Over 1 Million People requested tickets. Theres just a hunger for the rallies. The event in oklahoma is unbelievable. The crowds are unbelievable. They havent seen anything like it. Well go there now, give a hopefully good speech. See a lot of great people, great friends and thats it, okay. I have a great feeling were going to see 100,000 maga supporters down there wanting to see the country reopen. Were so excited to have you. I dont know if people caught that, but over 1 Million People have requested tickets to come to this event. What are you going to do with these people that could hundreds of thousands of people trying to come and you have 19,000 seats in doors. What are you going to do with the other people . There is an overflow crowd. People are evidenced they want to move on. I think its time to have a conversation about freedom and responsibility. All right. Well talk about the political implications of the president s sparse crowd in tulsa. It wasnt going to be just a rally. It was supposed to be the relaunch of the president s ailing reelection campaign. Also, what he said during the rally. Namely, that we need to slow down coronavirus testing. The white house says he was just joking. A joke . At a time of 120,000 dead americans and cases rising in growing hot spots around the country. The weekend also saw a standoff between the attorney and the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york who has been overseeing investigations into some of trumps associates. Well talk to two veterans of the Southern District of that huge story unfolding. Youll be able to buy a new copy of john boltons book tomorrow after a judge rules the administrations attempt to block the book release is denied. Somebody released boltons book on twitter, also. There you go. Good morning, its monday june 22nd. We have White House ReporterJonathan Lemire, political reporter for the Washington Post, robert costa, the moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Senior Political Correspondent david drucker. Also a contributing writer at vanity fair. What the Trump Campaign hyped would be a raucous return to the campaign trail for President Trump turned out to be a major disappointment for the campaign. While they boasted they would fill the bank of Oklahoma Center that seats more than 19,000 people. The Tulsa Fire Marshal tells nbc news that 6,200 supporters filled the general section of the arena. Tim murtaugh blames small numbers on the radical protesters and the news media who said frightened away attendees. According to the times, some users of social media said on saturday night that teenagers helped keep attendance down by seeking tickets they did not intend to use. Tiktok and twitter users posted they registered for hundreds of thousands of tickets for trumps rally as a prank. But Trump Campaign manager brad pascal pushed back against the report issuing a statement saying the campaign weeded out tens of thousands of bogus cell phone numbers ahead of the rally. But, quote, these foe any ticket requests never factor into our thinking for possible crowd size. I think they said these are general admission events, if they want to get into the event, they can get in to the event. They have to hit the disclaimer, i dont know if that made a difference. Meanwhile in an interview on fox news yesterday, Trump Campaign adviser mercedes sclap said the turnout was lower because supporters were worried about the protests outside turning violent. The key is to understand, i had this with my own personal family who lives not far from tulsa. They were concerned about the protesters coming in. There were protesters who blocked the mags, so we saw that have an impact in terms of people coming to the rally. The fact is the president talks about the attendance at his events as we know he made a big issue of the attendance at his inauguration. He talks about how he can fill an arena and joe biden cant. He didnt fill an arena last night. You guys are so if i may finish, you guys are so faroff you planned an outdoor rally, there wasnt an overflow crowd. Watching the coverage, talking to Mark Meredith on the crowd today, protesters did not stop people from coming to the rally. The fact is they didnt show up. They did. There were people and families that didnt want to bring their children because of concerns for the protesters. President trump was reportedly left fuming over the lackluster attendance. Upon his arrival on air force one trump was quote furious and laid into his aids for the sparse crowds. For people familiar with the event said the president was stunned and yelled at aides backstage while looking at the endless rows of empty seats. Two white house and Campaign Officials tell the Associated Press that trump was upset that he was led to believe that he would see huge crowds in deep red oklahoma. Although there was no sign of an imminent staff shakeup, members of trumps inner circle questioned how Campaign Manager brad pascal and other aids couldover promise and under deliver. They called the rally a disaster and an unforced error that heightened tensions among some of the president s advisers and Campaign Aides. Jonathan lemire, as fantastic mr. Fox would say this is amateur night in dixie. You have a campaign pushing the 1 million number repeatedly, were told theres going to be rallies, outside festivals, this is like nothing weve ever seen. Those were false expectations set up by the Trump Campaign itself. Question number one, how did they how did they the campaign so badly miscalculate and secondly, what does donald trump do next . Does he risk having another rally where he has a weak performance . It would seem to me the campaign has a lot to figure out this morning. So saturday night in tulsa was meant to be a defiant show of force from President Trump. They were expecting to draw huge crowds in a deep red state with a very friendly trumpfriendly governor in oklahoma. They wanted to send a signal that americans could go back to normal. It was another sign of reopening the country amid a pandemic. They ignored the Health Warnings of the president s own Coronavirus Task force as well as state officials because they thought they could draw a big crowd that would not only be a sign that the president still had this drawing power. They thought it could reassure nervous republicans looking at the polls trying to hold onto the senate. And they wanted to reenergize the president himself whos been so off the mark with the pandemic and the clearing of Lafayette Square and so on. But they got a lot of questions and faced a lot of empty seats. Even before the president touched down, remember, six members of his staff had come down with the coronavirus in tulsa while preparing for the rally. Showing the virus reach could go into the ranks of the president s staff yet again. They hoped to have an overflow room. They hoped to draw over 100,000 people. Yes, theres discussion about social media pranks and tiktok teens. And Campaign Advisers i talked to say maybe that inflated some of the numbers but they still thought they were going to get a big crowd but at the end of the day, people didnt show up. Leaving the president furious, Campaign Aides pointing fingers at each other. And the question is what comes in next. We know the campaign had prepared this week to finalize the date of the president s next rally, maybe two. He is going to be traveling this week to arizona and wisconsin but those are not for Campaign Events. Tomorrow hes going to visit his border wall. But right now it shows his real vulnerables. Beyond drawing empty seats its the message from the rally stage. Hes still scrambling and fumbling to deliver strong, concise, effective attacks on joe biden. There was no attempt, no message of national unity. He down played the pandemic and did not mention the name of george floyd even once. It was a rambling, strange speech even by Donald Trumps standards. And it seemed like he was testing out material, most of it seeming to fall flat. Bob costa you and Phillip Rucker wrote, this event symbolized the beleaguered state of the Trump Presidency after june 1st, the problems of the past several months this was supposed to be donald trump breaking out, instead it looked more like a campaign broken down. What happened . For weeks now inside the Trump Campaign, inside the Republican National committee there has been a push, as jonathan said to well to return to rallies, a pressure on the president to get out there, to tell his own story and at its core, the return to rally politically speaking is an effort to make this election not a referendum on President Trumps record but a choice between him and Vice President biden. And many of the president s top political advisers were hoping on saturday night the president would test out line after line against Vice President biden, to tear into his record, his persona. He did do that but it came 45 minutes to an hour into his presentation on tulsa. After an extended riff about his remarks at west point to the cadets and other grievances with the media. This leaves logistically and politically, the trump orbit reeling at this moment on monday morning not sure what to do next. Older americans are very concerned, im told by top trump advisers, about coming to the rallies, even if they want to, because of Health Concerns. Not fear of protesters but fear of hurting themselves and contracting the coronavirus. So maybe airplane tarmacs have to be the future of the events. And they dont come out of tulsa with a stinging attack on biden, the focus instead on the crowds. A couple of things. First of all apparently trump was reportedly angry that the six advance team members who contracted coronavirus, he was angry that was released. Obviously he talked on stage about not wanting to do testing. So we wouldnt get more information. Which is downright crazy and dangerous and, you know, obviously the Trump Campaign would have never done this, but they missed an opportunity to social distance. They had those empty seats. They could have spread people out so that more coronavirus wouldnt be spread inside that arena, instead everyone was crushed on the lower bank of seats so that it could look full, which was increasing the risk, of course, that more people in tulsa would contract the virus. You heard what the president said at the rally. You heard him bragging about tamping down testing. Wow. And his Campaign Aides rushing out saying it was a joke. Actually, it makes things worse for 120,000 americans, likely 150,000 americans dead by the time of the campaign itself. Yeah. I think historians are going to look back, political scientists are going to look back and ask why this president , at the end of february, decided that he was going to run against a pandemic. Because hes not running against joe biden. Hes not running against protesters. Hes running against a pandemic and has said time and again it was one person coming in from china, it was 15 people, it was going to go away, its not coming back in the fall. It is coming back in the fall. Its coming back right now. We had so many people. A lot of my friends that got out crowing about ron desantis, where does he go for his apology . Nowhere. He goes the same place a baseball coach goes in the second inning of a game for an apology. This is, as every doctor who knows or scientist or epidemiologist knows what theyre talking about, this is a nineinning game. Were not even halfway through the game based on the smartest minds in america, who donald trump has ignored to disastrous results, especially for our Senior Citizens. Floridas numbers are higher than theyve been. Ron desantis is admitting himself its not the testing making the numbers go up. Its the fact that more people are getting coronavirus. So donald trump has set himself up as a man whos decided hes going to run against a pandemic and tell people that the pandemic is going to magically go away. Hes asking those 6,200 people to join him in his fantastical thinking with 120,000 people dead and with this virus spreading that its going to fade away. These are people that he asked to click on the disclaimer that, just in case they got it at this rally, the Trump Campaign wouldnt be held liable. This is asking for a lot, i think, in his remarks at the rally, President Trump told the mostly unmasked crowd of supporters that he wanted to slow down coronavirus testing. Take a listen. Testing is a double edged sword. Weve tested now 25 Million People. Its probably 20 Million People more than anybody else, germanys done a lot, south korea has done a lot. They called me, the job youre doing heres the bad part, when you do testing to that extent, youre going to find more people, more cases. I said to my people, slow the testing down, please. The people are still dying. It has nothing to do with the testing. Weve said it time and again. The United States is coming close to having one in three people in america one in three people across the world who have died from the coronavirus are americans. That has nothing to do with testing any more than not taking pregnancy tests will not make you pregnant. All right. Those remarks come as coronavirus continues to spread across the u. S. According to data tracked by the Washington Post, 29 states and u. S. Territories reported a higher seven day average yesterday than they did on june 14th. The World Health Organization reported the largest single day increase in coronavirus cases. The Un Health Agency said brazil led the way with nearly 55,000 cases tallied and the u. S. Was next with more than 36,000. A senior white house official tells nbc news that trump was clearly speaking in jest to call out the medias absurd coverage of the ongoing pandemic. Heres what some other Administration Officials had to say. You know, it was tongue in cheek. Come on now. That was tongue in cheek. Please. I dont know that it was tongue in cheek. It was. He has said h similar things for months. I think testing is a serious issue i work on it every day. Youre the one that said it was a light moment. The president was being tongue and cheek. Were 60 seconds into the tongue and cheek thing. Asked and answered. Are you aware of the president telling officials to slow down testing as it relates to coronavirus . No, i heard those comments as well. I think what you heard from the president is frustration. Frustration in that weve tested over 25 million americans, tested more than any country in the world. Instead the press and others all they want to focus on is an increasing case count and we know thats going to occur when you test individuals more and more. That guy is acting head of dhs and hes saying that . Its asinine. Its antiscience. Its antimedicine. Again, this is an administration, this is a president that is running against a pandemic. And as we tried to say from the beginning calmly and in an encouraging way, a pandemic is going to win. They dont care about your politics, if youre on the left or right, Holding Trump rallies or Holding Black lives matter rallies. You put on masks, you social distance, you protect yourselves. I saw pictures of people going through the gate at the trump rally and they werent Wearing Masks. I was horrified for them. Who are they modeling after . I was fearful for their mothers and fathers, grandparents, childrens and relatives and friends who have Underlying Health conditions. This stuff is sticky. This stuff is dangerous. This stuff is deadly. You look at the six people and this made donald trump very angry, the six people on his own advance team they got the coronavirus just going and advancing then event. Look at the six phillies in Training Camp that were just practicing. And you see this remains an extraordinarily dangerous pandemic. We have social distanced, weve been responsible and because of it we bent the curve but this is not the time for the Trump Administration or for lackies that go on news shows to talk about how he was joking and to suggest cases are only going up because of more testing. Again, hes running against a pandemic, the pandemic is always going to win. David drucker, even before this rally you had said this was going to be more than a rally. It was going to be the relaunching the dramatic relaunching of Donald Trumps reelection campaign. Where is trump, where is parscale, where is kushner . Where are the people that are running the campaign this morning . What do they how do they think things went so badly, and what is their next step forward . Its so interesting because the tulsa rally were having trouble with davids sound. Lets fix that up. Alex, can you fix davids sound and well get back to