RNC Releases Memo Denying Trump Accusation They ‘Stacked’ Debate Audience

When Donald Trump got booed at last week’s GOP debate for trashing George W. Bush, he dismissed it by saying there’s a lot of Jeb Bush‘s donors and special interests in the audience.

He repeated that claim at a rally this week, saying, “The whole room was made up of special interests and donors. Which is a disgrace from the RNC… Those tickets were all special interest people.”

Well, the RNC put out a memo overnight “to introduce facts into this discussion.” They categorically deny any “stacking” of the debate audience in any direction, especially an anti-Trump one.

They explain that over 600 tickets were distributed between each of the GOP campaigns, 300 went to Republican officials and state activists, and only 10 went to people who could be called RNC donors.

The RNC memo also offers an explanation for the frequent Trump boos:

Questions have been raised as to why the crowd at the South Carolina debate was so actively engaged in expressing their reactions to what was happening on the debate stage. One possible, even perhaps probable, reason is that – at their request – campaigns received a higher allocation of tickets in South Carolina than they had previously…

Naturally, two things happen when the percentage of individuals supporting only one candidate increases in the crowd: (1) the level of support for each candidate increases by the number of tickets that campaign is allocated; and (2) the level of opposition for each candidate increases by the number of tickets allocated to every other campaign.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

[h/t Politico]