Before falsifying President Donald Trump’s crowd size at a Nashville, Tennessee, rally on Tuesday evening, New York Times reporter Julie Davis said she was depressed that an “adorable young boy” at Trump’s rally was screaming “FAKE NEWS!” at legacy media reporters.
Davis then promptly wrote in her Times report that just 1,000 were at rally when at least 5,5000 people attended the event. The Times was forced to issue a correction on Wednesday after Trump blasted the outlet for disparaging and demeaning his supporters.
“The Failing and Corrupt @nytimes estimated the crowd last night at ‘1000 people,’ when in fact it was many times that number – and the arena was rockin’. This is the way they demean and disparage,” Trump tweeted. “They are very dishonest people who don’t ‘get’ me, and never did!”
In its correction, the Times said an earlier version “cited an incorrect figure for the number of people attending President Trump’s rally.”
“While no exact figure is available, the fire marshal’s office estimated that approximately 5,500 people attended the rally, not about 1,000 people,” the correction added.
Breitbart News reporter Michael Patrick Leahy attended the event and estimated more than 8,000 people were in attendance. Trump’s campaign issued a Wednesday statement that agreed with Breitbart News’ estimate.
“President Trump hosted over 8,000 patriotic Americans at our rally in Nashville last night, but the New York Times wants to mislead and deceive its declining readership by claiming that we had an ‘audience of about 1,000,’” Trump Campaign Chief Operating Officer Michael Glassner said in a Wednesday statement. “This is yet another blatant attempt by the fake news media to deny the truth about President Trump’s success and diminish the reality of the Trump movement.”