'Not even close': MSNBC reporter shoots down White House parade attendance boast

A White House claim about the number of attendees at Donald Trump's parade on Saturday was quickly shot down by an MSNBC reporter who was on the scene Saturday.

During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Weekend,' Vaughan Hilyard told the hosts that the president could not have been happy with how the day played out, with grandstands only partially full and those who did show up leaving early before he spoke.

That led him to single out White House Communications Director Steve Cheung for a boast on X after the proceedings drew to a close.

On X, Cheung claimed, "Amazing. Despite the threat of rain, over 250,000 patriots showed up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the @USArmy. God Bless the USA!"

With a slight grin, Hilyard told the hosts, "Look at it this way. His Communications Director, Steven Cheung, this morning put out a social media post in which he said there were 250,000 people that came out for this parade. That's just not accurate, that's not even close to accurate."

"And so that's the way that this White House would like to present it," he observed. "But just the eye of any individual who is here on the ground or looking at images or video knows that there were not 250,000 people, but that can be the White House's position here."

"At the same time, there were hundreds of thousands of individuals that showed up in major cities, but also in small towns where in all 50 states to take part in these peaceful demonstrations around the country, and that was happening," he added.

"Those protests were happening at the exact same time I was watching on my phone as the parade was taking place, and the president for almost three hours alongside his VP, secretary of state, secretary of defense, well, that parade was going on, Americans were in the streets like this. and so I don't think it was the type of imagery that he wanted," he reported.

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