Senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe joined CBS Saturday Morning to attempt to contrast the two presidential candidates’ Friday night rallies. In O’Keefe’s telling, Kamala Harris had her largest crowd yet, while Donald Trump played “ominous music.”

O’Keefe began declaring crowd size doesn’t matter, but also tried arguing that it does, “They're both here in Michigan today because the Wolverine State begins its early voting. Now, late last night, both of them holding different events. Crowd size isn’t a very good indication of much of anything, but we couldn’t help but notice Harris had her largest campaign crowd to date while Trump, here in Michigan, struggled to keep his around.”

In his recorded report, O’Keefe added, “It was a night of sharp contrast. Vice President Harris before her largest campaign crowd to date, introduced by the singer Beyonce in Houston. While in Northern Michigan, nearly three hours late, former President Donald Trump emerged to ominous music to a depleted crowd that had mostly gone home before he arrived.”

It would take O’Keefe a while to explain why that was, but in the meantime, he recalled, “In Texas, rallying more than 30,000 supporters, nowhere near the seven battleground states expected to decide who wins the White House, Harris tried tying Trump to state Republican officials implementing the strictest abortion access laws.”

After a clip of Harris warning “no one is protected if there is a Trump national abortion ban and it will outlaw abortion in every single state,” O’Keefe turned to Trump, “Trump believes each state should set its own access policy and has said he would veto any national abortion ban. Campaigning in Michigan, he repeatedly urged voters to vote early, beginning on Saturday.”

Unlike Harris’s, Trump’s soundbite did not feature any warnings about the other candidate, but it also didn’t sound very fascistic or ominous, “We have to bury the hatred and the lies and the avalanche, and we have to do it in an avalanche of votes, and every time you see a smear, every time you hear them attack, take the motivation to go out and vote, vote.”

O’Keefe then finally got around to explaining why Trump was late, “Trump arrived late in Michigan because he had been in Texas taping a three-hour episode on comedian’s Joe Rogan's popular podcast.”

According to CBS, crowd size doesn’t matter, except it is a big deal that Harris’s was larger, but that was only because Trump was doing a three-hour interview. Trump is also ominous, but simply telling people to vote. It is almost as if they are trying to force a narrative into an unwilling set of facts.

Here is a transcript for the October 26 show:

CBS Saturday Morning

10/26/2024

8:10 AM ET

ED O’KEEFE: They're both here in Michigan today because the Wolverine State begins its early voting. Now, late last night, both of them holding different events. Crowd size isn’t a very good indication of much of anything, but we couldn’t help but notice Harris had her largest campaign crowd to date while Trump, here in Michigan, struggled to keep his around. 

It was a night of sharp contrast. Vice President Harris before her largest campaign crowd to date, introduced by the singer Beyonce in Houston. While in Northern Michigan, nearly three hours late, former President Donald Trump emerged to ominous music to a depleted crowd that had mostly gone home before he arrived. 

In Texas, rallying more than 30,000 supporters, nowhere near the seven battleground states expected to decide who wins the White House, Harris tried tying Trump to state Republican officials implementing the strictest abortion access laws.

KAMALA HARRIS: If you think you are protected from Trump abortion bans because you live in Michigan or Pennsylvania or Nevada or New York or California…please know no one is protected if there is a Trump national abortion ban and it will outlaw abortion in every single state.

O’KEEFE: Trump believes each state should set its own access policy and has said he would veto any national abortion ban. Campaigning in Michigan, he repeatedly urged voters to vote early, beginning on Saturday.

DONALD TRUMP: We have to bury the hatred and the lies and the avalanche, and we have to do it in an avalanche of votes, and every time you see a smear, every time you hear them attack, take the motivation to go out and vote, vote.

O’KEEFE: Trump arrived late in Michigan because he had been in Texas taping a three-hour episode on comedian’s Joe Rogan's popular podcast.