WH is worried about crowd size for Trump’s July 4th event

[0:00] on july 4th it's going to be approximately 107 degrees out and i'm gonna go and i'm gonna make [0:07] a really long speech just to show that i can do anything it's gonna be 107. that was president [0:17] trump previewing maybe warning about this weekend's fourth of july rally that is set for the national [0:22] mall it's an event that he has publicly promised will be the most unforgettable birthday party [0:27] ever seen privately sources tell cnn that inside the white house there is some anxiety about this [0:32] event ended up being and that it could end up being a dud there's tiny security measures for [0:37] the mall there's triple digit heat that it's expected as the president mentioned and also [0:41] the schedule is set to run extremely late into saturday night some officials are worried about [0:46] repeating that lackluster showing at president trump's rally last week where he kicked off what [0:51] he is describing as the great american state fair on the national mall of course for a president who [0:57] is often fixated on crowd sizes he was frustrated by the low turnout last week my political source [1:03] sources are here tonight including senior advisor to hillary clinton's 2016 campaign karen finney [1:08] and former republican congressman adam kinzinger congressman obviously you know looking at the [1:15] celebrations for america's 250 and what was expected and and what has happened i think there are questions [1:22] about what saturday is going to look like in washington what's your expectation yeah i mean one big point [1:29] that uh was not there in the lead up is that this initially america 250 was a bipartisan organization [1:37] that i voted for in 2016 to form and every other republican and democrat did that was a non-partisan [1:44] organization meant to celebrate the 250th birthday birthday when trump took over [1:49] he created freedom 250 and a competing organization where donors aren't disclosed there's many corporate [1:55] donors that are trying to get into favor with the president and he has clearly made this all about [2:00] him and when you make it all about you and you have about a 30 percent approval rating in the country [2:07] it's not going to surprise anybody when no one shows up to your celebration and it's sad caitlin because [2:13] i grew up i was born in 78 and i remember seeing all the quarters from 1970 or from yeah 1976 the [2:20] bicentennial and thinking like how cool it's going to be on the 250th anniversary and here we are it's [2:27] a celebration of trump now uh karen i mean the president and his his allies have taken over the [2:34] events and the planning of them um when it comes to crowd expectation though i mean we're told that the [2:40] aerial image of the crowds from his rally last week enraged him so much that officials ended up deleting [2:47] them what do you make of how he's responding to this so far well it's pretty typical and yet in all [2:56] the ways and frankly this is a metaphor for so much of what has happened with his presidency and with [3:02] this country i mean think about this the amount of money raised and spent on this event think about [3:08] what you could do i think about the reports that came out about kids who are being kicked off of snap [3:13] people who are seeing their health care benefits you know being uh their costs going up and their [3:18] benefits being reduced and yet we're hearing this president has made billions of dollars in his own [3:25] pocket and now this performative event on the mall that's supposed to be all about him and what is it [3:31] there's coins with his face on it and all kinds of things with his face on it of course people don't [3:37] want to go and certainly not in 130 degree weather i think it's pretty safe to say that uh uh other there [3:48] will be plenty more people lots of other places than there will be on the mall i think where people [3:52] are trying to actually get out of washington this weekend than are actually coming to washington this [3:57] weekend i mean part of this is just the heat period i i mean regardless of what's going on the weather [4:04] team here at cnn says that the the forecast 102 degrees on saturday is expected to be the hottest [4:10] july 4th um ever recorded i mean there's a list of what people can't even bring because of the tightness [4:17] security measures reusable water bottles sunscreen bug spray camping chairs coolers umbrellas i mean if [4:26] you're a family and you're going out to watch fireworks that aren't expected to start until after the [4:30] president has spoken it might make it tough to to hang out for hours on end adam yeah and i think [4:39] you know look maybe god's sending a message i don't know i can't speak for god but um but yeah i mean [4:44] look i i think that's clear and again nobody would care like no i don't remember any time in the past [4:51] people talking about the turnout for the july 4th fireworks on the capitol except that donald trump [4:56] himself has made this a referendum on him it's always about crowd size he said you know after [5:04] all the people canceled that this will be a celebration i think he recently even said that [5:08] your greatest the greatest president your favorite president is going to speak at this so he himself [5:14] inserts himself into this and so the turnout even if it's weather related i mean at that point [5:21] he basically has taken ownership of the turnout but again just the sad thing here is we're in the [5:26] 250th anniversary of this country and it's been driven by division and i'm sure each side will [5:31] blame the other side but clearly donald trump has pulled away from this idea of america 250 and freedom [5:38] 250 is his organization it's all about him and he has a 30 approval rating so that's what's going to [5:44] happen can i just mention one thing about the the heat you know we just i was part of a march around [5:52] about voting rights in montgomery alabama and let me tell you what it was it felt like it was 100 [5:58] degrees we had 5 000 people come out in the heat to make their voices heard for voting rights so it's [6:06] you know yes it's hot but people will come out in the heat for something that they care about and [6:11] something that they believe in and i think you know the congressman is exactly right i imagine when [6:16] you voted for america 250 you thought it was going to be a celebration of this country and the progress [6:22] that we've made and sure we've got more work to do but all of the things that make this country great [6:28] instead of aggrandizing one man you know and celebrating him when the power's not even apparently [6:36] the power went out today and it was so hot that you know some of the displays were melting i mean that's [6:41] what i mean by it's such it's a metaphor you know it was poorly planned and poorly executed and costs [6:48] a lot more money than they probably expected if you look at martin luther king when he did his [6:54] speech his great speech and you look at ours same real estate same everything uh we actually had more [7:01] people i love butler pennsylvania but it's amazing and we had a tremendous crowd like 55 60 000 people [7:09] this is a big crowd paul don't get nervous ellie nobody's ever gotten crowds like i get around [7:14] i had 118 000 people at one i had i have 25 000 25 000 is like a small crowd look this is you know [7:23] it's a big birthday for the president or for the for the country right there's a reason there's a [7:29] slip there uh and i mean i don't recall any other uh i remember earlier this week we were talking about [7:37] uh gerald ford and the way he handled the latest or the the bicentennial um quite differently uh than [7:43] it's usually handled i mean imagine how cool it would be if donald trump had invited all the living [7:48] presidents to come and do something or said he was going to play video greetings from all the living [7:53] presidents as he spoke that would be a different thing right but it's not because it is about him it [7:59] is about his birthday right this is just a continuation of the celebration of him and the timing [8:06] couldn't be worse given the heat you know jonah said fireworks starting at 11 p.m we hope right [8:12] it's after he speaks right he doesn't really stick to script so i think it is um such a missed [8:20] opportunity for the president of the united states to actually have at least one huge unifying night [8:26] in america but that's never been do you know what do you know what though i mean i'm going to be a [8:31] little contrarian and just say america 250 is where we at i mean this is this is precisely where [8:38] we're at we're a divided country with a president who wants to go on television and you know not say [8:44] the truth about his crowd sizes um and basically um exclude a whole bunch of people so you know this [8:51] is this is the reality of where there's another place we're at and i think it's worth pointing out [8:55] you look at the reaction to the world cup celebration where it is it is i think one of [9:00] the reasons a lot of americans love the european reaction to how much they like america is because [9:05] it's not about our politics it's about stuff close to the ground it's like oh yeah ranch dressing [9:10] and it's stressing ranch dressing and buckies i mean we're actually a pretty cool country and [9:14] the celebration of america 250 is happening all over the country right the number of community events [9:20] that have popped up that are being built out that are going to be robust like that's going to be [9:25] lovely i want to say the world cup is indeed the celebration of our country hey go usa go usa playing