Every overcrowded presidential primary field needs an embarrassing candidate to laugh at. In 2016, it was Lincoln Chafee. In 2020, it’s a tight race between Andrew Yang and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
Gillibrand somehow has come to embody awkward pandering, cynical political calculation so obvious it’s painful, and ridiculous gaffes. Like, “tactile nuclear weapons”.
Her kickoff rally went badly.
It was a balmy spring day in the Big Apple with sunshine and a high of 60. The NYPD, out in force, had roped off blocks to accommodate the crowds of the brave expected to turn out on Trump’s doorstep.
The actual audience barely filled half a block according to photojournalist Pamela Hall. The Washington Times estimated that the turnout amounted to 1,000 people. The New York Times offered no estimates, but conceded that the crowd was “small”.
This wasn’t a small town in Iowa or New Hampshire where failing presidential candidates can find themselves speaking to two dozen people. It was Manhattan on Sunday afternoon. A few hundred feet away, joggers were running up and down, tourists were gawking at the sights, including Trump’s hotel, families were strolling through Central Park on one of the first warm days of spring after a cold winter.
None of them wanted to come and hear the senator from New York speak in her own state.
Then, as her husband and children got up on stage, she awkwardly gyrated and left to the sounds of, “Cause he don’t love you anymore/So walk yourself right out the door.”
Once again, she had perfectly summed up her campaign with a song.
Nobody was interested in her CNN town hall either.
Gillibrand’s town hall bagged a paltry 491,000 in total viewers and 115,000 in the advertiser coveted A25-54 demographic.
For some context: in the first quarter of 2019, CNN’s 10 p.m. host Don Lemon doubled those numbers: on average, he bagged 1.16 million total viewers and 361,000 in the demo.
Gillibrand’s town hall was also the lowest rated show on cable Tuesday night at 10 p.m. While less than half a million people watched Gillibrand, a whopping 2.5 million tuned in to watch Fox News host Laura Ingraham, while over on MSNBC Lawrence O’Donnell drew 1.9 million viewers.
Her campaign is really off to a great start.
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