Last updated on August 24th, 2013 at 04:24 pm
Moments before a tea party rally that is loaded with right wing heroes like Glenn Beck, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Michele Bachmann was about to begin the crowd was estimated at just 5,000-10,000.
At the height of his fame, Glenn Beck drew 87,000 to DC for his Rally to Restore Honor in April 2010. The Tea Party Patriots promised that this would be the biggest tea party rally since 2009-2010, “At noon tomorrow, we are going to tell the world about how the IRS tried to crush the Tea Party movement,” organizers with the Tea Party Patriots organization said in an email to supporters, “…Thousands of volunteers will rally in the largest demonstration of Tea Party support since 2010.”
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They aren’t going to even get close to Glenn Beck’s biggest crowd. The livestream host for the rally, The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft, estimated the crowd to be at 5,000-10,000. I would say that may be on the high end of things, but it could be a potentially realistic estimate for the overall crowd by the time it is all said and done.
Here are some photos from moments before the rally began:
Look at all the green grass over Jim Hoft’s shoulder:
A crowd shot shows the sparse scene:
It is a major failure for a rally that has been hyped so hard across conservative media to draw such a small crowd. For the sake of comparison, Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity in 2010 drew 250,000 to DC.
Unless there are about 90,000 people stuck in traffic, it looks like this rally won’t be the biggest tea party event since 2010.
It is rather pathetic that an event featuring Glenn Beck, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Michele Bachmann can’t draw a bigger conservative crowd. Once again, the power of the tea party has been greatly exaggerated. The rally only runs from 12-2 PM, so it is not looking good for a huge turnout. The people speaking at and attending this rally won’t believe it, but the IRS scandal has already been debunked.
If this rally was supposed to be a sign of tea party strength for 2014, the Republican Party may be in a lot of trouble. The Tea Party is still dead, and not even the bogus IRS scandal can bring it back.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
