MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on Tuesday called the Republican National Convention a "low-rated convention" for Donald Trump, who appeared at the event after the assassination attempt against him this weekend.
“I think it’s one of the reasons why he went there,” O’Donnell alleged of the ex-president's appearance at the 2024 convention's first night, which Variety reported garnered 18.1 million viewers across 12 cable news and broadcast channels. “And I think even if he hadn’t been attacked, there’s a possibility he would have gone to try to pump up his ratings. He did everything he could to pump up Monday night’s ratings that are lower than the Monday night ratings of his 2016 convention.”
According to Variety, Fox News drew approximately 6.9 million viewers for the event. “So that’s six million ardent Trump supporters is the most they can get,” O’Donnell said. “Less than 10 percent of ardent Trump voters decided, ‘I’m going to watch this thing last night.'”
“That’s really not that much of a bump for Fox,” O'Donnell's colleague Rachel Maddow replied.
“I’ve written episodes of drama series that have gotten bigger ratings,” O’Donnell said, referring to Aaron Sorkin's "The West Wing," the NBC drama he served as a writer and producer for. “I used to get 20 million people routinely on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m.”
