KEY UPDATES below the fold, including Beck's response to Schultz.
There's not really much you can say about this claim, beyond "suuuuure."
Ed Schultz, who attracts just over a quarter of Glenn Beck's viewership (700,000 vs. 2.6 million viewers), claimed he could out-rally the Fox News host, whose "Restoring Honor" event attracted an estimated 300,000 people to the National Mall on Saturday.
"I guarantee you, I could do more than 300,000!" claimed the man who just last week found out he didn't make the cut for an MSNBC promo. "It ain't a big deal!" Schultz also claimed that the crowd size at Beck's rally has absolutely no bearing on Democrats' prospects in November.
Wishful thinking on both counts, it seems.
Audio and transcript via Brian Maloney at the Radio Equalizer:
Hold it right there! Before we get to her answer, I could get every union head in this country, I could organize every progressive group in this country, the main bloggers. This could be The Ed March. Folks, 300,000 people on the heels of six months' promotion, that ain't no big shakes!
This is no sign that there's going to be any big turn of events when it comes to the ballot box and there will be no Democrats in the congress. This is no tea leaf about, "well gosh, they're coming in November."
Six months' promotion, NBC News says 300,000 people. I bet I could do that! I bet I could do that with this radio show and my TV show and six months' production, six months' promotion, if I had the budget I could equal that march. I know I could! I know I could!
I know that I could get Leo Gerard, i could get the Service Employees International Union, I could get AFSCME, I could get all these--I guarantee you, I could do more than 300,000! It ain't a big deal!
*****UPDATE
Via the Right Scoop, Glenn Beck responds to Schultz's boasting.
That might take a while. Schultz only drew 182,000 in the coveted 25-54 demographic on Monday. Beck, meanwhile, had 569,000 demo viewers.
*****UPDATE 2
It looks like Schultz will get his chance. The Daily Caller's Jon Ward reports:
Labor leaders, liberal religious leaders and the NAACP will hold a rally on the National Mall on October 2, one month before the fall midterm elections, in an attempt to show they too have political clout and momentum in response to last Saturday’s massive gathering of Tea Party types led by Fox News host Glenn Beck.
“The AFL-CIO is determined that the Tea Party and its corporate backers are not going to get the final word,” said AFL-CIO executive vice president Arlene Holt Baker. “We will expect tens of thousands of union families to come.”
Make that hundreds of thousands! Right, Ed?
