Forty-three minutes into a speech that would run past an hour and a half, the President of the United States begged an arena full of his own supporters to avoid using the bathroom for the benefit of television cameras that were there to document his remarks. "The fake news will go around and see that man up there. He's leaving for the bathroom.
He'll be back in two minutes," Trump said. "They'll take a picture of his seat while he's gone, and they'll say Trump did not fill up the arena. The arena was not filled.
So please, if you don't mind, don't anybody go to the bathroom." It was the third — but not the last — time he’d remarked on the crowd size at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, where he’d assembled Republicans for a fake “convention” where no party business would be done save for speeches in support of GOP candidates running in midterm elections the party is expected to fare poorly in this November. By the end he had returned to the size and fullness of the room on at least six separate occasions, and closed on it. Nobody left," he said in his final minutes.
"Let's keep it that way, because I'm almost finished." Nobody had asked. That is the tell, and it ran through the whole night. The event that opened at the American Airlines Center on Wednesday was, by the president's own description, something he made up.
"Welcome to the first ever midterm convention of any party," he said in his second sentence. "A little imagination to think of it, but we thought of it. I'm sure it'll become a staple in the years to come." Political parties hold conventions to nominate presidential candidates, and the next presidential election — one he cannot run in — is two years away.
What he and his allies dubbed a “convention” was instead was a two-night arena rally, in a state the president carried by 14 points, announced eight weeks ago, in a building the Republican National Committee had spent the preceding days filling by public lottery. It was a desperation move, borne out of Trump’s conviction — and polling supporting it — that he, like most of his predecessors, will see voters render a negative verdict on his first two years in office when they go to the polls two months from now. "For some reason, when a president wins, even if he's really a good president or a great president — there aren't too many of them — they don't win the midterms, and nobody quite knows why," he said.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
