ThinkProgress filed this report from Jerusalem.
As Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Courage” rally in Jerusalem prepares for its unveiling this week, his team is starting to set up near the Western Wall. This afternoon in Jerusalem, ThinkProgress and other journalists visited the event site and found a surprisingly small venue. The down-sized event indicates that perhaps Beck’s event might not have garnered wide interest among Israelis or fans from other countries willing to pay to attend the event. Here’s some photos ThinkProgress took of the staging area:
A small group of elderly American tourists overheard this conversation and confronted us, claiming that thousands attended Beck’s event days earlier in Caesaria and we were wrong to suggest the small size of the venue site in Jerusalem in any way indicates a lack of support for Beck. A few minutes into our discussion with the group of tourists — a man joined the group and asked us to identify ourselves and the media outlet we are writing for. The individual later told CAP’s Matt Duss that he is a media consultant for Glenn Beck and that the radio host has “asked that journalists not bother tourists” attending the event (ThinkProgress verified that this individual is indeed a paid consultant working for Beck’s event).
Beck previously moved the location of the event away form the base of the Temple Mount because he feared “40,000 Muslims” were going to be there. Speaker John Boehner urged House members not to attend the event (to avoid the appearance of joining a political event while on a policy-related trip to Israel). Rep. Eric Cantor and Sen. Joe Lieberman then backed out of attending the event.
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