
When Trump’s Tulsa rally had lower attendance than expected, Democrats declared victory. They were wrong to do so. This was a win for Trump, no matter how you look at it.
There were two competing narratives in the lead-up to Trump’s first post-Wuhan virus rally, held on Saturday night in Tulsa. The narrative from the Trump campaign was that over one million people submitted their names for free tickets.
The narrative from the Democrats was that, while the Black Lives Matter protests did not create Wuhan virus risks, Trump was going to kill people with his rally. As the rally neared, a sub-narrative was that Trump attendees were running a risk from outraged Black Lives Matters protesters.
The rally was less well-attended than expected, with mostly filled seats in the lower tiers and many empty seats in the upper tiers. An outdoor event was canceled.
Democrats, with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez taking the lead, claimed that the low attendance resulted from a clever TikTok campaign that saw teenagers order hundreds of thousands of tickets to block actual supporters from attending:
KPop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too 😌— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 21, 2020
NeverTrumper Steve Schmidt, who couldn’t drag John McCain over the finish line in 2008, boasted that his daughter interfered with an American political event:
My 16 year old daughter and her friends in Park City Utah have hundreds of tickets. You have been rolled by America’s teens. @realDonaldTrump you have been failed by your team. You have been deserted by your faithful. No one likes to root for the losing team. @ProjectLincoln https://t.co/VM5elZ57Qp— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 20, 2020
Accepting as true the claim that this TikTok-inspired interference worked (which it didn’t – more on that later), it wasn’t a victory at all.
[Interesting Read]
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