Trump Campaign: Fire Marshal’s Count for Tulsa Rally Attendance Was Incorrect

President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., on June 20, 2020. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

President Donald Trump’s campaign spokesman said more people attended the Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, than what the fire department said.

The Tulsa Fire Department said that about 6,200 people showed up for the rally on Saturday, which was fewer than anticipated.

“First we know how many people went through the magnetometers that are set up by the Secret Service and it was 12,000 so the fire marshal is wrong,” campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told Fox News on Monday. The fact that “12,000 people still showed up, I think shows a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for the president,” he continued.

Murtaugh then said that the Trump campaign “went through more than a week’s worth of constant negative media coverage from cable news networks, mostly offensive, would be like say CNN and MSNBC, telling people that the most dangerous place in the world that they could be would be at a Trump rally, first because of the coronavirus and second because of the threat of dangerous protesters outside.”

“A lot of kids come to Trump rallies,” he added. “I’ve been to several dozen Trump rallies and there are always children in attendance.”

Murtaugh explained that in Tulsa, there were virtually no children in attendance. “We believe ... they were frightened away by more than a week’s worth of 24-hour a day negative coverage telling people that the Trump rally was a dangerous place to be,” he said.

The campaign spokesman then said that regardless of the number of people who attended, there is “a gigantic enthusiasm gap” between Trump’s and rival Joe Biden’s voter base.

“Let me tell you, we had 12,000 people in the BOK Center and that’s approximately 11,990 more people than attended Joe Biden’s last event,” Murtaugh said.

Saturday’s rally was the first one held by Trump in more than three months amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

Campaign manager Brad Parscale disputed claims that teenage activists and fans of Korean pop (K-Pop) sabotaged the event by reserving seats online for the rally.

“Leftists and online trolls doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don’t know what they’re talking about or how our rallies work,” he said. “Reporters who wrote gleefully about TikTok and K-Pop [Korean pop music] fans—without contacting the campaign for comment—behaved unprofessionally and were willing dupes to the charade.” TikTok is a social media company run by a Chinese firm that is believed to have ties with the Chinese Communist Party.