Former Donald Trump White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is back at it.
Conway claimed Sunday during a Fox News interview that Trump drew a crowd of 8,000 people during a visit to a Black church in Detroit the previous day.
“Biden is not doing anything like that,” she said. “Look at the contrast of just this weekend. You’ve got Donald Trump in Detroit talking to 8,000 people ... at a Black church, of course.”
She made the claim as photos and videos of the event showed it was more like 100 or 200 people who attended the event. And many, if not most, were white.
Crowd size is the genesis of Conway’s use of “alternative facts.”
She first used it in 2017 after then-Trump press secretary Sean Spicer made two unprovable statements in his briefing with reporters: that photographs of the audience at Trump’s inaugural were intentionally framed to minimize the appearance of support, and that Trump drew the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration.
During his visit on Saturday, Trump blamed immigrants for stealing jobs and government resources as he courted separate groups of Black voters and hardcore conservatives in battleground Michigan.
The Republican former president also made several new baseless claims attacking the nation’s voting system.
But Trump’s fiery comments on illegal immigration, long a staple in his unapologetic message, marked a connecting theme in downtown Detroit as he sought to stitch together a delicate political coalition at both a Black church and a group known to attract white supremacists.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.
