In what has become a clear shift in strategy, Donald Trump continues to hold rallies in heavily Democrat areas. The latest happened Saturday night in Philadelphia, PA, where the former president appeared before a large crowd at Temple University.
On Sunday, the Biden campaign immediately set about trying to flex on Trump, claiming the current president drew a larger crowd at the same venue. Here’s what that looked like.
President Biden vs. Donald Trump speaking at the same venue in Philly 👀 pic.twitter.com/m33CZ7E0c6
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) June 23, 2024
We’ll get to how the above comparison is a misleading mess complete with receipts, but first, let’s just consider the location. What if Biden did draw a bigger crowd in North Philadelphia? Wouldn’t that be expected given its an area that voted about 80% for the current president in 2020? If Trump held a rally in East Texas or rural Georgia, would it be some major revelation that his crowd would be bigger than a Biden rally in the same places?
Of course, not, which makes the comparison incredibly stupid, irrelevant, and pathetic. How desperate is the Biden campaign for good news? So desperate they think a crowd comparison on their home turf is some major victory.
There’s more to the story, though. Remember how Karine Jean-Pierre accused the right of peddling “cheap fakes” by sharing unaltered, raw video footage of Biden being senile in public? Well, the above post by the Biden campaign is the definition of a “cheap fake.” Here’s the real story, and stay tuned because there’s even more to come.
All you do is liepic.twitter.com/Y6b9NsV972
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) June 23, 2024
Yes, that’s a giant barrier hung up blocking off half the arena for the “Biden rally.” So yeah, while Trump did have the upper deck cordoned off, video shows that the entire lower deck was open. That means the crowds were likely extremely similar in size.
Here’s the kicker, though. That 2022 rally that the Biden campaign is bragging about on their home turf wasn’t even a Biden rally. It was a rally attended by Barack Obama to promote the candidacy of now-Sen. John Fetterman. Biden did hold a rally in Philadelphia recently for his 2024 campaign, and he couldn’t even fill up half a high-school gymnasium.
Long story short, crowd size comparisons are stupid. As past cycles have shown us, you can’t judge an electorate based on a few or even ten thousand die-hards who show up to cheer on a politician. That means Republicans shouldn’t sit on their hands thinking “big crowds” mean they have this thing in the bag, but it also means Biden looks ridiculous and desperate trying to claim his crowds are bigger. They simply aren’t.
