The official reason is the weather. Donald Trump has canceled a campaign rally scheduled for Saturday evening in Portsmouth, New Hampshire because of tropical storm Fay.
But the real reason may have nothing to do with the climate and everything to do with crowd size. The forecast calls for rain to end at noon on Saturday. The rally was scheduled for 8pm. The New York Times writes:
“It was not clear whether the New Hampshire rally was on track to fill up. Even before the storm warning, the state’s Republican governor, Chris Sununu, had said he would not be attending, citing safety concerns related to the coronavirus, and it wasn’t apparent how many other Republican elected officials were planning to come.
“The canceled rally marked the third time in less than a month that Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign has failed to relaunch as planned, as it attempts to restart rallies in the coronavirus era but faces anxiety about group gatherings from its own die-hard supporters.“
Earlier this week, a health official in Tulsa, the site of Trump’s last rally, attributed the event to a record increase in coronavirus cases in the city. At the Oklahoma rally, only a third of the seats were filled. From The Times:
“As it planned for Portsmouth, there had been no bragging about requests for tickets. There was no showy construction of an overflow stage. Instead, campaign officials were conceding that they could be embarrassed a second time, if it turned out that Trump supporters were too anxious about gathering in a crowded public place to take in a speech they could alternatively watch on television.“
