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Kamala Harris North Carolina rally venue is five times larger than Trump's
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Kamala Harris North Carolina rally venue is five times larger than Trump's

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump held dueling rallies in North Carolina on Wednesday, but the Democratic candidate's venue offered significantly more space for participants.

According to the Walnut Creek Amphitheater website, Harris held a rally in Raleigh at the Coastal Credit Union Music Park, which has a capacity for 20,000 people. Trump, meanwhile, spoke 55 miles away at the Rocky Mount Event Center, which has 4,000 seats, according to its website. The final numbers on how many people actually showed up have not yet been released.

Newsweek contacted both campaigns and asked about their attendance numbers at Wednesday's rallies.

Kamala Harris, Donald Trump
Kamala Harris speaks at a rally on October 30, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina that same day.

AP Photo/Allison Joyce/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

Harris' venue, five times larger, follows her increasingly record-breaking rally sizes, most recently with up to 75,000 people attending her event at the Washington, DC Ellipse on Tuesday. Just days earlier, on Friday, Harris spoke to 30,000 people in Houston, Texas, at Shell Energy Stadium. Their event on Thursday in Georgia set a record with reportedly more than 20,000 visitors.

Crowd size has been a constant concern for the Trump campaign throughout the election cycle — and a running joke for those on the Harris campaign team.

Trump has made a series of posts on Truth Social about crowd size, complaining that Kamala Harris and the “fake news” are exaggerating their crowd sizes while underreporting the numbers at his own rallies.

“When Kamala has 1,000 people at a rally, the press goes 'crazy' talking about how 'big' she was – and she pays for her 'crowd,'” he wrote on August 8. “When I have a rally, and when 100,000 people show up, the fake news doesn't talk about it, THEY REFUSE TO MENTION THE CROWD SIZE. Fake news is the enemy of the people!”

Trump also claimed in August that his opponent used artificial intelligence to create a non-existent crowd at one of her events. “Did anyone notice that Kamala cheated at the airport?” Trump wrote in an Aug. 11 Truth Social post. “There was no one on the plane and she 'AI'd it and showed a huge 'crowd' of so-called followers BUT THEY DIDN'T EXIST!”

During his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, former President Barack Obama spoke about Donald Trump's “obsession with crowds.”

“(Trump) hasn't stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago. There has been a constant stream of complaints and grievances,” Obama said.

“Now it has gotten worse as he is afraid of losing to Kamala. The childish nicknames and crazy conspiracy theories, this strange obsession with crowd size,” he said, pulling his hands close together to point out something small. The DNC crowd laughed and then erupted in a roar of approval.

Harris' campaign, which has begun publicly disclosing crowd sizes since Trump's complaints, released an ad that highlighted Obama's joke and then showed empty seats against a backdrop of cricket noise.

While Trump and his campaign argued this, participants were seen leaving his campaign at several rallies, including an exodus Newsweek Reporters were filmed.

Harris herself made a joke about the crowd when she was interrupted by protesters at a rally in Wisconsin on October 17.

“I think you wanted to go to the smaller one across the street,” Harris said.

With Election Day just a week away, you can follow Newsweek's live blog latest updates.

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