Threat of a Trump without rallies triggers fears across GOP

[brooklynite]

Politico

In the days after President Donald Trump’s poorly attended rally in Tulsa, Okla., senior campaign aides repeatedly assured their optics-obsessed boss it was a one-off debacle.

They demoted a longtime staffer who had managed logistics for the failed campaign comeback. They went to work locating the perfect site for a do-over MAGA rally large enough to quell suggestions of declining enthusiasm among Trump’s base. And they quickly settled on New Hampshire, the state that jump-started Trump’s political movement four years ago and managed to dodge the brunt of Covid-19 during its rapid spread across the Northeast this spring.

Then it all fell apart with a Friday afternoon phone call from campaign manager Brad Parscale.

The abrupt cancellation of the airport-hangar event — which the Trump team blamed on an incoming tropical storm that never materialized, but three officials privately attributed to concerns about attendance — underscored the recurring challenge Trump aides face: Recreate the president’s marquee campaign rallies amid a once-in-a-century health crisis without upsetting a boss who views crowd size as a leading metric for evaluating his campaign’s success.

It also raised questions about the fate of down-ballot Republicans if the coattail effect — an incumbent president’s ability to attract votes for other candidates in his party — is no longer guaranteed.

[MineralMan]

1. Trump's Coattails Have Been Dragging in Manure for So Long

that anyone attempting to hang onto them smells like crap at this point.

[Scarsdale]

8. How ironic is this?

If tRump had done what other presidents have done for years, and actually READ the PDB, the pandemic could have been much less severe. Instead he golfed, tweeted, watched Faux and screwed his days away idly. It came back to bite him in that flabby orange arse. Unfortunately, many lives have been lost, others ruined, the country is in a mess, millions hungry, broke and facing eviction. Sad that someone as useless as tRump could cause so much pain and suffering. He should rot in HELL for the rest of his days. The gop is complicit. They knew as well as the rest of us that he was incapable of doing the job. He has no interest in it, unless he is on TV, in front of cheering crowds and bragging about how great he is. Well, we suspected that was not true, then he goes and proves it - in spades. LOSER tRump is a failure of epic proportions.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. Glad they're worried about public health

Oh wait a minute. They're not

[bucolic_frolic]

3. They're not willing to risk their lives for Trump?

What happened?

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Maybe they should hold them at hospitals

a crowd would already be there

[GeorgiaPeanut]

6. Why hospitals? Go straight to the cemetaries

A lot of attendees there

[bucolic_frolic]

9. LOL

[Scarsdale]

10. Maybe the pacs can not afford to pay

attendees now? Once Parscale's cars, mansion, boat and condo payments are deducted, there might only be enough to pay Eric's tRump's wife, and Jr.'s girlfriend their stipend of $15,000 monthly. I wonder how much that Schlapp happy couple are paid from the Pac? Mercedes Schlapp is looking more like a Yugo by the day.

[C Moon]

5. This is probably part of the reason he wants to control the COVID numbers.

So his followers aren't afraid of rising infection rates, and will then go to his bobble-headed rallies.

[Wounded Bear]

7. Like his "stop testing and the numbers will go down" mantra...

[FakeNoose]

11. Things sure have changed since 1918