CNN Anchor: “At Least Dozens Of People” At Tea Party Event In Searchlight

What made her say that? She wasn’t even close:

Here was the traffic jam on the way into town:

Newsbusters caught this:

CNN’s Fredericka Whitfield wasn’t quite prepared to give the rally credit it was due as far as participation. She estimated that hundreds, but if not, “at least dozens of people” were in attendance.

“Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin there in Searchlight, Nev., was the backyard of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, but today it’s the backdrop of this Tea Party Express – making a stop here,” Whitfield said. “Hundreds of people, at least dozens of people – we haven’t gotten a count of how many people turned out there. We heard Sarah Palin talk about everything about the campaign, to unseat Sen. Reid to what she calls ObamaCare, on the heels of that health care vote and even talking about her definition of her love of America.”

By the time Sarah Palin had spoken, the crowd had swollen to the size you see in the pictures. This woman is either grossly incompetent at estimating crowds, or was being blatantly dishonest.

The Tea Party Express emailed this media alert:

Crowd Estimates Range from 9,000 – 30,000 People for “Showdown in Searchlight”

Crowd estimates from 9,000 – 30,000+ people for today’s Tea Party Express “Showdown in Searchlight” event featuring Governor Palin.

Members of the press corps estimated the crowd size between 9,000 – 14,000 but the security and crowd control firm working the event estimated 30,000+.

Representatives from the security firm indicated they would be happy to confirm their estimates with interested members of the press, and based their estimates on their history of crowd control for other such public events.

Then there’s Fredricka Whitfield: “At least dozens”.

Hat tip: Da Tech Guy

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Showdown in Searchlight Tea Party