Well, it would if you weren’t there and accepted the assessment of Chris Wallace (who also wasn’t there) and other legacy media types. (Or it would if you believed that mourners for George Floyd were “mostly peaceful” for that matter.)
So here’s the backstory.
The Bank of Oklahoma Center (BOK) seats 19,200 people. FOX news and other outlets say that it was half-empty. As you can see from this picture which I took (because I was there), you can clearly see that it is a lie.
Every section of the arena except for the top-tier (“nosebleed”) section was completely full. The top-tier was about 1/8th full at the most by my estimation. That means that according to my best guess, that there were a little over 10,000 people in attendance. In other words, a typical pre-COVID Trump rally.
Still don’t believe me? Then consult the stats put out by the BOK center, which said that by 7:00 o’clock, they had logged 12,000 people going through the turn-styles. For a hugely expensive venue like the BOK, the people that run it have to have audience size down to a science in order to promote it to other concerts and events. The City Fathers are also keenly interested in how well the BOK does because the downtown business district relies on it for restaurant and hotel sales. They also have to justify to the many skeptical taxpayers what a good investment it was to build in the first place.
This can’t be stressed enough: venues like the BOK are always on the lookout for more concerts. That’s how they stay in business. That means that they can’t fudge on the numbers –at all. Otherwise the really big-ticket events will take a pass and go to Oklahoma City, Dallas or Kansas City instead. And the City Fathers who lobbied hard for the BOK will look chumps.
So yeah, I’d rather believe my own eyes and the BOK numbers rather than what I hear on the legacy media.
So why didn’t a million people show up? Several reasons:
1. Staggering numbers. I dithered for several hours on whether to go as I had no expectation of getting in. I never received electronic confirmation in the form of tickets (as I did in 2016 when I attended the Trump rally at the Mabee Center.) As it was, the weather was brutally hot (82 degrees with 51% humidity) and everybody had to wait in line for several hours. As for myself, I had to park my car in my old neighborhood, which necessitated a 3/4 mile walk each way. Luckily, once I got there there were vendors there giving out free bottled water. Smart move.
2. Trolls. Many of the tickets that people signed up for were from trolls who were encouraged by Tik-Tok, a Communist Chinese social media site. (Well played I must say.) I myself clicked on three different times for tickets because I wanted to make sure that I could get a couple. I’m sure that there were thousands of other Trumpkins who did the same thing.
3. Fear. Many of us felt that thousands of these tickets were being bought by outside agitators and so chose not to attend. Things were tense on both sides. I had heard that pro-Trump motorcycle gangs were going to be there to “provide protection” for us. Truth be told, there was a fracas on the other side of the arena right before I got there but it was handled with dispatch. Here’s the point: Trump supporters and Republicans in general are a law-abiding lot and would rather not get embroiled in street-fights. (Now of course, there is the added fear that if you’re white and even if you engage in self-defense, it’s you who’s going to get prosecuted.)
4. COVID. This goes without saying; many still have a fear of the “pandemic”. I was told by my step-mother that I shouldn’t go but that if I did, I should avoid coming by to visit for 14 days. (My dad has Parkinson’s and I like to pop my head it every now and then to see how he’s doing. I had to think long and hard about that.) Anyway, everybody had to have their temperature taken as they were standing in line. I actually saw a few people get turned away because of this.
5. Idiot Mayor. Our precious RINO mayor, George Theron Bynum IV, the puppet of former Mayor Kathy Taylor and other ultra-liberal Democrat Party elites, did whatever he could to rain on the Trump Train’s parade. First, he let it be known that he wasn’t thrilled about it when it was announced, then 72 hours before the event, he demanded that a curfew be enforced. Mind you, there were already several hundred people camped out a week ahead of time. These people didn’t know what to do. Some literally packed up their tents and went home; mainly because they couldn’t afford a hotel I imagine.
In any event, somebody in the Trump campaign got a hold of Pretty Boy Bynum and and forced him to lift the curfew, which after much kicking and screaming, he did. But then a day later, he declared a “Civil Emergency”. Nobody was sure what that meant, himself included. (Pointedly, he did not attend, even though the rally revived downtown Tulsa’s hospitality industry big-time.)
6. Chicanery. A few days before the event, a local lawyer tried to get an emergency injunction to force the Trump campaign to abide by the CDC social distancing guidelines. That would have meant that only 2,000 or so people could have attended. The judge in whose docket that landed threw out that request. The lawyer then went to the Supreme Court and asked for the same emergency injunction. Again, he struck out.
This is all inside baseball. The fact remains that the Trump campaign has this thing down to a science. Brad Parscale, the genius behind the rallies gathers intricate metrics as to the attendees. By the end of each rally, he knows how many are Republicans, how many are Democrats, independents, and so on. How many have voted and how many haven’t voted at all.
As for the event itself, it runs like clockwork. Outside, while you’re waiting in line, you can see FOX luminaries such as Mercedes Schlapp, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Deneen Borelli, and others sitting on a stage doing the pregame warm-up thing. If you can’t see them physically, then you can see them on the jumbotron.
Once inside, you sit for about an hour before the show starts. In Tulsa, it began with Rev Alveda King, the niece of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr (and a stalwart in the pro-life movement) who gave the invocation. Then local luminaries such as T W Shannon (former Speaker of the House and an African-American) and Sheriff Vic Regolado did their darndest to whip up the crowd. Then the national Trump people stepped up to the plate: Kimberly Guilfoyle, Lara Trump, Eric Trump and finally, Vice-President Mike Pence. Nobody disappointed. These people had their A-game on.
And right at 7:12, President Trump came onto the stage. And it was glorious.
So, if I were on the other side, I would ask them to go ahead and live in their little bubble. Take their cues from Chris Wallace and go on believing that the kick-off rally here in T-Town was a “let-down” and a “disaster”. Or that the arena was more than “half-empty”.
Folks, I’ve long felt that we are misinformed by the legacy media. Their high-point was during the Tet Offensive back in 1968, when Walter Cronkite all but wet his pants on the air and said that the North Vietnamese had utterly defeated all the American forces. His reportage was so influential that many historians date the actual turning point of the War in Vietnam to that date. (The only problem was that none of it was true. Though the American forces were caught by surprise, they were able to regroup, repel and rout the North Vietnamese Army and their Viet Cong allies quite handily.)
As then, so now. Only this time we are the ones who are more sophisticated. Trump calls it “fake news” and we agree with him, not because we’re brainwashed Trumpkins but because we are no longer beholden to the legacy media. We can actually go see things as they happen and practice our own type of gonzo journalism. Why not? The corporate media has long taken for granted our trust all the while frittering it away like leaves on a windy Autumn day.
Yesterday, I saw with my own eyes that the legacy media peddles nothing but fake news. As for me, I’ll listen to the Russian saying: “It is better to see something once, than to read about it seven times” any day of the week rather than listen to some sophisticate pontificate on something he only knows second or third hand.
And here’s one more picture taken an hour later:
Yeah, it wasn’t half-empty. You can take my word for it. After all, I was there.
Thanks, George. I wondered about that. He sure can pack em in. God bless America.
He not only packed them in, he had them in the palm of his hand.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-campaign-fire-marshal-wrong-tulsa-rally-crowd
The magnetometers used by the ss said 12000. Closer to 2/3 full, not counting those watching outside.
Thank you Misha for pointing this out. For what it’s worth, the fire marshal said that there were “6,200 scanned tickets”. I for one, did not have a ticket to scan in the first place. While I was sweltering in line, wondering if I would get in, I talked to the couple in front of me and the fellows behind me. They didn’t have any tickets either. They said that “we were told that we didn’t need any”.
So that’s another variable I didn’t consider. I’d venture a guess that there were at least another 6,000 people who did not have tickets to scan.
George awesome pics!??
Thanks for going to rally – you did us great service; loved seeing President Trump getting on Air Force One, it’s been a long time, can’t wait for more rallies with Trump !
Here’s another take of the Tulsa Rally with even more photos of the massive crowd that was outside:
https://youtu.be/BPIOBqUZrrg
Again,, I did not know the scope of the Antifa fracas but according to this podcaster, they were actually successful in blocking the entrance for a little bit until they were removed.
It’s too bad the Antifa thugs weren’t removed in body bags. Ultimately, that’s what it’s gonna take.
Unfortunately, that is what is going to happen. The question is whether the Establishment allows President Trump to take control or whether their preferred puppet will.
To quote William Butler Yeats, “the center cannot hold”. Somebody is going to have to come in and crack the skulls. It will be a juicy irony however if it is a President Kamala Harris.
One more thing: when the American Oligarchy wants to crack skulls, or go to war, they invariably use Democrats to do it. Mainly because of the FDR-inspired mythos that the Dems are more “caring”
George: I just tried to view the video and the message I got was, “video not available”. Could someone have taken it down?
Thanks. The last president I seen in person was George H Bush.
George,
Tulsa FD is saying that only 6,200 people attended – not including security, media, and suite holders.
Yeah, well, they’re wrong (as you can clearly see by the pictures, as well as the video from Red Eagle which I just uploaded.
This is nothing less than a massive gaslighting operation.
This is not the first time that local police and/or fire departments pushed a political agenda. A few years ago, both Trump and Beto O’Rourke held rallies on the same day in El Paso, Texas. The local Fire Dept came up with some laughable numbers –on both sides–which only the die-hard never-Trumpers believed.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that to rise in the administrative ranks of the police/fire departments, you must be a political animal. Same thing in the Pentagon, it’s all SJWs there now for the most part. What this means is that if the upper reaches of the political establishment is liberal, you will be one as well and toe their line, even if the rank-and-file know that it’s bullshit.
Look, I’m not a prophet and I’m certainly not infallible but come what may in November, I will go to my grave confident in the fact that there were at least 10,000 people there. A number that comports with what the BOK said.
One thing I left out was why I believe that the timing of this rally was providential. It was originally scheduled for Friday, June 19th (“Juneteenth”) but because of some caterwauling by professional grievance mongers, it was changed to one day later.
Here’s the providential part: Juneteenth saw a “rally” of about 1,000 SJWs/BLMs in Tulsa, headed by the ever-delightful preacher and shakedown artist, the Rev Al Sharpton. When it wasn’t raining on that day it was mostly dreary. Saturday was bright and sunny without a cloud in the sky.
And there were many African-Americans in the rally. When I was walking to the line, I saw one such fellow wearing a tee-shirt that said “All Lives Matter”. I gave him the thumbs-up.
Wait a minute. The BOK holds 19,200. You say there were around 10,000 present.
That’s 52% capacity.
So when FOX and other news outlets said it was “half empty”, that was a pretty close estimate, supported by your own figures. It was hardly “a lie”.
actually, that was my guesstimate. The BOK said that there were 12,000. And that didn’t count all those who watched it outside on the jumbotron or who couldn’t get in because of the Antifa fracas that transpired earlier (which I didn’t see). The point is that all the news outlets are saying that it was “mostly empty” and used adjectives like “disastrous”, “debacle”, and “fiasco”. That was a lie.
Just like the rioters/mourners during the Floyd Festivities were “mostly peaceful”.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/peopleandplaces/rainbow-flag-waves-from-ukraine-s-highest-statue-to-mark-kyiv-pride/vi-BB15PvbH?ocid=anaheim-ntp-feeds Interesting story, the left is really pushing in Eastern Europe. One would think a gay pride flag would be high in several US cities but not the Ukraine. All the left pushed is tied to gay rights, and I’m a person not opposed to gays having jobs or renting or owning houses, but the left has use this for Black Lives Matter protest in the US.
The Phanariotes and their puppet Dumenko must be smiling.
All you Ukrainian patriots: I hope you’re happy. They haven’t done this in Russia, have they? But in Kiev, the Mother of Kievan Rus’, on the tallest statue in that nation, they debase their nation flying the flag of sodomy.
Even a secularized, pornified Greece, which is in the clutches of the EU, hasn’t stooped to this level.
George, thanks for presenting the real news about the event!
QQ (quick question): Other than Trump himself (obese, over 65) did you see anyone else there who might qualify for an “at risk” label from his or her physician?
Trump’s pro-life, pro-freedom of religion, pro-Constitution policies are so important to our nation imho. I simply pray he doesn’t lose any supporter votes to COVID from illness/death of “At risk” attendees.
Bet the Democrats’ demands for contact tracing for the event will be fierce (unlike De Blasio’s mandate for protesters).
And of course I pray we don’t lose our candidate himself due to an “I’m invincible/I’ll live forever” bravado more characteristic of teens, but consistent with the teen talk he employs about women at times (unlike the actual demeaning destructive exploitation toward women by other men). He’s a candid guy who says what he thinks and feels, unprocessed, like a teen. Melania seems to “get” him and she’s so self-respecting, that’s a good rec. Good actions of a good president for all of us, so he has my vote. If he had a good Orthodox spiritual father, he might even start processing his words a bit more before he tweets, writes, speaks and then he truly would be unbeatable!
Nicole, it was a largely middle-aged and above crowd. Although immediately in front of me to the right were several millennials wearing “Molon Labe” shirts. I didn’t see any morbidly obese people. Does that help?
However, I still see Yahoo news and other legacy media outlets talking about how it was not well-attended. At this point, I have to believe that half of what is reported on FOX and 95% of what is reported on the other channels is misinformation.
I’m gonna ride that pony to my grave.
Dallas morning news on Tik Tok effect on Tulsa: shouldn’t this be illegal?
http://link.dallasnews.com/lt.php?s=ade6d83c0926a4d64f9bafa18d7fff8c&i=9898A10410A15A354915
All the Trump campaign needs to do to fight these false ticket requests is to make registrants give a donation to some conservative cause in order to get a ticket. I’m sure the lawyers can find a way within current campaign finance laws to do this. Imagine a leftist being asked to choose from a list of charities to donate $5 to, such as a charity which is against abortion in order to register for a ticket. Or maybe not even a conservative cause. Let them choose to send $5 to a fund for the historic black universities – let’s sort out who is serious about their cause – or just a troublemaker. I would love to see a side effect of each of these rallies being $100,000 raised for charity.
An excellent idea!
Amen!
Conveniently, you took and show photos of only the bottom part of the arena!!!
Actually, I took photos of the bottom two tiers, which were completely filled. The upper (nosebleed) sections were only 1/8th filled (which I wrote about).
Since then, I found out that thousands were turned away. Many were scared of the antifa people that were blocking the entrance. Others were turned away by the BOK center who told them that they would have to practice social distancing. I’ve already talked about how Mayor Goggles and some attorneys did everything they could to derail the entire event by prohibiting it.
One thing I forgot to mention that over 5,000,000 people saw it on FOX. It was their highest-ever rated program.
Gail & Geo —
Yikes! Just as I wondered other day, of possibility of Booker T. Washington statue taken down, his friend President Teddy Roosevelt’s statue in NY is taken out today!
At least in England ??????? they’re surrounding statue of Mahatma Ghandi from riots trying to destroy it
And U S Grant the other day. He won the American Civil War for the Union. The one that freed the slaves. When he was president, he abolished the KKK.
I suppose we are witnessing nihilism. I suppose in hell all the demons devour each other.
Yes. And possibly MLK too!
The other day, I read where back in 1957 King was hired by Ebony magazine to be an advice columnist. They found a letter from a young black man who was struggling with same-sex attraction. King responded in a pastoral, sensitive tone but the upshot was that he should go see a reputable psychiatrist so that he could “resolve” those “issues” which led him to attraction.
Uh oh.
HA-HA?
go figure –
even MLK was attacked by other blacks …
Ghandi attack has to be crazy since the left wing filmmakers about 30 years ago made a film on him because he brought India from England. Crazy people.
MONAHOS YOU DO NOT FIGHT ALONE. THERE ARE MANY OUT THERE WHO AGREE WITH WHAT YOU WRITE. BRAVO PEDE MOU.
Eucharisto Pallikari!
That’s right Nick Karakas — I wonder if it’s THE Nick Karakas who writes in TNH?
Yes George you’re not fighting alone, we stand behind ya ?? Great essay.
George,
Thank you for this story. The media and other anti-Trump folks are betting on Trump supporters giving up and not voting. It has been my belief that this is going to be another victory brought on by those who do not want to acknowledge they’re voting for Trump for various reasons. My thoughts were confirmed when my son, who works in the unionized construction field, told me the other day that his co-workers are all pro-Trump. And we know that unions support the Democratic Party. Let us pray for our country because the divide is getting greater.
David, what is going on is classic Sun-Tzu: misdirection in order to depress the moral of the enemy. The enemy being us.
Check out this article posted by a photographer who was identified as a lonely Trump supporter.
“How the National Media Turned Me Into a Trump Supporter”https://petapixel.com/2020/06/23/how-the-national-media-turned-me-into-a-trump-supporter/
Here’s another take on the Tulsa Rally by someone who was there: Allan Wall
https://vdare.com/articles/memo-from-middle-america-actually-trump-s-tulsa-speech-was-a-success-i-know-i-was-there?scroll_to_paragraph=17
I wonder if Trump took Tulsa as a defeat, because he certainly has returned to his 2016 campaign roots since then, banning H1Bs and getting tough on the mobs.
But he’s going to have to keep backing words with actions if he wants to win back some of those he has lost. Firing Kushner would be a good move, although it would probably be more for show.
Quite possibly. Anyway, getting rid of Jared would be a huge step in the right direction.
I finally get it!:
If Biden comes out of his basement and sees his shadow we get four more years of Trump!
Let’s send this to Lou Dobbs !
More evidence of purposeful sabotage on behalf of the BOK management:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/report-tulsa-arena-management-sabotaged-trump-rally-attendance/