WASHINGTON — Here’s another argument about the size of crowds at former President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Trump’s most vocal critic in the 2024 Republican presidential race, says it’s ridiculous to think more than 50,000 people packed the tiny downtown Pickens, in South Carolina, to attend Trump’s July 1 rally.
Citing photos from the event, Christie told ‘Fox News Sunday’ that an estimate of 50,000 people “is absurd”. But he called the most important point that Trump spends most of his time talking about his indictments and his political issues, rather than the needs of ordinary Americans.
“He’s not someone who fights for the American people and their future,” Christie said Sunday.
Trump and his allies cited estimates from local law enforcement that the crowd in Pickens exceeded 50,000. Other news outlets cited Secret Service estimates putting the crowd at nearly 15,000.
Yet: The event drew a large crowd for a small rural town.
The former president did not respond to Christie’s criticism.
But it wouldn’t be the first time opponents have challenged the size of Trump’s crowd, not least because of inflation in attendance at his presidential inauguration ceremony in 2017.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chris Christie calls Donald Trump’s estimate of crowd size at rally ‘absurd’