Media Downplayed 912 D.C. Crowd Size - Tea Party Patriots coordinator interview

NewsMax ^ | 9/14/2009 | David A. Patten

[GVnana]

Everett Wilkinson, a national leader for the Tea Party Patriots group, says the crowd size caught the park police by surprise – so much so they ordered the event to begin several hours earlier than planned to maintain crowd control.

"I showed up a little before 8:30 a.m. at Freedom Plaza, where we were staging for the event," Wilkinson tells Newsmax. "I was there about a half hour early and it was hard to get to the stage at that time. Around 9:20 or so, I was on stage and the park police came up and said, 'If it keeps growing at this rate we're going to have to ask you guys to start early.'

"About 20 minutes or so later they came up, a little before 10, and said, 'You need to start the march NOW!' It was about an hour and half or so before we had expected to begin. We had overwhelmed the area. From what I understand, we had a couple hundred thousand minimum at that time."

-snip-

"Looking out from the stage," Wilkinson says, "people appeared to be lined up all the way to the Washington Monument. I could tell the crowd kept growing until at least two or three o'clock…. It was shoulder-to-shoulder people, and there was nowhere to move…"

-snip-

"When you have the park police and the D.C. police literally telling us to march two hours before hand, from an area that holds a couple hundred thousand people, saying, 'There's no room, you need to march NOW' … we had tens of thousands probably by 9:30. It was millions by 1 o'clock.

[GVnana]

As for media reports that the number was far less, Wilkinson says: "I think it's intentional misrepresentation. The most novice and naked eye could see the video in the shots taken that there were hundreds of thousands, millions of people there.

"We literally shut down the highways, the red line rail station had to change things around," he adds. "Looking at the videos posted on YouTube, you can tell it was millions. We completed surrounded the Capitol."

[Guenevere]

but..but..Bill O’Reilly says only 75,000 :^

[NoGrayZone]

"We completed surrounded the Capitol."

Unarmed....this time =)

[central_va]

Not enough browns and blacks. So it doesn’t count. White people only events suck.

[NoGrayZone]

OMG, I just went on a rant on FB regarding that blowhard. I will NEVER give him another chance again!

[ohiogrammy]

Altho he did give Bill Mahr hell tonight for calling us CRACKERS!

[NaughtiusMaximus]

The three local lib dominated newspapers didn’t even bother to run a picture. They deliberately made the march into a nonevent.

Thank God for the internet!

[just_living]

2.5M that’s the God’s honest TRUTH

[GVnana]

Complete cowards. They don't want to stick their necks out.

I don't want to see foolish claims either, but it's easy to see the crowd was 100,000+ if any previous crowd estimates at the capital have any validity at all.

[Congressman Billybob]

I was there. The 70,000 figure comes from a source half a year ago. Click below for more.

Congressman Billybob

Latest article, "A Million People Prove that NPR Doesn't Count"

"Ben Franklin was in D.C."

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Altho he did give Bill Mahr hell tonight for calling us CRACKERS!

I hate it when Caspars try to play the Race Card. They want you to think they spent their summers in the 'hood instead of the Hamptons.

[potlatch]

[but..but..Bill O’Reilly says only 75,000 :^]

I saw that - and was really hoping Britt Hume would correct him!!

[SamiGirl]

My local liberal rag did the same thing. I don’t subscribe to it — won’t give them a dime, but checked their web page.

The fact that the SRM is not covering this huge event does not bother me. Just think, up to 2M people got organized and went to DC on their own dime. How did we do it? We did it without the help of the SRM. This has to scare the shiite out of them. They know they are no longer relevant.

The days of that puke Walter Cronkite (forgive me God for speaking ill of the dead), or however his name is spelled — are over. They can no longer manipulate public opinion. It’s over for them.

[mylife]

Excellent

[MamaDearest]

That's to be expected from BOR, whose large audience has gone to his head. We don't need the MSM if we have BOR covering our backs. (sarcasm).

[vaudine]

O'Reilly was SUCH a wuss tonight! 70,000? Not even 100,000? There were hundreds of thousands--UK media estimated 1.2 to 1.6 mil.O'Reilycould compare the million man march pics to this march or even the inauguration.

Then all the d@#n agonizing about racism--so many white people!

Well, the white working class are the main ones being shafted--at least that have sense enough to realize it. Blacks, Hispanics, all are BEING shafted, but they drank the Koolaid and just do not know it. They were not there because they do not know!--yet! They will, if the One and Pelosi get their way on the public option.

O'Reilly even asked Karl Rove if Glen Beck could possibly be right about Obama getting a shadow govt. set up. Rove gave a qualified yes. If Bill could get his head into the library or even his computer room, he could get the facts.

vaudine

[NCC-1701]

The next TEA Party event should take Rush Limbaugh’s suggestion. Do it right in front of the local newspaper’s office. Have SO many people there they couldn’t deny its existence. Just flood the area with a sea of humanity.

[GloriaJane]

There were blacks there.

I copied pics from freepers and made a video and there are blacks in my video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfgS2uLo6SA

[meyer]

but..but..Bill O’Reilly says only 75,000 :^

Mr. "fair and balanced" needs to get off the fence. He's either a patriot or a worthless, statist liberal moron. Never mind, I have my doubts about his patriotism.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

No matter the nonreporting of the MSM, the politicians will pay attention and the makeup of the crowd, salt-of-the-earth Joe Lunchbucket types, will scare the hell out of them (and it ought to).