This is what I’ve been searching for as a possible explanation as to why the venue still wasn’t filled to capacity even after the kiddie prank.
I’ve seen similar pictures as the one you posted, but the reply to such is that the only disruption around the gates was 2-3 hours prior to the start of the event, and only at one gate.
I haven’t been able to find any pictures showing such interference as yours imply, near the time of the start of the event. In fact, the pictures I do find that are clearly right before, are like the ones posted by this user on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/JRehling/status/1274474000328953856?s=20
Note the time stamp in the CNN feed of the picture on the left. It’s only an hour before and clearly there aren’t enough people at the overflow area, to have an “overflow”. Indeed, from all the reports I’ve found, there simply weren’t that many people at this event.
I would love to be shown wrong, with pics of riots/disruption posted near the time of the president’s speech. But I haven’t found any.
I think the reality of the situation is that attendance was depressed for two reasons: 1. The COVID fears and 2. The fact that the campaign was proudly touting “1 million ticket requests” days before the event. So people who might have gone at the last minute felt as if there was no reason to fight the traffic (and potential violence) since already 1 million “other people” wanted to go.
Unless shown otherwise, with pics with clear timestamps (and please, no conspiracy theories about CNN’s screenshot being manipulated), I think it’s going to be healthy moving forward to admit that the campaign was rickrolled by a bunch of scrip kiddies and try to prevent that from happening again. I have no idea how best to do that, other than perhaps not touting huge numbers again before rallies. And always encouraging people to go. Don’t even talk about how many “requests” there’ve been. It was counting one’s chickens before they were hatched to do so. Tout the numbers *after* not before.
I think that’s the best lesson to learn here. And if any positive “spin” can be put on this, it’s to point out the obvious, that leftists are obviously willing to cheat to obtain their goals, so there is no way online/electronic voting should ever be permitted.
IMO, Seniors and families would think twice about attending knowing racist Alan Sharpton and BLM were rallying down the street.
Anti-Trump protesters ‘interfere’ with rally, campaign claims, as outdoor speeches canceled
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/20/anti-trump-protesters-interfere-presidents-rally-f/