WaPo: The reasons people say they leave Donald Trump's rallies early

[Dennis Donovan]

Michelangelo Signorile
From WashPost piece: "Why do people leave Trump’s rallies early? We asked them."

9:51 AM · Oct 4, 2024

WaPo (archived) - The reasons people say they leave Donald Trump’s rallies early

The Republican nominee consistently draws large, enthusiastic and rowdy crowds to his rallies and other campaign events, and at nearly all of them, another trend is clear: Scores of people head out before the end

By Marianne LeVine, Sabrina Rodriguez, Josh Dawsey and Abbie Cheeseman

Updated October 4, 2024 at 7:39 a.m. EDT|Published October 4, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. EDT

Less than 25 minutes into Donald Trump’s remarks, Melissa Prescott walked out.

She arrived at the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall in Tucson at 8:30 a.m. on a hot September day, waited in line outside with her teen daughter for more than four hours, then waited another hour inside before Trump took the stage about 2:15 p.m. As Trump was complaining about 2016 exit polls and speaking about how he likes “the old people the best,” Prescott, along with dozens of others, started trickling out.

“I’m glad we got in. I wish I could stay to hear more,” said Prescott, 36, who explained that she needed to go pick up her disabled cousin.

The Republican presidential nominee consistently draws large, enthusiastic and rowdy crowds to his rallies and other campaign events, and at nearly all of them, another trend is clear: Scores of people leave early.

/snip

Where are these large crowds? Every event I've seen where you can see the event space has tons of empty seats. You just don't see that at Harris events.

Link to tweet

[birdographer]

1. It's WaPo

If they have to admit people leave early, they will start by describing the large enthusiastic crowds that show up. It doesn't matter that we can see empty seats and a small number of bored people there in videos (in one, several people behind him yawning repeatedly). Oh, our lying eyes.

[CrispyQ]

2. "I'm glad we got in. I wish I could stay to hear more," said the woman who had to pick up her disabled cousin.

WHATTHEFUCK???

[hlthe2b]

3. "She wishes she could stay to hear more"... (i.e., the most disparaging mocking and denigration of the disabled...

like her cousin-- and those who care and lobby for them..."

Some people are just not reachable.

[lame54]

4. That's the reason...

They all have disabled cousins they need to pick up
Every single one of them

[JI7]

5. This is actually what I assumed for why they left

becsuse the whole thing took much longer than they thought and they had other important matters to attend to so hsd to leave.

In this example she arrived 6 hours before he spoke . And that doesn't even include the time it took to get there. I wonder what time they were told he would speak.

And after waiting this long and the speech isn't so great they probably just want to get out and tell themselves " At least we got to see him".

[underpants]

6. Trump is always late too

Reporters have betting pools to guess exactly how late he’s going to be at events from what I’ve read or heard.

[imaginary girl]

7. Kudos to Anastasia's aunt ...

... Who helped her niece educate herself about her choices in this election. Not sure I could attend one of his rallies, even with a worthy goal!

[Buns_of_Fire]

8. Where else can the Incel Auxiliary go to try and get a date?

And some probably show up just to see if this is the night he finally keels over. "I was there," they can tell anybody who might possibly care.