On Monday morning, a panel on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" did a post-mortem on Donald Trump's two sparsely-attended rallies in Florida over the weekend and set the stage for the former president to ultimately find someone else to blame for the embarrassing spectacle.
On Saturday, Trump held his "History Tour" with former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly in Sunshine, Florida and the South Florida Sun Sentinel later reported, "Many seats remained empty in the cavernous arena. The top-level was closed and ticket buyers were 'upgraded' to the lower bowl."
Sunday's rally in Orlando at the Amway center had similar results, which led the hosts on MSNBC show first laugh, then turn to how the former president probably reacted to the sea of empty seats.
With co-host Mika Brzezinski noting that Trump fans were being "upgraded" to better seats to fill out the floor -- which got a laugh from Joe Scarborough - and pointing out the rally had been planned for a year, Scarborough interjected, "I'm curious of your thoughts, Jonathan Lemire, obviously you've followed Donald Trump for four years, there is nothing he enjoys more than going to arenas and seeing those arenas packed and, empty seats. Not his gig, baby, not his gig. I am curious, what are your thoughts about this and I wonder if the empty seats continue on this tour whether he starts blaming somebody else?"
WATCH: Videos show embarrassingly sparse Trump and Bill O'Reilly's rally
With Brzezinski chiming in, "That sight freaks him out, " MSNBC host Lemire blurted, "Oh, you can guarantee that, Joe. I don't think we have ever seen Donald Trump takes responsibility for a sparse crowd."
"These tickets have been on sale for months and months and months, those arenas are big, 15-16,000 seats" he continued. "These people are paying and not showing for a free political rally. Trump can sometimes draw crowds like that on the road. You are asking them to pay money for this and there is still obviously COVID concerns of being indoors of big crowds of that nature. We know that one of the angriest Trump has ever been is his return to campaigning in the summer of 2020, the comeback rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they predicted, they said they had over a million ticket requests and there could only be about 20,000 people in arena and 50,000 outside and there was 6,000 in the seats and he stared at a sea of empty seats and Brad Parscale lost his job a few days later. Trump went into a rage"
"I wonder if it's the same with Bill O'Reilly, that remains unclear," he suggested. "There is a handful more of these, he got more in Texas , I think -- if at all will gives some pause of his drawing power now three years out from potential reelection campaign. But at the very least I am sure he'll explain it away and blame it on the arena promoter, fans, Bill O'Reilly -- take your pick."
Watch below:
Trump will be looking for a scapegoat after attendance at his Florida rallies flopped: Morning Joe pwww.youtube.com
