Georgia State University on Monday defended its handling of Donald Trump’s packed weekend rally after the former president blasted the school for allegedly blocking “thousands of people” from entering the convocation center.
The university said venue decisions for Saturday’s Trump rally hinged on safety considerations. In a Monday email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, university spokeswoman Jo Ann Herold said “GSU did not turn any attendees away” but said that the Atlanta Police Department and GSU Police Department “determined they were unable to safely allow additional attendees into the building.”
In a statement, the university said it treated Trump’s rally the same as it did Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign stop, held at the same venue just days before.
“We had two major events last week at the Georgia State University Convocation Center. We followed the same protocol for both events. This past week, as well as with all events at Georgia State University (GSU), we focus on the safety of all participants present at GSU events and the GSU Convocation Center. The GSU Police Department, GSU Fire Marshall and the Atlanta Police Department prioritized all public safety factors when they determined the GSU Convocation Center was safely at capacity,” the statement said. “At Georgia State University, safety remains our top priority, including during the rental of our event space and we strictly adhere to all safety and security procedures at every event.”
The university’s statement comes after Trump told thousands of enthusiastic supporters on Saturday that: “The school administration stopped us from getting another 500, 600 even a thousand people in.”
Trump said: “Thousands of people were told no. And that was OK, but we could have fit another 600 people.”
“If they’re going to stand in the way of admitting people to our rally, just imagine what they’re going to do on election day,” he added. “We’re not going to let that happen.”
The Convocation Center opened two years ago. Georgia State lists its capacity as 8,000 for concerts, or 7,500 for graduation ceremonies. At Tuesday’s rally for Harris, the vice president’s campaign officials estimated there were about 10,000 people in the arena.
