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Supporters of President Trump’s cheer as they attend a campaign rally at the BOK Center Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Evan Vucci/AP hide caption

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Evan Vucci/AP

Updated at 9:41 p.m. ET

President Trump and his campaign promised an overflow crowd in Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday, both inside and outside the 19,000-capacity arena.

It was going to be so big, both he and Vice President Pence were slated to give speeches both inside and out.

Inside the arena, thousands gathered for Trump’s first rally since the coronavirus outbreak. They filled the lower portion of the arena and scattered in the upper section, but it wasn’t full.

And events outside didn’t happen at all. Not long before the event, the campaign announced that the events outside would not be happening.

The campaign blamed it on protesters.

“President Trump is rallying in Tulsa with thousands of energetic supporters, a stark contrast to the sleepy campaign being run by Joe Biden from his basement in Delaware,” campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said in a statement. “Sadly, protestors interfered with supporters, even blocking access to the metal detectors, which prevented people from entering the rally. Radical protestors, coupled with a relentless onslaught from the media, attempted to frighten off the President’s supporters. We are proud of the thousands who stuck it out.”

There were certainly protesters, but those on scene reported largely peaceful protests.

During the event, Trump’s political message was muddled. He poked fun at Democrat Joe Biden for being beholden to the left (and for his mental fitness); he got derailed defending how he looked on camera going down a ramp and drinking water at the West Point commencement; but his reelection message was as dark as his 2016 convention speech and continually comes back to one thing — inciting the culture war.

“The silent majority is stronger than ever before,” Trump said.

Referring to the coronavirus, he labeled it the “Chinese virus” to approving laughs from the crowd and even called it “kung flu.”

Trump defended Confederate statues, saying the left is trying to “desecrate our monuments.”

He created a fictional story about life under the left when a “tough hombre” tries to break into a house and a woman in it, whose husband was away for work, tried to call 911, but the number was no longer working.

Trump pushed Congress to pass a law punishing people with a year in jail for burning the American flag, though the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right to burn the flag under the First Amendment decades ago. He took aim at the NFL, which apologized recently for how it treated black athletes who kneeled during the national anthem to protest police brutality. Trump implored, “never kneel — we will stand proud and stand tall.”

He falsely claimed Biden and the left want to “prosecute Americans for going to church, but not burning a church.”

Trump said Democrats want to abolish bail and ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. They want to dismantle police, he said, while freeing vicious MS-13 gang members and that they want “Rioters” and “looters” to “have more rights than law-abiding citizens.”

And that wasn’t all — he hit on abortion, said Democrats want to take away guns by repealing the Second Amendment and more.

The strategy is to try and tie Biden, someone viewed as a more moderate Democrat, to extreme positions, most of which Biden has disavowed. Trump and his campaign know that he is at a low point, and, right now, down in the polls — so he needs to muddy Biden up, something Trump alluded to.

“I was riding high,” Trump said of his political standing, “until this– thing [the coronavirus] came in.”

Source: https://www.npr.org/2020/06/20/881313605/trump-crowd-size-underwhelms-campaign-blames-protesters?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news