House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) faced accusations of lying after telling Newsmax that every seat at the Republican midterm convention was full as the broadcast showed empty rows.
Johnson made the claim in an interview with Newsmax host Rob Finnerty on Wednesday evening, speaking from the floor of the American Airlines Center in Dallas, where Republicans opened their first-ever midterm convention, a two-day event headlined by President Donald Trump.
"Is that arena pretty much full?" Finnerty asked on the Newsmax broadcast, moments after telling viewers the turnout looked good.
"Yeah, it's full. I'm looking around," Johnson replied. "I think every seat all the way to the rafters is full, and there was a long line of people still trying to wait to get inside."
The Newsmax shot of the arena showed rows of empty seats in the upper deck and gaps across the lower bowl while Johnson spoke.
A chyron on the same broadcast read, "GOP HOLDS MIDTERM CONVENTION AHEAD OF MASSIVE ELECTION."
Clips of the exchange spread on X that night, where independent journalist Aaron Rupar wrote that Johnson made the claim about "Trumpapalooza" as the camera "pans out and shows gobs of empty seats."
Rupar's post had drawn more than 125,000 views by Thursday.
"Newsmax cameraman zooms in on empty seats while Mike Johnson lies about turn out at the RNC convention," the Democratic opposition research group American Bridge 21st Century wrote on X.
The Democratic account Headquarters wrote that the camera "instantly fact checks him," in a post that reached more than 72,000 views.
The anti-Trump Lincoln Project posted to X its own video from inside the arena that evening showing empty rows on the floor and thin upper decks.
The Republican National Committee said the arena holds 21,000 people and that 20,000 would attend, Newsweek reported. Trump had called the convention "sold out."
Hundreds of seats, mostly in the arena's uppermost level, were still unfilled when Trump took the stage later that night, according to NBC News.
"This place is packed," Trump insisted from the stage, the outlet reported.
Roughly 1,000 folding chairs had been set up on the arena floor, about one-twentieth of the building's seats, and the floor was still half empty two hours after the program began, the Daily Beast reported.
Dozens of Republicans in competitive races had said they would not attend, according to an NBC News count. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) also skipped the event, a Newsmax chyron said during Johnson's interview.
"How concerned are you that this convention won't get the tune-in that you hoped for, going up against NFL football on back-to-back nights?" Finnerty asked later in the same interview. "It almost seems like a scheduling mistake."
"Well, I don't think it's a mistake," Johnson said. "We had a limited number of days on the calendar where we could do this. The timing's important because it's close enough to the election to make a difference, but it's also before early voting begins nationwide."
Johnson added on the broadcast that the first night of NFL games was carried on a streaming service, "so there's a paywall," and predicted the convention would still draw "a lot of eyeballs."
"The clips that we'll be using from this for the next 55 days will be very valuable to us, to draw the contrast between these two sides and to let people know what's really at stake in this midterm," Johnson said.
