Portsmouth, New Hampshire, still awaiting new date for Trump campaign rally
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
(The Center Square) – A few days after the postponement of President Donald Trump’s planned campaign rally in Portsmouth, word has yet to emerge on when the event will take place.
The event was supposed to take place Saturday evening, but the postponement was announced Friday with a massive weather system bearing down on the Northeast.
“With Tropical Storm Fay heading towards the Great State of New Hampshire this weekend, we are forced to reschedule our Portsmouth, New Hampshire Rally at the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “Stay safe, we will be there soon!”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a news conference the rally would be delayed by one to two weeks.
After Trump’s first rally in Tulsa wound up with a smaller crowd than campaign officials expected, White House officials were more cautious when speaking about the anticipated crowd size at the now postponed Saturday rally.
“I think there are so many millions, literally, of Trump-Pence voters who don’t want to go to rallies because they are already supporting the president and they’re going to do what they can to get other people to support the president, but they don’t want to go to rallies because maybe they’re older or they have some of the underlying co-morbidities,” Kellyanne Conway, White House counselor, said Friday on Fox News.
The Portsmouth rally was supposed to replace a canceled Alabama rally that was canceled because of coronavirus concerns. The campaign had planned for the Portsmouth rally to be held outdoors, where the risk of spreading the virus can be lower if there is widespread mask wearing and social distancing.
Although masks were encouraged but not required, the campaign had planned to provide masks at the Portsmouth rally, just like they did at the Tulsa rally where many attendees opted to not wear them.
