President Donald Trump’s Saturday rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma broke records with Fox News’ television audience, although physical turnout was smaller than anticipated.
Saturday’s rally had 7.7 million viewers watching Fox News between 8-10 p.m. Eastern time, according to early Nielsen data, making it the most watched Saturday in the history of Fox News during that time slot. The rally also resulted in Fox News seeing its biggest Saturday evening primetime audience in history for the time slot of 8-11 p.m., Fox News reported.
“President Trump’s rally in Tulsa attracted over 4 million unique viewers across all of the campaign’s digital media channels,” Trump’s 2020 communications director Tim Murtaugh said in a statement according to Fox News. “The live-streamed pre-rally shows drew an audience of more than 2.5 million unique viewers by themselves.”
“The news media, which encouraged protestors and bombarded Americans for more than a week with dire warnings against attending a Trump rally, are still unable to prevent President Trump from reaching the people. These numbers represent unmatched enthusiasm behind the President’s re-election and a massive audience that Joe Biden can only dream of.”
Eric Trump attends a campaign rally for his father U.S. President Donald Trump at the BOK Center, June 20, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Trump’s campaign said before Saturday’s rally that there were one million requests for tickets. Records indicate that a little under 6,200 tickets were logged for Saturday’s rally, the Tulsa Fire Department said according to Fox News. This figure did not include Trump’s staff members and the fully booked private suites, Fox News reported.
The New York Times reported that Trump was angry at the small in-person numbers for Saturday’s rally, but White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany pushed back on this narrative. (RELATED: Here’s How Everyone Is Spinning Tulsa Trump Rally’s Lower-Than-Expected Turnout)
“He was in a great mood,” McEnany said Monday on Fox & Friends. “It was a great night and there was a lot to celebrate.”
Some Democrats, such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, alleged that teenagers on the popular TikTok app had intentionally signed up for tickets to impact the numbers. Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale pushed back on this narrative.
“These phony ticket requests never factor into our thinking,” Parscale said in part according to a statement issued Sunday. “What makes this lame attempt at hacking our events even more foolish is the fact that every rally is general admission – entry is on a first-come-first-served basis and prior registration is not required. The fact is that a week’s worth of the fake news media warning people away from the rally because of COVID and protestors, coupled with recent images of American cities on fire, had a real impact on people bringing their families and children to the rally.”