why the turnout was much less than anticipated?” Smith wondered.
“I’m going to dispute the ticket scans because I talked to the campaign this morning and they said it was double that at least,” McDaniel replied. “I do think there was a little chaos in Tulsa as they dispersed the crowds early. The people — the front-row Joes — who were camping out were forced to leave early.”
The chairwoman went on to blame Father’s Day weekend and “people who were scared about violence and coronavirus” for the low turnout.
“But people showed up,” she added. “And having 11 million people watch online shows that that enthusiasm exists.”
